TV magic shows: now you see them, now you don't

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TV magic shows: now you see them, now you don't

Dynamo: Magician Impossible is spell-binding television �
after the demise of The Magicians and Penn & Teller is he
the future of TV magic?

Card sharp... magician Dynamo is wowing TV audiences on
Watch. Photograph: David Fisher /Rex Features

Stuart Heritage
The Guardian
Thursday, July 5, 2012

Last week was an especially bad one for television
magicians. In one fell swoop, ITV and the BBC axed their
respective Saturday night magic shows, The Magicians and
Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Leaving aside the number of
rabbits, doves and spangly costume manufacturers who will
no doubt struggle for work in this harsh new climate, the
fact is that this is now one of the worst times to be in
televised magic.

Admittedly, a lot of the blame lies with the axed
programmes. Despite being relatively smart for Saturday
night fare, Fool Us found itself trapped within last
year's ITV Saturday Summer Line-Up Of Doom � remember The
Marriage Ref? � from which it could never hope to escape.
The Magicians, on the other hand, was just woeful. The
presenters and performers had no charisma, the production
had all the faded glamour of a miserable seaside holiday
and, perhaps most damningly of all, the minor celebrities
who appeared on the show would always somehow escape from
their tricks completely unharmed.

But, regardless of the quality or scheduling of these
shows, it's sad to see television bereft of magicians. Or
at least almost bereft. Because, over on Watch, Dynamo:
Magician Impossible is going gangbusters. In fact, it's
the channel's most-watched show by some margin. The
second series of Magician Impossible begins tonight, and
buses are covered in adverts for the show. Watch
broadcasts shows like Too Fat For 15 and celebrity
rollercoaster gameshow Scream if You Know The Answer. It
shouldn't have the money to cover buses in anything. But
Dynamo has bucked the trend. Dynamo, it seems, is a big
deal.

Perhaps all this success is because Dynamo isn't anyone's
idea of a traditional magician. He doesn't have a lovely
assistant. He doesn't have a mullet. He appears to suffer
from a healthy aversion to dry ice. He wasn't even
accepted into the Magic Circle until last year. He's just
a normal guy, albeit one with a silly name, who can walk
across the Thames and hang out with his enormous coterie
of celebrity friends whenever he likes.

The closest performer to Dynamo is probably David Blaine.
The cool street magician David Blaine who everyone liked,
that is, not the weirdo David Blaine who spent a month in
a box being pelted with sausages that time. Dynamo's
career is still in its infancy, so he still delights in
making crowds of strangers yell with disbelief because
he's trapped their phone in a bottle. It's derivative,
but at least his schtick doesn't involve gooning around
with Craig Revel Horwood, so he's automatically leagues
ahead of anything that The Magicians offered up.

So there's hope for television magic yet. People may have
tired of Penn & Teller and all the swishy-sleeved BBC
nonsense, but the future belongs to Dynamo - the new
David Blaine. Now all he needs to do is draw an eye on
his hand and freak Eamonn Holmes out.

More at:

http://m.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/jul/05/saturday-night-magic-shows-dynamo

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj

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