Anyone else think that magicians are something we've never really seen on BGT?

Of course, we always get overpopulated with singers and dancers, but there's always been an act of the other varieties in with a chance of victory. It wouldn't have been too farfetched for a dog act (Tina and Chandi, Kate and Gin), an Impressionist/Comedian (Paul Burling, Mike Garbutt), Gymnasts (Spelbound of course did win) or even Flair Bartending (Bar Wizards were immense!) to win previous series, but there's never really been a decent magician.

I'm a big fan of magic and would love nothing more than a "Dynamo" (prefer his kind of work to big elaborate sets) kind of magician to come on stage and wow us.

Anyone else hoping for some magic?

Yer man last year that swallowed stuff last year was brilliant !!

As amazing as Spellbound were, that was a truly original act !!

Never really thought of Stevie Starr as a magician, though I never knew what to class him as. I mean, magic is an illusion right, but Stevie was really swallowing those items!

He should have made the final ahead of Tobias Mead.

I would love to see a GOOD magician but I don't think you would get one of those going on this type of show.

All we get are ones that are so sad they patronise the intelligence of a 5 year old.

It's either an eccentric doddering old fool or a bloke in his 40s dressed in tight leather with his hairy chest and beer belly out prancing around to 80s rock music only to pull a bimbo girl half his age out of a box that could have held an elephant!

Also there are many very good mentalists around but they need time to build rapport and can't do 2 minute tricks and so are just not suited to this type of format.

Still, it would be nice.

I hate magic acts they're dull.

I also hate all the dance acts - I'm glad they just whipped through them as again we're going to be inundated with them.

Then you haven't seen a good one!

Which is quite understandable as 99% of good ones don't appear on TV and 99% of ones who appear on TV are not good ones and are crap.

For you to find one dull, then the magician hasn't engaged you and captured your interest - That's a bad magician!

A good magician will capture your interest long before they start doing a trick. And keep it!

I'd love for a good magician to come on the show and do well. It would be a refreshing change from the usual acts that end up in the final. I doubt one will ever win thoughl.

I'd love a magician to win, love being confused or amazed by a trick.
That said, I do like the acts that disgust me in a way too, something about it I just find fascinating.

So a magician or a variety act to win for me.

Thank you for explaining it that way because I too always thought of magicians as boring, but I can see why now.

Stephen Mullhern presents Britains Got MORE Talent

nuff said!!

America's Got Talent seems to attract more magicians than BGT.

To be fair we do have some, but for every one good one there are literally 1000s of bad ones and some of those are criminally bad!

Stuck in the mud old farts who haven't moved on since the 70s and see no good reason to do so. And they "Tut" loudly at anything that is after that date.

They usually have the word "Uncle" before their name and they don't even fool the children at the parties they only do.

Stephen Mullhern a magician so great that he only came to fame from being a children's TV presenter not a magician.

I rest my case.

I knew a mentalist who was going to audition this year, but I don't think he went for it in the end.

A good magic/mentalism act would be good - the potential for something different as they go along would be great and it'd be good to see a mentalist on prime time TV who isn't Derren Brown

Mentalism whilst being great, is possibly the hardest thing to do in 2 mins in those conditions.

You have to do a preamble establishing the premise, then get an audience member up, then explain to them what you want them to do etc.etc.etc. All that whilst holding the whole audience attention span and hoping that ITV don't cut it to bits to the point that it makes no sense at all.

Quick mentalism tends to look like a magic trick (which of course it is) but isn't the what a mentalist wants it to come across as. Sort of: Throw ball into audience to randomly select audience member. Get them to shout out a colour. open envelope he has been carrying and produce one card with their chosen colour written on it. Not very entertaining, looks like a magic trick but it's all you can do in the given time.

Not even Derren Brown does two minute piece.

I get it now. I didn't realise that he had a magician background!

I'd really like to see a UK version of Penn and Teller them two are really something special.

I agree with most people on this thread, I would really like a good magician act!

Are you sure about that?

I adore magic too and would love to see more magic on BGT. The American version of the show has had a fair few over the years and some have got really far on the show and been very entertaining.

Doesn’t even need to be good quality acts. I still enjoy magic when it’s rubbish. Just the whole world of magic fascinates me. And it’s good variety because (hopefully) every trick is new and different and (if done properly) you never have a clue what to expect.

Magic fans will be pleased to know (if you didn't already) that ITV have commissioned a full series of Penn & Teller: Fool Us, which is currently in production. For anyone who missed it, it was an absolutely brilliant magic show, where a selection of British magicians had to come up with a trick that Penn & Teller couldn’t figure out how it was done, thus winning a spot in a Las Vegas show. Penn & Teller as always were thoroughly entertaining and charming and some of the magic was of a very high standard, along with Jonathan Ross doing a pretty decent job as host: injecting a bit of comedy into it without making it too light so as to spoil the atmosphere of mystery and illusion.

The other side of the coin was BBC’s The Magicians, which, in my opinion, was a complete failure. All the wonder and mystery of the tricks was ruined by having under-rehearsed celebrity guests helping out. Plus the show had a very flimsy, tacked-on gameshow format, with a pointless finale. All topped off by having the most inappropriate host ever for a magic show: Lenny Henry.


LOL!

Funy, I never really thought of David Copperfield as a magician, either. I mean, he really can fly, can’t he?

This is great news.


This better not return.