Dynamo on Woss

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Postby MagicAL » Apr 15th, '07, 18:19



James Brown, Nick Einhorn, Etianne Pradier, the list is endless. Lots of performers that would have been more entertaining on this kinda show.

I was disappointed with the performance, as I am sure Dynamo is. We all have off days, unfortunately Dynamo had one on a live television show. Most of it was forgetable, except for the IT effect on the deck at the end. That was shocking, and will give me nightmares!

I looked on Dynamo's site to see if he had posted any feelings on the show, nothing as of yet.

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Postby TheLondonI » Apr 15th, '07, 21:46

Sure Dynamo had a bad show, but are you telling me that you have never made a mistake in magic, especially infront of someone that you realy wanted to impress. I'm not saying your not allowed to vent your displeasure, everyone's allowed to give their opinion and I am merely doing that.

I watched the show with 3 laymen friends and they thought he was really good. You've got to remember that were looking at this from a magicians point of view. I'm sure Dynamo cares what we think but he is not our main concern. The vast majority of the audience were laymen and seeing an ID routine would be just as powerful as a routine with lots of sleights which takes years to pull off, purely because laymen don't know the difference. Take for example a top class ambitious card routine. The laymen just see 2 very powerfull routines.



Please give your opinions as I have.

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Postby dat8962 » Apr 15th, '07, 22:11

Dynamo and his PR people are trying to elevate him into stardom and whilst I agree with your comments about the viewpoint of magicians vs lay people, most lay people who know an amateur magician will have seen a performance involving an ID.

Dynamo's use of the same merely put him on the same par as most amateurs in the eyes of the lap person whereas had he performed something more breathtaking and fitting for a pro, then he would have undoubtedly wowed his audeince. I don't think that he did this and it would appear that many agree. Perhaps it's as much his PR temas fault than his? The performance just looked a little unplanned for a pro given the prime time slot.

You must also bare in mind that this IS a magicians forum and not a lay persons chat room so you would perhaps expect us to discuss this from a magicians perspective. I think that we all appreciate that the performance is focused on lay people and not us magicians.

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Postby LeftEye » Apr 15th, '07, 22:20

The ID he did probably wasn't the best place to pull it off. The person he is doing it to was in a totally different room and it was very rushed. Granted, he didn't have a long time to do it in, but that was why he did it at the wrong place.

For sure, I never said lay people woludn't have enjoyed it, but it was cringe worthy for magicians to watch. When he performed Saw lay people would have loved that. As soon as I saw polos I knew what was coming. And when Wossy tried lifting him that was pretty impressive. They only got the not as impressive part of his XCM on close up camera aswell.

All in all he could have done better. But still, good luck to him and well done for getting on a major show such as Jonathon Woss

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Postby TheLondonI » Apr 15th, '07, 22:50

dat8962 I agree with what your saying, the reason why I talked about laypersons reactions is because that is who he is aiming at, it's fine to talk about what he did from a magicians perspective, what I meant was I think some people were acting as if we were his main audience as magicians.

Doesn't Dynamo have a talkmagic account?
I'd love to hear his feelings about it and how he felt it went.

I have to admit I think he was hampered because he seemed really nervous. For example, when he did his Hot Shot Cut, he tried to catch the card and completley missed it, which is very unlike him.

Does anyone know how he did on the Richard and Judy show, what tricks he did and how he performed them? I never saw it.

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Postby LeftEye » Apr 15th, '07, 22:59

I didn't see him on Richard and Judy. Yes he did seem extremely nervous and with reason. He's quite young and never had that exposure before on such a massive scale. It was obviously too soon but if in his position it's extremely hard to turn something down as massive as that.

He does have an account but I'm not sure he'll say anything. I hope he does it would be very interesting to find out his point of view on it all.

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Postby spudgun » Apr 16th, '07, 02:03

Im new to this forum and have only been doing magic for a couple of years, but i was really quite dissapointed by Dynamo on wossy. Having said that as i was sitting there watching it pouring my 5th pint of cider, cringing at his shizzle ma nizzle-ings and shouting to god, buddah and elvis how terrible he was. I got to thinking!!! If by happy chance someone came to me and asked me to be on Jonny woss. I would probably have been quite tempted to throw in an ID routine or a haunted deck thing. After all, the effect is strong and the pressure is tottally off (and the effect is everything surely) If on the other hand i was at a party with folks and someone said show us some magic then i would be less terrified to fall on my ar*e, and would do something more elegant.....on a more sociopolitical note i hope he doesnt ever read any of the stuff on here cause he is just a boy you know

i suppose you'll get off with crucifiction


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Postby copyright » Apr 16th, '07, 02:57

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross appears on youtube but only the Mark Strong interview and Kings of Leon performance. Maybe someone will post Dynamo's segment.

