We go through life owned by the stories we tell ourselves which are often historic and charged narratives - things we've learnt since childhood that we don't even consciously realise are going on.
Derren Brown
For every moment of concentration there is an equal moment of relaxation.
Guilt's too strong a word, but there is this niggling worry that I'm a grown-up doing a childish job and it would be nice to do something more useful and to reach a number of people with an idea you think is important.
In terms of self-esteem and confidence I think I'm generally quite healthy.
A magic trick of any sort works because you tell yourself a story about what you see. And politicians use this all the time in their own way by throwing a load of statistics at you when things don't quite follow and then saying, 'So therefore blah,' and you believe that 'blah' thing because of the confusion that's come before.
Psychic, illusionist... I'm just doing the things that I find interesting and worthwhile.
The Stoics appear during a huge time of constant wars and real political strife. And it became very popular, I think, because it's a way of distancing yourself from strife and keeping your centre of gravity within you.
I went to a party when I was a student and they had a mynah bird up in the bedroom where people put their coats. I was completely captivated - I just sat there all night talking to it. The next day I passed a pet shop and they had a conure - it's a little parakeet - in the window. I bought it, not knowing what it was or how to look after it.
Magic has both feet planted in cheap vaudeville and childish posturing; in dishonesty and therefore not in art.
I have a couple of dogs and I live with my partner. We just like to sit and read and I'm generally quite quiet.
You have to realise that hypnosis doesn't exist: it just works on people's natural suggestibility, their expectations and capacity to unconsciously role play. You can't make someone do anything they don't want to do.
I was allowed to do whatever made me happy. I can't think of a better or more worthwhile approach to parenting.
I'm finally having my TV removed and replaced by a tropical fish tank, which I hope will provide more interesting viewing.
Magic's quite a solitary pursuit - a thing you can do for hours and hours, getting better and better.
The people who are most susceptible to hypnosis - the rugger bugger types - were also the ones who intimidated me most at school, so on an unconscious level I suppose I'm turning the tables on them.
I really liked 'Heist,' and that seems to be a popular favourite, but I think my personal favourite was 'Hero at 30,000 ft,' about the guy who ended up landing the aeroplane.
When you're with your partner, I think, does everyone else sing and do the stupid voices and all that stuff that I do and always have done?
Not everything is about causing controversy. That would be a very boring way to go.
I've got a house full of taxidermy. It's like a museum. I have about 200 pieces in total, all ethically sourced.
Magic should get under people's skins.
I'm probably a little shyer than people imagine.
Since turning 40 I happily moisturise - I have what's called a regime - but I'm always in two minds because I have no idea if I'm completely wasting my money. They feel nice when they are on but I can't stop wondering, 'Am I succumbing to the same nonsense I try to fight against in other areas?'
I'm very interested in how we take ownership of our own stories and our own lives.
I came across the idea of running towards the things that frighten you. Once you go and do it, you realise that the fear of it is far more powerful than actually doing it.
I had a natural aptitude for wanting to be the centre of attention and a definite skill for annoying people.
Kindness and compassion aren't political qualities even though they get politicized.
I don't like big spiders in the house.
Feeling we have to be constantly updated about the lives of our friends and that everything we say has to be out there leads to frustration, anger and jealousy much more than it leads to anything else.
The stuff that I do and enjoy is normally quite similar to a lot of the stuff that psychics and spiritualists would enjoy themselves. I just have a different approach to wanting to find out how things really work, or a sense of, I guess, responsibility about honesty and so on.
If you aim to be controversial for the sake of it you'd end up with a very thin and meaningless show.
The big, fun, ambitious ideas tend to come out of the frustration of talking for too long about the smaller, weaselly ones.
I was part of a very uncool group. It was a group that liked classical music. They were known as the Music School Gang or, less charitably, the Poof Gang.
In real life, when I can avoid anything stressful, I do.
And the nature of magic is all in the person's experience. Whether the magician is using a highly complex sleight of hand or he's just got two cards that are the same, it doesn't matter: it's how it's sold and how magical it is for the person that matters.
A lot of unconfident kids do tricks because it's the quickest route to impressing people. You can stand behind something amazing and people think you're amazing.
A bedrock of insecurity made me want to impress and want to be the center of attention.
If you're a comedian, it's a bit of a choice whether or not you want to be funny when you're not performing because it might feel disingenuous. In the same way, I don't show people magic tricks in social situations any more.
Things I've done in the past always make me cringe a bit. When I think back to being a Christian. Proselytising to people, that makes me cringe.
I'm not very sociable. If I get invited to a glamorous event I probably won't go. That world does not really appeal to me.
For a long time, I couldn't just sit and have a conversation with people at a table without showing them a trick. I thought you just had to impress, it was about impressing, which of course is what you do if you don't feel very impressive.
Yes, I've had a slight feeling of wanting to reclaim some of the lifestyle I had in my 20s, which means poncing around in what amounts to pirate clothes.
Hypnosis is just suggestibility; you see it in certain people.
I don't want to be some extreme therapist. Although seeing someone's life change for the better is a really moving thing.
When I was at University I had a sort of fear about going to the gym and that kind of blokeish environment, which was rooted in a feeling of total inadequacy, which is what fear is.
Taking up magic was a distraction from my sexuality. There is that 1970s cliche of the gay man as hairdresser, interior decorator, fashionista... and all of those things are about arranging surfaces in a very dazzling way - and magic is all about how you arrange surfaces. I got very good at deflecting people from things I didn't want them to see.
Glenn Close is my favourite actress and she came to see the show in London once which was giddying.
If something's stressful I've always tended to just find ways of avoiding it rather than rising to meet it or try to change it.
The joy of doing the TV or something like 'Sacrifice' isn't really the process of doing it; the joy is going through this real-life experience.
If people have very big personalities, I find myself feeling I have nothing to offer.
Relationships are very good at making you more conscious of yourself. Especially as you get older, you develop a crust around your madnesses and shortcomings that take someone else to recognize them.
