Chat with Derren by Victor Berghaus

Posted on Yahoo! Groups 26 February 2002:

Well, met Derren on Saturday at his place in Bristol, with our mutual friend. I mentioned this site to him. He said he's aware of it and finds it very flattering, but keeps away from internet discussion groups. He's clearly a very private person so I can understand that. And I guess he doesn't want to discuss his techniques a lot with the public. We all went out for lunch and he kept people kept stopping him in the street - he obviously gets a lot of that and must be bored of it, although he was very nice each time it happened.
Figaro, his little parrot, is very cute, and his flat is amazing, absolutely full of books, piled everywhere. Derren's much funnier and softer and friendlier than I imagined he'd be, a really nice guy. Maybe just a bit detached... he doesn't seem to know anything about pop culture.
I gave him a printout of your poem, Emily, and he said he had said hello on your website. I asked him what he thought of the poem and he said it was 'genuinely terrifying'. But he was being funny, so I think he took it well.
I've been a fan of his for ages and have spoken a couple of times on the phone with him. It was good meeting him and he did the 'guess which hand the coin's in' with me, which was great. He also knew everything I was going to order from the menu when we went out for lunch, which freaked me out. I asked him about the use of hypnosis, and he said he is careful not to use any actual 'hypnosis' in the show, although he does use loads of suggestion. But there are no hypnotic inductions or anything that crosses the line into actual hypnotism.

So, a nice few hours and a nice guy.

Victor.