{"id":11771,"date":"2022-03-04T18:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T17:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1596880"},"modified":"2022-03-04T18:37:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T17:37:10","slug":"derren-brown-on-writing-his-shows-if-youre-trying-to-be-controversial-you-wont-get-it-right","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/derren-brown-on-writing-his-shows-if-youre-trying-to-be-controversial-you-wont-get-it-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Derren Brown on writing his shows: \u2018If you\u2019re trying to be controversial, you won\u2019t get it right\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Lauren Morris\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 04 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Bookshelves have become the unofficial sponsor for Zoom backdrops over the past two years and during that time, I\u2019ve seen all sorts whilst sat in virtual meetings, online catch-ups and celebrity junkets. However, I\u2019ve never seen a bookshelf like Derren Brown\u2019s, stretching the length of his ornate study, absolutely stuffed with books while two impressive-looking busts perch on top of it.<\/p>\n

Sat in front of this Sherlockian scene is the award-winning illusionist himself, having spent the first few minutes of our chat trying to shut his study window. \u201cSuch a weird old house,\u201d he says of his countryside home. \u201cTo close the window, I have to go out the house and walk around the outside to get to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opting for a comfy jumper over the classic dark suits we\u2019re used to seeing him in, Brown looks completely different to his on-stage, on-screen persona \u2013 which is probably why he doesn\u2019t get recognised a huge amount in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people recognise my voice much more than they seem to recognise me. I also, you know, I had the goatee and almost purple hair back then, so if I kind of wear a suit and dress up, it\u2019s a bit different. Normally, if i\u2019m just kicking around in a cardigan with no hair, I don\u2019t normally get recognised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen that much and if it does, I find normally people, they\u2019ll say hello but they probably also then want to get away because there might be a slight note of apprehension, which is quite nice to see,\u201d he smiles. \u201cThey want to say hello and then they want to not have me do anything weird on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes as no surprise that members of the public might not want to stick around for a chat with Brown, who has spent over two decades blowing our minds with his captivating specials and live shows. From guessing people\u2019s professions by just looking at them in 2000\u2019s Mind Control, to convincing a man he\u2019s woken up to a zombie invasion in 2012\u2019s Apocalypse, Brown is the face of mentalism in the UK \u2013 but now he\u2019s dipping back into the world of philosophy for his latest podcast: Derren Brown\u2019s Bootcamp For Life.<\/p>\n

\""Derren\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Audible<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n

The eight-part Audible series follows Brown as he examines human emotion and with the help of experts, looks at how to take control of our thoughts. \u201cI read a book called Happy a few years ago about stoicism, which struck me as a very helpful, sensible way of avoiding unnecessary anxiety and disturbance in life and it really chimed with how I am in my sort of personality,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

