I found an old episode of Happy Days called "The Magic Show" on You Tube today.
In it virtually all the cast found an excuse to do a magic trick as part of the plot.
What should be a humiliation for all magicians who think they are a bit smarter than the average bear is that even Ralph and Potsy ( the shows resident imbeciles) were shown to be able to do magic tricks.
We really are the lowest of the low ...sigh.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Derren Brown and the Lottery
Well I saw the first of the Event shows this week. It just shows that I might have been a tad busy at the day job in that I never even got wind of the show until Friday night when my kids were talking about the lottery prediction on the Wednesday night.
So essentially we had a 10 minute segment on Wednesday night where Derren "predicted" the winning lottery numbers and then for Fridays show we were exhorted to tune in to see how he did it.
Well, like many of his TV shows compared to the stage shows, this was largely pants.
Out in the big bad world between Wednesday & Friday people had analysed how he had done it and come up with a pretty good explanation for it. Tuning in on Friday what they got was a few more tricks dressed up in the usual psychobabble to try and persuade us that automatic writing and Deep Math was the answer. Nobody bought it. They had had time outside of Derrens undoubted showmanship skills to get their own thoughts in order so actually his usual approach came across as an insult.
The various online forums have been awash with people calling him a charlatan and a liar ( a mentalist lying, really!!) and I think this is largely Derrens fault for misunderstanding and probably underestimating his audience.
Be interesting to see if he can get himself out of this one , whether there is a deeper plan (no there isn't) or whether this is a gross miscalculation that could cost him dear.
Would still see him live though.
So essentially we had a 10 minute segment on Wednesday night where Derren "predicted" the winning lottery numbers and then for Fridays show we were exhorted to tune in to see how he did it.
Well, like many of his TV shows compared to the stage shows, this was largely pants.
Out in the big bad world between Wednesday & Friday people had analysed how he had done it and come up with a pretty good explanation for it. Tuning in on Friday what they got was a few more tricks dressed up in the usual psychobabble to try and persuade us that automatic writing and Deep Math was the answer. Nobody bought it. They had had time outside of Derrens undoubted showmanship skills to get their own thoughts in order so actually his usual approach came across as an insult.
The various online forums have been awash with people calling him a charlatan and a liar ( a mentalist lying, really!!) and I think this is largely Derrens fault for misunderstanding and probably underestimating his audience.
Be interesting to see if he can get himself out of this one , whether there is a deeper plan (no there isn't) or whether this is a gross miscalculation that could cost him dear.
Would still see him live though.
Monday, August 31, 2009
& on a similar theme
Look at the new effect/pamphlet from Ben Harris...Crossroads.
I can't complain about the advertising on this one it is patently obvious what it is and we are told by Ben that it is nothing new but still, encouraged by the usual "download" suspects, the ignoramuses, who lap up everything and think of nothing, are ready with their dosh.
What appears to be being sold is an effect whereby you can force a spectator to pick a card (using at least some equivoque) and that card isn't in a deck of cards which the spectator has had in their hand since the start of the effect. Miracle !!!!
Except for the fact that you are effectively just selling a force and a negative find aren't you. Surely the biggest magic imbecile in the world could think of a way to narrow down a spectators choice of card and then for the spectator NOT to find that card in a deck.
Apparently not and apparently there is big money to be made if I decide to sell people my tried and tested routine on which way round to wear your thumb tip.
Ben shows towards the end of this demo another way to reveal the card they thought of. Again big gasps of amazement which show me that these so-called magicians are just lazy so and so's who cannot pay attention for one second. Its obvious whats happened here - its also obvious that this reveal would be fairly impractical...well no to some it isn't that obvious.
Morons with money.
I can't complain about the advertising on this one it is patently obvious what it is and we are told by Ben that it is nothing new but still, encouraged by the usual "download" suspects, the ignoramuses, who lap up everything and think of nothing, are ready with their dosh.
What appears to be being sold is an effect whereby you can force a spectator to pick a card (using at least some equivoque) and that card isn't in a deck of cards which the spectator has had in their hand since the start of the effect. Miracle !!!!
Except for the fact that you are effectively just selling a force and a negative find aren't you. Surely the biggest magic imbecile in the world could think of a way to narrow down a spectators choice of card and then for the spectator NOT to find that card in a deck.
