Close-up on Letterman

[DannyT]

Late show with David Letterman is airing close-up magic all week this week.
Last night had Jason Randal, a magician I've seen perform before on many day/night shows.
He performed two card effects.

One of them was Wow by Katsuya Masuda. I thought he performed this fine.
After, Letterman questioned him if he could perform this without the card sleeve. Jason just said yeah and it got a laugh.
Then, I thought it would have been cool if he would have pulled out distortion and performed that after. I don't own Wow, but I would guess you would get asked if you could perform it without the card sleeve at one time or another.
I would definitely line up distortion after this trick if I had it.

The other was an effect I've never seen before. It was a packet trick with 8 ace of spades. Cool trick.
The last reveal with card he picked to begin with was a nice twist and it played well.
Throughout the whole performance he seemed pretty nervous though. He made it through the show without flashing, but I felt that he was going to mess up any second. I feel he definitely needed to practice more with his ace trick. It looked far from natural. Obviously if you put me in front of an audience on tv, I'd be shaking too. But even the count felt a little off by itself. It jus looked like he was sliding the cards off the back showing the aces face up and face down.
Anyone else see this last night?
What are your thoughts?

 

[Mat La Vore]

I forgot to TiVo last night, but Friday Michael Ammar is on. Steve Cohen is on one night this week too. Looking forward to it.

 

[DannyT]

I forgot to TiVo last night, but Friday Michael Ammar is on. Steve Cohen is on one night this week too. Looking forward to it.

Tonight, John Carney is on.
Wednesday - Johnny Ace Palmer
Thursday - Steve Cohen
Friday - Michael Ammar

I'm watching every night.

 

[descartes]

Yeah I saw Jason Randall's performance last night. He is a good performer and he chose some good tricks, but I felt he was acting very nervous. He is a veteran of performing on the talk show circuit, so I was a bit surprised.

Don't get me wrong, David Letterman's show is a very very hard venue to perform. Letterman has this annoying ability to interrupt in a way that can really mess up with your rhythm. I just felt Randall could have slowed things down just a bit so that the spectators wouldn't be confused.

Anyway, I can't wait to see the other performers and how they handle Letterman.

 

[cm763]

I just watched the clip of the card trick on the CBS website...wow, did he ever seem nervous! I can't blame him, as he had Letterman heckling him like crazy. From what I've heard, Randal is a seasoned professional...would have been nice to see how a professional handles such a bad heckler, heh. Oh well, it was still fun to watch.

I almost think that a magician that incorporates a lot of humour would have been a lot better fit for the show (i.e., to handle the heckling of Letterman). It would have been interesting to see Daniel Garcia on the show--for some reason, I can see him being a better fit.

Or perhaps someone who has an overwhelming stage presence, and thus demands a lot of respect. I suspect David Blaine, or even Criss Angel (yes, I went there), would have also handled the situation quite nicely (by making sure Letterman doesn't even get to heckle, or at least keeps the heckling to a minimum--they just have the presence that enables (or rather, acts as) that type of control).

I dunno. I guess we'll see what happens all this week. I'll be interested to see the others (thanks for mentioning the lineup, DannyT).

 

[j.bayme]

This was very exciting. We got to the theater yesterday with Ammar around 5:00. By 5:45, everyone was seated and the show was about to start. At 6:00 on the dot - not a second later, Dave walked out and started the show. The theater is much smaller than it looks on television! In reality, the stage looks about the size of a large living room. I guess the camera adds 10 pounds and 100 feet.

Ammar did a great job! He performed Pressure by Daniel Garcia and Dan White, with the alternate handling posted in the Pressure forum. To anyone that ever doubted the power of this effect, I think this conclusively lays those assumptions to rest. The reaction was great, the angle was perfect, and Letterman was floored! Ashton Kutcher came out right after and was still talking about how "he put the cell phone in the damn balloon." Ashton also did a little trick of his own - that classic gag where you lift up one foot behind a towel to make your leg vanish. All in all, it was a great time and a solid performance. The episode airs on FRIDAY night.

On Thursday, our friend Steve Cohen will be on the show. I spoke to Steve late last night, and he is very excited. Obviously this is an amazing opportunity to promote magic and himself, so he is working very hard at making the most of it. Steve is a great guy and a very well branded, polished performer. I'm sure he'll do great. Steve's episode airs on Thursday night.

