Faking it on channel 4 last night?
I thought it was a good one. They managed to keep exposure to a minimum and really emphasised the fact that it's all in the presentation and patter.

There is an "Off-Topic" forum, you know?

what is faking it?

They had a physicist being trained for four weeks to become a magician.

(I put the topic here becuase it's English TV)

and it was magic , usually faking it is and ordinary person becoming a popstar and i never watch it, but this was to do with magic, so i did

you guys should have seen it, it was this science bloke called Kevin (going to be a magician) he was with the famous magic circle magician Nigel Mead, he learns that simple card trick (you know the one where you control the card to the top, and then air pressure flips it over when you drop the deck on the table) he gones to some people in a diner and does that except the card dont flip over and he puts the deck awa and walks off

and then he was taken to Penn and Teller in Las Vegas and he showed them a torn and restored newspaper and then he done this trick to Penn where he forced a card and he had a duplicate stuck to Penn's back, although he forced the wrong card
(man if i was Nigel Mead i would go crazy, getting yourself embarrsed cos your student cant perform a card trick to the best magicians in the world)

then he performed on stage to a three people, (this Kevin was scottish, and so was one of the magicians watching his performance, Pat someone, who's worked with Derren Brown and Paul Daniels)

he said to Kevin, "your scottish and im scottish, and the word is used a lot up there, its called Sh**e!"

however when it came to the final test, Kevin was up against 3 other magicians (who where doing it professinally and for about a lifetime) and they where all performing on stage to a panel of judges including Paul Daniels, Kevin had to go in for an interview with the three judges and made up that he had a Paul Daniels magic set when young etc they didnt know he was a fake or if anyone was a fake

they all performed, and all the judges where fooled, someone said to the judges what if one of the contestants tonite was a fake, and had only been doing magic for 4 weeks, the judges all chose who they thought it was and not one of the judges chose Kevin

Kevin Quit his Job as a scientist (which i thought he would have at least got his PHD in sicence first he had been trying to get it for 4 Years) and he became a magician,

i love happy endings

I watched this too, only saw the ending though . But it inspired me to get back into magic, as I've not done it in about 1/2 year to a year ..when I saw pm accepted paypal I was over the moon!!

Hi

I watched it also, concidering he was really, really bad even in the 3/4 week he did an amazing job at presenting it and performing the effects.
Then he becomes a magician in the end even better.

Mark

I aslo saw it, he did and amazing jon for the amount of time he'd been into magic. He kinda striaghtened up and started practicing once Penn gave it to him straight And then a bit more when he got another person in to help him.

God final result though!!!!!

I watched it thought they did a great job, kept exposure very careful.
They exposed–

red-black location
a simple pull for a key or ring
torn and restored newspaper
a blood bag

Basically following the rule of only exposing where the method is more interesting than the trick. Which would happen to be the same rule Penn and Teller, who were on the program, use. Hmmm.

They very carefully didn't expose cut & restored rope, thankfully. Though they let him do it with a tie, which was a little cheeky, as more than a casual glance at the tie afterwards...

The thing that really came out of it was that kevin was a nice guy, and once they sorted his confidence he let that come through in his magic. He started to express himself a little, which can make all the difference.

For those who saw it... "This is a scottish £50 note"

I saw it too I thought it was very good. The trick Penn and Teller made for him was very good

his jokes were AWFUL!

that guy (the one that taught him) is coming to the YMC meeting on saturday!