Apparently not and apparently there is big money to be made if I decide to sell people my tried and tested routine on which way round to wear your thumb tip.
Ben shows towards the end of this demo another way to reveal the card they thought of. Again big gasps of amazement which show me that these so-called magicians are just lazy so and so's who cannot pay attention for one second. Its obvious whats happened here - its also obvious that this reveal would be fairly impractical...well no to some it isn't that obvious.
Morons with money.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Craptastic
It would be inappropriate of me to rant all over the Cafe on this topic but, since this is my blog, and since I am going to hide names to protect the guilty, I feel justified in having a pop here.
It seems to me now that, if you look in the Latest and Greatest section on the Cafe, there are an increasing number of folk coming on board selling ludicrous tat at about £10 a throw. I don't know how many of these items these guys sell but each one is a nail in the coffin as far as my on/off love affair with magic is concerned.
And there's a pattern. Joe Schmo, who you won't find any shows for by googling his name or looking on You Tube etc., comes on with "Joe Schmo's coin vanish" as if he is somebody we should all be in awe of. Then a number of Joe's compatriots in selling tat come on board to say how good it is, but there is never any real depth to this opinion. Then you download Joe's Coin vanish and find that it is a minor variation on something you already knew, is wildly impractical and has had about 10 minutes of effort put into its development.
Recently I've seen mentalism tricks sold that boil down to cunningly designed "scripts" that are described as "bold" and basically are 2 or 3 sentences that may or may not work depending how lucky you are. I've also seen coin bend techniques which entail making your own gimmick out of "al**in**m f**l", like that wasn't something you first messed with and discarded as impractical in your earliest days of experimentation.
There has always been rubbish sold to magicians but the advent of the internet and particularly downloads just makes this so accessible to anybody that wants to have a go at flogging magic, that its getting beyond a joke. Look at the number of new magic companies selling downloads coming on line now and at the low and then severely deteriorating quality of some of their products - its scary.
It seems to me now that, if you look in the Latest and Greatest section on the Cafe, there are an increasing number of folk coming on board selling ludicrous tat at about £10 a throw. I don't know how many of these items these guys sell but each one is a nail in the coffin as far as my on/off love affair with magic is concerned.
And there's a pattern. Joe Schmo, who you won't find any shows for by googling his name or looking on You Tube etc., comes on with "Joe Schmo's coin vanish" as if he is somebody we should all be in awe of. Then a number of Joe's compatriots in selling tat come on board to say how good it is, but there is never any real depth to this opinion. Then you download Joe's Coin vanish and find that it is a minor variation on something you already knew, is wildly impractical and has had about 10 minutes of effort put into its development.
Recently I've seen mentalism tricks sold that boil down to cunningly designed "scripts" that are described as "bold" and basically are 2 or 3 sentences that may or may not work depending how lucky you are. I've also seen coin bend techniques which entail making your own gimmick out of "al**in**m f**l", like that wasn't something you first messed with and discarded as impractical in your earliest days of experimentation.
There has always been rubbish sold to magicians but the advent of the internet and particularly downloads just makes this so accessible to anybody that wants to have a go at flogging magic, that its getting beyond a joke. Look at the number of new magic companies selling downloads coming on line now and at the low and then severely deteriorating quality of some of their products - its scary.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
V2F
I quite liked the original demo for this effect so took the plunge and ordered the digital download from here
I read the review on the Penguin site whilst waiting for my download so that didn't put me in too good a mood !!!!
The good news though is that I have bought a lot worse than this effect. The bad is that I don't think its worth $28 dollars (remember this is just my opinion).
Anyway here's a summary of what I got :
For the purchase you get a link to the smproductionz site wherein you'll find an index covering off background, demo, method, practice tips etc.
The learning material itself is a combination of the written word and some short streaming video ( which got a little clunky on me at one stage). I think it took me about 10 minutes to go through all the material presented. It is not a lot. However on the plus side it doesn't have filler where ridiculously obvious statements are made over and over to stretch the running time. The screens with the video tutorials are too small ( to the extent that I couldn't even make out what the various buttons ( pause/play etc) were when I was looking for a full screen mode (Which there isn't).
