Quotes by Derren Brown - Page 3

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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Example
Might
Placebo
Stage
Term
Doctor
Respond
For Example
Loose
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Whereas non-scientific (and potentially dangerous) thinking starts with a premise and then looks for things that support it, scientific thinking constantly tries to disprove itself. That alone makes all the difference in the world.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Differences
Support
Thinking
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For a long time, I couldn't just sit and have a conversation with people at a table without showing them a trick. I thought you just had to impress, it was about impressing, which of course is what you do if you don't feel very impressive.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Conversation
Impress
Long Time
Time Long People
Trick
Showing
Table
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I’m a big fan of parrots - I think they’re fascinating creatures. Many of them live for longer than us humans and it's interesting to me the way they learn to mimic human voices even though they don't really comprehend what they're saying.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Interesting
Thinking
Voice
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Documentaries
Format
Reality Shows
Sheer
Worth It
Dramas
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Manipulative
Controlling
Directing
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In magic we have a variety of "uses" for our art beyond magic itself, which reminds me of the notion of art therapy. The rendering of art inferior to therapy is an interesting one: interesting in the sense that it makes me want to vomit angrily.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Art
Interesting
Magic
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Perceived
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When [the magician] clicks his fingers and cards change to the four aces, we know we have experienced sleight of hand. Real magic would not be quite that quick and easy. Real magic would take investment. Real magic would draw you in, and make you nervous.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Hands
Magic
Real
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Hysterical
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Cards
Highly
Magical
Sold
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Approach
Different Approach
Honesty
Responsibility
Guess
Normally
Similar
Wanting
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Astonishment
Childlike
Meaningful
Nonsense
Philosophical
Recent
Recent Years
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That's how I lived for 10 years in Bristol after graduating. I just stayed in my student flat and paid very little rent. It was lovely, and part of me still misses that very lazy lifestyle. I was known as the magician on the street, and I used to dress a little eccentrically in a cloak.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Bristol
Lazy
Lifestyle
Lovely
Magician
Cloak
Flat
Graduating
Misses
Rent
Stayed
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Each of us is leading a difficult life, and when we meet people we are seeing only a tiny part of the thinnest veneer of their complex, troubled existences. To practise anything other than kindness towards them, to treat them in any way save generously, is to quietly deny their humanity.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Kindness
Humanity
People
Way
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Magician
Cheapest
Quickest Way
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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?'
Derren Brown / Illusionist
No Idea
Nonsense
Happily
Wasting
Wondering
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Capacity
Climax
Dark
Expecting
Following
Secret
Cared
Carried
Dead
Gradually
Interview
Newspaper
Poets
Reaction
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There are things in your life which you are in control of, and those you're not. You need to not care about those things which you're not in control of, and when you come to really understand that, you can go from being really upset about something to that lovely feeling of being a kid where everything is okay.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Kids
Being Real
Upset
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Adrenaline
Charismatic
Every Night
Face Yourself Your
Rehearsed
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A magic trick of any sort works because you tell yourself a story about what you see. And politicians use this all the time in their own way by throwing a load of statistics at you when things don't quite follow and then saying, 'So therefore blah,' and you believe that 'blah' thing because of the confusion that's come before.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Blah
Confusion
Load
Statistics
Throwing
Time Believe Yourself
Trick
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When I started doing magic I was quite obsessive about it. I didn't feel impressive and I had a strong desire to impress people. I was putting all my creative energy into learning and performing tricks, and it helps if you're not in relationships or doing the stuff other people are doing. But it's not necessarily a healthy way of living.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Creative Energy
Impress
Obsessive
Strong Desire
Healthy Way
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Pet
All Night
Bedroom
Bird
Captivated
Coats
Not Knowing
Party
Sat
Talking
Window
Bought
Student
Shop
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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.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Dazzling
Distraction
Hairdresser
Sexuality
Arrange
Good Man Gay
Decorator
Interior
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Booking an act for my Dad's 70th birthday, I wanted a great act and went straight to John Archer- his reputation in the magic world is among the very best. I was so pleased he was able to do it, and he absolutely brought the house down. It was brilliant, hysterically funny, and perfectly pitched for the occasion. He made the evening. I'd recommend him unreservedly.
Derren Brown / Illusionist
Dad
Archer
House
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Derren Brown Quotes - Page 3

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