Who's gonna try out?


http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/03/D8FHMLA80.html

This could be the WORST thing to happen to magic and variety performers in years...talk about bad magic giving away the farm...also the producers will 'salt' the competiton with certified embarassments and nut cases....just imagine the quality of Vents that will creep out of the woodwork...a plethora of bad vents and magicians...oh joy. Might as well do the Jerry Springer show.

I agree. For me, the best part of American Idol is watching the truly bad singers. I don't know if I would be as amused by watching terrible magic. It's different than singing, a few bad singers probably won't leave the lasting impression that truly bad magic and variety would. It could be an absolute nightmare.

Not only that...but the decent magicians and performers that do show up will be looked at as just wannabees...even if they are already working acts.

I like the idea. Getting serious feedback about entertainment values might help some folks. And answering back to moody ad-hominems might be good practice for the seasoned workers. Go for it! See if you can pass the Simon Test. Simon Says "boring!" or Simon says "that was fun". What do you think your work would get?

My family has an act....We call ourselves "The Aristocrats".

All kidding aside, I agree 100 percent with you guys.

The real question is, who are the judges going to be? I am not aware that Simon Cowell has any qualifications to judge magicians, or any other perfomers other than singers. If he only produces the show, that might work. But I am sure his ego wouldn't allow that. He loves his acid tongue and own reflection more than most Americans. It will be interesting for sure if this thing comes to life.

From the article, it doesn't sound like Cowell would be the judge, and he likely has no intention of being the judge. He's produced other shows without being on screen.

Also, it's worth noting that this proposed show is not just magicians ... but other Vegas-style entertainment as well.

If there are a lot of magicians, there will be a lot of bad magic. There will also be a lot of good magic. Will the bad magic be more damaging than the good magic is helpful? It's almost impossible to say. People are assuming this would be identical to American Idol, with the same "auditions" to lead off. That may be the case, but it may not be the case.

Regardless, can anyone see this show being successful? I can't. It's another talent-show style show, with a concept that, so far, is not very clearly defined. "Vegas-style entertainment"? It's hard to picture what it's going to be like, and it's hard to imagine why the average viewer would watch this, given the bombardment of reality shows. Any "damage" that is done will be done before a very, very small audience.

I think I'm with Doug on this. I look at this as walking on eggshells. This is asking a very small group of producers (and likely non-magicians for the most part) to tell the entire country (or world) what good magic should be. The comparison to S&R is there in black and white. Granted their show was truly incredible and probably set to stand for all time, but does that set the standard for the entire art of magic?

~michael

I am also very weary of the unending stream of the morons and clueless who have the urge to prance their ineptness and lack of brain cells across the tv screen...a never ending river of embarassing human dildos intent on showing the world what they have to offer which amounts to buckets of stupidity and a total lack of awareness as to anything beyond their own nose. For me anyway, it stopped being entertaining when the Gong Show was in it's 3rd week and Jerry Springer tapped into the botomless pit of American low life trash and AI finds plenty of...Enough is enough.

If they do it as a straight Talent Show there might be some interest...but they wont and if Cowl is involved it will look for the lowest denominator to exploit...sadly there will be plenty of dregs to parade for the cameras...uproarious laughter will ensue. Not.

Singing a song is one thing. A good singer can learn a new song in a realativly short amount of time and do it justice.

It is not the case for magicians. A good act takes an extrodinary amout of time to create and perfect. And, assuming it is good, everyone who have already seen it on TV so why go pay for it.

I heard an interview with the winner of The Last Comic Standing and this was a big problem. He really could not perform anywhere after he won because everyone has already heard his jokes. The routine that made him win took years to perfect and now people want something new.

To throw all your hard work away in a contest that people are expecting to make fun and laught at you is not a good career move.

True...On the other hand...Magic isn't singing...it doesn't require an inherent or genetic gift either...you can suck one day and 'get it' the next...so a blown slieght can magnify a mistep and brand that kid (or act) for the wrong reasons.

And Last Comic Standing is a good analogy...seen and branded as wannabees (even though some were pros).

