Derren Brown

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown

Derren Brown (born 27 February 1971) is an English mentalist and illusionist. Since his television debut with Derren Brown: Mind Control in 2000, he has produced several other shows both for the stage, and for television in both series and specials. He has also written books for magicians as well as the general public.

Brown does not claim to possess any super-natural powers, indeed his acts are often designed to expose the methods of those who do, such as faith healers and mediums. He makes clear in his performances that all of his apparent abilities, which manifest on stage/screen as feats of memory, intuition, mind-reading and control of other objects/people, are achieved through a variety of psychological means, such as hypnosis, suggestion, cold reading, misdirection, and showmanship, and in many cases he will often give detailed explanations of his specific methods during or after the performance. In some performances he also uses his techniques to explore issues of personality such as fears and motivation.

Early life

Brown was born to Chris and Bob Brown in Purley, London, and has a brother nine years his junior. Brown was privately educated at Whitgift School in South Croydon (where his father coached swimming), and studied Law and German at the University of Bristol. While there, he attended a hypnotist show by Martin S Taylor, which inspired him to turn to illusion and hypnosis as a career. Whilst an undergraduate, he started working as a conjuror, performing the traditional skills of close-up magic in bars and restaurants. In 1992, he started performing stage shows at the University of Bristol under the stage name Darren V. Brown.

Career

His writings on magic meant Brown came to the attention of Objective Productions, founded in the 1990s by the television magician Andrew O'Connor. This gave him his breakthrough show, Mind Control, in 2000, and Brown went on to become their first award-winning product. After several further shows with Objective, Brown set up his own company Vaudeville Productions with former Objective executives Michael Vine, Andrew O’Connor and Paul Sandler, in order to produce his own shows as well as other projects with other performers, both new and established. Its first show was Brown's TV special, Pushed to the Edge.