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Anyway, there is a quite nice demo version of “State Of Shock” (still-image video) as duet by Freddie and Michael which the latter later recorded and released with Mick Jagger, and a demo of the Queen/Freddie song¹ “There Must Be More To Life Than This”, which, however, isn’t that great in this duet version, hence here also the link to the final Freddie version; Jackson wasn’t that great on ballads anyway, now was he? I wasn’t able to find the third song that is said to exist, “Victory”.

Brian May wrote on his blog-like “Soapbox” a few words about Jackson, if anyone’s interested.

1. was originally planned for the Queen album The Works, but ended up on Freddie’s solo album after he and Brian had written “Is This The World We Created…?”

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Manuel Horeth – wants to start “an impossible mission” “aside from the stage” –, Jan Becker – wants to “create a lifetime connection between two people” (oh dear, that’s gonna be a long show) – and Ully Loup – who allegedly “has only one true friend”, his dog Sina, and who “wants to raise emotions” in his audience, today again with contacting “the crown prince of hell” (see Pro7 newsflashes).

Also the Hungarian David Merlini, invited by Uri Geller, will perform a “spectacular escapologist act – playing a dangerous game with fire”. Or a “specatucular” act, according to the press release. His extreme achievements so far are said to be:

He holds the underwater world record (20 minutes, 39 seconds), spent 33 hours tied in a block of ice and already covered a 100 meter distance in a burning car.

Celebrities today: Presenter Charlotte Engelhardt, presenter Matthias Opdenhövel and actress Julia Stinshoff.

The show

The show begins with a look at the trophy: a glass block with lasered spoon image. At least larger than those you find on rag-fairs… The “spectacular acts” will also take place outside the studio in Cologne and Berlin. That is, video recordings like last year, with all possibilities for tricks in taping and cutting. Well, don’t like that idea that much, let’s hope they actually are spectacular enough.

Contestant 1: Ully Loup

Huh, usually at the end, now as first? So he can’t win. Wants to subdue the forces of nature. “The screen is yours” – the recording shows an alleyway/backyard(?) lit in red. Julia is told to think about one finger of her raised hand, Ully touches each of them and gets a light electric shock at the pretendedly correct one. Ully calls it “spiritual energy”, of coooourse. They enter an empty factory building with mostly blue lighting, Ully’s “lab” with some large electric installations.

First a demonstation: Ully is wearing a metal mesh suit (→ Faraday cage) and (after he guided Julia out of the way) climbs onto a metal plate on large isolators – 1 million volts are running through him, the narrator says, and lightning bolts flicker from fingers and head (with hood) to surrounding metal parts, fire shoots from a (apparently arranged) barrel. Julia is then to enter a solid, coarsly human-shaped wire cage and “if possible turn off her intellect” (never mind, physics work anyway).

He shouts something like “open the gates to hell” after he climbed back up to the small isolated plate (wich is of course supplied with power through a cable), the narrator blithering-idiots about amplification of his mental energy with electricity so he can say something about Julia’s fears. The bolts did eagerly flash from Ully’s wire mesh to Julia’s wire cage. Did she sense something? Nothing special, but Ully got one, feat (if I got that right), something about a non-occuring injury in a dream. Research or arranged, as usual. “Do you want the fear to stop?” Shout it out of the soul – which both do, hugging.

Hm, that were nice electric effects, but nothing worth mentioning in magical terms, and it doesn’t fit Ully’s psycho iage that well. Rather disappointing, compared with his earlier perfomances, I think.

Geller says: “Great act.”

Contestant 2: Manuel Horeth

Wants to “perform burglary without trace”. A video recording from Cologne – with Matthias. Something short with concentration and “football” on a little card to get into the mood. He wants to steal the boxing gloves of Mohammed Ali, they buy tickets at the museum cash desk, unnecessary hypnosis game to save money.

But first something with football (soccer) and what’s called a “Torwand” in German but doesn’t seem to have a proper English word: A wall with a goal painted on it and two circular openings through which people try to kick the ball. Matthias, in this case, and he’s supposed to shoot exactly as Manuel “hypnotises into him” (again with a silly noise dubbed over); Manuel hangs the plan for it in an envelope next to the wall. Matthias kicks 4x, Manuel draws the positions on a board. And they of course match the “old” plan which, as it seems, he was hiding briefly behind a chair. Typical “prediction” trick where the “plan” is drawn and placed later.

