talkmagic.co.uk

Well put Nik, that's what I try to enjoy it as, a piece of entertainment.

Arkesus wrote:

Magical_Trevor wrote:

Lawrence wrote:Blimey, how far back was the last post about P&T?

My friend Richard was at the show which is apparently being shown next week ... he claimed that a trick went so bad that he doesnt think it'll be shown on TV (blamed a bad audience member picking stuff up off the table when she shouldnt, changing her mind randomly) ... should this have NOT been shown on TV?

Thoughts?

Dan (hopefully this thread is back on track )

Just to clarify something here Dan. Your friend Richard saw 5 acts filmed, 3 of which have already been shown (Matthieu Bich, Alan Rorrison, Gazzo) The one that went horribly wrong, and the one that is going to be shown next week. Next week's show is very much like all the others in that it will be varuious performances from different recording sessions cut together to make one episode.

Yeah, he said that the show he saw he had seen several of the performers on the show so far - were you at that recording too? what are your thoughts on the messed up trick (if it was messed up) being shown?

Dan

My view, it would harm Chris status if it was shown. Yes the spectator was to blame for the second part, but he himself was to blame for the first bit that went wrong.

The producers did have Penn perform two retakes of his "summary" explanation, in which he pointed out that as the trick didn't happen, they were not fooled. But it is my hope that they do not show this performance as part of the show, and bring Chris back for the next series.

Heckler wrote:Interestingly I went to see John Soliman last night in Brighton and he performed the Colin McLeod invisible book routine that Colin did on P&T (not sure of the exact name) so I guess he wasn't worried about the method being exposed. Sitting at the back I was wondering if there would be a disaffected rumble from the audience but it actually went down very well (despite the volunteer almost fluffing the trick, which is why it's essential to have outs I suppose).

This isn't exposure in a masked magician way, it's very much in the parlance of the magician so I wonder if lay folks really know how things are done from the explanation Penn gives?

This is a valid point. I have no idea how Colin did his trick and the explanation went right over my head. It was only after the pilot of Fool Us that I decided to get into magic and there was nothing about the Penn exposure that made me go "Ahhhhh!". Like Jonathan Ross says, the audience have no idea what he's talking about.

As for the idea that Colin McLeod's piece is now expired - one thing that always amazes me is how few people actually watch TV! I've been at stand-up gigs where the acts are doing material that I've seen them do 1 year before hand, then they've done the TV circuit and done the same gags on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Mock The Week, Have I Got News For You and Graham Norton and yet the audience still guffaw with laughter.

It would be interesting for someone, before their performance, to ask the audience to raise their hand if they've been watching Fool Us. I think you'd be surprised how few have and how most haven't even heard of it.

The viewing figures for P&T are supposedly below expectations - probably due to the excellent weather we've been having - and those who do watch probably won't figure out the cryptic comments about the methods used.

This all feels like the legendary and unattainable crock of gold at the rainbow's end - we've been moaning for years about the lack of magic on TV, we know that the old style Paul Daniels and David Nixon variety presentations are long gone so the only way magic will get on TV is via some weird angle such as this, The Magicians shown on BBC earlier this year or the Dynamo series on Sky TV. Now there is some magic on we’re whinging that it’s still not right! Take the show for what it is, enjoy the good bits, be tolerant of the bad - by the end of next month it will be just a faint memory..... and we’ll still be complaining that there’s no magic on TV anymore !

seige wrote:

Dumpster wrote:Basically what I'm saying is that there WAS a switch, the swedes lied and Penn and teller went along with it because they were an act that would do well on the show in Vegas. The American audience in the Rio would enjoy seeing John Archer, the fat funny man from Stockton on tees, Graham Jolley and his mad John Cleese style, far more than they would enjoy a big stage illusion like cubic. Their winners always seem to have odd British quirks or regional accents.

I'll assure you, there wasn't a switch. It was a red herring to give P&T a fail on their 'one-shot' guess.

And it was a cleverly done fake switch too... convincing

It doesn't matter if there was a switch or not. What matters is that there could have been a switch easily, and it completely ruined the illusion. Everyone watching believed it could have been a simple switch, and you could do the exact same illusion with the simple switch. It doesn't matter that he inserted it during the dust up.

It was far more than a red herring. If people threw in fake moves every act then it would be impossible for pen and teller to figure out which move was the real move.

The performers have pushed the rules so far as to be cheating. And I bet we will hear about this at the next tam, because this is about the 3rd time someone has done this to get through to vegas.

They should set the rule to be that pen and teller can't figure out how to do trick *any way possible*, not they have to figure out the exact way the magician did it. Otherwise what is the point?

Mjollnir wrote:

Arkesus wrote:I could clearly see a deck in both hands of West just as Jonathan Ross no longer obscures him.

It could possibly be some other form of manipulation that people have speculated at, but I did find it a tad sloppy to have this so visible.

Thats what I did do. I did a double take because I couldn't believe how sloppy it was. Technically it wasn't a deck switch, if you get the HD video you can actually see frames where there are clearly two stacks of cards. This is why its surprising that people are still claiming there was no deck switch. All up the whole thing was bizarre. Amazing trick, but too slow paced (or bad editing?), and done sloppy.

myforwik wrote:If people threw in fake moves every act then it would be impossible for pen and teller to figure out which move was the real move.

Yeah, agreed. I think they should make it a lot easier for Pen and Teller. I like to make it easy for my spectators to figure out what I'm doing too.

The above was written with the all new Sarcasm Font. Do keep an eye out for it. Coming soon: The Flippant Font.

Ratings for Penn & Teller Fool Us:

http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/index.php?opt ... a&Itemid=3

All good wishes

Mike Danata

Fool Us is like porn for the sadder magicians amongst us...

Lol!

Lord Freddie wrote:Fool Us is like porn for the sadder magicians amongst us...

Yeah, imagine pausing it and reviewing each second just to get a glimpse of something in someone's hand.

And as for analysing Fool Us, that's nearly as bad.

themagicwand wrote:Yeah, imagine pausing it and reviewing each second just to get a glimpse of something in someone's hand.

And as for analysing Fool Us, that's nearly as bad.

Ba-boom tish, he's here all week, try the veal.

Kind of reminds me of Basic Instinct, if you had the misfortune to rent it on VHS, there was a particular scene (yes that one) which had been rewound so many times by previous renters that it was briefly like watching a snow storm.

Deck Switch on P&T, the Sharon Stone giblet flash for the 21st century.

danata wrote:Ratings for Penn & Teller Fool Us:

http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/index.php?opt ... a&Itemid=3

I understand that the way these viewing figures are compiled is ropey at best, but even if the figures reported were taken as gospel, its still pretty good for Fool Us isn't it?

I mean, it was only beaten by Harry Potter. Why then, in the paragraph before does it say that it struggled to attract viewers? Could be worse, could have the same as The Marriage Ref.

I'm worried. If its not given a second series we'll have simply nothing to bitch about.

Grimshaw wrote:If its not given a second series we'll have simply nothing to bitch about.

We could always go back to bitching about the Masked Magician.....