Sanders The Great » Television

Dusty Peacock

Sanders The Great — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:58:01 +0000

Sony’s online tv service crackle, famous for hosting Penn Gillette’s vlog Penn Says, has commissioned a series about failed fictional magician Dusty Peacock starring King of Queens star Gary Valentine.

According to TubeFilter News Gary’s younger brother and fellow King of Queens actor Kevin James is directing the series that will air online later in the year.

STGADS

Television

Sorcerer’s Apprentice Season Two

Sanders The Great — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:18:30 +0000

A new series of the childrens magic reality show the Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Max Somerset will begin filming shortly and the BBC are still looking for budding magicians around 10 or 11 years of age to take part.

Here’s what the CBBC press release says:

A new series of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is coming to CBBC soon! Are you a wizard in waiting – or do you spell disaster? Could you be magic, or do you need a disappearing act?!

If so, and you’re 11 or 12 years old, fill out the application form and say why you want to be the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

The closing date for this fantastic opportunity is Friday 16th May.

There are more details about how to apply on the form. Please read them carefully. We will consider everyone who applies equally, but cannot guarantee everyone will be successful. Only people who have made it to the next round will be contacted by the production team.

If you think you would like to take part you can download an application form here and completed forms should be sent to:

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Twenty Twenty
20 Kentish Town Road
London
NW1 9NX

STGADS

Max Somerset, Television

The Mentalist

Sanders The Great — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:53:10 +0000

iTricks has picked up the fact that Warner are producing a pilot of a show called “The Mentalist”.

It “centers on Patrick Jane, a mentalist who uses his skills of observation to solve crimes as an independent detective working with the police”

This sounds like a Mitchell and Webb sketch rather than a real serious show and I look forward to taking a look at it later in the year.

Fortunately I have some contacts at Warner who have released to me some previews of some of the dialog and I’ll post them here for you to take a look at:

Scene 1:

Mentalist Guy: (showing the bad guy a piece of white card with three shapes on it) “Pick one punk”
Bad Guy: “No way mentalist guy”
Mentalist Guy: “PICK ONE!”
Bad Guy: “Err, OK, the red circle”
Mentalist Guy: “Handcuff him Big Cop Guy. The red signifies blood and the circle a bullet hole: he’s GUILTY!”

Scene 2

Big Cop Guy: “Oh no Mentalist Guy: Bad Guy has scattered broken glass all over the floor!”
Mentalist Guy: “Don’t worry Big Cop Guy – I shall go into a trance and walk barefoot across it”

Scene 3

Big Cop Guy: “If only we knew the phone number he dialed the day of the murder”
Mentalist Guy:“Pass me that phone directory Big Cop Guy and pick a number between 1 and 100″.

Scene 4

Bad Guy:“But how did you know I used the pick axe to kill her?”
Mentalist Guy:“I have in my pocket a wallet. Here open it. Open it punk! You will find inside a wonky pencil drawing of an axe.”

STGADS

Television

The System

Sanders The Great — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:50:13 +0000

Back in December Derren announced that a new 1 hour special called “The System” was in production and that is was due to air in February. The date and time has now been confirmed as Friday 1st February 2008 at 9:00 on Channel 4.

Here’s the official press release:

In this one-hour special, the maestro of mind control anonymously tells a single mum from London which horse will win at the next day’s races – again and again – culminating in a final, massive bet.

Investigating the psychology behind gambling and using his unique combination of skills to create guaranteed wins, Derren proves his system works every time. Not only that, but he explains it fully to us at home. But how fool-proof is this system and will his participant, believing in him and his predictions, risk her life-savings on one more race?

As Derren reveals: “I took a random member of the public and I told her which horse would win in a certain race; when it did win she was intrigued and I did it again and again and she started to bet more and more money according to my system. She’s scraped together every last penny she could find and she is risking it all on one final race. Is it really possible to predict every time which horse will win? Welcome to The System.”

Shot on locations including Sandown Park and Newbury race courses, Derren Brown: The System is an Objective production for Channel 4. It is produced by Simon Mills, and directed by Simon Dinsell. Executive producers are Andrew O’Connor, Anthony Owen and Derren Brown.

