| The Magicians | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Entertainment & Comedy |
| Format | Magic competition with live audience |
| Presented by | Darren McMullen (2012-) Lenny Henry (2011) |
| Starring | Barry and Stuart (2011-) Jason Latimer (2012-) Pete Firman (2012-) Luis de Matos (2011) Chris Korn (2011) |
| Judges | Audience |
| Country of origin | UK |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 5 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Original run | 1 January 2011 – Present |
| External links | |
| [3] | |
The Magicians is a British family entertainment television show, first broadcast throughout January 2011 on BBC One.[1] The show features magicians performing a number of magic tricks with guest celebrities, competing for audience support.[2]
The show will return as a live show in 2012, with new host Darren McMullen, replacing series 1 host Lenny Henry. Also Jason Latimer and Pete Firman will join regulars Barry and Stuart replacing Luis de Matos and Chris Korn as the magicians.[3]
Contents |
Each episode features each of magicians being paired-up with a guest celebrity performer to perform three magic tricks:
The former of these is always performed on-set in front of a live studio audience, the latter shown as a pre-recorded sequence filmed on location, while the trick of the celebrity's choosing varies between being performed live and having been pre-recorded. The order in which the magicians perform, and the order in which each of the three tricks is done, changes from show to show.
After all nine performance, members of the studio audience vote for their favourite magician-celebrity partnership using an audience response system, and the host then reveals the 1st, 2nd, and finally, 3rd positions of the magicians, as chosen by the studio audience. Those in the 3rd position must then attempt a forfeit trick that has been previously explained to the magician, but not the celebrity; it will be their first time performing this trick. The forfeit trick is usually of a dangerous nature.
In Series 2, the show will return as a live show, which will make it the first live magic programme to be broadcast on the BBC in more than 30 years.[4]
Key:
Theme: box prop
| Barry and Stuart | Luis de Matos | Chris Korn | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sian Williams | Ashley Banjo | Bruno Tonioli | |
| Grand Illusion | sword through box trick using crossbow bolts and javelins | Diversity appearing out of a small box | Tonioli suspending Chris in a box over spikes |
| Celebrity's Choice | mind-reading illusion | escapology trick involving a chest | each of Chris and Bruno sawing an assistant in half |
| Street Magic | hand through stomach trick | making Ashley Banjo appear behind a coat on top of a park bench | teleporting extracts from books from one London Eye pod to another |
Forfeit trick: the Firewalk: walking on hot ashes barefoot
Theme: transportation
| Barry and Stuart | Luis de Matos | Chris Korn | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adrian Edmonson | Peter Jones | Amanda Byram | |
| Grand Illusion | mind-reading prediction, including making a horse appear | making Peter's car disappear | making a car fly, making a helicopter appear |
| Celebrity's Choice | blending and restoring a phone | escapology trick featuring a straight-jacket and chains | Victorian Mystery Box trick |
| Street Magic | spoon-on-nose trick, using a nail | card trick, tearing it apart and making it vanish before reappearing inside an orange | card trick with mind reading |
Forfeit trick: lying on a Bed of Nails, with a motorbike running over their chests
Theme: animal magic
| Barry and Stuart | Luis de Matos | Chris Korn | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen K Amos | Chris Tarrant | Samantha Womack | |
| Grand Illusion | "mind-poking", use of cards, making a camel appear with Amos sat on it | making an animatronic dinosaur appear | making many white rabbits appear from an apparently empty shed |
| Celebrity's Choice | making Barry disappear | card selection trick using a pool table | spike under cups trick |
| Street Magic | woman selects a card and then chooses a pack containing only that card from many packs suspended from a ceiling | psychological; members of the public attempt to open a box by selecting keys | passing a ticket through glass |
Forfeit trick: Glass and Sword Staircase: walking on broken glass and swords
Theme: fairytales
| Barry and Stuart | Luis de Matos | Chris Korn | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Kemp | N-Dubz | Rolf Harris | |
| Grand Illusion | Kemp makes a goldfish appear in a bowl, made an audience member put a needle 'supposedly' through Stuart's tongue, balancing Stuart on the tip of a sword and piercing him with it. | 3 separate effects: disappearing Fazer’s chest and stomach, sawing Tulisa into eight, and shrinking Dappy | tricks based around Alice in Wonderland, using a member of the audience as Alice, including transporting a ring and making a bottle disappear |
| Celebrity's Choice | transportation of Barry and Kemp from one box to another | Luis and Tulisa making paper butterflies appear and remain airborne | Rolf draws a person with features as selected by members of the audience, later shown by Chris to have been predicted on a scroll, and a model appears wearing the same items as in the painting |
| Street Magic | card trick where a member of the public signs and shuffles a card back into the pack, and a restrained Kemp produces it from his mouth | set in a school, using Segways while blindfolded to correctly locate from many CD players the one playing N-Dubz's music | Rolf draws a spider on a web, Chris disappears the spider from the drawing, and a fake spider appears on the back of the person's hand |
Forfeit trick: Stone Cold Smash; smashing a concrete block on the chest of an individual balanced by their ankles and shoulders on two hurdles*
Theme: fright night
| Barry and Stuart | Luis de Matos | Chris Korn | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angela Griffin | Neil Morrissey | George and Larry Lamb | |
| Grand Illusion | Story of the McCrae family, with Angela tied up and placed behind curtains which were closed and opened, showing once with the stage demolished, second with Angela with a coat on with maggots everywhere & third with 7 people appearing, and throwing 'maggots' into the crowd. | A card trick in which a audience member identified a card were placed in a 1000L box of water. Luis was suspended within it to try and find the card, disappearing from it and reappearing at the back of the studio. | George was tied to a bed with a panel of nails hovering above him ready to fall. When they do, curtains are dropped and George appears on top of the nail panel. (An effect known as the table of death) |
| Celebrity's Choice | Angela had been made to appear out of nowhere in a box, audience was then shown the same trick again but with an infrared camera to see through the box panels, but then came to know that Angela wasn't in the box, but sitting next to Lenny. | Neil lying down on a plank of wood and being levitated by Luis | A audience member identified a paintball and Chris was strapped into a device that prevented him from moving. George then proceeded to fire the paintball through a panel towards Chris, and Chris caught the paintball in his teeth. |
| Street Magic | Barry & Stuart approached someone in a library and asked them to type in their email into their phone, sending them a email containing a Youtube link. They then asked her to choose 7 books from random and choose one from the ones chosen. Then, they played the Youtube link, showing Angela reading out the book chosen by the member of the public. | Neil showed members of the public how to easily see to the backs of cupboards, by moving Luis' neck halfway down his body without him bending over | Chris showed off some sleight of hand magic in a bingo hall, transporting coins from George and Larry's hands. |
Forfeit trick: Iron Pole Bend; bending an iron pole by pressing it into their necks and running towards each other