talkmagic.co.uk

Alfred Borden wrote:Think people here are being slightly harsh on a 14-year-old, it still takes balls to not only appear on national TV but also perform in front of P & T

i second this, however........when you put yourself in the position to be judged, you will be judged.......regardless of age,colour,creed whatever.
if the kids blatantly pants and people lie to him and tell him he's gonna be the next blaine for sure......then he will grow up and inevitabley end up as the magicians equivilant of these useless f***s who go on the x-factor even though they sound like a hoover sucking up a cuttlery set....... think about it like this........someone told them they were good!!! and i bet when they were 14 their moms/dads n whatnot told them they could sing!!

however back on topic......Im and ex-pat now living in canada so cant watch the episode until someone uploads it to youtube

agreed. And i dont think anybody has been that harsh on him. he quite rightly deserves a pat on teh back for having the balls to do the show.
Whats been posted here, and on other forums is mostly constructive critisism , and I am sure hes level headed enough to get that.
He just needs to find his own style.
and at 14, thats not easy.. there are so many things going on at 14, finding a character for card tricks, is probably the least of it. lol.

I watched it with 2 friends and my missus.
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"This is just embarrassing"

"Why do we watch this each week? Can we not just fast forward to Penn and teller's trick at the end".

at 14, i too was mastering the art of sleight of hand........well.......sleight of hand/wrist/fingers-all-working-in-conjunction...... lol

i really want to see this bloody epsidoe now.... god damn canadians and their lack of ITV

Having just watched the programme, I have to say that the young lad did extremely well, I wonder how many of us at age 14 (ages ago for me!) would be able to do half as well under those circumstances? The young David Copperfield and many other now revered names in magic weren’t all that good at 14 so just give Jack a few years to assimilate more of life’s experiences, mature a little and he’ll be a superb performer.

I liked Laura’s act, again confident but not too bolshy, a little bit flirty without being embarrassing and she had a presence much larger than the stage area she was using. OK, it was an old routine; yes you could spot a couple of the moves, most of didn’t need to see then to know what was going on but so what? Most of the routines in this series were classics of one kind or another and I’ve seen Paul Daniels do the same routine (with fewer lemons!) in cabaret several times and he brought the house down each time.

Lee’s stuff was excellent especially the way all the cards were disposed of by the spec well before the reveal – a nice way to get someone else to clean up!

Martin Daniels’ routine was just wonderful, it’s not very often I actually applaud when watching TV but this time I did and I sincerely hope the TV producers in the UK now realise what they’ve deprived us of for so many years and hang their heads in shame. Excellent and stylish magic presented with all the production values of a West End or Broadway theatre show. It’s called entertainment folks and you saw it on P&T.

The final routine was great; I’ve seen it before but could watch it time and time again. Proof positive that P&T are master entertainers – as if we needed reminding!

TimEden wrote:I also agree with the comments about the effect in question. One of my fairly regular spectators (admittedly in my early days) said it was the best thing he'd seen me do! Faint praise when you know the methodology but then you've earned that place by (a) developing the presentational skills and (b) having wowed them with enough of the tricky stuff that they can accept you pulling it off without considering a disappointingly simple explanation.

And, yes, Jack had an unnaturally deep voice for his looks and his verbatim reproduction of Derren's effect was a tad excruciating. Good luck to the lad though - an encouraging start for anyone.

I wouldn't say 'faint praise when you know the methodology', I'm a fairly rough amateur and it took me about a year before I was happy with the 'patter' to accompany the trick with the 'tools' I was given...Jack had 'the tools' to do a verbatim copy of Derren's patter...I didn't hence I had to work out the patter to suit what 'tools' I was 'given'. (I'm sure those who know the trick understand what I am saying when I say 'the tools' I received'.). Jack must have a kind prop vendor to get him what he needed.

Also, to clarify, I was not putting Jack down at all, he certainly has the cojones to appear on TV but he does need to pull back and act like a 14year old rather than an old pro. I think if he worked out how to act like a confident 14 year old he'd do well rather than acting more than his age...all magicians act of course and when he matures he can act mature but he needs to find his own personality rather than be an imitation of Derren Brown as at some point he'll realise being himself is better than doing an impersonation of another magician. He has the confidence so he should do well.