STGADS

Derren Brown, Television

The Convention Crasher

Sanders The Great — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:10:20 +0000

Justin Lee Collins stars in a new three part series on Channel 4 called “The Convention Crasher” starting 17th January at 10pm. In the first episode he will compete in the “Battle of the Magicians” competition at a magic convention in Canton Ohio where he will attempt a Houdini style Metamorphosis illusion. It will be interesting to see how he places; I hear the results are very interesting.

STGADS

Television

Sorcerer’s Apprentice – The Final

Sanders The Great — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:36:01 +0000

For the final episode we begin with a demonstration by Sorcerer Max Somerset of all the skills they’ve learned rolled together into a single illusion. We begin with Max asking Tomos to draw a picture in secret, and wear a sieve – sorry a thought-transmitting device – upon his head. Meanwhile Max is locked in chains, and then put inside a large box in the middle of the courtyard. The sides of the box are raised by several workmen wearing masks. We are told he has only one minute to read Tomos’ mind and escape. The workmen retire to a safe distance while the time ticks away. As soon as the time runs out, the box explodes, and the sides drop to show that Max has vanished. The camera pans to a window in the tower where, of course, we see Max. He throws down a scroll and a key. Tomos opens the scroll to discover a picture of a sheep with “bobble” written inside identical to the one he drew at the beginning.

During lunch, they resite the school motto for one last time, and determine the order of performance. This is done by chance by using Horace the cockroach, who runs around a plate choosing sorcerees by passing over a numbered envelope containing the stage name of a sorceree. The order of performance will be: Power Joe, Alexandra the Great (good name!), The Hatted Dragon (Tomos), Gypsy Rose (Leonie), Small-dini (Mehmet) and finally Witty (Rebecca) Whitely. The sorceree will be able to perform any two of the tricks they have learnt over the two weeks. Interestingly, Tomos chooses the trick he performed the worst, in an attempt to impress the Sorcerer – will this tactic pay off?

After an afternoon of dress rehearsals in front of Mr Tariq Knight and Miss Sophie Evans the sorcerees prepare for the most important performance of the series. Once again friends and family are dragged from the corners of the United Kingdom to form the audience for the show. It would have been nice to have seen the final performances in their entirety but unfortunately they suffered the same edit as the previous episodes. Cutting to each performer in turn we saw Joe performing his mind reading trick ending with his favourite garlic eating finale. Alexandra performed the levitating wand trick (and seemed to have the speed just right) followed by the hats and chairs trick. Tomos displayed a perfect performance of the paper and cups trick, and Leonie gave a good show of her teddy bear trick. Mehmet’s performance was typically funny, and finally Rebecca performed the lemons and limes trick unfortunately flashing the lemon and giving the game away.

After an anxious wait, Max Somerset gathers the sorcerees together and announces “I Max Somerset the Third declare that the winner of Sorcerer’s Apprentice is … Tomos Power”.

I think Tomos was a worthy winner, of what’s turned out to be a very entertaining series. It has put magic in a good light, and will hopefully spark the interest of young performers. Roll on the next series.

STGADS

Max Somerset, Television

Sorcerer’s Apprentice Episode Nine

Sanders The Great — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:43:55 +0000

As usual, we begin in assembly with Sorcerer Max Somerset announcing that todays genre will be Mentalism: “the reading of the mind, the reading of thought”. This is demonstrated by asking Rebecca onto the stage and handing her a whiteboard and a pen. Max the proceeds to draw an image on his own whiteboard, and then asks Rebecca to draw whatever has entered her mind. When the boards are turned around, both have drawn a picture of a house. After this comes a shock announcement: at the end of the day the Sorcerer will narrow the list down from ten sorcerees to six by asking four to pack their bags and leave. They are also told that they will be performing in just five hours time.

The girls are taught an effect by Sophie Evans whereby three items (and apple, garlic and a balloon) are placed under chrome cups while the magician faces the other way. When they turn back they correctly determine what’s under each cup. The boys meanwhile, taught by Tariq Knight, learn a trick involving making a prediction as to which choices of hat and seat the audience members will take. The tricks are easy to perform and the sorcerees feel confident about the effects. Mr Knight is pleased with the performances of the students, and looks forward to the evenings performance. Leonie is worried that her stage fright will return and ruin her performance.

