NBC airs Secrets of Psychics Revealed

[MaxNY]

Tonight (April 23,2003) NBC aired a show called Secrets of Psychics Revealed. This Bruce Nash/Don Weiner show appeared to be a relative to the other revealed shows, except this was bought by NBC, not Fox. Four "psychics" were brought out, they had made-up names like John St. Ives, Mark Edward and Chris. They all used phrases like "At this moment in time" instead of the Blaine... "now..." The first psychic used a telephone psychic in order to read a choosen card. Another psychic asked three people to write down numbers, then a forth person added them all up, to match a sealed envelope that was mailed to the studio weeks in advanced.
--also revealed was a wine glass that was mentally smashed, a dagged covered with paper cups, and the pschic smashes two, but somehow? doesn't choose to smash the last cup.. (wasn't some Canadian guy really hurt by screwing this up?)
---Cold readings were revealed, as well as remote viewing.
---The needle thru the arm was revealed, but there was no blood. The needle had a bulb on it, but I just knew TV censors wouldn't have anything to do with blood. Again I ask, does this trick still stand on it's own, when your audience has bolts in their tongues?
---A card was revealed by a psychic who was blindfolded, with his hands tied behind his back.
---A ring on a pencil floated up, spirit slates asked a personal question.
---A coil turned red hot, just by concentrating. I might just add this one to my walk-around stuff, see if it fools any kids.
---A dollar bill folded up with just...brains!
---They also showed how TV pychics may pretend to talk with the dead.
---I don't think the show will pull big ratings, was this a repeat? The best thing revealed was that McDonalds changed their Chicken McNuggets.

[Guest]

I have always been against ANY exposures. Even though some of the "secrets" revealed were more fanciful and contrived than Dunninger's articles in "Science & Invention" magazine. Seems like a lot of magic instead of psychic stuff was used in what was an AVOIDENCE of the real M.O.'s of those with it and for it. But this can still diminish the effectiveness of all performers...To those of you who didn't like the magic secrets revealed, now you know how your mystic fellow travelers feel,when money/publicity seeking like-Valentinos, hide behind the "skeptic's" mask
to justify their profiting by exposing. Can't/shouldn't do anything about this show or NBC...but remember exposures benefit no one.
Many magicians will not like the show,(with reason) but if John Edward bothered to watch, he would only laugh.

[Terry]

The "talking with the dead" piece exposed the ruse that TV Preachers such as WV Grant and Peter Popoff used. The exposure being pre-show interviews by a staff member and info relayed to psychic/fraudulant preacher.

Most know that John Edwards uses cold reading, but it would take more time to "expose".

The argument over exposure of fraud psychics and such is not the same as exposure of magicians secrets. With a magician, you know up front that it is not real and magicians do not claim it as such. Psychics play up their supposed "powers" as real and try to hook people to continually defraud/steal their money. And before the argument starts, taking money under false pretenses is fraud/theft.

Trying to compare the two is apples/oranges.

[Richard Kaufman]

I don't sense the usual outrage over the exposures here. I think it stinks!
What do the rest of you think?
The Needle Through Arm is not some public domain item, but belongs to Bruce Spangler ("You Do Voodoo") and the thing with the knife and paper cups belongs to Gary Kurtz, except that he did it with brown paper bags instead of cups. And, yes, he did smash his hand onto the knife in an early performance, and Jay Sankey drove him to the hospital for stitches.

[Steve Bryant]

I was horrified. I was at a relative's house (God, dare I admit I was watching Dawson's Creek?) and flipped channels at a commercial just in time to see the needle through arm exposed, majorly exposed. I didn't even know what the program was. I can't bear to watch this crap and never watched the Fox versions. So for me it was back to Katie Holmes. (Note: I have also seen the needle through arm in some recent kiddie Halloween book.)

[Robert Allen]

Fortunately I don't watch much TV so I didn't see this :( . I'm outraged on each and every show that exposes magic, just for the heck or it, since it is the worst kind of pandering to those of little imaginations and short attention spans, not to mention that it hurts people who do magic, either for money or for fun.