Now on to the boxing ring with the gloves in a showcase. Again the idiotic hypnosis concentration sound. A newspaper page is held agains the glass pane, first knocked on it and then the hand’s pushed through – and Matthias can touch the gloves. The camera position always shows the pretendedly pierced pane only exactly from the edge (perspective is often important…). Probably the pane slides up and down between point-of-view changes. As I just see, Gellerentlarvt linked to a video by Criss Angel where it’s explained…

The only positive, in my opinion: There were multiple short tricks instead of one lengthened too much.

Geller: Incredible. Influencing people and stuff. “You are really one of the greatest menalists.”

Contestant 3: Jan Becker

Wants to prove that a connection between two people who really love each other is stronger than any distance. With Charlotte and her sister Henriette in Berlin. Henriette is told to hide somewhere in Berlin (which she doesn’t know that well), she’s got 2 hours time, Charlotte is to find her – scavenger hunt with angel wings drawn with chalk. To find these: “Contact the subconscious”, concentration, blabla. Drawings – well, scribblings – of buildings or something alike, “intuitively drawn”, which they follow one after another. If they’d really be able to follow these scribblings, now that’d be a miracle… Hand on one of the symbols, sense names/places, stuff like that.

Okay, you see a little of Berlin while Henriette watches them on a small monitor – the image of which doesn’t look like it’s really on it but rather stitched in later. One of the locations: a hotel “Art|e Luise” allegedly fits their granny’s name “Elouise” – couldn’t they find anything better?

Since there’s a camera team following Henriette, there’s always a way to whisper something to Jan, of course.

Geller: “Very impressive.”
Me: A hardly impressive waste of time.

The Guest: David Merlini

But first: The phone numbers for the preliminary decision – one of the three will be eliminated, the other two will perfom again later.

After the commercials, Verena announces David (after a short film), and he enters the stage. He wants to escape from a “real straitjacket”, a construction with 3 ropes and a hook below is lowered – the ropes will burn later and he hang headlong. And Charlotte and Matthias are helping him to put on the straitjacket. Charlotte is the one to fasten the belt between the legs…

And finally his feet are put on the hook – by his own assistant, it seems – and the disc between ropes and hook is ignited. He twists around and moans as any good escape artist does, and of course gets rid of the (in the end quite loosely fitting) straitjacket and gets down; in the mean time, two ropes… were apparently cut off remote-controlled, because these thick ropes were just slightly singed and never would have burnt through that quickly.

At least this was better than all three “experiments” before put together. (Which doesn’t say much.)

Preliminary Decision

First a film with scenes from earlier shows. And the Takeshi’s Castle ripoff is advertized, because, oh what a miracle, Charlotte and Matthias will present that starting next week. Third place and the elimination goes to Ully Loup. In my opinion, all three could have been eliminated…

Final duel: Manuel Horeth

Wants to “bring a long journey to an end” – and it’s “the stage is yours” again. The audience is told to look if they got 5€ bills, look in his eyes and hold up the bills. The two ladies are told to collect them – exchange for business cards so they get the money back later. He’s interested in one patricular banknote, by the way. Matthias onto the stage, hypno stuff with “all the money in the world” and “absolute dream” imagined: would buy the Brasilian football player Kaká for Gladbach… and Manuel shows a child’s drawing of a football player when he turns the picture frame he was hiding.

The women put the money into a big glass bowl, Charlotte is no longer needed. Manuel says he made sure that a 5€ bill he spent in a Munich gas station on 13 January (start of the season) comes back to him now. Fr the sake of intuition and coincidence and the like: A “random machine”: glass cylinder with a big fan on top in which he stuffs the banknotes. Finger movement in front of Julia who then grabs a bill from those whirling around with eyes closed; puts it onto a table and is told to read the serial number slowly which he writes down to a board for all to see: M15211875577.

In today’s “daily newspaper” (a Bild), which also the audience have, is a small ad mentioning exactly this number. Prepared bills handed out to the audience? Bill swapped? (But when?) Was the number on the table? (The bill was shown rather late.) Well, we’ve seen worse today.

Geller: “lot of creativity” – the simultaneous translator who usually translates everything Uri says into German seems to have fallen asleep already – “I would be proud if you become my successor”.

