Brilliant news - Shawn Farquhar on Ellen

[Mark.Lewis]

I just exerted myself.

[Magic Newswire]

I hate to bring it up, but haven't we strayed off topic a bit?

[Richard Kaufman]

Yes, far from the topic.

GET BACK ON TOPIC you naughty boys.

[Mark.Lewis]

I expect Mr Farquahar is quite relieved that we have strayed from the topic. I rather think Mr Vickers reminds me of those dreadful busybody neighbourhood watch people.

[Magic Newswire]

Ha! Mr. Lewis, I doubt that Shawn is worried about your comments. I know that I'm not.

[Mark.Lewis]

I doubt that Shawn is concerned about my comments either. After all I have been fairly mild and rather constructive. After all I am always happy to help the younger generation. He may however not be excited by the comments of others.

[Tim Ellis]

I hate to bring it up, but haven't we strayed off topic a bit?

Mark Lewis posted... what do you expect? ;)

[Mark.Lewis]

Timothy my boy. If you go back over this thread it will be seen that you started it. And please do not wink in public. I find such behaviour most unseemly.

I shall bring the conversation back to Shawn since that seems to be Mr Vickers desire. I will certainly say that I like his television performance far better than the irritating clip on the newswire website. I have never approved of people enjoying themselves.

[Mark.Lewis]

Dearie me. If Mr Vickers is not concerned about my comments he may have a stronger reaction to what I just found.

http://deadmagicianssociety.com/blog/?paged=2

Much nastier than even Mr Goat. And the comments make Richard and I seem positively gentle. I have no idea if I agree with them or not. I shall read it more carefully and ponder the matter.

I wish the critic had put his real name though. That does help the credibility somewhat.

[Mark.Lewis]

I have just read it more thoroughly. I am loath to say that I agree with pretty well all of it. But yet I don't want to agree with it. I hate the venom with which it was written and I am not sure I like the writer.

Although I agree with it there are still things to be said in favour of Shawn. The main thing is that it went over very well although I suppose you never can tell the real truth on television.

But in any event faults don't matter that much. I make mistakes every time I work. I refuse to be perfect. Perfection is a fault in itself. That is why I don't like "scripts". Or directors. Or lessons in theatre. Faults aren't the big deal. It is lack of virtues you really have to worry about. I think Shawn has virtues.

After reading that blog I am ashamed that I criticised a fellow performer. Normally I only criticise when asked or when someone annoys me. After reading that venom, true as it is, I will never criticise a magician again unless there is a very good reason to do so.

[Richard Kaufman]

That's a wild blog.

[Mark.Lewis]

Who is cardman anyway? Anybody know? I will check the spelling anyway. That always gives away the fact if the person is not American. The British, Canadians and Australians spell differently.

[Mark.Lewis]

After having a look at the spelling and the word "dude" I am pretty convinced that "Cardman" is an American.

[Mark.Lewis]

If Richard does a search for his own name on that site he will find that he is mentioned although I am not sure if it is positively or negatively.

[Magic Newswire]

http://deadmagicianssociety.com/blog/?paged=2

Good Lord. That site has been around for ages. Are you really just discovering that?

It's one of several that has allegedly been hijacked by MILF (the Magician's Independent Liberation Front) including
http://weeklymagicfailure.blogspot.com/
&
http://deadmagicianssociety.com/blog/

[Richard Kaufman]

Too much free time on their hands.

[mrgoat]

Much nastier than even Mr Goat. I wish the critic had put his real name though. That does help the credibility somewhat.

Are all authors who use pseudonyms not credible?

If only Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll had used their real names, they would have been credible.

Tosh and poppycock.

That said, I agree wholeheartedly with the chap. Smack a little of Magic Circle Jerk if you ask me.

[Mark.Lewis]

I think on reflection that I agree with Mr Goat after all concerning the name thing. The chap seems to knowledgable albeit venemous, whoever he is. He does seem to have it in for our beloved Tim Ellis for some reason or other.

[Magic Newswire]

Just wondering if anyone here realizes that your comments have an impact on the possibility of seeing Shawn on Ellen for a second or third time.

[Richard Kaufman]

Why would the comments of magicians who generally never watch Ellen's show have any impact whatsoever on rebooking him when he was seen almost entirely by laymen the first time, and liked, and will be seen almost entirely by laymen every time he's on.

Are you going to try and blame our critical thoughts for the fact that a booker on a major show doesn't book him again? Then the booker is an idiot because the number of magicians is the tiniest fly speck of the audience--a number so low as to be less than meaningless.