Houdini-wanna-be's, dating back to Randi and including all the currently spawned ones, should really stop to analyze why they are opposed to psychic magic/readings. It's entertainment. People pay for entertainment. Since none of us are real psychics I don't think we can know whats in the mind of a spectator of such entertainment. As long as a psychic entertainer isn't doing the gypsy switch to bilk the customer out of their life savings, I don't begruge someone who does cold readings for pay in the privacy of their own shop (though I think it's in very poor form the way John Edwards is presented).

Exposure of magic on TV is just another example of how America wants to be handed everything on a silver platter instead of having to work for it, or *gasp*, pay hard earned cash to buy an effect or a book to see how it works. For shame :(

[Guest]

I for one am very upset at the airing of this special. All exposure is bad, as it diminishes the art that I love so much.
Terry, you can expose John Edwards all day long, but these people are showing the secrets of mentalists and magicians. This is not just hurting fraud psychics.
If you were to read some of the other magic boards (Magic Talk), you would see posts saying things like "its ok, these methods were a joke". Who would put a mirror in a shoe? What these people need to realize is that it doesn't matter if this is the way these effects are accomplished, as long as your audience thinks they are. And yes people, human hair is what they used to use before IT came out.
MaxNY, yes they did show blood with the needle thru arm, but he only did it at the very end.
I agree that these actors playing "psychics" need more practice, but this still hurts the art.

Mike :mad:

[Guest]

Originally posted by Robert Allen:
Fortunately I don't watch much TV so I didn't see this :( . I'm outraged on each and every show that exposes magic, just for the heck or it, since it is the worst kind of pandering to those of little imaginations and short attention spans, not to mention that it hurts people who do magic, either for money or for fun.

Houdini-wanna-be's, dating back to Randi and including all the currently spawned ones, should really stop to analyze why they are opposed to psychic magic/readings. It's entertainment. People pay for entertainment. Since none of us are real psychics I don't think we can know whats in the mind of a spectator of such entertainment. As long as a psychic entertainer isn't doing the gypsy switch to bilk the customer out of their life savings, I don't begruge someone who does cold readings for pay in the privacy of their own shop (though I think it's in very poor form the way John Edwards is presented).

Talk about your non sequiturs. I don't at all see how your first paragraph, with which I agree, relates to the second. If only the show HAD been a Randi-style evisceration of John Edwards et al., who are not merely exhibiting "poor form" but are flat-out frauds.

[Guest]

And, yes, he did smash his hand onto the knife in an early performance, [/QB][/QUOTE]

Ditto. Nothing like that "OH God, please no!" feeling followed by a spectacularly stigmatic gush of plasma.

Incidentally, if this also happens to anyone here...go to the hospital immediately. If you don't...figuring you'll dress it and go in the morning...you'll be screwed. Deep cuts to your palm can't be stitched up the next day. Risk of infection. Consequently, the healing time doubles.

Burke
Yeah, I'll show you the scar.

[Guest]

Kevin -- Loved the line about "bleeding like a stuck mentalist."

[Guest]

I watched the show and the only thing I can say that made me happy was no magicians or mentalist took part, they used actors. I'm of the belief that any exposure serves to take away the pleasure magic fans have in watching a performance. It doesn't matter if the method shown is correct or not, the spectator doesn't see the method they see the result of said method. There was some very good conciepts exposed and that is a shame for those that use them and also for those that 'use' to enjoy watching them being performed.

Note that I have had spectators say that they have watched exposure shows and then say they wish they had not done so.
Steve V

[Guest]

Wow,,,what can one say?

I am in Florida for a gig and turned on the tube to see this. I am not sure it was "psychics" they were revealing. More focus should have been on people like John Edwards. What is the old expression,,,"apples don't fall far from the tree"? I guess I should not be surprised to see that "losers" run in the Edwards family tree. I have a feeling that he was bobbing for more than apples to get this TV spot.

[Guest]

Yes Richard, (all) exposure stinks. Not all were actors...among those were Mark Edward,(a nice guy)a long time psychic entertainer,who has done everything from psychic 900 infomercials to performing the Houdini seance at The Magic Castle.
You don't have to analyze why the "Houdini-wanna-bes" create attention for themselves, using "psychics", as their vehicle. REALITY: They KNOW that they cannot stop psychics/beliefs from continuing, but actually NEED them to get attention and money. Just as Farrakhan and Duke know they would be out of business, if Jews and others they profess to hate, disappeared,professional "skeptics" know without their professed adversaries, they would have to find honest work...they are so transparent. Exposure stinks.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Diego Domingo:
Just as Farrakhan and Duke know they would be out of business, if Jews and others they profess to hate disappeared, professional "skeptics" know without their professed adversaries, they would have to find honest work.

Boy, that one'll win you a scholarship to Analogy School!

[Ira Rush]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
I don't sense the usual outrage over the exposures here. I think it stinks!
What do the rest of you think? ...

I for one am very outraged, Exposure is exposure

If they had warned against handing them $1,000's of dollars for each psychic reading, I would have nominated them for an "Emmy", but instead it was exposure.

They blew away some material that Bruce Spangler and Gary Kurtz perform.

They blew away "IT",

They blew away the use of "shiners" (yes the location of the shiner was a little absurd, but it was the same idea).

They blew an effect with the telephone card reading that I remember reading a long time ago in "The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks" by Jean Hugard.

They blew away "Cold Reading" and even if you're not a "mentalist" it is still a viable way of working with the crowd during a performance.

Exposure of psychics, I think not, cheap tricks (no pun intended) on the part of the networks to boost sagging ratings !

I for one am very outraged, Exposure is Exposure

[Guest]

Somehow, I doubt Harry Anderson is going to stop doing his version of the needle. By the same token, I don't think viewership of Crossing Over is going to drop one household, and the corner mitt camp isn't going to lose a single appointment.

Exposure sucks, but it's a fact of life, and will remain so until a creator wins a lawsuit and makes exposure shows more expensive than the profits they generate. Then, TV exposure will stop like a big stopping thing.

Burke

[Jon Racherbaumer]

Im more sensitive to the words used by the producers and advertisers. The show was supposedly about revelation, ostensibly to protect the consumer. They did not say "exposure," but used the word "revealed."

"Revelation" suggests "transparency," which is a word bandied about a lot these days.

There are of course a myriad of connotative definitions of exposure as far as we magicians are concernedmost of them negative. However, many laymen (too many, in fact) think of expose and expos in almost the same mental "breath." In their minds, an "expose" consists of revelations divulged for the purpose of discrediting perpetrators, regardless of who they are, of trickery and fraud. It is a generic condemnation, and I detect a whiff of rectitude and righteous indignation, as well.

Pinhead television producers seeking sweeps-week filler, especially those inexpensive to produce, assume that an exposure of psychics is aptly cheesy enough to fill the bill. The news magazines previewing the current fodder didnt think much of the show, called it cheesy faresomething to watch when youve had your fill of Cops reruns. Also, because some lay people think that any trickery or fraudulence is bad (in principle), they lump magicians in with phony charlatans and truly harmful swindlers and tricksters such as Mr. Edwards. They dont care one whit that magicians are benign entertainers

To me, the worst aspects of these low-rent, banal, and counter-productive shows are: (1) They strongly suggest that all of the tricks being revealed are nothing special. They are merely simple, cheap tricks made even cheaper once the modus operandi is explained. (2) Magic is meant to exploit, manipulate, and dupe people, making fools of them. Anyone who does this is bad and should be exposed. (3) Magic and magicians, generally speaking, are cheesy geeks and losers empowered by knowing a few tricks that anybody can buy, learn, and do. No big deal.

In short, these kind of exposures demean our art form and sneer at practitioners of this form of entertainment. I detest the attitude.

Lay people who will remember this exposure-show for months to come will never feel the same about any person dressed in black. They will heap scorn on anyone who talks about predictions, does any telephone trick, says he can bend spoons and float objects. Regardless of what he does or which sophisticated method he uses, the layperson will be unimpressed.

Thats ALL [censored], hell say. I know how that stuff is done. I saw a TV show that explained everything.

Postscript: Notice that the creative team (if there was one) picked tricks that could easily be explained by images. In other words, each effect had to be tele-visual and not too sophisticated.

Prediction: The ratings will be unimpressive. but good enough

Overall damage: A mixed bag. Some will be long-term.

Will it destroy anybodys career?
Unlikely.

Will lay people still consult and watch psychics?
Yes.

Nevertheless, such shows are repellent. I guess I'll dump all my black shirts and start wearing Margaritiville clothing?

Onward,
slouching toward K-Mart...

[Joe M. Turner]

Not everyone on MagicTalk is so cavalier about it.

Frankly, I think the main problem is that the reruns of the other shows have been on so much and for so long that fatigue has set in with regard to the whole conversation, at least on Internet boards.

The intense outrage is not at the level it was when the first specials came out. I don't think it means magicians are happy about it. I think they're just tired and frustrated and really don't see that anything can be done to stop it, WAM or no WAM.

I didn't see the show and don't want to. In public, I will continue to put the best possible spin on it and adjust my performances as necessary, and in private I'll fume and fret a bit. Realistically, though, it's not going to change unless the people in programming capacities at each network develop a love for magic. How to make that happen? I dunno... magic missionaries?

JMT
...we are all ultimately ambassadors for magic...

[Jeff Haas]

I don't think this exposure show will have the same effect as the first Masked Magician show.

Here's the overnight ratings, courtesy of Zap2It.com:

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Fast National ratings for Wednesday, April 23, 2003

"Friends" star Matthew Perry's guest-starring turn on "The West Wing" gave the show a boost Wednesday and helped NBC take the top spot in the nightly ratings.

NBC averaged a 9.2 rating/15 share in primetime. FOX, 8.1/13, took second, followed by ABC, 7.4/12, and CBS, 6.5/10. UPN and The WB tied with a 3.1/5 average in the metered markets.

Among adults 18-49, FOX led the way with a 6.5 rating. ABC averaged 4.9, NBC 4.5 and CBS 2.5.

"That '70s Show," 6.7/11, and "American Idol," 11.3/18, gave FOX the lead at 8 p.m. CBS finished second with "Star Search." The NBC special "Psychic Secrets Revealed" took third, ahead of "My Wife and Kids," 5.5/9, and "George Lopez," 5.4/9, on ABC. "Enterprise" was fifth for UPN with a 3.8/6, while The WB's "Dawson's Creek" trailed.


Jeff

[Pete McCabe]

All due respect, the biggest drawback to all these shows is the amount of time, effort, and mental energy magicians waste discussing how bad they are.

Instead, you could be spending this time creating or improving your presentations and/or your ability to present them. This will have a much greater positive effect on magic than any negative outcome from these specials.

If your presentation is engaging, meaningful, and ultimately, magical, no one will think about how you did it until afterwards. At which point it doesn't matter.

[Guest]

Exposure is exposure. I think that most of us will agree on that. The fact that Mark Edward was the exposer/consultant is disgusting and perhaps the Board of Directors of the Magic Castle are reading this and will take note as it seems to me that if someone is guilty of exposure (and you have it all right there on videotape for your proof), he is GUILTY. Please take action against this individual and for everyone else out there, please remember this if you are considering purchasing any of his books. Do you really want to be supporting someone who was connected to such a show?

As for what the show actually did which was NOT to expose the true scams but instead they decided to go for mentalism exposures and the Mark Edward types:

No my clients that come in for readings will continue to come and since I use an actual reading system and do not rely on cold reading, no damage done there (which is why I keep telling magicians that want to do readings to learn a real system instead). My clients will continue to believe and I will most likely continue to convert others into believers too.

As for my stage work, I stopped doing spoon bending a long time ago when every magician under the age of 15 started to do it and since I don't do an add-a-number pad (for similar reasons) that won't hurt me either. Thankfully I never liked the Annemann trick in Practical Mental Effects, so the high tech version on the show won't affect me either.

My audiences come to see me not the effects (although they do help). They come to hear what I have to say and for them to forget their daily woes and to be entertained by me. Naturally I will continue to point out to my audiences that I don't use such things as "mirrors on my shoes" or pencils under my nails or have paid assitants in the audience (I offer a reward for that one).. It won;t hurt me or many of my peers BUT exposure still hurts and SUCKS!

PSIncerely Yours,
Paul Alberstat
AB StageCraft
Supplying Unique Mentalism World-wide that wasn't exposed on that show!
http://www.stores.ebay.ca/ABstagecraft

[Guest]

McCabe is right, fussing and fuming,(especially in public) over this stuff is counter-productive. Notice John Edward, Vaughn Praugh, etc., let it go over their shoulders? Just as public figures realize sometimes it is best to not respond to "reporting" that they know is false, but better to starve, rather than feed a fire.
At his seminar last Sunday, Paul Daniels did suggest that if dealers compelled customers to sign an agreement that the workings, of an effect are the copywrited property of the creater/manufacturer, it could be a way of heading off problems before they start. (not sure if I'm quoting him exactly)

[MaxNY]

I guess the biggest suprise is why we can't claim any sort of copywrite protection. Musicians do, why can't magicians?
--- I am more interested in the big switch from Fox to NBC. Does this mean Fox opted out? You would think these things would be sold in groups of three, does NBC have the option for two more of these? Is Chris Angel's angle better off with Fox now?

[Jerry Harrell]

My wife finally got up and left the room because she tired of hearing me scream and curse at the television set.

Please don't waste any energy trying to figure out how to make television executives into magic fans. Television executives are money fans, and if they could figure out how to broadcast live executions, we'd be seeing them during sweeps.

I was naively hoping this program would concentrate on how charlatans claiming true psychic power swindle people out of life savings, but of course that would have taken too much work, and it would not have made good television (an oxymoron if ever there was one.) It would have required detailing the psychological and emotional elements in play. Boring stuff.

Better (read: cheaper and easier) to expose magic secrets that can be explained simply and visually, and that are used mostly by performers who are trying to entertain an audience, not swindle them.

This stuff is incredibly discouraging. I've packed away my one ahead notebook and my needle thru arm, and I will miss the gasps of amazement they have produced for me over the years. Please don't preach to me about coming up with better routines or new methods for these, it doesn't work that way in the real world. All it takes is one smartass who has seen this show, trust me.

And please stop trying to minimize the impact these heinous programs have on working magicians. I am sick of hearing about how "exposure has always been around, Modern Magic was written for laymen, etc etc."

What has NOT always been around is the television broadcast, which reaches more people in one viewing than any major magician from the classic era reached in an entire career.

My fellow magicians, we are in real jeopardy of going the way of the dodo bird. And in a world that needs magical entertainment as much as this one does, that is sad indeed.

[Guest]

Exposure blows.

That said, we live in the Information Age. So, this stuff is going to happen. The same Angel that brings us Ed Marlo on DVD has an evil twin Devil that brings us exposure on TV.

Just 25 years ago, a guy like Gazzo had to seek out a guy like Walter Scott, then CONVINCE HIM TO TEACH, if he was going to learn the Master's card work. Now, anyone with a computer, modem, and credit card can order a DVD of state-of-the-art magic teaching from the current Masters. (And remember, there's no vetting process. ANYONE can learn cutlery vandalsim from Banachek hisownself, for a price.)

While it's very true that teaching magic via these methods is a legitimiate business, and a legitimate way to learn, if you've benefitted...or profited...from the Info Age Angel, you can't be TOO surprised when the Devil pops up and pokes you in the ass with his pitchfork. Can you? After all, it's two sides of the same coin.

You, the guy in Blanch, Oklahoma, who has no magic shop for 400 miles, yet knows all the coolest new moves and dodges...would you want to put the info genii back in it's bottle? It's the price you pay.