Final duel: Jan Becker

Wants to answer all our questions. Well, I got one: When will the show become really entertaining? We at home are told to write that down too, the audience have prepared envelopes (with their initials on) which they and we are told to think about now and “transmit” them to him. One who may stand up wants to become a cook, a woman wonders when she’ll marry, and 2 more – and he again determines everything either during the conversation (cold reading) or pre-arranged. And he gives them encouraging speeches etc. as usual. Same with the celebrities, where research can be added: Charlotte moving; Matthias is promised a 2:0 for Mönchengladbach to avoid relegation; Julia is asked onto the stage, and because she wonders whether she’d stay healthy he “donates” her a “power ritual” – completely with hand on head that no-one is supposed to be able to raise.

Now if he’s actually going to win with this…

And all answers at home are to be answered now, too: close eyes, think about the questions, and we’re supposed to hear a voice in our heads that gives the answer when he says “now”. “It’s not about continuing the magic here” – we are the life, the miracle, etc., and encouraging words for everyone like from a stereotypical self-awareness coach. He’s overdoing it greatly now.

Geller (with translator again): Could he win? “Absolutely yes”.

The Decision

First the celebs’ opinions: Julia liked Jan’s giving positive energy, Matthias tends slightly towards Jan, Charlotte clearly. Then Uri grabs the apparently quite heavy trophy, says everything was great, the winner will really deserve it. And if you’re wondering how one could make a decision announcement with only two contestants really long-winded, you just need to watch this…

The winner, “The Next Uri Geller 2009″ is: Jan Becker.

Well then at least he can scoop off that line-thing on his head with the bent spoon trophy. Oh no, that’s his “haircut”, I forgot… finally over.

Thanks to all readers and commenters who followed my reports!

Ratings

Not even the final increased them – on the contrary, these were (by a small difference) the lowest number of viewers in total, the market share being on a similar level as before, and the second-lowest in the target audience: 1.62 million total (5.2% market share) / 1.10 m. aged 14-49 (8.6%).

» To the summary and statistics

Farid’s Street Magic show really plummeted: 1.15 million (4.8%) / 0.86 m. (8.1%).

See also:

• My pre-show report with all ten contestants.
• Skeptic’s dictionary: Uri Geller.
• ProSieben page about the show (German).

» Go to all my posts about Uri Geller. «

Photos: shadowvincent/Fotolia, wilhei66/sxc, shadowvincent/Fotolia

© cimddwc.net 2009 | Permalink | 5 Comments

Manuel Horeth, Jan Becker – “knows exactly what’s going on in those in front of him” –, Jan Rouven – “dangerous play with fire” – and Ully Loup.

This is already the semifinal – one more show next week, and that’s it. As they said last week, there will be no “battle” against last year’s winner Vincent Raven due to his health status.

Celebrities today: television presenter and former singer Johanna Klum, presenter Aleksandra Bechtel and presenter Christian Clerici. Not much variety here, profession-wise…

According to a “TV Guide” poll (via Pro7), 32% of all Germans believe in supernatural phenomena – well then, may those enjoy being dumbed even more by this show if they really believe these are no tricks or sleights of hand. If there is still any hope for some undecided ones: also the links below will help you.

The show

An “uncanny live experiment” by Uri with afterlife contact is announced. His ancient tricks should have deceased by now, but he’s still using them – so it might actually work…

Contestant 1: Jan Becker

“Today we’ll see the world with different eyes.” Drunk from carnival? Well, I’m not. We “will conjure the poetry of our mind”. Language, images, emotions, love, rituals, studio. Warm-up with the audience: Think the name of someone dear into Jan’s gestured heart, light of love, back → love, blabla. Celebs are told to think about a pretty moment, Aleks is picked. Jan wants her to “transmit” the image of the moment, he then describes it – with each sentence she’s to get one step closer to him. Room, sitting, not alone – 1,2,3 people, child? correct. Man and woman? Aleks shakes her head. Two women? Correct. Cold reading on the way to the stage.

But that wasn’t all, of course – she’s supposed to be his muse for a poem that he’s writing down. He tells her a scenario in which she encounters “blue beings” that would have something to do with a dream of hers. Body gets lighter, hovers, and I’m almost hovering into sleep too. The details of the story with boat and flower and old man are irrelevant. Her dream’s something about rock’n’roll and a proper wedding party that’s yet to come and more, and that’s part of Jan’s poem. Well researched what he couldn’t colc-read, or well written afterwards or inserted (could you rerad directly what was on his sheet?).

