- I Can
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- Nov 07, 2020
Derren Brown Quotes
Most Famous Derren Brown Quotes of All Time!
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- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Doing
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- Nov 07, 2020
There's something a bit embarrassing about saying you're a magician. It immediately suggests all these horrendous cliches, let alone that you're a grown-up doing a child's job.
- Look
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- Nov 07, 2020
I do always look back and feel faintly embarrassed by anything I've done in the past. I think that's not a terrible thing, because if you don't do that, how are you growing and moving forward?
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I was in Leeds, just starting out, and I was hypnotising one person up on stage. Suddenly I had members of the crowd unsuspectingly go to sleep on me as well.
- Day
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- Nov 07, 2020
Being gay facilitated my capacity for shame. As a child, I carried around this thing that gradually became this big dark secret. When I came out in a newspaper interview at 30 I was expecting the reaction the following day to be like the climax of 'Dead Poets Society,' but actually no one really cared.
- Dazzling
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- Nov 07, 2020
Taking up magic was a distraction from my sexuality. There is that 1970s cliche of the gay man as hairdresser, interior decorator, fashionista... and all of those things are about arranging surfaces in a very dazzling way - and magic is all about how you arrange surfaces. I got very good at deflecting people from things I didn't want them to see.
- Ethically
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- Nov 07, 2020
I've got a house full of taxidermy. It's like a museum. I have about 200 pieces in total, all ethically sourced.
- Foot
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- Nov 07, 2020
What I do is rooted in magic - it's got a big foot planted firmly in conjuring, even if the other foot's planted in psychological techniques.
- Getting
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- Nov 07, 2020
Magic's quite a solitary pursuit - a thing you can do for hours and hours, getting better and better.
- Magic
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- Nov 07, 2020
And the nature of magic is all in the person's experience. Whether the magician is using a highly complex sleight of hand or he's just got two cards that are the same, it doesn't matter: it's how it's sold and how magical it is for the person that matters.
- Myself
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- Nov 07, 2020
If people have very big personalities, I find myself feeling I have nothing to offer.
- Group
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- Nov 07, 2020
I was part of a very uncool group. It was a group that liked classical music. They were known as the Music School Gang or, less charitably, the Poof Gang.
- Past
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- Nov 07, 2020
Things I've done in the past always make me cringe a bit. When I think back to being a Christian. Proselytising to people, that makes me cringe.
- Look
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- Nov 07, 2020
Sexuality is often tied in with something you feel you lack in yourself and look for in others.
- British
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm a British psychological illusionist, which is a term I made up, but I do these kind of mind-reading and psychological experiments. There's nothing magical about it at all.
- Enjoy
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- Nov 07, 2020
The stuff that I do and enjoy is normally quite similar to a lot of the stuff that psychics and spiritualists would enjoy themselves. I just have a different approach to wanting to find out how things really work, or a sense of, I guess, responsibility about honesty and so on.
- Think
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think you can be sceptical, and still do things that are in a joyful way, and ultimately you are on stage entertaining. If you let your philosophy get too much in the way of that, then you are failing as an entertainer.
- Mind
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- Nov 07, 2020
I have got friends that I have got to know and found out that, the first few times I was with them, they were just thinking that everything I was doing was some kind of weird mind game, which is hysterical, really, because I couldn't be any less like that.
- Impress
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- Nov 07, 2020
A bedrock of insecurity made me want to impress and want to be the center of attention.
- Happy
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- Nov 07, 2020
I wasn't terribly sociable. I had two or three friends at school. I drew things, played with Lego. My parents left me free to do whatever made me happy.
- More
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- Nov 07, 2020
Relationships are very good at making you more conscious of yourself. Especially as you get older, you develop a crust around your madnesses and shortcomings that take someone else to recognize them.
- Get
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- Nov 07, 2020
Kindness and compassion aren't political qualities even though they get politicized.