[David Scollnik]

Someone probably already posted this youtube video of Shawn Farquhar on Ellen, but if they did I missed it. So for anyone else in the same boat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Aeb-3rWms

[Mark.Lewis]

Just wondering if anyone here realizes that your comments have an impact on the possibility of seeing Shawn on Ellen for a second or third time.

This may possibly be a fair comment since this site does come up on search engines which I think is a bit of a pity. I don't think it will affect Shawn in the slightest but it is a fair point to think about. Other forums seem to be able to avoid search engines. I wonder why this can't. Mind you I don't understand computers so I am the last one to ask.

Another point is that this site is very slow to load up. I thought at first it was anti-Mark Lewis software but I have since found out that goody two shoes (not that he wears any shoes, of course) Paul Pacific has the same problem.

[Magic Newswire]

Just letting you know that they have in fact read this thread and his return to the show is currently up in the air because of it. In fact, he was almost dropped from appearing because of a comment that was posted on another topic elsewhere by a teenager. The producers came to him and asked about it saying that they may not shoot the segment. I'm not trying to blame anyone for anything, just an FYI.

[James Munton]

I agree that Richard should make the forum posts invisible to the search engines. I don't think it is hard to do.

[Mark.Lewis]

Now I am REALLY feeling guilty.

Of course now that we know all sorts of important TV people are reading this no doubt we will all be posting videoclips of ourselves.

I don''t think Richard will get booked though. Calling television producers "idiots" is not a good thing. Ask Ali Bongo. Oh sorry. I forgot. You can't.

And I can't too even as a psychic reverend. He didn't like talking to me when he was alive never mind from the spirit world.

And yes. I agree wholeheartedly that this site should be made invisible from the search engines if such a thing is possible. You can't see one word from the buskers forum for example.

[Mark.Lewis]

It occurs to me that if anyone from Ellen's show is really reading our words perhaps they could register and comment on this matter.

[Jonathan Townsend]

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2010/01/tal ... k-0124.php

Dodd, how specifically do you know that someone from the Ellen show has read the Genii thread? And what specifically was the comment made by the "teenager" you referenced? A link to the latter would be helpful.

[Mark.Lewis]

I won't be commenting on this new young man's performance. I have learned my lesson where that is concerned. I will say again though that I am very impressed with Ellen. She knows how to make a magician look good. I have seen too many TV hosts make magicians look bloody awful.

Mind you the best person I ever saw handle a loud mouthed host was John Styles from the UK. I still remember he put Bruce Forsyth in his place and I was very impressed at the time. I think the best procedure for a magician who is going to be on TV is to research the host beforehand and see what kind of person you have to contend with. Then be prepared in your mind as to how you are going to handle him if he acts up.
You will then at least be ready to do battle if need be.

[Richard Kaufman]

Of course I want the Forum to register on search engines as highly as possible--that's what the Internet is all about.

As for Shawn's subsequent appearances on Ellen's show being up in the air because of comments on here: that's assinine. TV people all have their heads up their asses, and if true, this only reinforces the point. Why would any TV booker or producer pay attention to magicians jibber-jabbering among themselves?

[Mark.Lewis]

Dodd might be spinning us a story.

[Magic Newswire]

We recorded our chat with Shawn for "This Week in Magic" last night. It should be up tomorrow. This topic came up during the discussion and I'll let you hear it from him then.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Thanks Dodd, I look forward to an intersting listen.

[mrgoat]

We recorded our chat with Shawn for "This Week in Magic" last night. It should be up tomorrow. This topic came up during the discussion and I'll let you hear it from him then.

Something is screwy with the episode title and ampersands...

[Mark.Lewis]

We recorded our chat with Shawn for "This Week in Magic" last night. It should be up tomorrow. This topic came up during the discussion and I'll let you hear it from him then.

Tell us now. Not everyone wants to listen to the whole thing. Or at least tell us at which point the matter comes up.And of course since the TV people are supposed to be reading this they can go and have a listen too.

[mrgoat]

Dodd might be spinning us a story.

D'ya think?

[Mark.Lewis]

Dunno. Do you?

[mrgoat]

Dunno. Do you?

I do not believe for a split second that a talent booker would make a decision on booking talent based on anything anyone says on the interwebs. Especially magicians.

[Mark.Lewis]

I think you have a point. Perhaps it is Shawn who is spinning the story to shut us all up and make us feel guilty?

[mrgoat]

Possibly, but even though he wears odd jackets, I would have thought him man enough to take the views of his peers with a pinch of salt as he walks down the road to bank the cash he got that we didn't get.

:)

[Tom Ecclestone]

If Richard wants to stop the forum appearing on search engines, all he needs to do is add a file robots.txt in the root directory of the site (i.e. same place as index.html) containing the following

User-agent: *
Disallow: /forums/

he can look at http://www.robotstxt.org/ for more details.