The tutorials themselves are okay. They are subtitled which I take it was to overcome language difficulties but this didn't really detract for me. I thought they were relatively clear and simple instructions and the whole demeanour of the learning material is "friendly". Its hard to describe but I did feel an empathy with whoever had put this together, its a very personable presentation.
The effect splits in two really. Vanish a card and then find it somewhere else. The find it somewhere else bit I'll cover first and say that the two options demo'd didn't do anything at all for me. The solution for card to wallet, including currency certainly didn't do anything for me, and the card to shoe was a tad outrageous.
The vanish - great- that's what attracted me to this one in the first place and I was scared that it would be something impractical or incredibly angly - its neither. Considering I have been messing about with all kinds of gaffs to get a similar effect I had one of those "doh" moments when I watched the tutorial but in a good way.
So in summary:
Card vanish - 9/10
Card to Wallet piece 4/10 ( But G does suggest you try this vanish with Cameron Francis "Fresh Mint" which is a good idea and which its tailor made for.)
Instruction material 7/10(Friendly, clear and uncluttered )
Price 4/10 ---- too expensive for a single sleight I am afraid - for the quality of what you get though I'd have been okay with $14.
So an average of 6/10- not too shabby.
I read the review on the Penguin site whilst waiting for my download so that didn't put me in too good a mood !!!!
The good news though is that I have bought a lot worse than this effect. The bad is that I don't think its worth $28 dollars (remember this is just my opinion).
Anyway here's a summary of what I got :
For the purchase you get a link to the smproductionz site wherein you'll find an index covering off background, demo, method, practice tips etc.
The learning material itself is a combination of the written word and some short streaming video ( which got a little clunky on me at one stage). I think it took me about 10 minutes to go through all the material presented. It is not a lot. However on the plus side it doesn't have filler where ridiculously obvious statements are made over and over to stretch the running time. The screens with the video tutorials are too small ( to the extent that I couldn't even make out what the various buttons ( pause/play etc) were when I was looking for a full screen mode (Which there isn't).
The tutorials themselves are okay. They are subtitled which I take it was to overcome language difficulties but this didn't really detract for me. I thought they were relatively clear and simple instructions and the whole demeanour of the learning material is "friendly". Its hard to describe but I did feel an empathy with whoever had put this together, its a very personable presentation.
The effect splits in two really. Vanish a card and then find it somewhere else. The find it somewhere else bit I'll cover first and say that the two options demo'd didn't do anything at all for me. The solution for card to wallet, including currency certainly didn't do anything for me, and the card to shoe was a tad outrageous.
The vanish - great- that's what attracted me to this one in the first place and I was scared that it would be something impractical or incredibly angly - its neither. Considering I have been messing about with all kinds of gaffs to get a similar effect I had one of those "doh" moments when I watched the tutorial but in a good way.
So in summary:
Card vanish - 9/10
Card to Wallet piece 4/10 ( But G does suggest you try this vanish with Cameron Francis "Fresh Mint" which is a good idea and which its tailor made for.)
Instruction material 7/10(Friendly, clear and uncluttered )
Price 4/10 ---- too expensive for a single sleight I am afraid - for the quality of what you get though I'd have been okay with $14.
So an average of 6/10- not too shabby.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Florence and The Machine
I am obstinately averse to liking things that are universally popular e.g. I don't rate the Exorcist, 2001 or U2.
So, when I hear the kind of critical plaudits being rained on Florence and The Machines album "Lungs", part of me knows that I'll probably find something to dislike about it.
Wrong... its playing now on my PC..I have it on my ipod and its the cd of choice in my car as well. I'll probably get tired of it eventually but its one of the freshest albums I have heard for ages and I absolutely lurv it.
Here's a link to a toon: link!
So, when I hear the kind of critical plaudits being rained on Florence and The Machines album "Lungs", part of me knows that I'll probably find something to dislike about it.
Wrong... its playing now on my PC..I have it on my ipod and its the cd of choice in my car as well. I'll probably get tired of it eventually but its one of the freshest albums I have heard for ages and I absolutely lurv it.
Here's a link to a toon: link!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Its a bright New World....