I'm personally glad they've had a couple of young magicians on and it's only us sad people who realise they have both done other magicians routines by rote so everyone else will have enjoyed their routines and by now probably forgotten the exact nature of tricks anyway. I doubt that Derren Brown will be annoyed he did 'his' trick as Derren doesn;t do that sort of magic anymore.

I haven't been around for a while due to being busy, so I am sorry if this has already been mentioned. The Penn and Teller show was promoted as the best in the uk trying to fool them. Then as the series went on we had magicians from all over the place. As was said in MSM it was a showcase for world champions from around the world. I am not complaining about the standard of magic, it just did not do what it said on the packet.

Nic

For what it's worth, I've seen Jack perform before.

I went to a Magic Circle Summer of Sorcery event in London and he went along too, performed a trick for a few of the higher ranking members who were milling around at the end after the show. It was a card to wallet and the wallet itself just screamed "I am a prop" simply because it was the type of wallet no one his age would have and it contained things no one his age would have.

Additionally his professional magician's jacket didn't go so well with the blue T-shirt and jeans.

However, whilst we may see this as him acting all grown up, in 10 years or so he'll actually be an adult and unlike most of the rest of us, he'll have had a lot of practice.

-Stacy

I don't know if there is any solid fact to this but apparently it was printed in metro that Fool Us has not be recommissioned, I cannot see anything on the site about it (however I did read some reviews from that woman who appeared to HATE IT).

I assume there MAY be a xmas follow up but I don't think there would be.

BenrikTom wrote:I don't know if there is any solid fact to this but apparently it was printed in metro that Fool Us has not be recommissioned, I cannot see anything on the site about it (however I did read some reviews from that woman who appeared to HATE IT).

I assume there MAY be a xmas follow up but I don't think there would be.

I'd expect the Xmas special to have been taped when this series was shot (as it is also announced in the last episode), so I'd think that's still on..?

Madelon Hoedt wrote:

BenrikTom wrote:I don't know if there is any solid fact to this but apparently it was printed in metro that Fool Us has not be recommissioned, I cannot see anything on the site about it (however I did read some reviews from that woman who appeared to HATE IT).

I assume there MAY be a xmas follow up but I don't think there would be.

I'd expect the Xmas special to have been taped when this series was shot (as it is also announced in the last episode), so I'd think that's still on..?

This would usually be the way a series like this would work

Especially when the stars of the show are American and not signed to ITV

It'll be sad if it's not recommissioned but it wouldn't surprise me. It lacked the key ingredients for a successful ITV entertainment show:

1 - the humiliation of people by nasty judges
2 - the belief from the contestants that skill is irrelevant
3 - the all or nothing option of winning lots of money based purely on chance
4 - enough flashing lights and pyrotechnics to complement the hosts' entrance and cause audience hysteria to a scale that would even make Albert Speer think it was a little over the top.

It's a shame though because it was a brilliant show.

You missed the deep booming voice to introduce the contestants. Oh and the wind machine.

According to Wikki:

Acts filmed but not shown are -
Chris Cox - British Mindreader
James Brown - British Stage Magician
Marc Oberon - British Card Magician
David Masters - British Illusionist
Noel Qualter - British Close Up Magician
David Jay - British Illusionist
Incidentally, both Noel Qualter and Marc Oberon were also filmed but not shown in the first programme last January but there's a potential show and a half in that list!

I'd guess that the Christmas Special would feature how the acts who fooled P&T got on in Vegas with perhaps highlights of the series. I can't see them recording a completely new show here, the cost of the studios, the set, technicians etc mean it's more liikey to feature stuff already in the can or perhaps linking footage specially filmed in Vegas?

aporia wrote:well, perhaps he had been watching too much Derren and perhaps he has got a way to go, but he's got more time that most of us old gits to work on it. I wish I'd been on telly when i was 14

Full credit to the lad for going on national telly at that age. One bonus for me was that as soon as I realised what trick he was doing I said "Queen Of Spades" out loud to the wife, who was amazed that I /also/ could read Penn's body language through a telephone camera.

R