REMINDER: Paul Wilsons TV series The Takedown Premieres TONIGHT!

[Richard Kaufman]

Paul Wilson's TV show The Takedown premieres on Court TV tonight at 10:30 pm eastern time.

[Steve Bryant]

The show was awesome. I was actually caught up in it, worried that they would get caught. Note to California guys: there's still time to catch the first episode!

[Pete Biro]

24 more minutes to wait.... will also tape it.

[Steve V]

I really enjoyed it, very well put together. Last time I saw Derek he was about 15 so it was odd seeing him as an adult. I really look forward to the next episodes.
Steve V

[Glenn Farrington]

Well done! Bravo guys!

[MaxNY]

Highly entertaining, great suspense, and not just for magicians, but I believe that the Normal Nielson family will also enjoy this wonderful piece of reality television.

[Bob Plaut]

Originally posted by MaxNY:
Highly entertaining, great suspense, and not just for magicians, but I believe that the Normal Nielson family will also enjoy this wonderful piece of reality television.

Although I enjoyed the show, it was far from "reality" with cameras all over the place catching everyone's "natural" reactions. Do you think it would be safe to say that what we saw last night was a re-enactment?

[KenAbbott]

I was anxiously awaiting the show. If it wasn't a re-enactment, I would have to question the whole premise. There were cameras everywhere, close-up shots of the coffee cup being moved, of the dice in Paul's hands, and the cameras even followed Paul down the stairs.

I also wondered about how they claimed victory. Paul got taken down stairs by security, the cup and magnet were found, and it appeared that only two of five legitimate dice were switched back in.

Assuming this was only a re-enactment of what really happened, it was good tv and suspenseful.

[Steve Bryant]

Well, yes, of course it's theater, but it was excellent theater. (That was my thought when the gang was commenting on all the heat at the table. I was thinking, maybe that camera crew from CourtTV is attracting attention.) Somebody on this show is great at scripting, editing, etc. Plus the guys made great actors. Altogether just a first rate show.

[Pete Biro]

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :mad:

IT WAS NOT ON IN LA AT THE TIME SCHEDULED... :mad:

WHAT TO DO ? :whack:

[Charles Spector]

Originally posted by Pete Biro:
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :mad:

IT WAS NOT ON IN LA AT THE TIME SCHEDULED... :mad:

WHAT TO DO ? :whack:

Pete,

It was on at 10:30 last night, as advertised. Does your cable company have Court TV?

Charles Spector

[Ken Becker]

Nope, it was not on in the LA area, even though the TV guide had it scheduled. I was tuned in to Court TV and an announcement prior, said it would debut next Tuesday. We were treated to more Forensic evidence TV.
No alternative but to wait. :(

[Guest]

I watched it last night. I live in LA. It was on at 10:30pm right after "Masterminds". It was ok. Next week looks better. They only switched one die. The 5 dice switch at the beginning doesn't count because the owner said he knew but wanted to keep it level.
Why didn't John Lovick just walk out of the casino instead of going to the bathroom?

[Todd Lassen]

Anybody catch Adam Grace, as a non-member of the team, tossing the dice? Haha. He had a unique way of holding the dice between his pinky and first finger I believe. What a coincidence..him walking in on the action at Crystal Bay. I wonder if he recognized the other guys. Haha.

I guess the casino crew might have been tipped off by 18 cameras filming the action..for one, and the dice switch in the office was like..sheesh, that could happen, but all in all I thought it was amusing and good to see the guys getting a break and having fun. Cheers.
Todd Lassen

[r paul wilson]

Thanks for the comments on the show.

The close-ups of things like the cup moving and the dice coming out of my pocket and being seen in my palm are pick-ups that we shoot after the takedown is over. We have to shoot a lot of these sometimes as the wandering cameras never know when they might happen. Without these inserts it's almost impossible to tell the audience what happened in a 30 minute show.

We usually give an excuse for the cameras to be in the environment we're working. On the craps day we were supposedly shooting a show about "Gambling And The Law". The staff were not supposed to know we were shooting "The Takedown" or that we were planning to cheat on the table.

The actual events on the show - increased security, deciding to switch the dice ahead of time, getting back-roomed before switching their dice in, asking Derek to switch without being warned in advance, ditching the magnet et. - all happened on the day and was not scripted. We walked in and they had turned the place into Fort Knox! We did everything we could to get something past them. As I said on the show, we should have just walked away but we were there to prove we could cheat even when they were burning us.

When the production company found out that I had switched the dice ahead of time they were really pissed but I felt that I was entitled to take the shot since security were obviously waiting for us to do something. It was a genuinely heated situation.

So much happened on the Craps show that we had to cut several things out. There are two dice switches that are NOT in the show because it would confuse the audience. In fact, security had been beefed up so much that we were forced to think on our feet and try anything we could. It was pretty stressful!

That being said, had we been at that table the day before we shot, we had a real chance of getting the five for five past the staff when they were'nt expecting it.

The presence of the cameras often causes security to show it's best face and come out stronger than they normally would but that's the only way we can shoot these shows without the whole show being grainy and uncomfortable to watch.

This was our first show and it took a couple more before we found better ways to operate within each environment. It's been a lot of work and there are some very cool shows on the way that use some of the equipment I've been involved with in the past.

Best,

P.

[Pete Biro]

It turns out that differenet neighborhoods in L.A. have different cable outlets and some ran the show and some did not.

Where I live it did not.

