That's all pretty heady, academic stuff. You can imagine Derren Brown getting inspiration for his next audacious stunt whilst pouring over psychology textbooks (along with the old Victorian pamphlets and histories of stage magic and spiritualism he's already copped to using), because that's the image he presents of himself. He's a very smart, cunning, and intellectual performer, and his stunts often rely on you believing that about him. Otherwise, participants and viewers alike might not be quite to follow him. Like, what if instead of a smartly-dressed smart guy, the person asking you to get involved in an art robbery, or navigate the apocalypse, or pilot a crashing plane, was some poorly-dressed film dork? Turns out that's another neat piece of misdirection. Brown is actually a huge pop culture junkie, having drawn in dozens of his celebrity pals for his live shows as he's achieved a degree of celebrity himself, and admitting that Hero At 30,000 Feet - his 2010 special which saw a man with a fear of flying coaxed onto a plane and then convinced it was going to crash, putting him in control of it and tasking him with landing it safely (actually it was all a simulator, soz) - was influenced by Donnie Darko, Fight Club, The Game and Watchmen. A bunch of genre film classics and a superhero comic? That's nowhere near as high-minded as Milgram and Zimbaro psychological studies, but we appreciate it all the same. That's some good taste you have there, Mr Brown.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
