Most people who are used to an audience could perform those off the shelf tricks better than that of the so called magician.

It was dire.

That is possibly the main problem with the whole routine - does it really take any magician skills to stall for time waiting for a helicopter prop to be wheeled in or assembled behind a curtain in the way it was presented? Or to hide a shoe in a pocket.

As has already been mentioned, during the helicopter reveal what was going on behind the curtain wasn't even well hidden and the bloke was still getting in the helicopter prop when the curtain dropped.

In comparison, the female magician made a motorbike disappear lightning fast in her audition (how did she do that?), and even the roller skating man with the puppet did a far more impressive trick than the helicopter at the end of his routine on Thursday's semi.

As I said earlier, I really do look forward to seeing you perform on a live show next year. Please let us know and we will all be watching with bated breath as you perform feats of prestidigitation with wondrous skill and scintillating patter.


Your audience awaits!

That old guys best, and indeed only, trick was to manage to get selected for the live shows.

Until I saw him I thought I had seen some truly awful acts, but nothing had prepared me for just how bad, how horrendously bad his act, if act it was, was performed.


The only good thing about his performance was that he gave Walliams, once again, to give a careful, dispassionate and carefully considered critique.

Not!

So if you go to a restaurant and you are served badly cooked, poor quality food do you think, ah well. I'm not a chef by profession so I can't complain?

The argument that you can't criticize unless you are better than the person you are criticizing doesn't really hold water.

We the viewer (and indirect consumer as our audience numbers determine advertising revenue) can critisize if we are not being given something good. Can we not critisize if a singer is flat? If a dancer misses his steps? We may be vocal or we may turn off. But our opinion is valid as a consumer even if we follow a different profession. We are here to be entertained. Not to blindly lap up sub-standard acts.

Your argument is very odd indeed. If i am watching a tv talent show and see a "magician" do off the shelf tricks poorly, am i not allowed to state that?

What sort of argument is "well lets see you do it better"?

I think hypnodog had more talent that that "magician", who had clearly trained all of his life to buy tricks from the internet and mess even them up.

I wonder which trick he is going to botch in the final?

I think he will go for a "levitation" or a "saw the lady in half" off the shelf standard gimmick.

To be fair to him, his big reveal botch had nothing to do with him, as he was a bystander whilst the stage hands unfolded a plastic half-prop and failed to

1) not touch the drapes (they clearly move)
2)not stand close to the open bottom end of the drape (their feet are clearly visible)
3)get in the prop in time (though that was the fault of the drop guys, as they aer the two who have the complete view)

You may have noticed that I tend to complain more often that not but, hopefully I do not make rash comments.

If you and I were in a restaurant, (not together, of course), you may be embarrassed to hear me complain, something which I have done in establishments across the world if the service quality and so on is not up to standard. But, there have been many more times when I have spoken the host, or waiter/waitress, and asked him or her to pass on my (dubious) compliments to the chef for a job well done.

I don't complain and say that with a few cheap ingredients anyone could do a better job. That is something I would not do, I have family who own and run a successful and popular restaurant in Australia so I appreciate the issues from both sides of the argument.

Many magicians (DerrenBrown included )buy off the shelf tricks,that is the point of magic shops! You wouldn't know they were off the shelf unless a DS member had posted this. Go through DB's routines and point out which are shop sold items as you are so clever.


No it was exposed by people rewinding TV footage,and secondly by Jamie having a bad idea.

As are all production illusions. The motorbike vanish with female magician was nothing to do with her she just sat on bike etc,

Internet smart asses try to ruin magic,poor performances dont help obviously

The helicopter trick was nothing to do with the magician.

Magic doesnt have to be innovative to be entertaining,see cups and balls its 1000 years old but still entertaining. LEts see you go on national TV and have everyone pick apart what you do.

I don't do magic.

I heard he is going to put a top hat on his lap, and ask Amanda and Alesha to tickle his rabbit.

Just to address a point made above, the female magician vanished herself as well as the motorbike so she was very much part of the illusion - whereas he appeared as little more than a bystander who waited for the helicopter reveal and that was that.

Her fast change of clothes was also perfectly executed at lightning speed in the audition.

His card routine was also very well done in his audition to be fair..

I hope she gets through to the final, would be very interesting to have them both in the same show.

While I think a lot of people know how she did the trick, the time constraints she placed upon herself (indicative of her skill) and the panache with which she pulled it off (indicative of her stage craft) were mighty impressive.

Compared to Nervous Guy's lack luster though competent first offering, it was like comparing a big flashy motor cycle to a rusty bike.

It would certainly be interesting to see both of them in the final - might actually induce me to watch it (I'm going out so doubt I'll see else)

She was on an edited programme which helped her.

I don't.

Care to share? (if you put it in 'spoiler tags' that'll stop the moans)

Please........pretty please.

To perform cups and balls the magician needs wonderful dexterity and have good patter.

You have to be talented.

To perform the off the shelf tricks that the bgt guy did takes around £40 and a trip to a shop. No talent required.

Can you see the difference there?

Again, you use this very weird argument of wanting to see me on stage. As is has been pointed out to you before by other posters here, it makes absolutely no sense.

He was boring, messed up over a half dozen times in a three minute routine, used purchased props and played no part whatsoever in the big reveal ( that was messed up by the stage hands). It could not have gone worse..

i couldn't see this guy serving drinks in Vegas, he would probably drop them just like he did the cards.

This isn't definate but how I think it works.....sure you want to know

So you could buy them and be on TV then yes? Just like that? You dont think you need timing and misdirection to produce a block of ice at same time as producing fire? Dexterity? Same to perform Sudden deck?

You clearly dont.


Boring is your opinion,messed up 6 times? He called Alesha "SIr " dropped a card and didnt instruct the judges properly where cards were concerned.That was his only mess ups. I make that 3.

Irrelevant, as do many magicians

Most illusionists play no part in illusions,hasnt done David Copperfield any harm.


Wow magician makes a mistake on live TV and you judge his entire career?

You're a darling.
Thanxxxx.

You're being obtuse here....you know darn well as a magician that this was seven shades of naff.

The routine blending mind reading and magic was poorly thought out and poorly executed.

The shoe piece (ignoring the camera slip) had no impact...none at all and was a silly idea.

And Jamie had no personality.

You could almost see the fork lift trucks behind the black curtain.

Paul Daniels son performed that trick on main stream TV 20+ years ago and it was rubbish then.

It's amazing that this thread is still so active.

I think one of the key issues which most seem to agree about is that he didn't perform it well.

Penn (of him and Teller) once said that the most important thing about magic is the performance
value rather than the trick. Derren Brown also highlights the importance of stage persona
and for him especially rapport with audience members.

Regardless of whether any random person could do better, sadly he just didn't have much
in the way of performance value or stage presence. Hopefully it was mostly nerves and he
will be better in the final.

They had to lift the motor cycle up some how - though I would think fork lift would be a really poor way of doing it. There would be a pully system and a motor to hoist it. And



I've just watched it back so Diamond Doll

I got the impression that he had rehersed the trick many times with friends and family and in the rehersed version it was a slightly different variation.

Similarly, in rehearsals the second person was probably a man - hence the "Sir".

imo, a magic act is 50% banter and he had no banter.

So no banter, no personality, shop bought tricks and a half dozen botches.

Useless

Again shop bought tricks is irrelevant why can you not comprehend this? David Blaine and Dynamo to name two ,both made careers using shop bought tricks.
Still waiting for list of 6 botches