The Next Great Magician

By | November 7, 2016

I chanced upon this last night and quite enjoyed it, and despite not expecting anyone to have watched it it didn’t actually completely collapse against Strictly (3.3m) and did fairly decent demos.

Stephen Mulhern and Rochelle Humes invite six magic acts to show off their skills. After performing, each act suggests what they’ll do if they make the final. The acts will decide between them which one will go through to the final where the winner stands to win a special worth £500,000.

Like Go For It it’s quite nice to see a show fit lots of segments throughout the hour – some of the magicians get lengthy filmed introductions, others tend to get to their performance quickly. Stephen (who is a proper magician let’s not forget) and Rochelle are only really there in compere form, there’s not much filler. We don’t get to hear the acts deliberate their judging which is a pity but there are understandable reasons why – professionals not wanting to give away their secrets.

It seemed a shame that most of the acts when asked what they’d do in the final suggested either flying or catching a projectile, hopefully the magicians that make the final will show a bit more variety than that.

Last night’s winner was uploaded to Youtube, I’ll hide it behind a page cut if you don’t want to know.

This was not my favourite act of the night, I wanted the close-up magic guy with the coins to win whose name I can’t remember, but this is still quite good fun: French circus performer Xavier Mortimer. The projection stuff is a bit obvious, albeit very skilled to get the shadows right, but there’s a mindblowing bit towards the end that I’ve got no clue how it’s done.

9 thoughts on “The Next Great Magician

  1. Nico W.

    The new Wie Is De Mol NL cast has been announced via Facebook live. I just got the mention and I wasn’t able to watch it yet, but maybe one of you would like to sum it up for us 🙂

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Quick copy and paste and a bit of translation clean up:

      Actress and writer Sanne Wallis de Vries
      Voice-over Jeroen Kijk in de Vegte
      Actress Imanuelle Grives
      Flemish actor Thomas Cammaert
      Actress Sigrid ten Napel
      Presenter Jochem van Gelder
      Writer and Journalist Roos Schlikker
      Dancer Vincent Vianen
      Vlogster Yvonne Coldeweijer
      Science journalist Diederik Jekel

      Starts 7th January. Set in Oregon!

      Reply
  2. CeleTheRef

    Alessia Macari, the Ciociara from Avanti Un Altro! has won the Italian edition of Celebrity Big Brother!

    By the way, AUA! is casting for contestants, so it’s probably going to return in early 2017.

    Reply
  3. Cliff

    I thought it was very obvious how *that* bit was done (look how wobbly the scenery suddenly becomes), but I’m buggered if I can figure out the bit with the bottle and the glasses.

    Decent show. Zero points for originality in getting Stephen Mulhern to present yet another ITV light ent show, but isn’t he good at this sort of thing?!

    Reply
  4. Score

    3.3m for this again last night. Pales in comparison to some of the numbers on display last night but up against Strictly it’s not a bad performance. Far better than Go For It and Meet The Parents have managed on Saturdays.

    Reply
  5. Callum J

    I wonder what happened to Barry & Stewart’s ITV special. Haven’t heard anything about it since it aired, perhaps it will air at Christmas? (if it is still happening)

    Reply

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