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Writing A Derren Brown Show
For over twenty years, Derren and his team have perfected the formula for writing magic shows. But what is his secret?
Derren Brown is arguably one of the most famous and influential magic performers in the world, and he has been retaining this status for over twenty years.
Brown started his career as a close-up magician with an interest in mind reading and hypnosis. The turning point happened because of television: Channel Four was looking for a mentalist to launch a new format, and Brown seemed the best fit.
His success on television led him to create a theatre show, which toured the UK extensively. From there, he made seventeen more TV specials, two specials for Netflix, and brought nine more original theatre shows to the stage, including one run on Broadway.
He is also a legend among magicians for his unique thinking, original magic, and impossible-to-detect methods.
Derren Brown has just started touring with his new theatre show, Only Human.
The debut was set to be in High Wycombe on April 4th, but Brown had to cancel the first weekend of shows and even the first show of the following week, for technical issues. The tour finally kicked off in Bromley on April 9th.
Normally, Brown tours the UK with the show for around six months, to then launch the London residency for several more months. At the moment, only the tour is out, and we can only predict that the show will debut in London later this year.
Brown also hasn't appeared much on television or radio to promote the show as he usually would for previous shows. It seems the show continues to take up his focus at this early stage.
Everything about the show is still secret. We haven't seen it yet (although we certainly will!), but we thought this was the perfect chance to take a look behind the curtain into the creative process for writing a Derren Brown show.
We are taking the information within the article from publicly available sources, such as video interviews and podcasts. Derren Brown also wrote a wonderful book detailing his thinking on his theatre work, Notes From a Fellow Traveller.
Some of the insights in here will genuinely surprise you.
Working As A Team
"What I try and do is come up with something that you wouldn't get anywhere else. You don't quite get it in a play, you don't get it at a magic show. I really try and come up with something that's unique and also that over-delivers, that gives you more than you were expecting."
The first striking element is—when the show is announced, nobody knows what it will be about, not even Brown himself.
This is due to managing and logistics reasons, and because they have to start selling tickets way in advance. So much so that people buy tickets for something that still doesn't exist—which sounds like a trick in itself, right?
The surprising realization is that Derren and his team are forced to name the show, sometimes up to eight months before they decide what it will be about.
Months pass, and then the show goes through a writing phase and then rehearsals. During this time, Brown doesn't work alone but relies on a team of writers and creatives with different backgrounds.
He wrote most of the shows with Andy Nyman and Andrew O'Connor. These people have a strong background in theatre and all the creative elements that can make a show successful, as well as a keen understanding of magic.
And that's undoubtedly a key point that explains Derren Brown's success—the work of a team that combines different areas of expertise and different styles.
Although most magicians are not used to working with a director (let alone multiple ones!), this is not only a great habit, but it is the one thing that can truly make a magic show as good as any other successful show.
Then, the writing starts.
Layer After Layer
In the podcast Unlocking Creativity, Derren Brown has recently explained part of the writing process of his show. We'll quote from there:
"We start with the broadest strokes. So first of all, the broadest stroke, probably of all, is how can this feel different from the last show? And is there a kind of a big shift in mode of what a show could be that makes it exciting and fresh and not just adhering to a sort of a template? [...] So we do that first and then that's obviously very vague and a bit broad, but that's kind of the first thing. And then we try and find moods and kind of theatrical moments in it. Because it's very important with a show, let alone, you know, two and a half hour evening, that there's light and shade and you hit very different areas and points and the audience have different feelings, like it should be a roller coaster. [...] We certainly haven't even got to the tricks yet."
This will surprise most magicians—these types of shows never originate from the tricks. They are the final part to work on. It all starts by finding variety: how can the show be different from the previous work?
This ensures originality and helps keep the work fresh.
So the first element is to figure out one original theme for the show, that acts as a fil rouge connecting the pieces. Then, they figure out the theatrical moods, creating the "roller coaster."
This is so crucial—if you have seen a Derren Brown show, you know you get a mix of light and shade, funny beats and scary beats, and it is all nicely combined to ensure the entertaining factor.
This also means that writing the show implies going forth and back, writing and rewriting, in order to constantly add more layers and callbacks throughout the show for elements that will happen further down the line. So it's never a linear process, but one of constantly adjusting and layering the material so it stands on its own and it's part of a bigger narrative.