I think it will somewhat ruin magic and the way we perform for our audiences. Now everytime we go to do magic for someone, they will be like: "Oh, your a magician, you cant fool me, I have caught ALL the magicians on tv." It will be very hard for us to entertain now. Just like in American Idol. They don't show the good auditions, UNLESS if the person is going to Hollywood. But if that's not the case, they don't show good ones, they show the bad ones! And that is exactly what they are going to here. Show the bad magicians in front of THOUSANDS of people, they may even expose secrets guarded by us forever! Lay people may now know all the best secrets of all time! It will be all that much harder for good magi to entertain now. There will be some nut cases auditioning, and now lay people will think magicians are geeks, and crazy people. I don't think it can do us much good. If it were something like the last comic standing, then that would be ok. Because they only would pick the ones they want to be on the show. So only the good performers would be doing stuff in front of thousands of people, not bad ones. As a matter of fact, I think they SHOULD have a sequil to the last comic standing. "The Last Magician Standing." That would be great. But this Simon Cowell thing will be showing people the bad magi, and they will have a different aspect of us. Although it will also show good ones, there will be bad in there too. I will definatley watch it tho! If anyone has connections with directors or whoever that could suggest to them a show like "The Last Magician Standing" let them know. I think it would be a great idea! -Cory.

If it is run like other competitions like idol, how can one audition without a lavish stage set-up and so on. S+R were more than just mere tricks. What about the lighting, the glitz...

Although the lure of having a show produced is very interesting, the cons definately outweigh the pros.

I would bet the show would not look like American Idol (with all of the bad acts in the auditions). More of a straight talent contest. Simon says he wants to find the next S&R, of course. The winner would have to use Simons company as an agent, or do Simon sponsored tours (with or without his name on it), and the live show would be produced by Simon (or a simon company). And taking a celebrity from the TV show and putting them into a live show could be a great move - sells lots of tickets, makes lots of money, and that of course is what producers want, lots of everything. Works with American Idol...

But wait, didn't they have a WGM Live show? I don't think that tour did all that well. (there was only one, and a sucessfull tour would produce more sucessfull tours)I can't remember who was on it (but they were all on TV), because I didn't see it because. I think it was cancelled in my area (but I could be wrong). But with the success of American Idol, maybe the times or producers have changed.

Wait another second...Didn't Wayne Newton just have a show a year ago that was a talent show, with the winner getting a 1M contract for a Vegas show? That had a magician on it! I think it was Nathan Burton, but could be mistaken.


Even with the mixed response that I'm giving here, I think that any magic on TV is good for magic. Masked Magician had 4 shows in about a year, people were talking about magic, I did a heck of a lot of shows then. I was very busy. The more magic buzz, the better.

But I still do not think that Simon (or whoever would produce this) would think that bad entertainment (magic, impersonators, any vegas type entertainment) would be good to watch. But it does work for singing (people go to karaokee bars, but people go to open mic night too - well that's to see the good guys doing different stuff, not to see the newbies doing knock knock jokes), maybe because you only watch a bad singer for a minute - just a part of a song, laugh and then move on to the next one. With magic, I think that most people would not find it fun to watch some bumbling card trick even for a minute. People would turn it off. It would not be funny, at least not for long. People would not stay tuned, come back for more, or talk about it a the water cooler tomorrow.

And my last thought, no matter who is on this, it will never - let me repeat that NEVER, be as big as American Idol. For the same reasons the biggest magicians (except Copperfield -but people don't go to see him to see magic, they go because its David Copperfield ) will never be as successfull (by that I mean fame and $) as a high level (but not top) band or singer. We unfortunatly are a nitch entertainment, music is mainstream (even most nitch music, is more mainstream than most magic). How does magic become mainstream? That is the topic of another time, and whoever figures it out, good chance the will be the next Copperfield, - where people come in the truckloads and pay lots and lots to see him. (kinda like a Vegas show... hmmm....maybe this talent contest is the ticket...who knows, I sure don't)

<wow, I sure went on and on...thanks for readin">

scott

Boo!

Do you mean boo as in "Boo! I scared you." or as in. "BOOOOOO that sucked!!!" ????
Anyway, that was very random none the les...

Boo... for the idea of the show ...... so sad...... Germain is breakdancing in his grave....

Ok....

There is the REMOTE (as in carries the weight of a Neutrino) that because it is Vegas and there is great respect for magic in that town, that high production values will be made available to qualified performers and only qualified performers will perform forgoing the torture and stupidity of the American Idol selection process...but with Cowel involved, maybe a Neutrino is too substantial an analogy.