The Genii Forum

It has been some time since a magician landed a new TV series. Surely we are due for another one to appear sometime soon. Is there someone out there that you think could support a multi year TV deal? If so.. wo and why? I look forward to your answers and hope that it leads me to someone new worthy of a new podcast.

Well, Criss Angel just signed a deal for 11 one-hour specials on Spike TV and no one seems to care about that.

Other candidates?

Justin Flom should definitely be on track for a TV special ... in this age of reality TV - I'm surprised he hasn't already been signed up. He's fresh, works well on camera and appeals to a younger demographic.

A multi-year deal though is only ever going to be based on ratings et al.

If a magician does land a TV series that achieves any kind of success, it is unlikely to be a magician who would be chosen by other magicians.

The February Genii arrived today in Mancheter, UK.

I was amazed to see the Feb Genii here in Hastings. I'm only 1/3 finished with January -- the Harry Lorayne tricks are great!

Matt Field

Still searching. There has to be someone that's getting some attention from a network somewhere

Cris's fame has been largely confined to the USA (i'm aware his shows have been broadcast internationally but not generally in prime-time slots on major networks) so in the global scheme of things he's fairly small fry - there's a whole load of magicians working in the rest of the world with considerably bigger fanbase's across more countries than he has. So if the question is "who's the next American magician to get a regular job on US tv" then it's going to be someone like Justin Flom; someone who's out there doing the smaller shows now and crawling their way up the TV tree.

If the question is who's going to be the next "big thing" in magic with TV specials & chat show appearances hitting the kind of global awareness that Copperfield / Blaine achieved then odds on it's going to be someone out of Asia as that's the market currently having a magic boom that will give one performer enough momentum to become international.

Criss Angel's TV specials and show Mindfreak were on cable channels in the US (not network)--small audiences with mediorce to decent ratings despie his outlandish claims. The ratings for Mindfreak were, at a minimum, good enough to get it renewed for multiple seasons. But you're talking about generally less than a million people watching each episode.

The only network thing he did was Phenomenon, which was a bomb both artistically and ratings wise. Putting an incredibly savvy pro like Uri Geller together with Criss Angel was a bad idea.

It's absolutely unbelievable that the only magic series we've had on TV for full seasons has been Mindfreak, and that no other magician has been able to gain any traction. Frankly, I think American peoples' interest in seeing magic on TV lasts no longer than a 7-minute piece on Ellen or Letterman or Craig Ferguson.

Who is Criss Angel and what does he do?

Frankly, I think American peoples' interest in seeing magic on TV lasts no longer than a 7-minute piece on Ellen or Letterman or Craig Ferguson.

That's not an american thing, it's a global TV thing and it takes a well established star to be able to avoid the TV demand for short snappy bites and instead engage an audience in a longer sequence (ie Derren Brown's early TV specials were all 3min sections whereas now he has hour long shows with only 2 or 3 much more complicated and time consuming effects) The long-exposition, gentleman magician presentation style that peeked in the 80's is long gone.

The next big thing you're going to see in the US is going to be one of the "magic" American Idol style shows; variations on the format have been rattling around the rest of the world for 10 years now (Phenominon / The Successor / New Uri Geller was an early pioneer of the format, Penn & Teller Fool us was a very late arrival) and there are a couple that have grown to sufficient size and ratings that american networks will be looking at licensing the format. (Franz Harary seems to have spent the last 2 years doing nothing but being a magic talent show judge :-p)

Maybe I should have left Cris; name off of this post. What I am getting at is this. Who is out there doing something special with magic? Why do you offer up their name or consideration? Would their style and presentation be something that today's television audience would find interesting enough to justify a series of shows on a network, cable or otherwise? Just looking for your thoughts to see if anyone interesting pops up.

Thanks!

I wonder if Cyril could find an audience besides Japan.

Doug Thornton wrote:I wonder if Cyril could find an audience besides Japan.

He already has, in other parts of Asia.

His new multi-character series that was previewed at EMC looks like it might be fun. It's a shame we in the US probably won't get the opportunity to see it (it's not a reality series loaded with ersatz celebrities) even though it was shot in Hawaii.

Three names come to mind, all have acting backgrounds and one already has his foot in the door:
Derek DelGaudio, Helder Guimares & Neil Patrick Harris
They have the looks, the talent, and the momentum.

Neil is not going to segue a successful career as an actor/host/singer/director for being an illusionist. Though he loves magic, that would not be a good career choice for him.

While it's possible that Derek and Helder's show may eventually end up as a TV special (that would be great because of the exposure for magic), what they're doing is not suited to the can-do-everything approach that the next big-name magician will need.

Mark Lewis and his Goat of Wonder. This could be big.

my daughter.
she'll charm your pants off.