Then, the tricks. Back to Brown's words:
"And then after that, [...] there's normally half ideas of what something might sort of look like, or the odd kind of "Oh my God, wouldn't it be great if we could have that?" But they're not really formed into kind of routines. And then that next stage is, they start to form, they start, it's like a big bag of wet cement that slowly starts to kind of coagulate and set. And actually the kind of how to do it and how to get there is often the last thing.
"So the main thing is how you create the theater of it and the what feelings you want to create and then how you get there is sort of the, that's like the problem solving part that comes last."
So not only do the tricks come last, but the methods themselves are only the final thing. This speaks loud to the magicians' obsession with always wanting new methods. That's not where the good stuff is, apparently.
Before moving on, let's just quickly mention some additional elements.
During this writing, there are crucial moments that require extra care—they certainly are the opening and the ending of the show. The former sets the mood, brings people in, establishes the tone of the show and of the performer; the latter will work to have people walk out with a deeper sense of the experience, one thing that will likely have them come back for the next tour.
And it's also worth pointing out several Derren Brown shows featured a specific type of ending—one where the performer would reveal that every choice made throughout the evening was actually predicted in advance. It's a powerful ending, a signature element of Brown—one that countless magicians have been repeatedly copying from him.
What About Methods?
Here's a very fascinating element—the venue of the show dictates the possibilities for the magic, and the best magicians use that wisely.
For a theatre show, this first of all means having a deep attention on elements such as lights, sound and scenography. Brown certainly has this too—and working with a bigger team of experts in the field makes this top-notch.
Such elements can significantly enhance the experience of the show and the landing of it, and help the performer reach an auditorium of several hundreds of people.
But it's not just that. A clever use of the venue can offer clever possibilities for methods, too. And great performers never shy from it.
A theatre show is a fully crafted experience in which every element can be tied to serve the purpose of the show, and this is true for methods too. Bringing objects in and out, the time between each routine, the use of stage hands... everything can serve for a method.
And that's why working on methods is just the last thing to do—as they can literally put methods everywhere. So it's only about creating the best one that is deceptive enough and not too risky. Interestingly, Brown also repeatedly said that he never uses electronics for his methods, too.
The use of incredible methods also serves the purpose of working for a mixed audience of laypeople and magicians too. This means that everyone will be fooled, and the experience will reach everyone equally.
Another element that we find very intriguing is that each show constantly changes. If someone goes to see the opening of a tour and then the final show of the run, they'll think they have witnessed two different shows.
That's because Brown's team always fine-tunes several elements to make the show resonate more with the audience. Sometimes, this means ditching entire routines or replacing big parts of the show. And this happens day by day, week by week, until the show is perfectly hitting the right chords.
Why? You might ask. It's simple—no matter the experience and the skills, the only way to know if something is going to work is to present it to an audience, and see it there. Derren Brown does that too.
A Show About The Audience
"I think there's a thing with magic that because it's basically about impressing people, that at its core [...] there's this subtext that's always just "look at me, aren't I clever?" And I think that interested me at the start, when that was important to me, but now, I think if there's anything that makes the show I do different, is that it really isn't about me, it's a show very much about the audience."
We'll end on this: it is astonishing how Derren Brown managed to remain relevant and successful over the years, and it is inspiring for a magician to look at the arc of his career and witness the several changes he made.
As in the quote above, the most striking element of Derren Brown's evolution as a performer is the slow pivot to creating shows that focus less on the performer and more on the audience.
In the podcast, Brown recalls his conversations with the American magician Teller about how magic often lacks dramatic elements: if the magician snaps their fingers and something happens, where's the drama? So by bringing the focus on normal people and their own struggles, suddenly it all becomes more interesting.
Although Brown was making this reflection about his TV specials, we are convinced that this is true for the theatre shows, too. Brown has been creating experiences that are more and more focused on the audience, their stories, their aspirations and their fears.
Looking at the title of this new show, Only Human, we are certain that he keeps hitting this note. And if you have never been to a Derren Brown show, we highly recommend that you do so, if you can. It will open your eyes to what a magic performance can be.
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