The sorcerees families return to watch the evenings performance, and nerves set in as the students realise this could be their last chance to impress the Sorcerer.

Thomas Hewson is up first, and again the detail in his performance lets him down as he gets his prediction the wrong way around. Mehmet and Tomos give good performances next, and then Joe has an interesting finale where he eats the garlic from his trick. The others pull of their performances, and they get to spend some time with there families will Max makes his decision. In the end Thomas Hewsons bumbling has cost him dear as he is asked to leave along with Megan, Frankie and one time golden girl Ellie. The remaining six make it through to tomorrows final.

STGADS

Max Somerset, Television

Sorcerer’s Apprentice Episode Eight

Sanders The Great — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:16:25 +0000

Todays episode begins with an extra early start. The sorcerees are informed by Sorcerer Max Somerset that todays genre will be levitation. And with a wave of his stick Max introduces “the artistic precision and elegance of Marc Oberon”. Now Marc Oberon has become European Champion of close-up magic beating eight of the world’s best magicians to the title, and performs the difficult levitation tricks with aplomb. The illusion involves a floating silver ball that flies around the stage, through rings and finally back resting on the table.

For their lessons, the boys are taught how to float a cup or bottle, and then a trick involving levitating a pack of cards. The girls are shown a more interesting trick with a rising wand trick. Neither of the tricks are at all taxing, but as with most levitation tricks, the key is performing it in a convincing way. After a morning of practice the sorcerees are invited to a magic sports day.

The sports day will involve events that practice balance, poise and hand-eye coordination. The team leaders are chosen by drawing from a hat, and turn out to be Joe and Alexandra. Increasingly annoying Joe is determined to win, and justice prevails when the girls finally win. Joe is not happy.

After the afternoons activities the sorcerees are looking forward to their dinner. When they arrive at the dining room they find out that dinner will be crocodile kebabs. With great restraint, Max manages not to use a “and make it snappy” punchline, and moves onto a Losander floating table routine that astound the students. Joe is clearly still in a bad mood, and calls Max a liar stating that he thinks the crocodile kebabs are chicken. After dinner, Max summons Joe to his office, and tells him how disappointed he is with his behavior, and presenting him with a shrink wrapped pack of crocodile meat. Joe apologies are accepted by the Sorcerer, but I think this will count against him on the day of reckoning.

And so to the next day. For this evenings performance a number of magicians will be in the audience. These include Careena Fenton, Alex Lodge, Chris Lee, Angelo Carbone and Kevin Tasker. The performances are quite entertaining with Mehmet introducing his playing cards as One-dini, Two-dini … When it comes to Leonie’s performance of “Gypsy Rose”, she fails to take the stage as nerves get the better of her. The episode ends with a garden party and some of the guest magicians performing a few sleights. Max takes Leonie to one side and tells her she must overcome her nerves if she’s going to have a chance of winning.

STGADS

Marc Oberon, Max Somerset, Television

Sorcerer’s Apprentice Episode Seven

Sanders The Great — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:46:52 +0000

The day starts with a few chores in the courtyard to organise the mind: cleaning rabbit hutches, polishing shoes and sweeping the path. Shortly afterwards they are summoned to the drawing room by Sorcerer Max Somerset to be told what todays magical theme will be – Transportation. Max demonstrates this with a nice little trick whereby he begins by turning on a small table lamp at the side of the room. He proceeds to ‘fish’ in the air, catching a small goldfish that he drops into a glass full of water held by Ellie. After pouring the water, fish and all, into a chrome vase he places it over Ellie’s head to reveal that the water and fish have been transported from the vase into the lightbulb of the table lamp Max turned on at the beginning of the act. Very nicely performed, I must say. Max then takes a more serious tone as he explains that the next performance the sorcerees will be doing will be in front of a group of local school children – a real audience at last! And so on to learning the tricks.

The girls are taught a trick involving a silk, a borrowed ring and a teddy bear demonstrated by Miss Evans. A volunteer from the audience is asked for a ring and are asked to hold it inside a silk. After a magical wave of the hand, the ring is shown to have transported from under the silk and into a box being held (visibly) by the teddy.

