#776: Derren Brown — A Master Mentalist on Magic, Mind Reading, Ambition, Stoicism, Religion, and More

The Tim Ferriss Show

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4.6 • 17.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2024

⏱️ 101 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Derren Brown is a psychological illusionist who can predict, suggest, and even control human behavior.

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Timestamps:

[00:00] Start

[06:45] Sacrifice, The Push, and Apocalypse.

[12:21] Derren's transition from student to magician.

[14:43] How Martin Taylor inspired Derren to pursue hypnosis.

[16:42] Strange audience reactions to hypnosis.

[20:00] Hypnosis, mentalism, and cold reading.

[24:34] How a TV medium uses hot reading techniques.

[26:22] How can someone learn to be a healthy skeptic?

[34:24] How learning magic influenced Derren's skepticism and faith.

[40:57] Why did Derren wait until his 30s to come out?

[43:18] Finding meaning.

[47:06] High status struggles.

[48:20] Making sense of the human experience.

[56:59] Ambition and productivity.

[01:02:25] The counterintuitive assembly of Derren's creative projects.

[01:09:17] Ensuring ethics and safety in TV social experiments.

[01:15:50] Suggestion as self-defense.

[01:20:27] Why Derren takes care not to abuse his superpowers in real life.

[01:24:01] Recommended reading.

[01:28:02] TED Talks in treacherous terrain.

[01:29:53] A new belief or habit that has improved Derren's life.

[01:33:27] Derren's billboard and parting thoughts.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the
0:04.7	Tim Ferriss show, where it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers from all different
0:09.4	disciplines, from all different places around the world. My guest today is Darren Brown. What makes him
0:15.1	thick? How does he do what he does? What does he do anyway? Darren Brown is a psychological
0:19.7	illusionist who can predict, suggest, and even control human behavior.
0:24.8	Some of his videos are absolutely bananas.
0:27.3	You can go on YouTube, search Darren Brown, D-E-R-R-E-N, D-E-N, Darren Brown, paying people with blank money as an example.
0:36.8	Or you can watch his TED Talk to see examples of
0:40.1	mentalism. They will blow your mind. He started his TV career with shows such as mind control
0:44.7	and trick-or-treat for Channel 4. That's the UK's equivalent of PBS. He has combined spectacular
0:51.0	illusions with insights into how we see the world and those around us, or
0:54.8	expect to see them. And rather than guard the mystery behind his illusions and manipulations,
0:59.9	he lays bare his techniques and demonstrates how the human mind works. A prolific creator
1:05.6	and performer, Darren has appeared in blockbuster stage and television shows like, including
1:10.2	the sold-out Broadway run of his
1:11.8	one-man show Secret, his Olivier Award-winning tour of Svengali, and his Netflix specials, which we
1:18.2	will talk quite a bit about in this discussion because they are cuckoo bananas. They're completely
1:23.9	nuts. Darren is the author of multiple books, including Happy, why more or less everything is
1:28.7	absolutely fine and a book of secrets, finding comfort in a complex world.
1:33.6	His new tour, Only Human, materializes on stages across the UK beginning April of 2025.
1:40.0	Very soon.
1:40.4	You can find Darren on Instagram and X at Darren Brown, and you can find his work,
	...

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