talkmagic.co.uk

I'm asuming everyone's been watching magic week on channel 4. If so, you should of seen these two guys. They totally kick ass, especailly that grave yard trick. Spooky stuff. Can't remember the other guys name though...

I hated the whole show, but there you go.

I found the show to be in utterly bad taste, and reliant only on the shock factor effected by the use of simple magic dressed in dirty and meaningless guises. Drug abuse, racial attacks, mental asylums and pointless gore. Why?

The two guys are obviously creatively talented in some way, but as a means of alternative magic? Keep it to yourselves, C4.

Although apparently there must be a target audience out there somewhere. But not out of all the people I've spoken to.

Drivel, nonsense, and a waste of time. The only meaningful part of the whole show is the end credits - where we get to see the names of those responsible for churning out such rubbish.

Although I didn't keep watching that long...

Your Opinions Are Comprehensible But Can You Explain How They Did It, And I Truthfully Don’t Think You Can My Friends.

The how is easy - misdirection, sleights, established magical methods applied in a different way.

A more relevant question would be why they bothered.

seige wrote:I found the show to be in utterly bad taste, and reliant only on the shock factor effected by the use of simple magic dressed in dirty and meaningless guises. Drug abuse, racial attacks, mental asylums and pointless gore. Why?

The two guys are obviously creatively talented in some way, but as a means of alternative magic? Keep it to yourselves, C4.

Although apparently there must be a target audience out there somewhere. But not out of all the people I've spoken to.

Drivel, nonsense, and a waste of time. The only meaningful part of the whole show is the end credits - where we get to see the names of those responsible for churning out such rubbish.

Although I didn't keep watching that long...

Are you kidding? It's not the surface content, EG, drug abuse, mentel asylums and racial attacks (What bit was racist), but it's the actual trick that's important. Like turning syringes into darts, making a little kid appear behind a curtain, making pills fall out from photograph, and the clean up crew bit was fantastic. Sure the way they interpreted it was, shall we say, derogatory, but the magioc was amazing.

So why present it in such a twisted fashion? Bad taste is still bad taste, no matter how brilliant the effects used.

Anyway, we've been down this route before and decided that it's a case of each to his/her own preference so we'll never agree on this topic!

duckman, duckman, duckman...

I think you'll find seige wasn't criticising the magic skill, in fact he actually said..

The two guys are obviously creatively talented

, what he was having a go at though was that it was all in veryu bad taste.

A sentiment (for the record) I personally agree with.

You state that

It's not the surface content, EG..., but it's the actual trick that's important

I'm not convinced about this. Isn't magic chiefly about being entertaining? Isn't presentation also of primary importance? Yes, the trick is important - but I don't think it is the most important thing at all.

I think the spectator being entertained, having fun and remembering some awesome - "how the dickens did he do that?" magic is what is important, and a good magician can do this with some really simple effects. Just making a coin disappear can be the most magical thing in the world if presented right.

Anyway - these are just my thoughts.

Sure, but I suppose it's for the more gothic of us out there. There might be people out there who are all like "Sigfreid and Roy, what a bunch of pansies" or the same for other magicians. But these guys came up with something that could appeal to the rock minority. Sorry for misinterpreting, but hey, I'm Irish.

If you want Gothic then look no further than Simon Drake - very dark, very much against the grain, unsettling and scary at times, but always Magical.

We have to be very careful about judging the performers in derogatory terms, S & R were not everyone's choice but they put magic first rather than the mood or impression. IMHO if you're going to do magic then do it and use the style as a support rather than as the main point of the performance. If you don't then you're letting the tail wag the dog and it doesn't work very well.

Give it 6 months and then ask the question 'Whatever happened to Barry Jones and Stuart MacLeod?' I would guess the reply will be a resounding silence.

Most probably. But you gotta admit, the tricks kicked ass.

Sadly they didn't as far as I was concerned. The 'mood' and poor taste overshadowed any of the skills they no doubt had.

I only saw the first programme and decided it wasn't my kind of thing so the sample is on the small side for a subjective assesssment. I will confess that I enjoyed the one where that guy was invited to choose from 6 exotic dancers and ended up choosing the bloke in drag. As I chose exactly the same one I was well and truly roped in!

the magic part of there presentation is fairly text book stuff and competently performed but nothing new.

the syle of presentation was obviosely targetted at the mtv, jackass generation which is all well and good if you like that sort of style, i prefer simon drake as he's more main stream cothic.

parts of the show were definatly designed to shock and this was reflected in the time it was shown.

all in all a good programe asumeing you take into account why it wa presented this way.

'Kylie' was still the best (ooo-er)!!