And you, they guy in Hollywood who sold a DVD of your latest heavywork to the guy in Blanch...would you?

Burke

[David Nethery]

Originally posted by Jon Racherbaumer:
.
That's ALL [censored], he'll say. I know how that stuff is done. I saw a TV show that explained everything.

Interesting way to put it , Jon , given the fact that two of our "own" are doing these types of exposures on Showtime cable network .

What is really a rip-off about this latest Bruce Nash secrets revealed show is that very little of the material was of the type actually used by psychics and mediums . A ring levitating on a pencil ? Self-folding dollar bill ? Needle thru Arm ? These crass exposures of effects hurt magicians , not phony psychics . So the stated intention of the show (secrets of psychics revealed) was not what the viewers received .

[Guest]

I would like to have a copy if anyone has it recorded. I will pay shipping, tape cost and something for your time if needed.
You can e-mail me at: shomemagic@jobe.net
Thanks,
Mike - shomemagic -

[Guest]

Fact is, our 'Art' is perfectly safe.

Some of the 'Craft' of magic was exposed, and that blows, but the 'Art' is perfectly safe.

See, the secrets are 'craft'. Now, there are people who make their living dreming up these secrets, and for their contribution to be exposed, and thereby devalued, sucks to say the least.

But that's not the 'Art'.

The 'Art' comes after the craft has been mastered. Those many hours perfecting an invisible second are only the beginning. The real work, the "Art", begins when a truly compelling performance is put together. Something that affects an audience on a level beyond the puzzle of the effct, and goes to the emotions.

THAT is what an audience pays us for, an emotional experience. That is our "Art", and it's secrets are safe because so damned few people actully know them, and most of THEM aren't telling.

Burke

[Guest]

True, and well said. Sadly, this also explains the longevity of shameless but gifted frauds (like Geller) and swindlers (like J. Edward) in the face of repeated exposure.

[Guest]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jon Racherbaumer:

"That's ALL [censored], he'll say. I know how that stuff is done. I saw a TV show that explained everything."
Despite your efforts, it doesn't help when someone believes they "know" how it works. Once, while waiting at a bus stop, with others who had just attended a Kathryn Kuhlman Miracle Healing service, one person said, "I heard she pays people a $1,000 each to get up there and pretend the're healed." Another chimed in saying, "No one could pay out that much much money. I feel she has a special electrical energy that flows from her body, that puts other peoples atoms and cells, out of disorder, that heals their bodies in the process. It is just a scientific reaction Kuhlman is able to put to use." A third, shaking his head incredualously, said, "Don't you understand, can't you just see the obvious, rather than some far-fetched theory? If you would just use your common sense, you would know that the Bible says God is the same, yesterday, today,and forever, and that God's power still heals today. Why don't you get it?!"
It obvious all three at this corner KNEW they were right and KNEW the others were crazy.

[Joe Z]

Whether the NBC show tipped "important" material or not, the concept of exposure is contrary to all that we strive for; as mystery workers.

What makes it worse, a professional magician/mentalist (Mark Edward) is featured on the show; exposing secrets under the ridiculous premise that it will help educate the public about psychic con artists. But since when is a "psychic" going to perpetuate a scam using "Add-a No", or the "Self-Folding Dollar Bill"? Thank heavens for the skeptics!!! ;0(

The show was merely a cheap vehicle for losers like Edward to get exposure, at the expense of real working conjurors and mentalists. It appears that ethics mean nothing to so-called "professionals", like Edward.

This is pathetic.

Joe Z.

[Robert Kane]

I was dismayed by the cheap exposure on this show, but also surprised at some of the "over the top" methods exposed. A few of them seemed like Rube Goldberg-style methods. Almost like the methods people dream up when they are trying to figure "How did he do that?"

