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That was far more enjoyable than I expected for British TV. I loved it!

The show was entertaining, great to hear Oohs & Ahhs from the audience during the peformances!
Penn & Teller were terrific, it was 1 1/2 Hours of great variety & I never fell asleep!

Well done to everyone involved, & thanks ITV for airing it!

Mike Danata

Superb stuff - congratulations to ITV for such a great show, makes the BBC effort look appallingly dated and feeble by comparison.

Now excuse me as I'm off to practice my "phone in fish" routine

BBC Take note! See how much better things are when you DON'T include 'Celebrity' assistants and just let them do their bloody thing!

Great show, even though I'm not a fan of P & T, they were a bit harsh on you though Richard!

I'd love to see the overnights, this would make a very good series.

Ben Earl = phenominal....I didn't even know that it was possible to use that method in the real world, let alone with a hot sticky borrowed deck of cards...a worthy winner!

The only effect that fooled me though was James Moore - but then again I have no idea with relation to traditional stage illusions, so a bit thumbs up to him!

And of course, a big well done to Richard - definitely one f the more entertaining acts to be on the show!

Great show,

Well done guys.

A million times better than last weeks magicians. I hope they do another one.

Just finished watching it on the ITV Player. I'm amazed that ITV managed to do a fantastic magic show. I was expecting something like the X Factor in terms of act quality differences and bombasticness, and was pleasantly surprised as to how it was all presented.

Congrats to the winners, great pat on the backs to the other performers, and a hearty handshake to the man who said he wanted sex on a major TV special...

DenmarkKilo wrote:Congrats to the winners, great pat on the backs to the other performers, and a hearty handshake to the man who said he wanted sex on a major TV special...

You could tell John was dissapointed he didn't get that as his final envelope for the gag

A bit of a blog by Ben about his experience:

http://contemporary-magician.co.uk/ben- ... on-itv1-hd

This was great!

Although I had seen Michael Vincent's routine before (courtesy of Lenoir?) it was still incredibly beautiful to watch.

The reason I think many of us liked it though is because of the two layers. It is good entertainment for both the layperson and magicians.

John Archer must be the best example of this. My initial thought was "Every mentalist who has picked up a book can do the five envelope trick" however as it progressed I became more and more intrigued. My wife on the other hand, although entertained, did not see the difference between what John Archer did and what Luke Jermay did when we saw him, even though the methods were completely different to her the end result was exactly the same.

Was not sure some of the exposure was particularly necessary but I think it was a lot more nondescript for the magicians that used method rather than well known (in magic circles [sic]) effects and although it would have been easy to give away the contortion illusion in a few words but didn't... although ironically their last effect...

I think the only exposure any person on the street will remember is the words "gimmicked deck" and even then they will probably get confused because Penn made it quite clear that Michael Vincent did not use one and that was all skill.

Fantastically entertaining just a pity there are no more scheduled!

A_n_t wrote: easy to give away the contortion illusion in a few words but didn't... although ironically their last effect...

Watched it with my wife. after seeing the explanation in the last trick of how the base is thicker than it looks and the assistant just sits inside a recess, my wife said "so that's how the man in the shrinking box did it, just sat inside a thicker base with his legs folded up".

I thought the show was great! Loved John Archer.

I felt sorry for the second act though. I think he was great,
but Penn tore into him because of the suggestion themed patter.
Fair play though, you must be brave to do mentalism in front of the guys behind Bullsh*t.

Suprisingly great show! In fact, it was the best televised magic show I've seen since DB. Definitely put's the BBC to shame (although to be fair, the ITV show was a one-off as opposed to a series).

I thought all the performers were on top form. P&T also showed great class in their honesty.

As a cardman myself, I thought MV was on absolutely top form. His execution of the Midnight Pass is as close to real magic as you can get. Beutiful execution of the AH/ AD colour change too. I also thought the idea of ringing in a cooler during a sleight-heavy routine was a well-thought out attempt at a magi-fooler. The only thing that marred it for me (was it just me?) was when MV kissed Tellers hand at the end. I felt it was needlessly sycophantic.

I thought it was hilarious that P&T percieved Ben Earl's shuffle-work as 'beautiful' (don't get me wrong, his card work is par excellence) due to the fact that they thought they were looking at false shuffles when in fact it was legitimate all the way through (according to Earl).

Let's hope there's more to come in the future from ITV.

Edit: Just read Earl's Blog and the fact that the deck was in a tatty condition and that he was having to improvise technique on-the-fly is just simply incredible.

Edit II Just watched it again: actually Teller kissses Michaels hand first. I must have looked away at that point.

SpareJoker wrote:...due to the fact that they thought they were looking at false shuffles when in fact it was legitimate all the way through (according to Earl).

From what I understand, the arbiter in the gallery knows beforehand how each effect is done, so there's no room for lying on the day.

Damn n blast...............missed it! Wonder if they gonna repeat it?