Geller says: pure mentalism, wonderful, thanks.

Geller’s announcement: It’s about a contact with deceased relatives. So another despicable playing with the feelings of the viewers that believe it. And Christian, who likes to be proselytized, quotes Hamlet.

Contestant 2: Manuel Horeth

He wants to “influence the masses” today, which he hasn’t done before. “Come with us and dream” – I’m almost doing that – “a movie”. Oh, I see. He says he already got a script locked away on stage. The celebs each fetch an audience member and give them microphones. Hypno gestures for some. Johanna checks that the lock on the hanging safe is locked.

The people are told (with the usual concentration and inner eye talk etc.) to name the details of the movie and write on a board: Western, 1869, murder, 23 million € budget, title “Hang him lower”. Short “hypnosis” for Christian, names number “4401″ for the lock – probably a remote-controlled trick lock, greetings to Jan Rouven! Rolled-up paper in glass cylinder in the safe – on a table that wasn’t there before, in which the scroll can have easily been placed –, of course everything’s written on it correctly. The ending scene is drawn, well, scribbled by several viewers in small parts on cardboards. Correctly of course. Everyone probably managed to memorize the simple lines for his part.

Geller: He’d deserve an Oscar.

Geller’s dumbing from the beyondg

He wants to try something medial which he never did before. The dead shall be asked for an audible sign – a little glass bell stands on his table. We’re to take a handbell, if available, and hold it high, or coins, or keys, maybe put keys on the TV. Be silent and listen for noises. Hold hands. Concentrate and so on. At least his Hebrew 1,2,3 is quiet this time, too. His bell doesn’t move for now, but we’re told to call if something happened, if we could hear something. Probably there were quite a few people who heard something at home – from a carnival party next door, for instance –, wasn’t a very specific requirement.

He of course wants to try again himself, steps at his table and the metal clapper really moves, so he got his magnet moving now nearby or under the table, turned up a compressed-air valve, whatever. Uri plays being really emotianlly touched. But not because he’s ashamed having played with the viewers’ feelings and given them such idiotic ideas.

The only thing that could move here with me would rather be related to Verena in her silver-grey dress…

Contestant 3: Jan Rouven

Wants to “try to influence fate”. 4 canisters, 3 with easily flammable gasoline, 1 (whose blue ribbon he removes) with water. I better ignore that talk about fate and inner voice. He pours a little from each canister into a bowl (I don’t see any difference in color) and puts the canisters then into the middle. The 3 bowls are of course ignited and the torch extinguished in the 4th.

A sheet is singed in a glass and its smoke and ashes used with the celebs’ fists to lengthily select Johanna and Christian (the ash on their hands has been put there by Jan himself, of course, when he touched their hands), who also receive fire-protection jackets. Christian rotates the table with the canisters so one can no longer know directly which is which. They are to be poured over Jan and 3 scarecrows in boilersuits. And as said, if it were done without the babble about concentration, feelings and stuff, the trick probably were both too short and too, well, sensible. Nose clips so they can’t smell which is gasoline and which is water. Or rather to keep them from noticing that none contains gasoline.

And the scarecrows are soaked as well as Jan – “Please don’t try at home!” Aww, they have to spoil all the fun. One torch each for Christian and Johanna, two straw guys ignited at the feet, and they go up in flames quite fast – also starting from each little platform. Then over to Jan and the 3rd scarecrow, and of course Jan doesn’t burn. I’d say in all canisters was water and in and under the scarecrows (and in the 3 bowls) more highly flammable substances.

Geller: Totally crazy, applause from the audience, Uri too is enthused.

Contestant 4: Ully Loup

His soul is to leave his body… commercials. And first a few audience reactions, nothing extraordinary, and a video in which a bunch of keys moves in a hand on “shalosh”. That ooooonly could’ve been a spirit, sure.

But now on to Ully Loup and his “tortured soul” that’s to wander around. Tattle about souls and bodies before he leads Aleks by her hand to the stage – to a chair at a table. She’s told to watch him closely. Quite a thing is supposed to happen, she’d feel there were a third person – then she’s to get up, walk to the prop with a black box and take any object and put it in the box. And “something strangely shy” would accompany her, that is Ully’s own self. But don’t be afraid!