We recorded an artist diary with Ammar right after the shoot that we will be posting in the media section tomorrow (Wednesday).

 

[kmagic25]

the 2nd trick he did was a version of royal scam by john bannon

 

[Mat La Vore]

Yeah I saw Jason Randall's performance last night. He is a good performer and he chose some good tricks, but I felt he was acting very nervous. He is a veteran of performing on the talk show circuit, so I was a bit surprised.

Don't get me wrong, David Letterman's show is a very very hard venue to perform. Letterman has this annoying ability to interrupt in a way that can really mess up with your rhythm. I just felt Randall could have slowed things down just a bit so that the spectators wouldn't be confused.

Anyway, I can't wait to see the other performers and how they handle Letterman.

Just found Randall's performance on YouTube. I thought he did fine and had a nice presentation for Wow, even though I'm not much of a fan of the effect. The second effect wasn't bad. Not my style, but he seemed to handle it well, even if he was a bit nervous.

Letterman was being a bit tough on him though. He kept interrupting and heckling him. Had what he was saying been funny and added some humor to Randall's performance it wouldn't have been bad, but he was really just being an immature jackass. He really came across as very insecure and like he wanted everyone to know how smart he was. Unfortunately, nobody cared, and all he did was bring down his own segment.

It will be interesting to see how the other performers this week handle him.

 

[j.bayme]

Just found Randall's performance on YouTube. I thought he did fine and had a nice presentation for Wow, even though I'm not much of a fan of the effect. The second effect wasn't bad. Not my style, but he seemed to handle it well, even if he was a bit nervous.

Letterman was being a bit tough on him though. He kept interrupting and heckling him. Had what he was saying been funny and added some humor to Randall's performance it wouldn't have been bad, but he was really just being an immature jackass. He really came across as very insecure and like he wanted everyone to know how smart he was. Unfortunately, nobody cared, and all he did was bring down his own segment.

It will be interesting to see how the other performers this week handle him.

Based on interaction in Ammar's performance, Letterman was upbeat and seemed legitimately interested. He discussed magic a good bit with Ashton Kutcher (the second guest on Friday). He certainly made sure he was involved in the performance (asking to examine things, touch literally everything), which makes him a tough spectator - but I didn't get the feeling watching Ammar that he was anything but sincere and intrigued. Tough, but sincere.

 

[chris17]

This was very exciting. We got to the theater yesterday with Ammar around 5:00. By 5:45, everyone was seated and the show was about to start. At 6:00 on the dot - not a second later, Dave walked out and started the show. The theater is much smaller than it looks on television! In reality, the stage looks about the size of a large living room. I guess the camera adds 10 pounds and 100 feet.

Ammar did a great job! He performed Pressure by Daniel Garcia and Dan White, with the alternate handling posted in the Pressure forum. To anyone that ever doubted the power of this effect, I think this conclusively lays those assumptions to rest. The reaction was great, the angle was perfect, and Letterman was floored! Ashton Kutcher came out right after and was still talking about how "he put the cell phone in the damn balloon." Ashton also did a little trick of his own - that classic gag where you lift up one foot behind a towel to make your leg vanish. All in all, it was a great time and a solid performance. The episode airs on FRIDAY night.

On Thursday, our friend Steve Cohen will be on the show. I spoke to Steve late last night, and he is very excited. Obviously this is an amazing opportunity to promote magic and himself, so he is working very hard at making the most of it. Steve is a great guy and a very well branded, polished performer. I'm sure he'll do great. Steve's episode airs on Thursday night.

We recorded an artist diary with Ammar right after the shoot that we will be posting in the media section tomorrow (Wednesday).

there's a pressure forum? Where? I bought the product and I don't remember any product forums.

 

[TheatreHead]

to be honest, spectators that act the way that Letterman do enhance some tricks.

 

[Liderc]

They have Special forums for products bought? i've bout a lot of stuff, i've never heard mention of special forums

back on topic

Dave just heckled him for no reason a'tall, he was really trying to take the piss out of him. but on the same side, Jason just looked a bit off his game, his counts for the last trick were pretty bad, he looked like he was shaking, his whole thing was a bit blah

 

[Wallmott]

How can you say that He heckled him? If you think that is heckling, wait until you run into a real one.

To me, someone like him would be a dream spectator because he seemed interested and was asking some hard questions, but you should be prepared for that.

