Derren Brown has opened up about what it’s like to be on the receiving end of constant pleas for help from the public.
is best known for , in which he seemingly achieves the impossible through his – it’s safe to say pretty masterful – psychological illusions.
His most famous past ‘tricks’ have included playing Russian Roulette live, convincing middle-managers to commit armed robbery, and he even hypnotised someone to assassinate Stephen Fry (he’s fine, don’t worry).
But perhaps Derren’s most impressive – and well-known – feat was when he appeared to back in 2009 during his special, How to Win The Lottery.
Now, in an exclusive chat with Metro.co.uk, Derren has opened up about how – off the back of his mastery of prediction – members of the public often ask him to help turn their lives around.
Derren divulged that he receives ‘heart-wrenching emails from members of the public’ with pleas for help.
Describing the messages – often received on social media – he continued: ‘Some saying, “Look my life is falling apart, and I really need to win the lottery. Can you please, please? I’ll split the winnings with you.”
‘You know, just awful things that are just really difficult to know how to respond to.’
Due to the sheer volume of messages, Derren simply can’t open – let alone read or action – them all.
‘Most of the time I can’t look at the messages that I’m getting because there will be too many to read let alone to reply to with any action,’ he explained, ‘So a lot of it I just sort of have to ignore.’
‘It’s a lot of that. Every day.’
If he did take time to read the messages, Derren admitted it would be very ‘difficult to navigate.’
‘I think I just sort of accept it now as part of the course,’ he explained, before adding that when he started to become well-known, and the messages began, he would worry about how to reply or what to do.
‘I think everyone who is well-known gets it,’ he added, ‘But I think particularly what I do sort of attracts that sort of understandable misunderstanding.’
Elsewhere in the chat, the illusionist opened up about .
Derren also chatted about his new show, Unbelievable, which is debuting in the West End in September.
Contrary to all his past work, Derren will not actually make an appearance on stage, but has created and directed the magic show with his long-standing collaborators Andy Nyman and Andrew O’Connor.
In a first for the genre, the cast is made up, not of musicians or illusionist, as you’d expect, but of actors.
Announced last week, the cast includes stage actors Samuel Creasey, Simon Lipkin, Hannah Price, and Rhys Shone, alongside West End newcomers Laura Andresen Guimarães, Alexander Bean, Samuel Brenton, Yolanda Ovide, Emily Redlaff, and Izalni Batista Nascimento Junior.
‘No one’s done this before,’ Derren explained, before continuing: ‘A magic show, not using seasoned magicians.
‘It’s just a different thing, and that’s a very exciting thing to be doing creatively.
‘It may not work, it may not be as good as we think – although, I think it will be pretty special – but that’s ok.’
Unbelievable opens in London’s West End at the Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Circus on 19 September 2023.
