Derren Brown's Biography(Books)(Photos)

Derren Victor Brown (born 27 February 1971)
is an English magician, illusionist,

linking to various articles about the
episode.

mentalist, painter and sceptic. He was born
in Croydon, South London, educated at

In Brown’s shows, he has produced hypnotic

Whitgift School, where his father coached
swimming, and studied Law and German at the

amnesia, anesthesia, command compliance,
hallucinosis – and although it is currently

University of Bristol. While there, he
attended a show by the hypnotist Martin

illegal to show hypnotic induction on British
television, he insists that there is no

Taylor, which inspired him to turn to
illusion and hypnosis as a career. Whilst an

hypnotic induction anyway. "It’s about
getting people in a psychological pattern of

undergraduate, he started working as a
conjuror, practising the traditional skills

response which has to do with their belief in
the situation and the way they are being

of close-up magic. In 1992, he started
performing stage hypnosis shows at the

handled. This can happen very quickly as
opposed to taking half an hour with an

University of Bristol under the stage name
Darren V. Brown.

induction script."
Mind Control with Derren Brown

Derren Brown has also given performances

On 26 July 2007, the US based SCI FI Channel

relating to mind-reading. Shortly after, he
was commissioned to do a pilot for his

began showing six one-hour episodes of a
series titled Mind Control with Derren Brown.

Channel 4 television series, Mind Control.
Much of his work is written in collaboration

Andrew O'Connor was executive producer, and
the show was produced by Simon Mills who had

with Andy Nyman.

produced the two previous series of Trick Or
Treat as well as The Heist and The System for

Derren Brown performances challenge widely
held notions about both human behaviour and

Objective Productions. Journalists in New
York at the press announcement were shown

what hypnosis really is. For many years, an
academic debate has raged over whether

preview clips of Brown "manipulating human
behaviour" and given the promise of more

hypnosis is a distinct state, or simply a
collection of compliant behaviours. Brown’s

surprises to come. Sci Fi's press release
described the show as an "original US

produced version". The show was a mix of new
segments filmed in the US and older clips

demonstrates, the latter viewpoint. Certainly
his performances show that people are more

shown in earlier UK TV shows. The first
showing release schedule was:

compliant and manipulable than is commonly
believed. In Mind Control 3 he got shoppers

* Episode 1 "Shopping Mall Carpark" 26

in a mall to raise their right arms by simply
giving an apparently regular sales patter

July
* Episode 2 "Lying Car Salesman" 2

over a loud-hailer. But, in his patter were
disguised embedded commands: "Come right arm

up!" In another show, he predicted the exact
campaign that two advertising executives

* Episode 4 "Receptive Children" 15
August - with a guest star Simon Pegg

would come up with, and in a rare departure
showed us how he’d done it. Brown and his

* Episode 5 "Assault Course" 22 August
* Episode 6 "Disappearing Sun" 29 August

team had put pictures and phrases on
T-shirts, parcels, and pub signs the execs

Derren Brown has written three books on

would encounter on their route to the office.
The execs were unconscious of the information

magic: Absolute Magic, Pure Effect, and
Tricks of the Mind; another is planned.[12]

they had absorbed on their journey, and
amazed at how predictable their response

The first two books he penned are intended
solely for practitioners of magic and

was.

mentalism, whilst his book Tricks of the Mind
is aimed at the general public. The two magic

books are out of print; they and the two
magic video products are useful only to those

Since the first broadcast of his Channel 4
television show Derren Brown: Mind Control in

who already possess a solid and knowledgeable
foundation in the theory and practice of

2000, he has become increasingly well known
for his "mind-reading" act. Brown states at

magic.

the beginning of his Trick of the Mind
programmes that he achieves his results using

Absolute Magic, subtitled A Model for
Powerful Close-Up Performance, is not so much

a combination of "magic, suggestion,
psychology, misdirection and showmanship".

about magical methodology as about how
magicians can make their performances

Using his knowledge and skill, he appears to
be able to predict and influence people's

magical; it is written in a variety of
styles: sometimes humorous, sometimes

thoughts with subtle suggestion, manipulate
the decision making process and read the

serious. He warns against an act that conveys
the feeling of "Here are some tricks I've

bought" and urges magicians to make their
performances experiential and memorable by

He began his television work with three

involving the audience. In some respects a
lot of what he says is evocative of the

sixty-minute specials over two years which
led up to the six part series Mind Control,

content of Darwin Ortiz's Strong Magic but
his book expresses it in the context of his

which incorporated new footage with the best
of the hour long shows. Selected highlights

experiences, performance style and theories
of how performance should be. (Out of print)

from the first series are available on DVD
and video entitled Derren Brown - Inside Your

Pure Effect is a more traditional book of

Mind.

trickery and technique and offers an insight
into some of the methods that Brown employs,

Trick of the Mind Trick of the Mind was the
title for Brown's next series, which ran for

and offers a starting point for development
for the reader's own use. (Out of print)

three consecutive series. Unlike Mind Control
it is all completely new material. The second

Tricks of the Mind is Brown's first book

series started on E4 on 11 April 2005 and was
repeated on Channel 4. The third series

intended for the general public. It is a
wide-ranging book in which Brown reveals some

started on 26 March 2006. Trick of the Mind
series 1 and 2 are also available to buy on

of the techniques he uses in his
performances, delves into the structure and

DVD.

psychology of magic and discusses hypnosis.
He also applies his insight to the paranormal

Waking Dead In June 2005, a clip from the
second series was widely circulated on the

industry, looking at the structure of beliefs
and how psychology can explain why people

internet. In this clip, Brown claims to have
created a video game he calls "Waking Dead"

become 'true believers'. He also offers
autobiographical stories about his own

which "is able to put roughly 1/3 of the
people who play it into a catatonic trance".

experiences as a former Christian, and
discusses his scepticism about religion,

In this episode, he places the video game in
a pub to lure a supposedly unsuspecting

allegedly 'psychic' mediums and sundry other
belief systems.

patron into playing the game. He then
"kidnaps" the catatonic "victim" and places

Brown has recorded some audio extracts from

him in a real-life recreation of the video
game, having him fire an air gun at actors,

Tricks of the Mind. In them he expounds on
the three subjects essential to his

pretending to be zombies and outfitted with
explosive squibs.

performance—Magic, Memory and Hypnosis. The
extracts last around 40 minutes each,

The episode raised considerable controversy.

disclosing tips and techniques Brown uses in
his acts (as well as day-to-day) and

Mick Grierson, credited in the episode as
"Zombie Game Designer", put up a website

narrating the highlights of his book.