Letter man even asks him, "Do i botther you tonight?" and it sounds like he is sorry because he looks so nervous.

And man, why bring an effect like WOW??? Its obvious that it is a gimmick and that it does something speciall that is not magic, if your peforming that effect your ASKING for it.

Also i think that the ace trick is a bad trick to performe on tv. Why performe a trick that uses so many moves? every move is a moment to be nervous about because every move can go wrong.

 

[Mat La Vore]

How can you say that He heckled him? If you think that is heckling, wait until you run into a real one.

To me, someone like him would be a dream spectator because he seemed interested and was asking some hard questions, but you should be prepared for that.

Letter man even asks him, "Do i botther you tonight?" and it sounds like he is sorry because he looks so nervous.

And man, why bring an effect like WOW??? Its obvious that it is a gimmick and that it does something speciall that is not magic, if your peforming that effect your ASKING for it.

Also i think that the ace trick is a bad trick to performe on tv. Why performe a trick that uses so many moves? every move is a moment to be nervous about because every move can go wrong.

I think the term 'heckler' is partly defined by who it is and the environment. If someone in a restaurant or bar setting had been saying the same things Letterman was, it wouldn't have even registered and been quite easy to simply dismiss. But because Letterman was the host and because Randall was on his show, those (what would be) annoying little side comments instead became the focus of Randall's segment. I don't argue Randall could have handled it better, but I do think that due to who Letterman is, and the environment Randall was in (Letterman's show), that that did make a difference in shifting Letterman and his comments into the heckler category.

I totally agree on the choice of effects. Neither was ideal for the environment in which he was performing.

 

[Wallmott]

I think the term 'heckler' is partly defined by who it is and the environment. If someone in a restaurant or bar setting had been saying the same things Letterman was, it wouldn't have even registered and been quite easy to simply dismiss. But because Letterman was the host and because Randall was on his show, those (what would be) annoying little side comments instead became the focus of Randall's segment. I don't argue Randall could have handled it better, but I do think that due to who Letterman is, and the environment Randall was in (Letterman's show), that that did make a difference in shifting Letterman and his comments into the heckler category.

I totally agree on the choice of effects. Neither was ideal for the environment in which he was performing.

I agree.

But i think he handled it pretty poorly. If you know a effect has a "weak" spot or something that is questionable and you know that someone might say something about it, you better have a strong line to comeback with when that problems comes up.

Now he just ended up looking a bit stupid, because HE knew that the audience and letterman understood that it was that gimmicked card sleeve that did the magic.


If i were to go on a tv show i would do something that is impossible to mess up, where the method itself is done way before the effect itself starts so you can focus 100% on the pressentations and no matter how nervous you get you can still pull it of without any problems.

 

[chriswiehl]

Wow is a good effect. you just have to work your way around the gimmicky aspect of it.

 

[Wallmott]

Wow is a good effect. you just have to work your way around the gimmicky aspect of it.

I think WOW is one of the worst effects you can do. You have to have a pretty damn good reason to use the card sleeve for the spectators to belive that the plastic thing you put the card in has nothing to do with the effect that just happend. Even then i still think that they will have some doubt about it in their mind.

They might be fooled by it but they will also suspect that something is going on.

Letterman even got the method right before the trick started, and asked a very obvious question that i think most spectators would have in their mind.

 

[Justin.Morris]

. I don't own Wow, but...
I would definitely line up distortion after this trick if I had it.

What are your thoughts?

That would have been good. In fat, I think it would have been the only thing that would have saved that act. David expressed the silent thoughts of so many spectators. As soon as he put the card in the sleeve, he said, "Does that sleeve have any optical effect on the card?" -Oh snap.

 

[Justin.Morris]

John Carney did a great job!
Unfortunately the camera angles were a bit telling for the loads, but his presentation was good enough the my wife didn't notice the flashes, and she gasped when the glass appeared. He played well off Dave too.

 

[descartes]

John Carney did a great job!
Unfortunately the camera angles were a bit telling for the loads, but his presentation was good enough the my wife didn't notice the flashes, and she gasped when the glass appeared. He played well off Dave too.

John Carney was terrific. He chose some pretty challenging stuff and executed the whole routine beautifully. Letterman was also a bit subdued which helped.

I think Carney's performance is an advanced lesson in misdirecting even when cameras are trained on you and the angles are not great. I don't think any laymen would have seen even a single flash (I caught only two, and even they were minor).