How could people seriously think Jamie Raven was the best act of the night?

He was good. It was clever. But it was no winning performance.

UDI deserved to win. UDI are unique and much more suited for the Royal Variety. I'd like to see Jamie Raven do what UDI are capable of.

There was nothing amazing about either act. People in black suits on a black background lifting illuminated people up.
Having said that it was pretty and well co-ordinated.

The magician was bad. He didn't sell the trick very well. No magic there and he nearly arsed the whole routine up.

Yeah, Jamie winning the public vote suggests the public are easily pleased.

Like the other thread mentioned, he was incredibly nervous tonight. He's gonna have to pick up his game if he wants to avoid coming last in the live final (because let's face it, he isn't going to win BGT).

He isn't going to come last now he's won one of the semi finals.

Get over it! I didn't think he was the best, I've seen better magicians and I've seen better light acts at holiday parks

UDI are nothing new! Just because you are young you have to understand that throwing tantrums and thinking that only things that happened in your lifetime are important doesn't mean you are the only opinion on the planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqKnzCN3ZIw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naymbJr252s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcRrS9FrVsc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28VbXxmubLU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXJ5rVlRWQk

There are 100s of them and date back at least 45 years to the 70s. Education is a wonderful thing.

I'm afraid I disagree with you, Dalekbuster523. I think the UDI act is similar to the old men dancers in that once is entertaining - and enough! It also seems rather old fashioned to me, based on lighting, like the shadow lanterns of the 50s and further back. Myself, I prefer something more up to date and based on personal talent, like the 12 tenors. But we all have our different views and preferences, sure.

They're totally different acts so this is a fotally invalid argument. It's like saying Susan Boyle couldn't do what Diversity do.

For what it's worth, they were my top two tonight but I felt Jamie topped his first audition whereas UDI didn't IMO

He think he looked panicked when David looked like he was going to fool around with Goldfish, even Simon shouted no David. Must distract an already nervous act.

UDI weren't that great. The Hungarian group from a couple of years ago that did a similar thing were far superior. UDI were well coordinated and all that but nothing special.

Totally agree. They were my top two acts of the night and I'm happy both went through. I also agree that Jamie was better than his audition whereas UDI, although still very good, were a bit flat

Why did you think Raven was so good? He dropped a card, messed the shoe trick up and was caught out by Simon. He also seemed nervous and lacked stage presence. Something could easily go wrong in the final and he doesn't seem the type who could cover it up easily.

I gave my 5 free votes to Jamie

The hilarity of the overhead shot showing his shoe just sitting there on the floor, waiting for him to pick it up

They're nothing like Attraction. If UDI holds similarities to any past Britain's Got Talent act, it's Light Balance.

It would have been stunning if it had dropped out of his back pocket when he walked up the stairs! The girl who brought the glass on was brilliant - what were the odds?

With the dropped card - I was half expecting that to be part of the reveal at the end? You know - a cheeky wink to camera 'you thought I dropped a card earlier didn't you, well.....'

Having said that I am looking forward to him on Saturday for some reason!?

They were both pretty rubbish last night. He definately did not deserve to win however...


Wow that would have been great! Really like your thinking, I wish that had been what happened.

I am also looking forward to Jamie in the final, I think he will respond well and we will see something good from him.

The other light show UDI or whatever they are lot however I dont want to see them. Nothing against their act (although I thought they had an off day yesterday) but foreign acts should not be on Britains got talent

Agreed. That would have improved his act for me.

Come on, she was just clearly standing there to get a good view, and happened to have a glass of water as her refreshment.

The strange thing about the act is that it received a muted reception from the studio audince, so i guess that it had more impact on the people watching on tv.

It didn't help that you could see the block of ice in his hand before the reveal and the curtain billowed up slightly so you could see the bottom of the helicopter.

He seems a nice enough chap, but I don't find him very dynamic, which is a problem when your tricks involve the participation of other people. There is no energy emanating from him for anyone else to feed off.
I don't think he made it clear what was required from the judges with his "tell me what word you're thinking of...", when he really meant "what word was on the card?".
Didn't help that the dipshit judges kept asking what he wanted them to do.
It was a mess, imo.

Yes but that is more a product of an incompetent production team than a fault of the magician. Normal on BBC producers of magic shows are themselves members of the magic circle, not just any old light entertainment producer. They should work with the act, not against them. That includes understanding the trick and what they can do to enhance it, not reveal parts of it.

So very much the producers/directors mistake, not the magicians.

I mean they could have showed a shot that showed a man behind the cloth with a big spanner assembling the helicopter but common sense told them that they should not do that. It's the same with all of the rest of the routine. Understand what the act is and shoot it to the best possible.

I mean they could have turned all the lights on during UDI's act and shown men in black carrying people around the stage, but that wouldn't be the acts fault, that's a production cock-up.

Yes the first rule of magic is to be clear in what you want the spectator to do or else they are very likely to do anything instead of what you want. Audience management is rule 101 of any magic act.

As it wasn't a mind reading routine, he didn't need to use the word "mind" at all - The premise was that they had freely selected one in 52 cards with a random item on it.

"Ok David, now for the first time, read out aloud the item on your card that you selected" - Clear, clean, precise. The audience member is left in no doubt as to what it is you want them to do and the words reinforce what is meant to have happened.

The whole routine was messy from a magicians point of view as the premise wasn't clear at all. Was he trying to present it as a mentalist prediction: IE 'You randomly selected some cards and I have predicted what those cards would be' OR 'Whatever randomly selected cards you have picked, I can make them magically appear. ? - I think as he goes out as a magician and not a mentalist, the second premise is what he was aiming for, but it all wasn't clear along with his patter (Dialogue).

The whole series so far has been a huge let-down, and the acts voted through so far are a reflection of that. UDI AND OCD or whoever last night sounded like two movements we could WELL do without seeing again!!

I thought Jamie was excellent. I can't understand people who say there was no magic there, there were extraordinary things. I agree he was nervous and I felt for some reason all the judges were extremely cool towards him and deliberately making it hard for him and he got more nervous. But he was the standout act of the night.

I used my 5 app votes across 5 acts including UDI as I felt this show was the most balanced, with the exception of the 2 acts that came last in the public vote that were seriously appalling and not in a funny way either. Other than Jamie all the other acts are very similar to acts we've seen before - all competent, nothing new, nothing absolutely amazing. They struggled to make an emotional connection.

Only UDI made an emotional connection with me, mostly because I knew their story and that some of them were orphans and that they work with orphans in a relatively poor country.