I’m liking the format the way it is. There’s no need for this to be a mentoring program specifically, this is about seeing what these people stuck together can draw up on the fly. It’s a mix of improv with magic. I do agree that not seeing the deliberations is a little tough on seeing just the judge’s decisions, but it’s only three episodes now, so let’s give it a bit of time to work out.
This episode had some great elements.
First off, the saw trick from the Wizards was neat. Shimshi helped sell the performance with his well-timed head bob.
Challenger Team 1: Blake Vogt and Adam Trent
Challenger Team 2: Cashaan Wallace and Dan Hauss
Challenge round items: Deck of Tarot cards, remote controlled helicopter, sparklers
Team 1: Sparklers on the helicopter blades was a scary idea. I’m glad they didn’t go with that. I agree with Jason, the first trick with the helicopter flying in the table was odd and unnecessary. These two had a really good team dynamic, and integrated the items very well throughout the act. And they played to their audience by using the Tarot cards as cards for a card trick, not selling mysticism. Both teams had to work around the “how do you fly a helicopter” problem; this team used the helicopter blades for the reveal with the sparklers was pretty neat. Coming up with a prediction trick that none of the judges knew was awesome.
Team 2: Opening with sleight of hand let them play to their strengths and set up the Tarot card past-present-future bit, so that was good. Using custom images on the cards to display their predictions worked. Using the battery compartment on the remote for the reveal was a creative way around the “fly a helicopter” problem and was an okay misdirect; however, I found the act a little stiff because of it. Using a “failure” to set up a creative reveal is tricky to keep the audience. Having the reveal in someone else’s hands is always a good, flashy technique to sell a trick.
I thought the first team had a little better dynamic, I liked their integration of the props better, and the deal clencher has to be using a trick that the judges didn’t know how it was done. (They’d have won on Penn & Teller: Fool Us). Team 1 for the first round.
The intermission act was a cute silverware sleight of hand trick.
Wizard War round: use salt and pepper shakers, a chess set, a rocking chair, and a pirate costume
Challengers: Once again, the chemistry between the guys is smooth. The private/pirate autocorrect bit was a cute way to knock out the costume, thought there was a little flash on costume right before Blake stepped behind the curtain. When I first saw the salt and pepper shakers and the chess pieces, it was the obvious choice to mix them, but they took it a step further than simple swap out. However, pulling out the big pepper shaker shows chess pieces inside - I was trying to figure out what was in the shaker because it was black pieces of something, not pepper. The salt was better hidden. None of the chess and salt & pepper act was particularly deceptive, and there’s one spot where arguably the camera trick was helpful. When Blake hands off the bandanna to Adam, he’s still sitting at the chess board when the camera follows the bandanna for Adam’s disappearance trick. That’s when Blake reveals the white chess pieces, but misdirection has the audience’s attention focused on what Adam is doing. However, the camera following a close up means you couldn’t watch what Blake’s doing if you thought to. And the chess board swap had a little malfunction slip as well.
But what punches their act to excellent is the very creative paper rocking chair. That was a complete surprise. Very creative trick.
Wizards: Angela Funovits and Shimshi take on the challenge. It would have been cheap to put Angela in the pirate outfit to just to look cute, so I’m glad they tried something different. The Black and White party was looking at the items and finding their common thread, so that was good. The spirit cabinet part, though, wasn’t that great - the rope tie wasn’t very convincing and the way Shimshi put on the shirt was pretty shoddy. The use of the salt and pepper themselves for the trick rather than the shakers was okay. The mentalism bit with the chess set, though, was excellent.
Once again, there were strong and weak elements for both teams. I happen to agree with the results, the creativity of the rocking chair trick by the challengers was the best part, though the chess set mentalism was pretty good.
I will also point out that out of three shows, the challengers have one twice, and arguably should have one the first time. So right now, the Wizards’ record isn’t looking that good.