This is what magic should be. Taking effects and making them your own, making them unique to you and your character. Take notes kids, Sperry knows what he's on about.
Dan Sperry on America's Got Talent
- Thread starter Jacob
- Start date
if i didnt know who dan was. i would think he was a Effed up freak. which he is. but it was a very good performance and he killed the judges. good job sir. its just a little creepy for me haha
For those who missed the performance, you can watch it and comment on it now below. Don't forget to vote!
http://media.theory11.com/3649
http://media.theory11.com/3649
Great!! I think this was a great performance...if not the best I´ve seen in a long time...the dove production was also great!!
mental note: get saw ASAP
mental note: get saw ASAP
I love is facial expressions. He takes such enjoyment out of sawing through his neck. lol. Amazing.
Dan does saw better than anyone in the world. Its the perfect match between effect and character. We all should aspire to find this for ourselves.. The first step is to define your character.
I love this effect, and Dan Sperry put every performance I've seen on this to shame.
Smart that he threw the thread at Howie, because not a lot of people know this, but Howie Mandel is a huge Germaphobe.
I don't know if Dan knew that or just got lucky, but if he did, it was genius.
Smart that he threw the thread at Howie, because not a lot of people know this, but Howie Mandel is a huge Germaphobe.
I don't know if Dan knew that or just got lucky, but if he did, it was genius.
That was priceless! That was so awesome. That looks like the perfect effect for Halloween!! I knew of Saw before this, but what an awesome application!
GOAT.
Despite the sheer entertainment value of his reaction, I do (kind of) think it was bad form to throw the thread at Howie Mandel. He is known for his serious case of OCD-- mysophobia. I would find it hard to believe that anyone living in LA wouldn't know that about him. I remember him coming clean with it on Howard Stern, and I think this particular performance-- although effing hilarious-- slightly took advantage of him.
Regardless, I wish Dan Sperry the best on the show.
RS.
Despite the sheer entertainment value of his reaction, I do (kind of) think it was bad form to throw the thread at Howie Mandel. He is known for his serious case of OCD-- mysophobia. I would find it hard to believe that anyone living in LA wouldn't know that about him. I remember him coming clean with it on Howard Stern, and I think this particular performance-- although effing hilarious-- slightly took advantage of him.
Regardless, I wish Dan Sperry the best on the show.
RS.
I am pretty sure that was the point. To completely disgust him.
And dude, no offense but, can you type normally?
I think we should applaud how Dan used this knowledge to his advantage.
That's called doing your homework.
I think throwing the floss at Howie made the reactions 20x better than it would have been if he didn't.
@ S.G-- It was (obviously) the point to draw a response out of him, but I think there's more to it. I PM'ed you. Overall, I think it's a performer's obligation to care for an audience, and not exploit it. I think Dan Sperry may have unintentionally done that by taking advantage of Howie's OCD, but it (fortunately) worked out for him. In general though-- I wouldn't recommend others to emulate that line of thought. For instance, if someone absolutely HATES snakes and is deathly afraid of them, it wouldn't be smart to produce one from their hat and drape it over their shoulders. Jussayin. I think Sperry did an excellent job on the show, but I think he was especially lucky that Howie Mandel doesn't take himself too seriously-- otherwise the video clip would have ended a little differently.
RS.
RS.
Perhaps I should retract a previous statement. It WASN'T bad form for Dan Sperry to do this. His entire character and persona motivates this kind of behavior. It works for him. And it's also no secret that Howie Mandel does laugh at his own disorder and makes fun of himself in his own stand-up act. So yes-- Sperry did his homework and chose an animated good sport to get that kind of noteworthy reaction for national television.
But what I'm worried about, are the people who'll fail to recognize the amount of thought that went into Sperry's character to actually pull something like this off. There's enough bad magic out there as/is... and we don't need anymore immature kids thinking it's okay to use magic to deliberately scare or disgust people for no reason. That's actually NOT what Dan Sperry did. I think it's important to emphasize that. He meticulously studied his character, found an ideal effect that suited it, and used an opportune moment to showcase its impact on people. THAT's what should be taken away from the performance-- not, "Oh, man-- throwing the thread at the audience is a great way to make them scream!"
Hopefully, that context makes more sense.
RS.
But what I'm worried about, are the people who'll fail to recognize the amount of thought that went into Sperry's character to actually pull something like this off. There's enough bad magic out there as/is... and we don't need anymore immature kids thinking it's okay to use magic to deliberately scare or disgust people for no reason. That's actually NOT what Dan Sperry did. I think it's important to emphasize that. He meticulously studied his character, found an ideal effect that suited it, and used an opportune moment to showcase its impact on people. THAT's what should be taken away from the performance-- not, "Oh, man-- throwing the thread at the audience is a great way to make them scream!"
Hopefully, that context makes more sense.
RS.
Well that's every performance that an amatrure see's and tries to imitate an act/trick.
A lot of youngins(or people that just don't get it) wanna copy magicians effects that may not work for them because of age, gender, personality/persona, etc.
You need to find out who you are and work around effects that fit your style and how you can display them. "What works for you".
Dan Sperry mastered this as you can see.
But don't think that this 1 performance is going to lead to a downfall of inorganic performances from magic clones, since this has been an ongoing problem since before any of us were born.
Great point! I'm going to have to agree with this 100%. If I was watching a magician, and really thought a piece of floss was pulled out of his neck, I would not want that to land on me.
I don't think Dan would toss the floss so it would have landed on Howie. I think he just tossed it in his direction so it would land in front of Howie, therefore getting the reaction he wanted, but not offending him at the same time.
I thought that Dan's performance had all of the critical elements: punch (the dove production and intensity at beginning), simplicity, and intimacy. It was extremely memorable which, on these types of shows especially, is crucial to success. It's what Luis de Matos referred to in his EMC talk as "fly paper" - performances and moments that stick and render the viewer unable to look away.