http://www.vh1.com/video/play.jhtml?id=1585765&vid=225914

VH1 has a new show, you can watch the premiere at this link (I am in no way associated with VH1)

Looks like it will be both good and bad at the same time.

They have some great talent on the magic side - Silly Billy, etc...

The "star talent" is where I think they went south... I would rather have seen normal average people instead of B rated "stars".

I just hope it doesn't get too "Big Brother-ish" and holds true to a magic focus.

B rated? Most of those would have to climb to make the D list. Let's just hope they don't expose tricks in the reality of showing the celebrities learning.

I've watched the show on VH1 and I'm glad to see they don't focus on giving away the secrets, at least for this first show. There task was to do street magic so the focus was more on performance, demonstration of magic skill, ability to get people, etc.

Agreed about the B-List celebrities. I'm sure they brought "Ant" in for the !@#$% factor and stir things up.

The Good:
It will definitely raise the sales of any tricks performed on the show. Will probably get a lot of people interested in performing magic.

The Bad:
There will be a bunch of people out there that will research the tricks to find out how they are done. This means if you already own those tricks and perform them, more people will probably know how they're done.

This has been discussed again and again and IMO it just ain't that big a deal!
About a year ago one of the gals that works for me told me she now knows the salt shaker through the table trick from a recent MindFreak episode......... so I brought out a shot glass, added a coin to the mix and did the exact same method. However, due to my handling and mix up of the props she was totally blown away and said that my way was sooooooooo much cooler and that what she thought she knew about CA's trick was completly dispelled by mine! LOL It's all in how ya play the game!

Oh and as for the show..... I just watched the clip from the VH1 site and I got a good chuckle out of it!

Wow, I finally watched the video, those really are D list celebrities.

The thing that I didn't like was Ant heckling the other performers. If I was his coach I would smack the stupid out of him. I hope this doesn't degenerate into Survivor with alliances and the like.

Post Script. Silly Billy is the MAN!

If you smacked the stupid out of him there'd be nothing left.

Jim

Amen Jim! I hope there will be a special episode where the other celebrities will combine their "powers" to make ant disappear. Personally I'd like to throw knives at him blindfolded while wearing earplugs.

I saw this video of Carnie Wilson on Celebracadbra today. I know I have just started too but she is really, really bad (almost as bad as she is at keeping off weight).

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnothe......de=reply

The D List celebrities are a real turn off. I think I only heard of that Kittycat Dolls Hottie. The rest I am like.." who?" Then again, it may just be the demographic of the target audience. Younger than I am.

All in all I think it's Positive, since it gets people talking about Magic. Personally I would have loved to see a Lance Burton TV Special, or " World's Greatest Magicians" again. But as someone once said. " There's no such thing as bad publicity." Anything that gets magic in people's minds is good for us.

1. More spectators watching.
2. More Magicians performing.

Someone said to me that membership in IBM, and SAM may be dropping. If the art is to continue we need to get the next generation involved. VH-1 Targets that generation.

Jeff McBride has granted at least two phone interviews that are available online. Don't judge the show quite yet. There are some great moments to come.

Now that Ant is off the show, along with all his drama, they can get back to the magic.

Gotta admit, I've never heard that phrase before, but it is one I'll remember!!

So far, I've enjoyed the first two episodes. I do think that people with no magical background who buy the dvds to "learn magic in minutes" will be disappointed!

I agree Ant had to go.

In general I've liked the two shows but I was disappointed of what they let go on in the kid show. Ant's stunt at the end could have really hurt some one.

I think the celebs should have freedom to express tghemselves but ultimately the show should have the final say as to whether the act will be performed.

I thought the first episode was really good. but once they started to advertise ellusionist in the second one, it just seemed like a way for them to make money to me.
and the crappy celebs really wreck the show. hopefully the show'll stick around long enough for some REAL celebs to be interested. I knew rocco and the pussy cat doll.

Would it not have been funny, if Ant had stayed and whoever had the magic power for winning broke up the teams and it ended up being Silly Billy as Ant's coach? I know Silly Billy doesn't dress like the typical clown with the face paint and everything, but he's close enough to a clown where Ant's phobia would have caused disruption in the lesson. When Ant first mentioned his clown phobia, I thought that was how they were going to get rid of him...partner him with Silly Billy!

As nice as it would have been to have seen Ant with Silly Billy, two things kind of rubbed me the wrong way about him. Besides the obvious drama queen mentality, and conspiracy alliance thing he had going. The way he went for cheap laughs with the funnel on the little girl... that was so not an accident, and totally innapropriate, and his endangering kids with that stupid.." Who wants candy!" schtick. After those 2 events in my mind it stopped being about Ant. And it became about his representation of magicians. While he is not a magician in our minds, who is to say what impression the lay public would have if we allowed those things to continue?

If it had not been for either I would have kept him on, and used my power to team him up with " mushroom *** hat." And ya, his face even without make up, has a clownlike quality to it.