talkmagic.co.uk

There is a 19 year old magician called David J Marks on tonights CDWM. Sadly he's the sort of magician that gives magic a bad name. People like this are one of the reasons I avoid conventions and magic societies. Worth a watch.

They need us on Freddie, we would get burnt at the stake!

Burnt steak !
Don't think I would dine there.

To be fair, I don't think he is that bad a magician.
On today's episode he got ridiculed for his poor ventriloquism. His level of ventriloquism, is probably fine for a kids audience, but not for a dinner party, or TV.
I think with magic you have to know when to not do any magic, and just enjoy other things, but I imagine the programme makers, say, do something now... and then they get the voice over guy to make a joke about it, even though you wouldn't normally do a trick, while you're in the middle of cooking something, right?

Everything about him was horrendous. The attention seeking attitude, the patronising Smashey and Nicey delivery, the cliched patter, the wackiness, the kind of magic seen a million times before and the worst ventriloquism I have seen in my life. A bad advert for magicians and sadly when someone thinks of 'magician' this is the kind of person they are thinking of. The likes of Dynamo are criticised for their presentation (or lack of) but I would rather watch him than a condesending, arrogant buffoon like this.

Next time you are doing a gig and someone patronisngly dismisses you by saying magic is just for children, you can thank people like this.

I disagree.
He may not be the best, but he's by far not the worst.
He was friendly, his tricks worked (see above note on ventriloquism), and most normal people don't see magic everyday, so it's new to them.
I don't like stock lines and cliched patter, but I only saw a little bit here, and he'll improve.

Next time some says, magic is just for children, I'll tell them what Juan Tamariz said,
'Magic is not just for children, magic is only for children - it's for the children in all of us'

I imagine Blackpool being a room full of people like him. My idea of hell.

A guy I know was on Celebrity Come Dine With Me here in Ireland, and his performance was torn apart by one of the 'celebrities', singer and arsehold Brian Kennedy. To the viewer it looked like the magician was bad, but the truth is he is highly skilled. He just fell victim to a feud between Kennedy and another z-list noboby. Kennedy was going to criticise anything the other guy did, and bringing in a magician just gave him one more thing to bitch about.
Those programmes are designed to squeeze the maximum embarrassment and humiliation out of the participants. So perhaps people are being unfair on the magician.
We all know that had the TV company chosen to make him look good, they could have (look at Criss Angel). Instead they picked clips to make him look bad. Hardly his fault.

Here are a couple of links to other "Come Dine with Me"s featuring contestants that may be known to many on talkmagic ...

Mentalist Alex Crow:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/come ... od#3217019" target="_blank

Hypnotist/Mentalist Ken Webster:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/come ... od#3278160" target="_blank

I would love to discover the new age shop that Alex is being filmed in when he is previewing contestant no.4's menu. The episode is North London based so one would assume that the shop is also in North London. Surprised, therefore that I don't recognise it.

Lord Freddie wrote:Everything about him was horrendous. The attention seeking attitude, the patronising Smashey and Nicey delivery, the cliched patter, the wackiness, the kind of magic seen a million times before and the worst ventriloquism I have seen in my life. A bad advert for magicians and sadly when someone thinks of 'magician' this is the kind of person they are thinking of. The likes of Dynamo are criticised for their presentation (or lack of) but I would rather watch him than a condesending, arrogant buffoon like this.

Next time you are doing a gig and someone patronisngly dismisses you by saying magic is just for children, you can thank people like this.

I just downloaded the 4OD app for my iPad, loaded this episode in, watched the opening titles.

I've met him, and pretty much agree with Freddie.

He was rotten and to say he was a good magician kinda makes you look bad, he gave away so many secrets it was cringe worthy. Did you see him producing eggs from his mouth? Lay folk dont need to head off to youtube to work out how that was done after seeing his "performance".

To me he looked like a right sex pest when the woman was signing a card and he asked her to put her phone number on it too. How many creepy old uncle types use that line eh?

The clown should be ashamed, I hope he watches it back and realises just how bad he is and how much he needs to change. and his stage name was "Abra Ca David" oh dear.

He was truly awful and one of those odious characters that would force you to endure relentless card tricks despite your lack of interest. When his voice changed to that 1980's "performance" voice I just cringed. No wonder most people think magic is for children and idiots.

Mancunian Lee wrote:To me he looked like a right sex pest when the woman was signing a card and he asked her to put her phone number on it too. How many creepy old uncle types use that line eh?

Paul Gordon uses that line......

I missed last nights. Cant think what i was watching.

Anyways, Seriously guys i think it unfair to lable him a sex pest, based on watching an edited television show.

His style was far from my cup of tea, and he needs to brush up on his people management skills.

I'd never heard of him before this, and i suspect i wont hear about him untill the repeats.

Lord Freddie wrote: The attention seeking attitude, the patronising Smashey and Nicey delivery, the cliched patter, the wackiness, the kind of magic seen a million times before .

Ah... so kind of like the Ken Bones of magic then.