"It was a big, drunken affair and I was doing a hypnotism act. A girl came up on stage but she had drunk so much it was pointless, so I just asked her to leave." The girl later collapsed in the foyer and was recognised as his supposed volunteer. A tannoy call summoned Brown and St John's Ambulance helpers asked him to revive her. "I explained that I hadn't hypnotised her but they insisted. So I tried but it made no difference at all and she was taken off in an ambulance. It was dreadful. She nearly died apparently - it was alcohol poisoning." But it also poisoned Brown's appetite for hypnosis. "I'm quite careful to keep that separate from the show. Paul McKenna is the hypnotist on TV and I didn't want to be another one." Instead, he developed his own unique blend of magic and "mentalism", gradually getting bigger gigs until a TV production company and Channel 4 took notice. Now he's also in the midst of his second UK tour and on the cusp of still greater fame and fortune. Brown, originally from Croydon, remained in Bristol until a few weeks ago, when he moved to a prestigious flat near Hyde Park. He likes to live well (Michel Roux Jr, chef-patron of Le Gavroche, Brown's favourite expensive restaurant, is a guest in the series) and he enjoys his own company. The flat's only other occupant is his 10-year-old pet parrot, Figaro. But he is on the lookout for some creepier companions, adding to his collection of stuffed animals. I've often asked celebrities about their biggest extravagance. He's the first to specify taxidermy. "When I was young there was this museum in Arundel in Sussex called Potter's Museum of Curiosity. It was full of posed tableaux - kittens having a tea party or baby rabbits at school, very odd and kind of creepy. The other main thing was genetically defective, misshapen farm animals that had died soon after birth but had been stuffed and preserved. "When I was little, I just thought it was amazing. The place had closed down years ago but the collection was kept somewhere else, and then recently they were all auctioned off. I couldn't get to the auction because I was filming, which I found hard. But now they're starting to turn up again, so I'm hoping to collect pieces from that collection, and similar things." Curiouser and curiouser. * Tricks of the Mind starts on Channel 4 on FRIDAY APRIL 16 and runs for six weeks. | 
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