Anyone who has watched him on TV, seen his extraordinary live shows or read his book, will know that Derren Brown is a mesmerising and baffling talent.

His brand of psychological illusion fuses magic, psychology, misdirection and showmanship. Whether he appears to be contacting the dead, reading people's minds, guessing dreams or telling people their detailed medical history just by looking at them, the results seem to defy logic.

Now he's taking his spellbinding brand of illusion on tour around the country in a show that is fast selling out in Bradford.

Derren is his open and honest about what he does, claiming he can't read people's minds or commune with the afterlife. His skill, he says, is to make it look like he can.

His biggest challenge, he says, is to keep his work fresh and vital. After three series of Channel 4's Trick of the Mind, he felt it was time for some changes and his current series, Trick or Treat, marks a shift in direction.

"Not too much of a shift," he says. "Just enough to give the series a fresh feel. The look is more documentary in style and macabre in tone."

Each programme in the six-part series follows an unsuspecting member of the public who has applied to be on the show.

Derren explains: "I intercept them in a surprising fashion and get them to blindly choose a trick or treat card on the understanding that if they choose a trick something horrible will happen to them and if they pick a treat card something pleasant will occur. In effect, they sign a Faustian contract that allows me to do anything I want."

The volunteers have no idea which card has been chosen and are subject to secret filming. "One woman who chooses a trick card later finds herself witnessing her own death in a staged out-of-body experience," says Derren.

It is his ability to be playful, charming and shocking that has attracted Derren so much attention, as well as a legion of fans. His stunt with Robbie Williams in the last series of Trick of the Mind, in which he pierced the pop star's arms with needles, was broadcast on Easter Sunday and sparked controversy in the tabloids.

"With The League of Gentlemen I took them through a dark sequence involving chocolate mini-rolls and I tried to influence the actor Simon Callow, through a portrait I've painted of him," says Derren.

Born in Croydon in 1971, Derren traces his interest in magic and psychological techniques to childhood, but it was only later at Bristol University, where he studied Law and German, that he started taking it seriously. "I found myself developing an analytical mind-set, able to spot the loopholes in anyone's argument very quickly," he says.

After graduating, he abandoned a career in law and developed his skills at psychological magic. His break came in 1999 when he was asked by Channel 4 to put a TV show together. The result, Derren Brown: Mind Control, was a hit in 2000 and led to several follow-up series.

He caused an international furore when he played Russian roulette on national TV. The stunt, in 2003, was watched by more than 3.3 million people.

In 2004, Derren took his original stage show on a national tour and into the West End. The following year he made Derren Brown: Messiah; a darker, more personal documentary questioning the way we buy into belief-systems.

Now he has plans for a TV series in America and would love to stage a live show on Broadway, but the challenge is finding the time to fit everything in, particularly as he's also developing another special for Channel 4 and planning an exhibition of his celebrity portraits.

"I haven't had a proper week off in five years but I feel very fortunate to be able to work as much as I do," he says.

Derren Brown: An Evening of Wonders is at St George's Hall on Monday, June 4. For tickets ring (01274) 432000.