Annoying things, that annoy me, a lot. No really I am very annoyed:
The standard of effects that is coming out on DVD and downloads just amazes me. I think my problem is that I still cannot get used to the number of magicians out there who need to be spoon fed the simplest of ideas. So, unfortunately for my ulcer, there is a market for magic for morons out there. A really good case in point is a free video from Jay Sankey which essentially points out that, instead of a mismade bill you could essentially make a prop you can give out if you mismade some monopoly bills on your computer. This idea is greeted with rapture by several on the Cafe - Are they telling me that,as magicians, with their own computers and no social life, that they have never experimented themselves with a mismade bill type prop ! Of course its then pointless trying to get into the debate that says if they can make a mis-printed monopoloy note then so can most spectators - somewhat dulling the effect of the trick.
The fact that there is an audience for the most basic of ideas explains to me why there is so much tat sold, its sold because most magicians deserve everything they get. ( Another good example of this is evident if I ask you this question - ever tried to make your own fake coin for magic tricks ? - what did you use ? - chances are that your first step was obvious but then you scrapped the idea as being just not quite there in how real it looked. Like me therefore you may have been somewhat amazed by somebody flogging this idea recently as one of their products - amazing !)
And then the biggest annoyance is the so called pro's who advise that so and so piece of new tat is going into their set immediately. Well you know what, I have deliberately gone to restaurants and functions with walk araound magi in them over the last twelve months, and have not seen a sight of this new tat. Its all unfortunately very traditional and quite tired but still a million times better than the dross that is being churned out today for the insatiable appetites of idiots.
Rant over
The standard of effects that is coming out on DVD and downloads just amazes me. I think my problem is that I still cannot get used to the number of magicians out there who need to be spoon fed the simplest of ideas. So, unfortunately for my ulcer, there is a market for magic for morons out there. A really good case in point is a free video from Jay Sankey which essentially points out that, instead of a mismade bill you could essentially make a prop you can give out if you mismade some monopoly bills on your computer. This idea is greeted with rapture by several on the Cafe - Are they telling me that,as magicians, with their own computers and no social life, that they have never experimented themselves with a mismade bill type prop ! Of course its then pointless trying to get into the debate that says if they can make a mis-printed monopoloy note then so can most spectators - somewhat dulling the effect of the trick.
The fact that there is an audience for the most basic of ideas explains to me why there is so much tat sold, its sold because most magicians deserve everything they get. ( Another good example of this is evident if I ask you this question - ever tried to make your own fake coin for magic tricks ? - what did you use ? - chances are that your first step was obvious but then you scrapped the idea as being just not quite there in how real it looked. Like me therefore you may have been somewhat amazed by somebody flogging this idea recently as one of their products - amazing !)
And then the biggest annoyance is the so called pro's who advise that so and so piece of new tat is going into their set immediately. Well you know what, I have deliberately gone to restaurants and functions with walk araound magi in them over the last twelve months, and have not seen a sight of this new tat. Its all unfortunately very traditional and quite tired but still a million times better than the dross that is being churned out today for the insatiable appetites of idiots.
Rant over
Friday, January 30, 2009
Derren Brown - An Evening of Wonders
What, this was on TV weeks ago ? - Well F%7! off, I've been busy.
There's plenty of reviews of this out there:
Here's one
Just wanted to add my six penneth and say that I thought this was a brilliant exercise in entertaining 1000 people with the minimum of props and a huge amount of charm and personality.
In themselves none of the effects were that mind blowing, although the telephone prediction had me stumped for a while, but the impact on the audience was tremendous. Derren denounced the supernatural as explanations countless times but occasional shots of the audience saw them watching awestruck and slightly scared.
What a terrific performer - and I have to say that this "live" show was infinitely better than any of his tv shows in recent years with the constant nagging doubt that there is too much we aren't seeing and that the explanation for everything could be dual reality.
A great show to catch if you haven't seen it.
There's plenty of reviews of this out there:
Here's one
Just wanted to add my six penneth and say that I thought this was a brilliant exercise in entertaining 1000 people with the minimum of props and a huge amount of charm and personality.
In themselves none of the effects were that mind blowing, although the telephone prediction had me stumped for a while, but the impact on the audience was tremendous. Derren denounced the supernatural as explanations countless times but occasional shots of the audience saw them watching awestruck and slightly scared.
What a terrific performer - and I have to say that this "live" show was infinitely better than any of his tv shows in recent years with the constant nagging doubt that there is too much we aren't seeing and that the explanation for everything could be dual reality.
A great show to catch if you haven't seen it.
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