The boys are assembled by Mr Knight and showed a neat transportation trick whereby a piece of paper transports from under one cup into another by its side. This is accomplished by a careful tug of the spare paper that is attached by a thread to their wand.

The next day the sorcerees are assembled by a piano playing Max who points out that correct annunciation is critical to confidence on stage and that they would be receiving voice-coaching by actor, magician and coach Paul Rothman. The proceed to work on their speech and communication skills including a humerous part where they try the tongue twister “Chopsticks shops sell chopsticks”.

They spend the rest of the afternoon practicing until they see the audience arrive. The nerves start to show when the performers realise that this might be a difficult audience. We begin with “the boy with the million dollar smile” – Thomas Hewson who’s performance is flawless. Unfortunately as he leaves the stage he picks up his wand with its paper ball dangling from the thread like a fishing rod, leaving the audience with no doubt as to the secret behind the trick. This will cost him dearly with the Sorcerer. We run through each of the sorcerees with none of them giving astounding performances, and the audience getting bored. One audience member falls asleep, only being awoken by the ever annoying Joe Savage. Finally Frankie takes to the stage and completely fluffs his trick, but manages to keep the audience amused at least with his humour.

We end the episode with a review of the performances by Max who, it must be said, is looking might unimpressed. At this point it’s hard to say if any of the students will be good enough to become crowned the Sorcerer’s apprentice.

STGADS

Max Somerset, Television

Sorcerer’s Apprentice Episode Six

Sanders The Great — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:18:13 +0000

The episode begins with Max Somerset telling the sorcerees that todays theme will be escapology, and with that shows the students a “1930’s hand shackle”, asking them to check that the bar is solid. Max is locked into the cuffs, with his hands behind his back, and turns back to face the students. As he introduces one of today’s guests, David Penn, he reveals that his hands are in fact free. David Penn is described as an escapologist, but he is more well known as a close-up magician having won the “Magic Circle Close Up Magician of the Year” in 1994. He proceeds to show us the villagers’ revenge: a wooden frame that unruly villagers were strapped into to have things thrown at them as a punishment. His neck, chest, wrist, knees and ankles are constrained with ropes. Miss Evans then pulls the curtain around him, and no sooner has she done it, the curtain is reopened to show that he has swapped places with Sophie Evans. The sorcerees are informed that they will have just 24 hours to perfect their own act.

The students are duly split into three mixed teams and demonstrated the rope escape trick they will be performing the following day. Whilst practice begins a rift starts to form in one of the teams between Mehmet and circus-girl Leonnie. Much bickering occurs between the two of them, mainly due to their strong personalities. When David Penn turns up to offer them advice, they are told to show “less arguments and more teamwork”.

After a moody lunch, the students are given a makeup lesson whilst musical Max gives us an impromptu performance of “keep young and beautiful” on the piano. The rest of the afternoon is spent practising, with Mehmet and Leonnie barely speaking.

The following day brings with it a couple more guests: Camilla Dallerup and Ian Waite from Strictly Come Dancing who, rather tenuously, are here to show the budding magicians how to command the stage and dazzle the audience. The girls and boys are paired up, including feuding pair Mehmet and Leonnie, and shown a few moves.

We finally arrive at the three performances in the theatre. The first group perform the rope escape by passing the rope through Megan, and perform really quite well. Next up are Rebecca, Elllie and Thomas with a routine they call “double trouble” and again this was performed quite well. Finally Mehmet, Leonnie and Frankie perform their routine that really didn’t work too well. Comments from the judges were “lots of bumbling”, “you lost it a bit” and “not enough substance in the choreography”. Mehmet is upset by his team’s performance, largely ruined by lack of practice due to all the in-fighting. After lunch the results are announced with the rope through Megan team winning, double trouble coming second and finally Mehmet, Frankie and Leonnie coming in last.

I found this episode less interesting than the previous ones, with too much focus on the infighting to allow the magic to come through. Hopefully tomorrow’s episode will be more entertaining.

STGADS

Max Somerset, Television