IS DERREN BROWN EMBARRASED BY MAGIC

The Times Online published an interesting profile of Derren Brown today in which he seems to question his career choice in spite of being Britian's most famous magician and in spite of the success of his current touring show. "I’m always slightly beset by embarrassment about being a magician,” whispered Brown in the interview.  Battling larengitis, Brown conducted the interview over the course of several days.  “One of the problems with magic,” Brown says a few days later, his voice medicated back to its normal easy clarity, “is that it’s such a fascinating thing to do, but all the things that are genuinely interesting about it are things you can’t really talk about. You have to hold so much back. So because people know they’re being fooled and it’s just a game, after a while the act begins to grate. Which is why most magicians are loved for a while and then become figures of fun.”  In spite of occasionally questioning himself, Brown finds his career choice rewarding in many ways. “I was talking to a guy yesterday,” Brown says, “who told me that his mother, on the basis of the TV shows, had stopped going to psychics. And she was questioning her Pentecostal religious beliefs as well. Which was lovely to hear — I don’t mean that in a destructive way, I hope. But it does balance that worry that it’s all a bit silly and childish. If people are taking something away from it that applies to their lives then it makes it all worthwhile.”  READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE