A quick note from an interview with Derren Brown as he gears for another run of his Svengali live show. The reporter asks a bit of weird question in regards to Derren’s willingness to perform an endurance stunt like David Blaine.
But Derren won’t be stepping up by living in a plastic box like Blaine did in London for his 44-day starvation stunt in 2003.
Derren said: “I’m not that kind of creature. You have to do what feels right for you and then you find your audience.
“You don’t go out there doing what you think everyone wants, or what America wants.
“David Blaine has already done that kind of thing and it would make no sense to copy.”
We don’t quite know how this question came up in the interview but it brings up a really interesting idea. Namely, the philosophy that you have to find the character you enjoy playing before you find the audience willing to spend time with that character.
By that philosophy, Derren wouldn’t do an endurance stunt even if they were a rite of passage for magic fame in America. Blaine on the other hand, who personally enjoys the physical test, would.
Different creatures indeed.