After writing on the topic for over three years, Brown decided to carry on looking into \u201cthe theme of how we make our peace with the world that\u2019s difficult and stubborn,\u201d and debunking the idea that the universe will give us what we want if we put our wishes and goals out into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trouble with all of that is that when things do go badly, it\u2019s your own fault \u2013 you didn\u2019t believe in yourself enough or you didn\u2019t set your goals properly or you didn\u2019t commit to your dream board or whatever and it\u2019s crippling,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019m really interested in how we actually live and navigate a world that is so often difficult and doesn\u2019t go according to our plans and there\u2019s no easy answer to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A follow-up to Brown\u2019s previous podcast Bootcamp for the Brain, this series was a project that kept the illusionist busy over lockdown, although he admits that he didn\u2019t really miss performing for a while. \u201cI was lucky that there were other projects and things that I could do from home,\u201d he says. \u201cSo as a natural introvert, I kind of quite enjoyed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we all have very different relationships to lockdown \u2013 if you\u2019re struggling to pay your rent and it\u2019s just a nightmare, or you\u2019re trapped in a small flat with people you hate, it\u2019s clearly a very different thing,\u201d he adds. \u201cBut the idea of how the things in life that are difficult and make us feel isolated are normally by their nature, the very things that we actually share with other people. When life takes us inevitable to difficult places and difficult times, it\u2019s\u00a0 like all the distractions have fallen away and we\u2019re just experiencing the actual weight of lift, which can feel very lonely but is precisely the thing that we share with everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Derren\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Derren Brown in his Netflix special Miracle<\/span><\/figcaption> Netflix<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Brown speaks about the topics explored in his podcast like an academic delivering a lecture, particularly when I ask about a segment in the first episode that examines the reaction to his 2016 Netflix<\/a> special Miracle. Performed in front of a live audience, Brown set out for the show to be an expos\u00e9 of evangelical faith healing with the star demonstrating techniques used with an audience wrongly placed for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to do it with an audience that, like me, would be probably a bit sceptical, surprised that I\u2019m doing it, certainly not believers in that kind of thing,\u201d he explains. \u201cI was also going to have to be debunking it while at the same time by doing it and making it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Brown didn\u2019t expect was for the \u2018healing\u2019 techniques to actually work. \u201cA woman who had been paralysed since she was a kid comes up, she\u2019s in her 40\u2019s now and she\u2019s in tears because she can move her arm for the first time. So that was baffling.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year on, he learns from a make-up artist that her husband had watched the Miracle special on Netflix a year prior and found that his golfing injury of three years had cleared up. \u201cYou can see how people can go mad and then start to believe that they do have some kind of special power \u2013 but what was really interesting to me, it took me a while to see what was happening, was the psychological component of suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s your organic reason for having something like paralysis, then there\u2019s also all of this other stuff \u2013 how you identify with it, how you live it out, how it becomes your story of how you exist from day to day,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the most interesting deep dive into the power of stories that we tell because although I was seeing it in lots of silly relatively trivial ways with the sort of tricks and stuff that I do, seeing it in such a way that was so meaningful to people [was interesting].\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown first got into magic and hypnotism whilst studying law at Bristol University, performing for students, restaurant tables and private parties. By the time he finished university, he was making a modest living with it and became fully immersed in the magic community over 10 years before a production company approached him, looking for somebody to front a mind-reading show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just sort of built from there and now it\u2019s 20 years later,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve never had a proper job \u2013 I never really did anything else. Maybe Saturday jobs at university.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Derren\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Derren Brown in Channel 4\u2019s Russian Roulette<\/span><\/figcaption> Channel 4<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Throughout his career, Brown hasn\u2019t shied away from performing controversial stunts and tricks \u2013 in fact there\u2019s a whole subheading on his Wikipedia page dedicated to public complaints. On there, you\u2019ll find details about his first big special Russian Roulette \u2013 which saw the illusionist play the potentially deadly game live on Channel 4 with willing participants (however, Ofcom rejected complaints given there was a 15-minute time delay on the broadcast, while police later stated that no live ammunition was involved). Do his shows require an element of shock for them to hit home with viewers?<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say shock. There\u2019s two things that me and the couple of guys that write the show aim for,\u201d he says. \u201cOne is a strong idea like a one line summary of what it is that would make you want to watch it and then with that, a good reason for doing it \u2013 particularly if it\u2019s something that is going to be quite dark.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to have a good reason for it. If you try to be shocking or try to be controversial, you\u2019re never going to get it right. It\u2019s always going to be weighted the wrong way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pausing, he adds: \u201cI suppose plenty have been \u2013 there\u2019s been a lot of guns and a lot of shooting and a lot of life or death stuff. There\u2019s an old story-writing adage that you reveal character through crisis and you reveal deep character through deep crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years people have been through some dark journeys but there\u2019s always been a good reason for it and it\u2019s always been ultimately a very positive experience for them and genuinely life-changing thing,\u201d he continues. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t dream of taking credit for anything happens to their lives after that, but they\u2019re all people I\u2019ve kept in touch with and stayed friends with. And it\u2019s, you know, shows always seem to have done, it\u2019s done its job, which I\u2019m proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether he would put on a show like Russian Roulette in this day and age, Brown says that it would no longer be relevant. \u201cOne of the reasons for doing Russian Roulette was it was around the time that Big Brother and the whole madness of reality shows was taking off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this thing about what will people watch, like what is suddenly OK to make entertainment. So that was behind Russian Roulette \u2013 aside from again, it was going to attract attention,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt was the firs thing I\u2019ve done where I put my head a bit above the parapet, the previous specials had been quite quiet.<\/p>\n

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