Loup lies down on a couch, a broomsick with a flower(?) that he smelled(?) before falls over (can easily be remote-triggered), and Aleks already stands up and walks out. Ully’s face is overlayed in the image of Aleks’ walk – in this sense, he is actually with her. She takes a toy car from a shelf on which quite a lot of things are lying. Someone will be whispering that to him. Now if nothing more will happen, that’s the most boring performance of Ully’s so far…

He gets up, says he’ll overcome some inner blocking, takes off his jacket, sits down next to her. His consciousness isn’t able to see what’s inside – how would it –, she’s told to hold her hand above the box. Soul would take a shape by his putting his hands into a box full of clay, or something like that. Was that his blocking? He theatrically works with the clay and shapes a heart. But that’s nothing his soul saw now, but something old, he says, and breaks it in two. Playing for time in a psycho distraction… but given his image, he’s got to do that. Until he forms something that vaguely (but recognizibly) reminds of a car. Had I made something like that decades ago at school, an F would have been inevitable…

Geller’s judgment: dark but impressive.

The decision

No immunity from Geller. Could I choose, I’d vote him out, but there never is a phone number for him. Couldn’t he at least perfom in that Takeshi’s Castle copy that’s announced in the break?

But first to the celebs: Aleks preferred the dark perfomance by Ully, Christian liked Manuel and Johanna Jan Rouven. And Uri liked everything again. Now, finally, and as usually unnecessarily lengthened: Becker and Horeth are told right away, Rouven and Loup must wait longer: Loup is in the next round, Jan Rouven is eliminated. Rather a pity, I’d prefer a little action over those boring things like his namesake did.

Ratings

Given that it was Carnival Tuesday, the decrease is surprisingly low: 1.69 millions total (5.2% market share), 1.15 m aged 14-49 (8.9%).

Farid’s Street Magic: 1.55m (6.1%) / 1.14m (10.5%)

See also:

• My pre-show report with all ten contestants.
• Skeptic’s dictionary: Uri Geller.
• ProSieben page about the show (German).

» Go to all my posts about Uri Geller. «

Photos: shadowvincent/Fotolia, wilhei66/sxc, shadowvincent/Fotolia

© cimddwc.net 2009 | Permalink | 8 Comments

Of course the remaining five contestants will perform: Manuel Horeth – wants to “prove that fear weighs heavy” –, Waayatan, Jan Becker – wants to sense the “energetic trace” of fingerprints, greetings to mysticism fans –, Jan Rouven and Ully Loup – he reportedly “feels hurt deep inside when one of his competitors must leave the show.” Though I don’t think he will leave himself voluntarily…

Celebrities today: transsexual entertainer Lorielle London, actor, singer and presenter Oli Petszokat (like last year) and former No Angels singer Vanessa Petruo.

The show

Waayatan plays with fire already at the beginning – with two multi-torches while large flames blaze around the stage. A quick introduction of the celebrities (see above), and we start with the mandatory silly-talking commented retrospect…

Contestant 1: Waayatan

Today he wants to “enter the realm of the shadows as deep as never before”, he says in the clip – his torches will be quite useful there. Or he needs them to look deep into the people. “Without light, there can be no fire.” Strange sentence… Feeling the celebs’ hands: first hers, then his, then its, if you will, and Lorenzo Lorielle, with high heels half a head taller than Waaya, walks to several stones on a table on the stage – from a river with an English name which allegedly is a “power place” of his ancestors – with symbols of the “shamans” painted on them that look somewhat like element and astrology symbols. Lorielle feels the energy – feels cold.

Stones are separated in 2 heaps, she’s to hold a hand over one – they’re swept away. Turn aroud “about one half” of the remaining – she ignores the “about” and says it’s impossible because there were 9. Finaly turn around the 4 remaining stones, 2 more thrown away – by Waayatan, of course, thus he can always make sure that the group with the correct stone remains, which she then holds at her heart, symbol hidden.

