talkmagic.co.uk

Am I reading that correctly? It's basically Strictly but with Magic?

I am not sure if that makes me want to cry a little bit.

Yeah sounds really good, ive got tickets for the 3/12 being filmed at Pinewood Film Studios . Looking forward to it!!!

Nah, I think they have the best producer they could there. Love it or hate it, Strictly pulls in the viewing figures year after year

But Lenny Henry and N-Dubz?? Think I'll be giving that a miss then...

I actually really like Strictly (except Alesha Dixon... don't get me started), the problem is if you have amateurs performing these effects then it's no different to the idiots on YouTube who do not have sufficient practice and as a result reveal, albeit unintentionally, the secrets behind the effects.

I hope it will be great and it will be nice to have some prime time magic, I just hope it is helpful rather than detrimental.

Mandrake I hope you're ready for the deluge of new sign-ups the second the show is aired!

A_n_t wrote:Mandrake I hope you're ready for the deluge of new sign-ups the second the show is aired!

Primed and ready, as long as they don't start their first post with, 'How did they do...' !

kolm wrote:But Lenny Henry and N-Dubz?? Think I'll be giving that a miss then...

I agree with you on that part. I don't mind Lenny Henry, but the list of 'celebrities' do put me off slightly;

Check out the amazing confirmed celebrity guests: N-Dubz, Ashley Banjo, Chris Tarrant, Rolf Harris, Samantha Womack, Bruno Tonioli, Adrian Edmondson, Peter Jones, Amanda Byram, Sian Williams, Angela Griffin, Martin Kemp, Neil Morrissey, Stephen K Amos!

Oh god - seriously - stephen k amos? I've yet to watch a program with him in all the way through, he annoys me so much

A_n_t wrote:I hope it will be great and it will be nice to have some prime time magic, I just hope it is helpful rather than detrimental.

Agreed

I don't know Strict Coming Dancing well but as far as I know, SCD is about them try not getting voted off and they have the same partner each week.

This show however seems to have the same magicians each week along with a new celebrity partner and no one gets voted off. I quite like the idea of them having 1 week to teach their new (supposed) celebrity a convincing routine. I can't see the N-DUBZ guys pulling it off as they share 1 mangy damaged brain cell between themselves and I'd laugh my backside off if it went wrong for them.

They've certainly got the comedy and the magic. I think it'll be some fun easy viewing.

Despite the weather, me and the girlfriend still went on Friday.
The studio was well laid out and looked great, and we were kept well entertained on and off the camera.
There is a reason to the voting, but since nothing has been officially published, I better keep my mouth shut and let you all find out.

I don't think the show was as great as it could have been, but was still entertaining. I would have liked to have seen more celebrity involvement.
I can't wait to see it put all together, it might look better then.

Did anyone else make it to a show?

Mrs M and I saw last night's recording and it was excellent.

I hadn't realised there were different tickets, Priority and Normal, the Priority ones allowed recipients to go straight into the marquee to wait in the warmth whereas those holding Normal tickets had to queue outside in the cold and icy conditions. Guess which tickets I had? OK, after about half an hour queuing in the cold right by the honeywagon, the powers that be stared to let a few of us plebs into the inner sanctum where we could spend a small fortune on tea, coffee and various snacks. I’d guessed that recording would start at about 6pm but no, it was nearer to 7.30 when we finally started being escorted to the theatre, along the way seeing such iconic sights as the 007 Stage, Broccoli Road, Goldfinger Avenue etc.
The set for the programme was good, about 400 in the audience and several dozen officials, ushers, technicians etc milling around, a far cry from the last TV show I saw being recorded... at the BBC Studios in Gosta Green, Birmingham, black and white days with those revolving lenses on the front of the cameras about 50 years ago!

The warm up guy, Jeff, did an excellent job all through the evening with jokes, giveaways, competitions, and all manner of daft stuff and, along the way, we learned that he’d been the comic at Rodney’s stag do on Only Fools as well as playing Louis in Bugsy Malone some 35 years ago in the very same studio.

As mentioned above, it’s hard to mention the acts and routines without giving things away too soon but they were all good, some better than others which showed in the eventual voting at the end. Three sections involving the public out on the streets had been pre-recorded earlier that week and we saw two of them on video but not the third as it hadn’t been edited in time.

