OK. I am making a confession. If you search my past posts you will see that I was not that positive about the magicians this year. The mentalism duo were great showbiz, I thought. People were competent but not the top talent in our field, as far I could perceive.
MAT FRANCO won so a great big congratulations to him. So many other top illusionists in our field have tried. I realize the 90 second format is difficult. Mat was very creative and certainly built the impact of his framing of magical experiences. Judges loved him. Good for him.
It seems to me that people primarily were taking fairly standard close-up magic and framing it on a new way for the show. I give them props for that. The level of magical skills, sleights, etc. was not very advanced...but do the judges (actual and the audience) care? Apparently, not, although they praise highly trained skills in other acts. (I know we hide ours.)
For myself, I will admit, the level of practice, difficulty, professionalism and training exhibited by many of the other acts, I though far out paced the magicians. (and I LOVE magic.)
I really mean congratulations to MAT. He pulled off his most amazing feat tonight. His career is on the rise. Watch out Vegas! Hope he continues to get good consultants and a great life in magic. I will learn from him.
I honestly am interested in other reactions. I am trying to learn how people perceive they are entertained by our "art." Peace....Fred (Reisz)
AGT Winner!!! A MAGICIAN Mea Culpa
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AGT Winner!!! A MAGICIAN Mea Culpa
"The art of magic is the magic of art."
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Re: AGT Winner!!! A MAGICIAN Mea Culpa
My heart weeps for magic...
- Richard Kaufman
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Re: AGT Winner!!! A MAGICIAN Mea Culpa
Don't weep. A magician won ... doing material geared solely toward the lay judges. Who would have thought that any magician could ever win?
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Re: AGT Winner!!! A MAGICIAN Mea Culpa
I never did, ever.. and I'm happy he did. It means more gigs for all of us.
Magic is back on the rise again.
Magic is back on the rise again.
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Re: AGT Winner!!! A MAGICIAN Mea Culpa
My god, how wonderful. A pretty much straight ahead out of this world, with some larger visuals for the theater audience, a pretty clever, but traditional cups and balls, and an ambitious card routine, no better or worse than many others. All well performed. And it won a million dollars and launched a career: with simple tricks most people here already do.
How fantastic is that! How great that an audience can love the effects that we all loved the first time we saw them (before we became jaded and bored), enough to beat incredible competition.
You guys should be thrilled.
How fantastic is that! How great that an audience can love the effects that we all loved the first time we saw them (before we became jaded and bored), enough to beat incredible competition.
You guys should be thrilled.
Re: AGT Winner!!! A MAGICIAN Mea Culpa
This is great. Among other good qualities, he has a huge amount of poise.
I haven't seen this mentioned, but in the Ambitious Card sequence when he's working for Heidi, he accidentally loses the selected, signed card. The sequence starts at around 2:15. He ends up with the Ace of Spades in his mouth instead of the selected card. Heidi is terribly confused, and there is no reaction from the audience. When he sees his mistake he doesn't even blink, he just moves on to the finale, after he relocates the selected card.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbgFeG3ck8g
Very impressive work under immense pressure.
I haven't seen this mentioned, but in the Ambitious Card sequence when he's working for Heidi, he accidentally loses the selected, signed card. The sequence starts at around 2:15. He ends up with the Ace of Spades in his mouth instead of the selected card. Heidi is terribly confused, and there is no reaction from the audience. When he sees his mistake he doesn't even blink, he just moves on to the finale, after he relocates the selected card.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbgFeG3ck8g
Very impressive work under immense pressure.
- Dustin Stinett
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Re: AGT Winner!!! A MAGICIAN Mea Culpa
When we were watching it, I said "That was a mistake" and my wife said, "What was a mistake?"