The star of Mind Control and Trick of The Mind, Sance and Messiah is promising shocks, revelations and surprises on his 44-date British tour, although the content is under wraps.

Magic, mind control and psychological illusion, psychology, suggestion and showmanship are sure to feature when Derren Brown has his wicked way at the Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow. We try to read his mind...

In your TV special, Messiah, earlier this year, you investigated how you could receive endorsements from influential mystics, spiritualists and religious leaders in America, despite having no genuine abilities in those areas at all. What drove you in that direction; was it a conscious crusade?

"It's important to me to look at these areas. Encouraging people to question things is valuable. I work in areas that are allied to paranormal areas, and I know a lot about how they work, and the techniques people use. And when you know that, it blows the lid off a lot of the mystery and apparent phenomena around them. It feels wrong not to use my position to at least raise some of those issues."

What do you think about people being encouraged to make life decisions by psychics?

"There are the most despicable things that go on. I remember reading a story about a guy - and this is in England, and no more than a couple of years ago. He'd gone to see a psychic, and was told that there was a curse on his family, and in order to release the curse, he had to bring with him the following week £5,000 and burn it.

"If he didn't do that, either he or his son would die. The scam is a common one: the money is put in an envelope, and apparently burnt, but of course the 'psychic' secretly switches the envelope and burns an envelope full of newspaper. What happened was the guy went away, and knew he couldn't raise £5,000, but didn't want his son to die; so he killed himself."

In Messiah, in order to show how easy it was to convince people you were a medium, you had to act like one. How did you feel about fooling an audience at a spiritualist meeting?

"It was an enormously sensitive issue as to how those people were going to be told about the show. We contacted them afterwards, and in time everything was explained so that it was completely under-stood. We wanted to make sure they were completely happy, and knew they weren't being made fun of. As it turned out, all of them were amazed and intrigued by the idea of the show, which was great."

You would appear to have the gifts of a medium, but you remain sceptical. Why?

"People find ways of making what the medium is saying fit their own experience. If you go back and watch those bits again and again, you begin to realise I'm not quite doing anything as amazing as you think the first time you watch it.

"It's a very common technique that gets used by mediums. You use anything you can, think on your feet, and talk in a way that's often very ambiguous, although it sounds very specific, and allows you to fork off in different directions. It's all about creating the illusion that you know things before they said them".

Has nobody ever reacted badly? "There is a guy in the new TV series we've just finished filming who nearly hit me. I was in Portmerion, where they filmed The Prisoner. We were having a staring competition, and as I'm staring at the participants, I'm doing things to make them feel sick or troubled. This guy nearly went for me. I've just watched it today in the edit - it's very funny. I calmed him down really quickly. That's the closest I've ever got to being hit. Normally people are happy with the whole experience."

Derren Brown, The Something Wicked This Way Comes Tour, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm. Not suitable for under 12s. Box office: 0870 606 3595.

Updated: 09:09 Friday, May 13, 2005