talkmagic.co.uk

Did anyone see this last night? (CH5 8.00 - 9.00)
I think It was the first of a six part series.

Last night Mr Copperfield made No1 with his version of being sawn in half by a giant saw.

The one effect I never really got (even the first time round) which made it into the top 20, was Mr Blaine curing a kid of his fear of snakes, by eating one and then getting the kid to find it in his backpack?? - if anyone can explain this (not how it was done, but what was supposed to be so impressive?) to me I'd appreciate a pm

Cheers

Vats

I'm with you on that one vats, who votes for these? 20 best tricks and not a sign of Hollingsworth's stuff or even Lennart Green or Darly...the list is massive.......
I personally loved that pendragons one though, hadn't seen that variation before where he breaks through the black cover, very cool.

Bug

Pah! This is mainstream magic!

The reason that they don't disclose the 'underground' performers, whom WE know are the REAL heroes of the art, is because it wouldn't make good TV.

They're 'unheard-of's' in the public domain - but where on earth would the likes of Blaine, Copperfield and Burton be without them???

If there was just a glimpse, just a soupcon of REAL magic shown, I think the demand for high quality magical entertainment to be a part of the programming schedule would be higher...

For instance, imagine unleashing Lennart Green's Laser Deal to the public at large? What about a half-hour special with Michael Ammar? And if they let Roth, Mulica, Ricky Jay, Jerry Sadowitz, Derren Brown, Hollingworth, Sankey, Daryl, Paul Harris and their COUNTLESS chums out for an hour per-week, they'd have enough quality magic entertainment to broadcast one show per-week for the next XXX amount of years - which would knock the spots off the 'commercialised' magicians like Burton, Blaine and Copperfield would be made to look like 'smoke and mirror' artists.

Magic is VERY misunderstood by the entertainment's industry... how about a '1 hour at the Magic Castle - with your host, Max Maven'.

All this 'Universe's best magician' crud is way off the mark. I don't CARE if they've been voted by the 'worlds best magicians'... it stinks.

Seige carefully steps down from his soapbox, praying he's not upset anyone

now that would be Magic!

just imagine, a weekly show featuring the best card manipulations and coin sleights ever.....it would be to good to be true.

if the monkey magic team just performed other people tricks, instead of making up their own, which, please correct me if I'm wrong, must be a combination of camera tricks and stooges, then they would have a great show. imho.

Bug.

i must admit i caught this last night but instead of slating the show im going to praise it.... i have never seen many magicians on tv with the exception of all the guests on paul daniels magic show when i was a kid but i did recognise Hans murretti if thats how it's spelled ) so to see the likes of Michael Ammars awesome misdirection with the last ball on his cups and balls routine was amazing, likewise the speed of the guy with the cards(didnt catch his name but he does an impecable bottom deal!) and so for once im not going to slate the monkey magic muppets (nice bit of alliteration there eh? ) but simply say thank you

I have to agree with the mog on this one. I have just watched the show (I recorded it), and must confess to enjoying it immensly. I don't have sat. tv at all, so any magic on tv is fun for me, and I thought it made a very refreshing change from the masked magician type shows.

It was really good to see so many big names in one tv show, and I thouroughly enjoyed it. Forget them supposedly being the top 20 magic effects ever seen - just enjoy them for what they were.

The only one that I was really disappointed to see was the blaine levitation - now knowing what really happened there - I really can't understand why that was included. I didn't mind them including Blaine - I just didn't want that.

Now in saying that - I also agree with Seige to a certain degree in that if they were going to have a magic show - there is so much more that they could have included. But there are more shows in the series so maybe it will be covered later on.

For me this was the best magic I have seen on tv for a while. So I am quite happy about it.

Whilst watching the said program, i came up with a few more ideas of my own, i can understand the previous comments about blaine's so called levitation and the snake thing, but was the programs aim not to encourage a little more interest in magic amougst the main stream!

I also have to say copperfields buzz saw must be the number illusion in any ones book, surely........

OK, ok. so maybe I was a little harsh - at least there's some effort being made to give us some mainstream magic... and after all - it makes ALL ROUND FAMILY VIEWING, which I suppose is OK.

Maybe I'm just being greedy. Maybe I'd like to see the hero's who are creating the magic, not the ones fortunate enough to afford the TV rights and performance rights.

But then, perhaps I DON'T want them to become sellouts... real creatives and performance artists are usually quite modest... and they tend to lead a rather passive lifestyle.

We can all emulate genius. If we can afford it.

Brief reactions (nothing to do with Y fronts so don't worry):

Missed the first one, recorded last night's and watched some of it later on.
Do not like the Monkey people, totally pointless contributions - just get on with the magic!
Having said that, they may be OK Magicians but let them do the proper stuff instead!
Great to see footage of Doug Hemming and even that awful David Copperfield/Bonnie Tyler thing.
Great to see and hear Max Maven praising Paul Daniels - PD can be irritating but he's a top notch magish, so there!
Some good stuff on last night's show and I'll bear with the less attractive aspects (the presenters and the awful contributions from the 'celebs' - Anthea Turner and Nicholas Parsons for crying out loud!!!!)

the presenters and the awful contributions from the 'celebs'

yeah - but you have to admit that Trevor and Simon are a real scream, and the David Copperfield impersonator was a hoot.

Personally I prefered the first one - many of last nights big illusions seemed to use the same techniques. ie - disappearing a herd (3?) of elephants, disappearing the Statue of Lib, and moving the island in Hawaii.

In saying that though - great to see magic back on tv - in any format.

have to say the second one not as good as the first, and i do agree with the celebs remark!. I'm still hopeing that this small series of programs is going to create more main stream interest in magic and get some more magic programs back on our tele.

The Copperfield impression was brilliant!

I'm not saying that he's easy to copy, in fact it's not easy to get all the subtleties as spot on as that but the guy did it with great flair. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (doubtful!) then Copperfield ought to have been chuffed instead of teed off as they suggested he was.

I had a quick look at next weeks TV listings but can't see another program there at the same sort of time. If anyone gets any info please let me know as I HATE to miss these sort of things!

Channel 4 is doing a great night this coming Sunday with Derren Brown and underground Scottish magicians Barry Jones and Stuart MacLeod - miss it at your peril! Sadly, they follow all this with yet another repeat of Fifty Greatest Magic Tricks with Jo Thingy and Adam Somebody-Else who is equally unfunny. You can miss that if you like!

Just found reference to another programme, or at least another showing, as follows:

The Greatest Magic Tricks in the Universe... Ever
Time - 20:00 - 21:00 (1 hour long)
When - Sunday 12th October on Five

Set your videos now!

If you check out the Magic Week TV Listings it shows Greatest Tricks in the Universe Ever is on Sunday October 6th (Sunday is the 5th, the 6th is Monday!) at 8pm. I've just had confirmation from Duncan Trillo @ Magic Week that this is an error and the next prog is on the 12th as per Channel 5 listings.

So we can all watch Derren Brown etc on Channel 4 instead!