Oh well. :whack:

[Guest]

Paul, you saved Jason an email from me asking about the cameras. I would think that had their not been cameras they wouldn't have been so deligent about things, you know, wanting to look good for the camera. I didn't think you switching the dice in the office took anything away, you are presented as an expert and cheating so of course you would take the opportunity. Really a good show, even if you guys were not on it I would watch it as the subject matter is very interesting by itself.
Steve V

[Guest]

Paul,
Who was the blonde?

[Todd Karr]

My son Schuyler and I watched the show in LA on Court TV at 7:30 pm (the West Coast equivalent of the EST 10:30 pm broadcast) on Direct TV's cable system here in Marina del Rey. We enjoyed the show and wish Paul the best (Schuyler especially liked seeing our friend John Lovick, who hitched a ride with us to MagicLive last year).

[Jason England]

Just some quick comments about the airing of the show and the show itself.

I have Direct TV and the show aired here in California at 7:30. Obviously the Direct TV satellite broadcasts the East Coast feed to everyone, regardless of where you live. So, if you have Direct TV, then expect the show to be on at 7:30 PST, 8:30 MTN, 9:30 Central time, and 10:30 EST as advertised.

If you have a local cable channel providing you with your feed, then you have either the East Coast feed, or the West Coast feed, depending on where you live. Most of my cable-subscribing friends here on the West coast have (appropriately) the West Coast feed, and it came on at 10:30 West Coast time.

Pete, are you sure you 'missed' it because you didn't get it all, or did you miss it because you have a satellite dish and it aired 3 hours earlier than you expected it to? I'd be very surprised to hear you have some weird Court TV variant that didn't air the show at all! More likely it slipped under your radar by coming on at 7:30.

As to the show itself, other than Cops, which has criminals as actors, can any of you name a 'reality' show that doesn't use pickups when necessary? These things have to be done because we A. don't want the cameras to give away the action or secret moves in the moment or B. the cameras simply missed a move, or moment in the show that looks good or interesting and it has to be recreated. But understand that nothing was recreated without initially being done for real at least once, and in many cases multiple times during the evening. This will be abundantly clear with some of the other shows.

JDE

[Bill Mullins]

I really enjoyed the show.

Could one of you (Paul or Jason, or someone else) list the participants? TV credits are near useless nowadays, and I am not familiar with a couple of the "named" members of the team (not to mention that Adam Grace didn't even get introduced!).

I hope the rest of the episodes will be as good -- how many is the initial commitment from Court TV?

[Pete Biro]

Jason: Thanks, you solved it... DISH TV... ARgh... was probably on at 7:30 (just before my bedtime) :)

Fortunately a pal of mine taped it. Phew! :)

[Jason England]

Bill,

The participants are:

R. Paul Wilson - As you probably know, he and Damian Nieman (the director of SHADE) co-created the show. Paul is the main person in every episode.

Jason England - I'm sort of the Brad Pitt to Paul's George Clooney.

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Are we back? Okay. Actually, I guess I sort of play Paul's right hand man. When he got taken downstairs during the first episode, it suddenly dawned on me that we hadn't discussed what to do, or who was in charge if that happened. But, everyone looked to me to make a decision, so I told John Lovick to leave the table with the magnet. My position as No. 2 was locked in at that moment I guess. I'm in 9 of the 12 episodes.

John Lovick (aka Handsome Jack) - As most of you know he's a fantastic magician with one of the best parlor acts you'll ever see at the Castle. He's also a very clever guy. You'll see John again in several other shows. I think he's in at least 3 more.

Jennifer Erholm - Jennifer is there because someone has to look pretty, and Industrial Light and Magic took one look at me and Paul and said "we can't help them." She had no real experience when we began shooting, but has really taken to the world of cons and hustlers and got into it tremendously. She's done a great job in every episode, and she's in all but 2 I think.

Michael Zurich - A great LA based guy who's seen and done it all. Everyone loves to hate Michael because he's caustic and cynical, but that's part of his charm. A good friend that brings a lot to the table. He's our security and equipment guy, and has a good eye for detail. Michael is in 7 or 8 episodes.

Derek Delgaudio - Derek appears in 4 episodes and is our go to guy for just about anything. You ask him to do something and he does it. He may bitch about it, but he's fine when crunch time comes, and that's what's important. He did a great job in the poker episode as you'll all see.

Rob Fair - My buddy Rob is an imposing fellow. He's 6'8" and weighs about 315 lbs. We brought him in for security on 4 shows that Michael Zurich wasn't scheduled for. Rob is an ex-military man that just got back from Iraq in January, where he worked on a security detail. Rob's been in too many firefights in downtown Baghdad to count. No [censored] there, he's the real deal.

The members listed above are the "regulars" that appear in at least 4 episodes.

Some people that appear in only a single show are:

Melissa Herndon - Melissa is the number 10 ranked female 9-ball player in the world and a sweet person to boot. She's in the pool episode of course, and does a great job. That episode airs next week.

Linda Pine (from the Schwartzeneggar film 'End of Days') is in the Mini-Baccarat show. She's crucial to the Takedown, but was only in that one episode.

George Tovar, Adam Grace and his wife Sweetie, and a few other girls that are posing as extras round out the cast on the craps show, but they only appeared in that first episode.

Hope this helps.

JDE

[Jacky Kahan]

thanks for all the updates...
this makes me want a copy even more :)
could someone do that for me? of course i'll pay expenses....

cheers

jacky
www.magicbooks.be

[Guest]

Has anyone out there written a biography of R Paul Wilson? Maybe he has an autobiography? I am curious to know more about him especially whether or not he is Scottish. On the show he sounds like he is but that he is trying to hide it. Has anyone else noticed this?