Lenny Henry worked hard with plenty of ad lib stuff in between takes and it was clear to see that despite all the magicians and celebrities being well known names, they all took notice of the floor manager and when he said ‘Jump’, they all jumped!

Many parts were recorded out of sequence due to set construction and breakdown times but it all seemed vaguely logical after a while. Lenny recorded some face to camera links for the earlier programmes which we knew nothing about but we all laughed, applauded etc on cue which made me realise we weren’t just an audience, we were sometimes part of the overall illusion and colluded with performers and presenters to give the effect required even though we knew otherwise – not in a bad way, more along the lines of having seen and heard something twice already but reacting as though we hadn’t, just like all good magicians. The recording was supposed to finish by 10pm, we actually left at 11.20pm but we were given a free bottle of Harrogate Mineral water and a bag of crisps to keep us going – oooh, the high life!

There’s a website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/magicians/ - which will be more active and important to visit once the programmes are aired. Last night’s was the third one and references were made to the earlier programmes but once or twice it was said that the series starts on January 1st and last night’s was to be the first one. Dunno about that, will have to wait and see.

Anywho, all in all the programmes will be worth watching; three sets of excellent magicians make it unmissable from my point of view. Scott Penrose was seem working behind the scenes, probably as advisor, so you can be sure it’s all high quality stuff.

kolm wrote:Oh god - seriously - stephen k amos? I've yet to watch a program with him in all the way through, he annoys me so much

For me It's Michael Mackintyre. I just don't find his material funny.

Tomo wrote:

kolm wrote:Oh god - seriously - stephen k amos? I've yet to watch a program with him in all the way through, he annoys me so much

For me It's Michael Mackintyre. I just don't find his material funny.

God I can't stand any comedians, don't get me wrong, I respect what they do and I couldn't do it, but I prefer Wit over clever scripting.

Good to see you enjoyed it Mandrake.
I had priority tickets, and got there about 4pm (going straight in to the nice and cold tent). It was nearing on 7pm before we got in, and gone 11pm before we got out. Apparently there was some problems, which is why we were late going in.

I am assuming the off camera entertainment was the same as ours. I wanted to know if he does standup, or ventriloquism (he did a bit). He was quite entertaining. The floor manager was very good at his job, and loosened off towards the end of the show, probably relieved it was nearly over.

We were also told that parts of the audience reactions filmed could also be used for the adverts leading up to the showings.

At the end of the show, they recorded both the ending to the show, and seperately the ending of the series. So I don't think even they know the order yet.

I also saw Alexis Conran and Paul Wilson helping setup a trick. I tried to explain to my girlfriend who they were, but she didn't quite feel as excited as me.

Oh and we got a bottle of water and packet of crisps too!

No ventriloquism but plenty of ad libs, one liners and other stuff which showed what a talented guy he is – I’ll bet he said you were a fantastic audience and how well you kept the energy going? Well, he told us we were the best so nah, nah, na-na, nah ! Roger, the floor manager (that’s a name and title, not an instruction!), certainly did ease up towards the end of the evening despite several technical delays. The sets had to be changed several times, it was more than just a few boxes shoved around and the stage hands worked miracles each time. I was intrigued to see that Lenny Henry’s links to earlier programmes involved only a change of tie from bronze to black so the costume department didn’t have a complex job in that respect!

There were quite a few general audience shots to use as fill ins and, as some people had to leave before the end to get trains, coaches etc, sections of the audience were moved around to fill the empty seats – it’ll be fun trying to spot these migrating bods! We were to one side of the central control booth so the view was good and we weren’t moved around. We spoke to other ‘first timers’ last night and some had received Priority tickets but there’s an opportunity to spend £15 a year to get a pass which gets such tickets anyway. Despite the cold and the long, late drive home (we were in Tesco’s at Shirley at 2am buying stuff!) I’d certainly try to get tickets for future shows so a Priority pass might be worth considering. Interestingly, there are 5 programmes, one was recorded on Sunday but that date didn’t appear on The Applause Store when I first checked so perhaps those seats were all pre=booked or reserved for more favoured folk?

Sounds like you had a really great time. I'm looking forward to seeing this when it comes on the tellybox.

I remember seeing Record Breakers getting filmed when I was little. That was really good fun and I got an autograph off of Kris Akabusi. He really is a nutty in real life as he is on TV.