Jonathan Ross always gives his guests a hard time, especially the male ones. He's well known for dominating the interview. Performing magic on his show would be a nightmare. Dynamo was clearly sh*tting himself and with good reason. Firstly, there is no way he is of the same calibre of the other guests, in the eyes of Ross or the majority of the viewers. If Lance Burton, David Copperfield, etc. had an upcoming tour in Britain you'd expect to see them on Wossy. Secondly magic involves spectator control and unless you have an extremely powerful personality you are not going to be able to control Jonathan Ross on his own show.

Dynamo's performance suffered from what 95% of all the magic performance's I have seen suffer from - an over reliance on effects to carry the show. I've read criticism on this and other forums of him using shop bought effects - what's wrong with that? The tricks were not the problem, it was the perfomance.

If his management had provided some scripted answers, complete with professionally written jokes, and something in the wording that introduced the ID, Dynamo would have stood a much better chance.

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Postby Renato » Apr 16th, '07, 08:05

I think what made me cringe the most was not how he may have missed the card but that he didn't have any line; he simply went scrabbling about for it. It was his reaction to the problem which made him appear unprofessional.

I also wasn't a fan of the lifting bit, it just didn't feel like the patter suited his performing character.

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Postby seige » Apr 16th, '07, 08:12

Going back to Copyright's mention of Copperfield/Burton, I do believe that if either of these guys were on the Ross show, they'd have probably not performed any magic at all, as their reputation is already known, and their conversation would have been interesting enough.

Point blank, but I think Dynamo jumped out of the frying pan into a fire... and to be on the same show as other young talents such as Jamie (who, incidentally, didn't have to play the piano to prove interesting, did he?) was a BIG mistake by his management, who probably saw this as a PR stunt and a quick buck.

However, it seems it may have backfired.

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Postby Ollieinthelight » Apr 16th, '07, 09:00

I don't think that if his management had given him a script of jokes and what not, that it would have done him justice. Yes, the jokes would have got a laugh, just like his 'smooth jokes/insults' towards Woss, but it wouldn't have changed the fact that he couldn't deliver them like a pro. (Which is what he's meant to be, right?)

Having said that, of course he was nervous, which could explain why he was so dull but reqlly if you think about it no matter what your performing, after the first few minutes doesn't adrenaline kick in? When you all do your usual close up magic or whatever to strangers, you can get nervous too, but it goes away because you get into it.

I just don't think he could have done myself...

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Postby Tomo » Apr 16th, '07, 09:14

It seems that Dynamo got screwed royally in the edit. The whole interview was about 20 minutes. They had plenty of good material but, for instance, they cut a whole card routine and just showed him dropping the card at the end. So, yes, on the one hand doing the ID like that wasn't the best and he was very nervous, but it also looks partly like it's not all his fault. You have to ask why they'd edit him like that. Woss has a huge ego, but he also has control, so why would he want his guest to look less than spectacular? Why a sudden attack of editorial "integrity"? I mean, it's a chat show, not Panorama.

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Postby pcwells » Apr 16th, '07, 10:32

There's also the possib ility that they edited the interview to leave in the best bits. As we don't know what was cut, we don't know for sure that they were doing a deliberate hatchet job on Dynamo.

Sadly, I think it's more likely that they just edited his segment short because all the other guests were more interesting and made for better viewing.

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Postby Lord Freddie » Apr 16th, '07, 11:20

I spoke to Dynamo yesterday and he told me it was heavily edited and his slot and interview were a lot longer.
It's a shame as he was told what tricks to do rather than ones of his own choosing, so Wossy had already seen them.
Pretty unfair on the bloke. I'd much rather watch a British magician than some Hollywood star advertising their latest film.
It must be nervous doing such a big show and it seems that the bits where Dynamo was starting to relax were given the chop.
Very unfair on the bloke.

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Postby S. Lea » Apr 16th, '07, 12:45

Everyone's slot is longer than we see on the final version. The editors have no interest in making him look bad, their only interest is having the best guests on the show. Edits must be placed naturally or the show will appear choppy, like it's been cut and pasted (which it has). If someone moves around they make editing harder.

Coaching is standard, people sent on talk shows to plug something, have the answer down pat. A guaranteed question for Dynamo has to be "how did you get into magic" the answer for this should have been rehearsed until he can deliver the lines and perfectly. On top of that, the answer should naturally lead into a trick.

A literary agent friend of my assures me that all his authors are coached in exactly what to say, how to say it and how to bring their book into the answer.

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