- Know
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think the sheer hell of trying to get a film made; I don't know if it would ultimately be worth it. The sort of format that I have, these TV things, sit somewhere between documentaries and reality shows and entertainment shows and dramas.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
People often think that you get the most of everything from having your face on the screen but its really, like musicians, when you hit the road. It's also where the most fun is, the adrenaline of it every night, giving this incredibly well rehearsed charismatic version of yourself every night and people hopefully loving you.
- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
The joy of doing the TV or something like 'Sacrifice' isn't really the process of doing it; the joy is going through this real-life experience.
- Life
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- Nov 07, 2020
It's a controlling thing on stage - you're directing the action, getting people to play their role. In real life, I take being kind and nice seriously, so the last thing I'd ever want to be is that weird, controlling, manipulative character.
- Funny
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- Nov 07, 2020
If you're a comedian, it's a bit of a choice whether or not you want to be funny when you're not performing because it might feel disingenuous. In the same way, I don't show people magic tricks in social situations any more.
- More
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm probably more persuasive than the next person if I want to be, but do I want to be? In my head, I just don't go there.
- Attention
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- Nov 07, 2020
I had a natural aptitude for wanting to be the centre of attention and a definite skill for annoying people.
- Go
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- Nov 07, 2020
We go through life owned by the stories we tell ourselves which are often historic and charged narratives - things we've learnt since childhood that we don't even consciously realise are going on.
- New
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- Nov 07, 2020
I remember Doritos launched a new flavour and the question was whether I could use my skills - as they perceived them - to make people desire and want to try this new flavour. But I like to be in control of the things I do and feel proud of them.
- Frustration
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- Nov 07, 2020
The big, fun, ambitious ideas tend to come out of the frustration of talking for too long about the smaller, weaselly ones.
- Nov 07, 2020
Glenn Close is my favourite actress and she came to see the show in London once which was giddying.
- Feeling
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- Nov 07, 2020
I like films that sort of play out in one confined area. Films that have a feeling that you're watching a play, a contained environment and a creeping tension.
- Causing
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- Nov 07, 2020
Not everything is about causing controversy. That would be a very boring way to go.
- Happy
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- Nov 07, 2020
When you're made to be frightened within a safe context, like watching a horror film, you have that tension/release which triggers all those happy chemicals that feel good.
- Important
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think it's important to be sort of nice.
- Just
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- Nov 07, 2020
In my 20s, I just had to be the centre of attention all the time. I was quite eccentric.
- Never
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- Nov 07, 2020
I had no sense of 'Gotta work hard to be famous.' Never have done, and still don't.
- Individuals
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- Nov 07, 2020
When we find ourselves in groups or with charismatic individuals, we might do things we wouldn't ordinarily do.
- Our
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm very interested in how we take ownership of our own stories and our own lives.
- May
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- Nov 07, 2020
Suggestibility is a very loose term. You may not be the sort of person who responds well to a hypnotist on stage, but you might find, for example, that a doctor administering a placebo to you is something you respond well to.
- House
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- Nov 07, 2020
I don't like big spiders in the house.
- Food
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- Nov 07, 2020
I like to eat other people's food in restaurants.
- Enjoy
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- Nov 07, 2020
I never really enjoy the thought of fancy dress.
- Happy
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- Nov 07, 2020
I was allowed to do whatever made me happy. I can't think of a better or more worthwhile approach to parenting.
- Think
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- Nov 07, 2020
The Stoics appear during a huge time of constant wars and real political strife. And it became very popular, I think, because it's a way of distancing yourself from strife and keeping your centre of gravity within you.
- Mind
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- Nov 07, 2020
Magic, whether it's mind magic or conjuring, is about the cheapest and quickest way of impressing people, and I think if you don't grow out of that as a magician then it shows, and people get a bit sick of that after a while, because it starts to feel like posturing. So I grew out of it.
- Personal
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- Nov 07, 2020
I really liked 'Heist,' and that seems to be a popular favourite, but I think my personal favourite was 'Hero at 30,000 ft,' about the guy who ended up landing the aeroplane.
