- Comedy & Cabaret
Topics:
- Magic
Derren Brown
Derren's is uniquely renowmed in the world of illusion and is perfect for anyone in need of an amazing cabaret act.
How It All Began
Derren was born in 1971 in Croydon. A precocious and puzzling only child, for some years he liked to paint, foster obsessive habits, and once set fire to a neighbour's boat by accident.
Derren went to study Law and German at Bristol University and fell in love with the city. He began to perform magic in bars and restaurants, and gave occasional hypnosis shows in order to raise some money. Meanwhile he continued to paint unflattering portraits of the rich and famous.
In 1999 he was asked by Channel 4 to put a mind-reading programme together for people's televisions. In Christmas 2000, 'Derren Brown: Mind Control, with Derren Brown' quite literally aired. It was an immediate success, and gained Derren a cool, underground kudos which he described as "not enough".
Becoming Increasingly Popular
Mind Controls 2 and 3 followed, then a series, and then in October 2003 Derren caused an international furore with 'Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live'. This secured his notoriety with the public. The Seance followed soon after, which was Derren's first look at the area of spiritualism and paranormal phenomena, and the first show where his intelligent scepticism could be expressed
Further specials have since followed, including 'Messiah', which took him undercover to the US to see if leaders in paranormal belief systems would wrongly endorse him as the real thing.
