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Vaudeville Productions and Crook Productions team up to find the next great magician for ITV

Vaudeville Productions and Crook Productions team up to find the next great magician for ITV

Derren Brown’s Vaudeville Productions and Crook Productions have been commissioned by ITV to co-produce a brand new magic competition show, The Next Great Magician (6 x 60’). Crook Productions is part of Andrew O’Connor and ITV Studios’ Cat’s On The Roof Media, and The Next Great Magician is Crook Productions’ first big entertainment commission since the group’s inception earlier this year. 

The series will feature the world’s best magicians performing their greatest tricks, many of them for the first time ever on television, as they compete to be crowned The Next Great Magician. It will air on ITV next summer. Each episode will see five magicians perform their most sensational tricks, from close-up and comedy magic through to amazing illusions and incredible escapes, both in front of a studio audience and on location in front of astounded members of the public and celebrities. The magicians will judge each other’s performances, with each week’s highest-voted contestant going through to the final. In the grand live final, the five top magicians will perform even more astonishing new tricks in a battle to win a truly money-can’t-buy prize: their own television special on ITV. 

Andrew O’Connor said: “Some of the world’s best magicians are hero-worshipped by their peers but are unknown to wider audiences, having never trusted a TV company to film them before. The Next Great Magician will see them perform their most remarkable tricks on TV and judge each other’s performances in what promises to be a mind-blowing and unmissable magical spectacular!” Elaine Bedell added: “We’re delighted to bringing The Next Great Magician to our entertainment slate, and to be working with Andrew and Derren who are the best in the business when it comes to magic and illusion production.” 

The Next Great Magician is executive produced by Andrew O’Connor, Derren Brown and Matt Crook. It was commissioned by Elaine Bedell, Director of Entertainment & Comedy and Peter Davey, Commissioning Editor, Entertainment for ITV. 

About Vaudeville Productions – Vaudeville Productions are currently producing Derren Brown: Miracle at The Palace Theatre in the West End and Derren Brown: The Push for Channel 4. About Crook Productions Run by Matt Crook, Crook Productions is the co-producer of the forthcoming series Thief Trackers and Honey I Bought The House. It is part of Cat’s On The Roof Media, the group founded by Peep Show co-creator Andrew O’Connor and ITV Studios. As well as Crook Productions, Cat’s On The Roof Media is the parent company for new production businesses Gameface Productions and Second Act Productions. Gameface Productions is a game show specialist run by The Cube creator Adam Adler, while Second Act Productions is a scripted comedy specialist that recently signed a first look agreement with comedy writer and producer Lee Hupfield.  

Diss-Illusioned! Magic and the Supernatural..

Diss-Illusioned! Magic and the Supernatural..

Magic, like religion, is ubiquitous, existent in all societies since the dawn of human civilization. Sometimes—in some cultures—the two phenomena have functioned interchangeably, indistinguishably, even in harmony. Since the emergence of monotheism, however, a schism developed as organized religions gradually separated miracles from magic, faith from legerdemain.

Despite such doctrinal determinations, magic and religion (or the supernatural in general) have continued to cross paths, whether inadvertently or intentionally. In the process, proponents of the supernatural have often employed the skills of magic, invariably for profitable ends; adversely, certain magic practitioners have willingly exposed the illusions of their trade in order to unveil the trickery and deceit of those boasting supernatural powers. Such debunking has invariably arrived in humorous form, with “incongruity” humor used as the element of surprise to reveal technique and “superiority” humor deployed to ridicule intents and purposes. Read more..

    http://www.popmatters.com/column/192374-diss-illusioned-magic-and-the-supernatural/       

How does Derren Brown do it? TV illusionist’s secrets explained..

How does Derren Brown do it? TV illusionist’s secrets explained..

By James Rodgers for Coventry Telegraph..

Social media was set alight last night after TV illusionist Derren Brown showcased his brand-new stage show Infamous on Channel 4.

The event, which succeeds his other stage shows Svengali, Something Wicked this Way Comes and Enigma, has already been an acclaimed success with viewers lauding the showman for producing yet another unique and gobsmacking performance.

Brown is an illusionist and performer who – by his own admission – combines elements of traditional magic, suggestion, psychology and misdirection to achieve things which seem impossible to the everyman on the street. From mind reading to stopping pulses, Derren’s tricks have given him all manner of success over the past decade and they famously culminated with him predicting the Lottery numbers.

What is more refreshing, though, is that Brown openly claims to hold no supernatural abilities whatsoever. In fact, Brown has proved scornful of supposed psychic mediums and charlatans.

So, have you ever wondered how Derren Brown creates his headline-grabbing stage shows? Read below to find out…

READ and WATCH

That’s not magic: Penn, Teller and Derren Brown reveal all (or do they?)

That’s not magic: Penn, Teller and Derren Brown reveal all (or do they?)

Brian Logan for the Guardian..

In tune with our sceptical times, magicians debunk the supernatural. But are they really as rationalist as they claim?

It’s odd that we use the same word to describe those who merely pretendto make magic happen on stage. Few in their audience – kids notwithstanding – may ever have believed that stage conjurors genuinely dabble in the supernatural, but at least that’s what the acts occasionally purported to do. They called themselves magicians because they enjoyed generating the sense that what they did on stage was real magic.

Not any more. These days, the big magic acts – including the biggest of them all, Penn and Teller, who are in the UK this week – debunk the supernatural. Derren Brown’s another prime example..

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