Ok... JetEyeNight... Lighting wasn't the issue, some of those Arm Amputators actually have a small spot light mounted to the top brace so as to highlight things (and help cast a few special shadows)... in Dan's case, the fake was waaaay too small for the person being used, improperly "painted" and simply nowhere near believable. Most of those gaffs are made of rubber and thus, move just enough to look real. They are likewise made from a cast of the arm typically used in the act OR ELSE, the performer looks about the room to find someone with the right sized forearm to fit the thing... but "fit" is the important pioint here; the metal straps & the arm should be a "tight" fit so as to better conceal things, secondly, the "drop' (for lack of a better term) should be set in such a way as to allow the victim to sit in a relaxed/comfortable manner, not the awkward position the host seemed to be in, in this case.
Dan has been around long enough to have material ready to go, so why did he step outside the safety net by trying to do something he wasn't properly ready to present? With 3 day's lead time he should have been more than ready... for that matter, he should have known even before signing up for the show, what each set was going to be and had it down pat... so there really is no excuse here; Dan screwed up!
Yes, AGT has at least one or two key players that hate magic and magicians, that's the only way to explain some of the things they've done in the past few years to some of the bigger names in the trade. I have been corresponding with Sharon and now Howie in the hope of getting producers to bring in at least one to three magic experts as part of an advisory team. Aside from helping everyone out in judging a good magic act vs. poor, these advisors would be there to help the acts "tighten" things up and meet the demands of producers. They have choreographers, voice coaches, etc. for all the "traditional" type of acts, so why short change the variety category?
YES... magic is being hurt by all the air time it's seeing and what's most unfortunate, is the ease by which very poor quality acts are able to get that air time. But when it comes to situations such as AGT there is a more "traditional" problem afoot... Magic in particular along side Jugglers, Ventriloquist/puppeteers, etc. are all viewed as "filler' material by the typical live show producer; we are "novelties" that help build production value but that they have little to no respect for... not until you become some kind of major headliner and even then you can be in for a world of woe. I remember how
Waylon was treated from time to time simply because people didn't connect him to his famed puppet and their mutual success...
This can be a disheartening splash of water in the face, but it is how things have been for a very long time, a lot of it actually brought on by the magician's themselves. To be kind, there are simply too many bad ones out there with ego's bigger than Texas and a stubborn streak as wide as the Mississsippi. We go blind when opportunity presents itself and end up shooting ourselves in the foot. Sadly, our fubars end up reflecting on everyone else that calls themselves a "Magician" or "Mentalist"... but then we have more semantics to look at here, the confusion created within the industry by all the wannabes calling themselves "Illusionists"... a term that has, for at least a century or better, inferred those that did grand scaled effects akin to Howard Thurston or David Copperfield, not some clown with a set of Chinese Sticks... but I degress...
I fear that AGT has fallen into the same pit fall most every other half-decent talent show finds; politics and payola for lack of a better term. If I were but a mouse in the back room while show planning was going on, the things I'd be able to prove...
