Been a long time since I posted here, but I watched this last night.
It was a lot of fun…though none of the contestants’ tricks really wowed me the way some tricks in other season openers did.
Is the show running out of magicians who want to be on? While I like seeing old-time favorites, the show should—is designed to—have new talent, especially when they’ve already done returning magicians multiple times.
Farquhar’s trick was fine. I liked bringing elements from the last two tricks back; I didn’t like bringing the same jokes back. They made his routine seem far too schticky. Also, Penn says he and Teller knew what Farquhar was doing because they’d seen his first two tricks on the show. Was he really doing the same methods over again? That’s kinda disappointing here.
Helen Coghlan—ugh, I didn’t want to see her again. Her smug attitude really bothers me, and to this layman it seemed like she won on technicalities both times (two different tricks to trip P&T up on one, or they couldn’t guess the exact method of escape [behind a partition, grr]). This trick, however, was decent, and felt like it took more work. The dancers, however, were just irritating. Teller looked bothered when the guy came up to him. Annoying that she’s a three-time winner, though.
Ondřej Pšenička is always lots of fun, and I loved the trick(s). They felt more integrated with his past performances than Farquhar’s. Somehow, though, again it didn’t blow me away, give me a WOW, THIS IS MAGICAL! feeling. Maybe too much to ask for when magicians are working their butts off for these effects and professionals may get a wow for how difficult they are, but it’s always what I have looked for in magic (ever since seeing a magician do the floating-lady trick back when I was a little tyke!).
And Gertner is always wonderful, though he always appeals more to my analytic side than my emotional side (hm, that’s a remarkable illusion, rather than, once again, that WOW!).
The trick I really loved was Teller’s. I hadn’t seen it before, it wasn’t some jaw-dropping huge-scale effect, but it provided a sense of wonder.
All in all, a solid episode. Definitely looking forward to the rest of this season!
Edited June 24, 2020 by SalzmankncG1vNJzZmien6fCrr%2BNqamipZWptq6x0WeaqKVfqbyxtcJoaGpoYGeBbr%2FEmqqopl1serTAyKWjZp6fpLmqusZmmJ%2Bslad6orjLZquhnaOaerqxwKuqaA%3D%3D