talkmagic.co.uk

So, did you see it on Saturday night on ITV?

What were your thoughts?

I won't say what I thought yet, as I only saw the first 15 minutes, then I had to go to sleep before work. I've recorded it, so I'll give my opinion later.

If you want my honest opinion I thought it was very poor, nothing really original at all.

One minute he was trying to be Derren Brown then he would go into Paul Zenon mode.

There must be some original perfomers out there that would love to be included in a prime time tv special.

Cheers

I enjoyed it, it was refreshing to see a magician on telly who didn't have a zany/moody character. There was a good mix of effects and some original thinking (for example the effect done on Dean Gaffney where his borrowed signed £20 note was burnt then reproduced from inside the lighter) and the mental magic fitted in nicely I thought. He presented some fairly impenetrable mysteries to lay folk and some of it fooled me nicely too. Mrs Bronz and our housemate enjoyed it too, and he certainly got good reactions out of the celebs on the show.

I enjoyed it too. Being a magician, it's easy to be smug and sit there knowing how things are done, but these shows are aimed at entertaining the lay public and that's what it did.
His persona is neither wacky or one of contrived mysteriousness and comes across as likeable despite the morons where he did the effect where he asked them to name a friend on holiday being completely obnoxious, he kept his cool.
The effect with Eamon Holmes was good and he presented the show well. It's good to see magic on the telly for once.

I agree that it was good to have magic on the TV and that he did what he did well.

But I was a little frustrated by the need to add 'celebreties' everywhere to make it more exciting. Some of their reactions were cringeworthy...

Yes, particularly that cocky little American boy from some dire US sitcom. "Hey! I wanna be a magician, you set fire to things. Cool!"

Vile little toad.

Personally, I thought all went well until his escape routine, which I must say, even Mrs Storm questioned the tying of the rope.
A Lot of different effects were performed which is always nice, I was particularly impressed with his Mat Dawson one step ahead routine (if thats what it was).
The 'celebs' as always put in a masterful jawdropping performance(I'll have to get them to my act).
All in all it was refreshing to see our art on the box and hopefully more will come along.

I thought it was rubbish, if you want my personal opinion. The final escape was pushed too far (and badly scripted - how can you study a few knots while talking about the shed at the same time?), was obvious what he was going to do, and there was no tension at all

As for the clips, the trick with the lighter would've been good if he didn't have to make it clear where to look for the note, his character was too "I'm mysterious and I can scare you" for my liking, and while we're talking about scaring people, what was the deal with making Denise Van Outen shake and sweat with fear that she's going to be stabbed? That's no way to treat your specs...

I was at yet another party having a laugh by divining the colour of the spectators' underwear in a Max Somerset stylee, and forgot to tape it.

I watched it and have to agree with most of the negative and positive comments already raised. I must admit though i have never been a fan of stage magic on TV, i think you lose a lot of the effect when ur sat in your armchair. But it was really nice to see someone on TV giving it a go. I have recently read the new Houdini biography and i kinda felt that if your going to do an escape when you have so much tv coverage you should make it a lot more spectacular - there are one's out there.

The thing about the rope escape been widely recognised as been the hardest escape kind of annoyed me. Now, i don't know if thats true or not as my knowledge on escapism is limited to say the least. BUT if you have to say it repeatedly i think you lose it a bit. Altho other escapes may be easier to do, they may look harder to a lay person.

On the whole though its a big positive that the show happened it all.

PS. On another note, having looked into the houdini stuff, i don't think i've ever seen some of the escapes of his age replicated recently , particularly the handcuff escapes after been thrown into a river and the pseudo-supernatural stuff.... does anyone know if they have been done??

Enjoyed it. Yes I know how most of it is done. But it was done very well. Sometimes we forget what it is to see tricks like this for the first time.
We also forget that knowing how to do a trick and doing it are two different things. Is there a spot of jelousy that he's worked hard like us but managed to get on telly....Gosh some of the posts are a tad harsh
I enjoyed his character and he had a nice range of effects.
Plus all my mates were asking me about him, the laymen were impressed and thats what counts.
Best of luck to the guy.

I agree, good on him for getting out there and on TV. So non of the tricks were anything new, but I still enjoyed watching the show.

Speaking of cringeworthy, Mark Durden-Smith's acting as he tried to pretend that something had gone wrong after the shed exploded...

bronz wrote:Speaking of cringeworthy, Mark Durden-Smith's acting as he tried to pretend that something had gone wrong after the shed exploded...

Oh how troo how troo!! Michael Caine can still sleep at night.

I liked the effects used in the show (apart from the escape) but I personally found Keith Barry to be somewhat lacking in the personality department.
I certainly applaude anyone within magic who gets any success and am certain he deserves every bit of it but for me I found his presentation style pretty reminiscent of a tv presenter for ITV2 doing backstage interviews (aka no personality).
I found him neither engaging, mysterious, funny or any of the miriad of other character traits that would draw me to someone who pertains to be an entertainer.
As said already his effects were excellent and well executed but personally I find live tv escapes incredibly dull and Bronz is spot on about that Durden fella's dreadful acting......and as if they would air the programme if something had gone wrong.

As you can probably tell I didn't really like the programme that much but really do hope that the public did so that maybe it could start a trend of more magic on tv.