[Jason Wethington]

It is the smugness of the whole thing that gets me. It's just sad really. I was pretty amazed that they revealed a method for the folding dollar of course not the exact hookup as I have seen but it did revealed the modus operandi. The glass breaking was a big disappointment. I guess this elevates the hand held method now.
I thought the "Psychic" they had was put in the worst light "A Psychic? No, Maybe a good actress." Come on. Maybe she was but WHO CARES!?Again sad. The Daggers, man what a great effect, I had also heard that a guy (he who shall not be named) hurt himself doing this and was one reason of his dropping out of magic. But then again it could just be Busby keeping him out.
I guess this proves without a doubt the war is almost over. What with Monica Lewinski trying to hook up the masked magician with some lady on FOX and a "Secrets Revealed" on NBC of all places? Please Mr. Bush bring our soldiers home.
Jason

[MaxNY]

So after seeing the show, and reading all these threads, one question...Just how does one impail himself on the knife trick?

[Guest]

Originally posted by MaxNY:
So after seeing the show, and reading all these threads, one question...Just how does one impail himself on the knife trick?

Wellllll, it happened like this. I was using the...ahhh...'non-pop-out peg' version. During the first show on a Friday night in Milwaukee, I noticed that the new covers I'd made that morning out of giftwrap were unexpectedly transparent under the stagelights. I *thought* I could actually see the shadow of the knife. Lo and behold, the actual method verified this.

Second show, the 'actual method' didn't work for some reason. "Well," thinks I, "Since I saw the shadow of the knife in the fist show, surely I can bluff my way through this. I just won't hit them quite as hard...just in case."

Long story short, it was under the first cover.

Bloodbloodblood. Stigmata-city. Since the show had 20 minutes to go, and was sold-out, bailing wasn't really an option. So I used my little mishap to "prove" that none of this was faked, wrapped my hand in a clean bar towel, and proceeded with the show.

Next night, I did it first show (left-handed) in a 'get back on the horse' gesture. Then I put it away for a couple months until my hand healed.

Burke

[Dave Egleston]

As I keep telling my oldest daughter: Don't sweat the small stuff - I work and interact with hundreds of people every day - and most of them know I do a little magic... NOT ONE PERSON told me they had seen this show - Not even my in-laws who live to bust my balls over magic had mentioned it - and I just had dinner with them last night!

It seems the "fun" has gone from exposure shows.

My last feeling on this - The people who REALLY believe there are mediums who can converse and commune with the dead - do not want to know the truth and won't watch this kind of crap on TV - Kind of sad actually

I posted the above on another forum.

Unlike Mr Allen - I do watch television - Every night - I've been married for thirty years - Thank GOD for TV (in seperate rooms)!!!

So Far, the only people I've heard watching this special has been magicians, even my wife, who lives for stuff like this, didn't watch it.

I've done Needle Thru Arm at work - and not a person has said they know how it's done now. I really think the exposure shows have run their course - I think if you write to these TV show producers, it only encourages them - I tried to read the ratings Mr Haas was kind enough to post - but the ADD set in before I could make heads or tails out of it

Dave

[Al Cohen]

Hi fellow Genii lovers. This my first jump into the Forum. Re: The Exposure on NBC..I agree, I feel that all exposure stinks, but the interesting thing is that when I was in the shop (Al's Magic Shop for over 56 years) we found that following these exposure shows, people would come in and discuss the show and also many times want to buy some of the items used ! I have also found that most times you may perform many of these same items for audiences that had seen this show and still fool 'em. I also feel that the vast majority of TV viewers don't even watch these types of shows, but I still think exposure stinks.. Unfortunately I don't think that much can be done to prevent it.

[Richard Kaufman]

Al! Welcome to the Genii Forum! Please post often!

[Guest]

Originally posted by Steve V':
I watched the show and the only thing I can say that made me happy was no magicians or mentalist took part, they used actors.

Wrong. Mark Edward is a former seance host from the Magic Castle, and the author of a few books on seances, as well as a repeat exposer. His most recent before the NBC show was a spot on the "Talking to the Dead" episode of Penn & Teller's aptly titled show, [censored].

[Steve V]

I was going by the statement that actors played the rolls, I've never heard of this Mark Edward fellow. He is a ratfink.

I did learn I've done needle through arm wrong for years, fat as I am I cannot fold my skin like they did.
Steve V