One of the most prominent mind control performers is Derren Brown who leads his audiences along with subtle hints and psychological techniques. That statement appears to contradict what a magician stands for, but if you think about it differently, it is only a form of misdirection which is what magic needs for it to be done well.

It was after seeing a hypnotist’s show, during his years studying for a degree in German and Law, that Derren Brown was inspired to become a hypnotist and illusionist as his chosen career.

It was circa 1994 that Derren Brown worked on practising skills as a close-up magician and in 1996 he tried his hypnotic shows on audiences at his university. About a year later, Derren Brown attended a Neuro-linguistic programming course – NLP philosophy is that our mind-body (neuro) and what we say (language) work together to form our awareness and observations of any situation (programming) – and a couple of years after that he became fascinated by mind reading.

It was not long after that before Derren Brown was asked by Channel 4, a UK television station, to create a mind-reading program. So, in 2000, his first show was broadcast – Derren Brown : Mind Control. Two more specials were broadcast which then led to the Mind Control six part series.

Probably his most dangerous performance was when Derren Brown did Russian Roulette live, another TV special. A volunteer loaded a revolver with a single bullet into one of the numbered chambers. The revolver also had a shield put over the chambers so neither the cameras, nor Derren Brown, could see what chamber the bullet lay. After starting at what he felt was a safe chamber, Derren Brown fired directly at his own head. When he thought it was the real bullet, he fired away from himself.
The sequence went thus: chambers 3 and 4 at his head, 5 away from him. As chamber 5 did not contain the bullet he sweated for over a minute before deciding on pulling the trigger to his head with number 6. Chamber 1 was then pointed at a sandbag which promptly fired the bullet.
Was he lucky, did Derren Brown get it wrong with number 5 or was it done that way for dramatic effect? Whatever the answer, it was certainly talked-about television.

After a couple more specials on TV, Derren Brown was rewarded with another successful series: Trick Of The Mind.

Also, as an author of several books about magic and more TV specials using his techniques, Derren Brown can only go from strength to strength.