Wizard Wars on March 4 on SyFy

[Richard Kaufman]

From Wired online:
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/02/ ... zard-wars/

Penn & Teller fans take note!

"The format is simple: Two two-person teams of greenhorn magicians are pitted against each other in a magic-off where they are given an assortment of random objects and tasked with integrating them into an original trick. The winner of that round—chosen by a panel of judges led by Penn & Teller—then faces The Wizards, a group that includes World Championship of Magic winner Gregory Wilson, Ellen DeGeneres favorite Justin Flom, and mentalist Angela Funovitz. (Sadly, no Gob Bluth.) If they beat the Wizards, the n00bs get $10,000, “but more importantly they get the respect of everyone in the magic community,” Lax says, “because everyone knows how good the Wizards are.”

The original pilot is imbedded in the article.

(Link courtesy of magicweek.co.uk)

[Bryan So]

Is this show showing on March 4, 2014? Not able to find official show time in Syfy or U-Verse listings.

[Brad Henderson]

air date has been pushed back several months

[Matthew Field]

"Greenhorn magicians." Ugh.

Matt Field

[Brad Henderson]

I don't believe contestants were made aware that they would be portrayed so derisively in the pitch.

[Tom Frame]

I’m surprised that no one has commented on the first episode. So, here are my two cents.

The judges are Penn & Teller, Jason Latimer and Christen Gerhart. The first three magicians are well known and I respect them. But who in the hell is Christen Gerhart? She is billed as a famous magic critic. I’ve been an obsessive student of magic for 41 years and I’ve never heard of her.

The wizards are Gregory Wilson, Justin Flom, David Shimshi and Angela Funovits.

Each week, two teams, consisting of two amateur magicians are given a number of props that they must incorporate into a performance. They can also use items from the “magic shop.” The teams perform their routines and the judges determine the winning team.

That team is then pitted against two of the wizards. Again, the two teams are given several props with which to create a routine. The teams perform their routines and the judges choose the winning team. If the amateurs win, they receive $10,000. If the wizards win, they, uh, win.

The highlight of the episode was an amazing card effect performed by Chris Funk and Ekaterina. Penn freely named any card. Ekaterina removed the card from the deck, placed it on a table and Penn signed its face. Ekaterina placed the card face up on the face-down deck. She turned the card face down onto the deck, removed it and placed it on Penn’s palm.

Chris placed his empty palm-down hand on top of the card and talked about steam cleaning the card. Smoke emanated from between their palms. Chris lifted his empty hand and turned the card face-up onto Penn’s palm. Penn’s signature had vanished. Ekaterina picked up the card and peeled back one of the card’s layers, revealing Penn’s signature written on the interior layer!!

Holy high-heeled Hoover! That is an excellent effect! I’ve never seen anything like it, and I have no clue how it was done. I loved it! The judges praised it highly and stated that they’d never seen anything like it either. It will undoubtedly appear on the market in the very near future.

I enjoyed the program and plan to tune in each and every week.

Your thoughts?

[Bill Mullins]

But who in the hell is Christen Gerhart? She is billed as a famous magic critic. I’ve been an obsessive student of magic for 41 years and I’ve never heard of her.

Zero hits for "Christen Gerhart" in AskAlexander.

[Dustin Stinett]

She does have a web presence and seems to be an M-A-W (Magician, Actress, Whatever). She appears to have an impressive background in astronomy (JPL and the Mt. Wilson Observatory).

http://www.christengerhart.com/

[Joe Pecore]

But who in the hell is Christen Gerhart? She is billed as a famous magic critic. I’ve been an obsessive student of magic for 41 years and I’ve never heard of her.

Zero hits for "Christen Gerhart" in AskAlexander.

I've seen her as a host on the Theory 11 video series Expose: http://media.theory11.com/tag:Expose

[Tom Frame]

Thanks for telling me everything that I need to know about her “contributions” to the art of magic and her “qualifications” as a magic critic.

So, what did you think of the program?

[Brad Henderson]

Hey magicians. This is what the creator of Wizard Wars (and seller of the cover trick to Fulve's 'easy to do magic tricks for children' book thinks about you:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... hacks.html

He didn't seem to have this attitude when he was selling you his awesome downloads of his ancient tricks, did he?

Magic once again takes a back seat to personal gain and self promotion.

regarding the show. it had too much of an island of misfit toys vibe and I'm not it will ever move beyond 'same [censored] different stuff'.

Matt field has a great observation re the quest for he original which I hope he will post here.

having said that, it could have been worse.