- Feel
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'll sometimes go a week or two without tweeting, and then when I'm in the mood, tweet loads, and clog up people's in-boxes. It's a moment when you feel like sharing something.
- Change
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- Nov 07, 2020
If something's stressful I've always tended to just find ways of avoiding it rather than rising to meet it or try to change it.
- Everyone
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- Nov 07, 2020
As a performer you often feel that you're the child and everyone else is a grown-up.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
Guilt's too strong a word, but there is this niggling worry that I'm a grown-up doing a childish job and it would be nice to do something more useful and to reach a number of people with an idea you think is important.
- Feeling
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- Nov 07, 2020
Feeling we have to be constantly updated about the lives of our friends and that everything we say has to be out there leads to frustration, anger and jealousy much more than it leads to anything else.
- Hope
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm finally having my TV removed and replaced by a tropical fish tank, which I hope will provide more interesting viewing.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
You have to realise that hypnosis doesn't exist: it just works on people's natural suggestibility, their expectations and capacity to unconsciously role play. You can't make someone do anything they don't want to do.
- Place
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- Nov 07, 2020
Clearly if a hypnotist could make someone to steal £100k just by telling them to, the world would be a different place, and I suspect that hypnotists wouldn't bother doing shows in pubs or dodgy Spanish holiday resorts.
- Geek
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- Nov 07, 2020
I am a movie geek, yes!
- Fear
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- Nov 07, 2020
Most people's fear of being in front of an audience can generally be conquered by being completely on top of what it is they've got to do.
- Fear
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I was at University I had a sort of fear about going to the gym and that kind of blokeish environment, which was rooted in a feeling of total inadequacy, which is what fear is.
- Fear
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- Nov 07, 2020
I came across the idea of running towards the things that frighten you. Once you go and do it, you realise that the fear of it is far more powerful than actually doing it.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
So I don't really suffer too badly from fears - I'm quite happy to engender them in other people though!
- Know
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- Nov 07, 2020
I never quite know how to describe what I do. I normally just say, 'Oh, I'm a magician', which probably puts fairly naff ideas in people's minds but is pleasantly conversation-stopping.
- Feel
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- Nov 07, 2020
Since turning 40 I happily moisturise - I have what's called a regime - but I'm always in two minds because I have no idea if I'm completely wasting my money. They feel nice when they are on but I can't stop wondering, 'Am I succumbing to the same nonsense I try to fight against in other areas?'
- Feeling
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- Nov 07, 2020
Yes, I've had a slight feeling of wanting to reclaim some of the lifestyle I had in my 20s, which means poncing around in what amounts to pirate clothes.
- Bird
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- Nov 07, 2020
I went to a party when I was a student and they had a mynah bird up in the bedroom where people put their coats. I was completely captivated - I just sat there all night talking to it. The next day I passed a pet shop and they had a conure - it's a little parakeet - in the window. I bought it, not knowing what it was or how to look after it.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
The process of coming out is normally very disappointing. It's not that people react badly to it - they really don't care.
- Like
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- Nov 07, 2020
That was how I started, as a hypnotist. But I didn't like the kind of gigs I was being offered. I didn't want to embarrass people.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
The people who are most susceptible to hypnosis - the rugger bugger types - were also the ones who intimidated me most at school, so on an unconscious level I suppose I'm turning the tables on them.
- Magic
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- Nov 07, 2020
Magic should get under people's skins.
- Magic
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- Nov 07, 2020
Everything you do is about creating an experience in the viewer's head. If you're rude or irritating as a performer, then your magic is irritating.
- Moment
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- Nov 07, 2020
In recent years there's been a lot of philosophical theorising about how important magic is, and how it takes us back to a childlike state of astonishment. I think all this is just nonsense. Magic isn't meaningful or important other than how you're performing it in that moment.
- Lifestyle
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- Nov 07, 2020