 | | The strangeness that is Derren Brown | |
|  |  | THIS STORY LAST UPDATED:
19 August 2002 1336 BST
A real coup for Bristol’s Tobacco Factory this autumn is the appearance of psychological sensation Derren Brown. | | The amazing Mr Brown - charming but slightly scary! | | | |
| | Derren, who has made several popular shows for Channel 4, will be bringing his brand of hypnotic mind-reading to Bedminster in September, before launching himself on a nationwide tour next year.
So why has this “conjurer” described by the Guardian newspaper as: “The greatest party guest in history…or the scariest man in Britain,” decided to kick-off the next stage of his career in our fair city, and is he really that scary?
A slightly nervous Caron Parsons went to find out.
Interviewing a man whose profession involves reading people’s minds and persuading them to act in a certain way, is a slightly daunting task.
I admit I felt a little apprehensive when I arrived at Derren's Clifton flat, hoping to find out more about him and his work.
But I was immediately put at ease by a host who was both charming and entertaining – with just a hint of menace!
 | | Derren's home is crammed full of interesting items |
A person's home can reveal a lot about them and stepping into Derren's flat, visitors immediately have a sense that they have entered another world.
It's the sort of place you could imagine Sherlock Holmes making himself at home in, lots of deep red walls, dark furniture, stuffed animals and amazing paintings.
Derren himself compares his work to Victorian "parlour tricks" and his home is the perfect venue for that.
TV specials
In his highly popular TV specials, ordinary people are shown being manipulated into behaving in different ways, a mixture between sleight of hand magic tricks and hypnosis.
"The show is quite edgy and dark," says Derren.
"It's not Paul Daniels."
Born in Croydon in 1971, Derren came to Bristol to study law and German at the university.
After watching a hypnotist perform at a university show he decided to have a go himself and was soon making the rounds of colleges with his own act.
But he wasn't completely happy with it and instead moved into the area of hypnosis for therapy before deciding he “didn’t want to sit and listen to people’s problems all day”
He'd become interested in magic, but again was not completely happy with a purely magic act.
"I always felt magic could be a lot more than sleight of hand tricks," he said.
Winning formula
Finally he hit on a formula he was happy with. Mixing skills learnt in hypnotism with those he'd built up through magic, he created a unique show.
"It's about controlling a situation and playing games with people," he explained.
"It's much more fun to do because you never know how people are going to respond."
It has certainly proved a popular format, what with television spots, corporate events and now live theatre performances.
But doesn't being able to read people's minds make Derren some kind of physic?
"Hypnosis is a form of seduction, you can't make someone do what you decide you want them to do, you have to bend them round," explained Derren, who strenuously denies any psychic ability.
"It has got a lot of built in limitations."
Limitations or not, Derren is able to read people with amazing success.
Trying out a couple of his basic parlour-tricks, such as which hand is the coin in and pick a card, on me, he was 100 per cent accurate.
Approached by police
In fact so accomplished is Derren at being able to read people and tell if they are lying, that the police force has approached him to help train officers.
Great skills to have, but surely a little off-putting for Derren's family and friends.
"It is something I can switch on and off," said Derren.
"I don't use it with friends but if I meet someone at a party and they ask what I do people do become quite self-conscious."
In contrast to his life in the spotlight Derren also has a passion for painting.
 | | Anthony Hopkins by Derren Brown |
His almost caricature pictures of well-known faces have been well received, not least by the faces themselves, and he is planning an exhibition of his work.
"I don't consciously exaggerate the pictures. I have a good memory for faces but can't do a straight portrait," said Derren.
"Uri Geller rang to tell me he was pleased with his."
Anthony Hopkins
One of the most mesmerising of the large paintings, which adorn Derren's house, is one of Anthony Hopkins, someone Derren would dearly love to meet.
"There is a lot of repression of addictivness in Hopkins, which comes through in the way he plays characters, " he explained.
"I think it would be very interesting to meet someone so self-contained."
Derren is also hoping to write a book about his psychological work, but that and the art exhibition have been put on hold while work on his tour begins.
So why has he chosen Bristol's Tobacco Factory as the place to start the tour?
"This was a way of running the show and getting some feedback, " said Derren
"I am excited to be playing there, I have watched some of the best Shakespeare I have ever seen at the Tobacco Factory."
Bookings are already flooding in from as far away as Ireland for the ten night show, which runs from 18th - 28th September.
It could be that the people of Bristol are too wiley to be caught by Derren's tricks - but on the basis of this Bristolian - probably not.
Before I left Derren he tried out one more trick on me - in which I chose a letter of the alphabet and he tried to guess it and then wrote it on a piece of paper.
As I bid farewell to his friendly parrot Figaro Derren pressed the paper into my hand.
Yes, he had somehow guessed I had picked the letter P.
"P for predictable," he smiled kindly. Quite. | |
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