Waayatan takes off his shirt and plays with 2 burning slingshots, also lets them rotate at the scared-looking Lorielle’s sides. Then talks something about symbols inside everyone, returning to everyone, and then ignites the symbol on a round platform: 2 crossed arrows (seemed to have been prepared with flammable material). Same symbol as on the stone:

Geller: “well done”. And he announces his stupid “live experiment” in which e.g. stones are supposed to attract each other by thoughts. You could think that a commercial break is next (also the other contestents are introduced now), but we switch to the celebs. Vanessa has a ghost in her upper story apartment and also believes in voodoo and similar stuff. Oli P. is more fantasy-oriented. Lorielle believes in “signs” showing her the way, and certainly isn’t refering to traffic signs. A pity, since her, er, beauty-impaired face could be hidden well behind a traffic sign.

Contestant 2: Manuel Horeth

Twisting thoughts and manipulate emotions an stuff. Lorielle and Oli back to back, are told to think about a nice dream or the corresponding emotion and write it down. Sheets close to body. Turn around. Show: Both “love”. Then Vanessa, think about a nightmare (all combined with Manuel’s hypno gestures), particular fear in it, put it mentally into a (real) box that’s on a table. She’s told to put it away, but the box is apparently too heavy. Well, electromagnets can be strong… or wait, is that a pure glass table? Then it might be a kind of hook at the edge of the two glass plates or something like it.

They talk about the fear: In a room high in a hotel. Room number 33, and the number’s on a key in the box. Apparently the exactly correct key. Probably he read about it in some gossip magazine. And there were spiders in the room, and a tarantula is in the double floor of the box. She gets to have it on her hand then. And since the fear has left the box now, she can carry it away. And, oh how nice, he has a pretty thought as parting gift – which he doesn’t say loudly. Then she can read the thought – no wonder, he’s standing with a rose next to her.

Geller is “really impressed”.

Contestant 3: Jan Becker

“Tonight we all will feel the happiness.” Where can I complain if that won’t work?? People with lucky charms stand up, hold them in their hands invisibly. Allegedly experiences and emotions and stuff are stored in them. A ring of an audience member, rainbow, blabla, pendant of another, blabla, another ring, blabla, a fortuneteller couldn’t do it better with the cold reading which mostly seems to be at work here. (Or, of course, it was arranged.)

Another viewer onto stage together with the celebs. The objects into a bag without Jan seeing them. Blathers about happiness and what’s stored in the object. First object from the bag: A Lego Darth Vader keyring. ZOMG!!1 Music, new start, friend. Bla. Oli P., surprised, pretendedly had told that nobody. But maybe the friend (from a band that performed at the BuViSoCo) had told it. Or he read about it. (Or it’s arranged after all.)

Next object: A small angel teddy in a sleeping bag or something similar. Lorielle’s. The tears don’t make her face look prettier. And looots of boring, emotional talk. No. 3 and 4: stone with “Believe” (Vanessa) and a ring (viewer). Time to read my tweets.

And after that some nonsense with all viewers who hold their objects in outstretched hand. Turn thoughts into color and into the obects. Open eyes. They’d see the color. Feel happiness… blaaaah. In this sense, he’s really a “bext Uri Geller”.

Geller praises him.

Geller’s bullshit

Fetch two objects – stones, salt and pepper shaker, toy bricks, whatever, all allegedly have their energy. 4½ minutes commercials. Hold the two objects (the audience participates too) with the fingertips 3-4cm apart. Then press together hard, white fingertips are good. “Positive energy everywhere” and more babble. Insults the Wright brothers and other flight pioneers – already by mentioning them. He has to play for time for the trick to work… Then his Hebrew 1,2,3, then hands in original position, and many aren’t able to – of course, the muscles have gotten used to pressing together, and because Geller doesn’t know about such things, he must speak lots of nonsense… well, he surely knows how his tricks work, that’s his shtick, of course. Verena, again in tight red, really doesn’t alleviate that.

Contestant 4: Jan Rouven

But not with the messed-up trick from last week. Wants to prove the reliability of the inner voice. Takes a knife, damages a cucumber with it. Oli, too, confirms stability and sharpness of the knife and may enter the stage. His hand on the tip, close eyes, concentrate of the feeling of the knife. “Do you feel the danger?” Memorize it well! Over to the table. “Please don’t try at home!” Oh, this knife-hidden-under-paper-cylinders trick again.

Cover eyes, Oli is told to move the cylinders around (and almosr topples them) and also mentions internet videos (see e.g. this one (via gellerentlarvt) of when the trick went wrong. Jan then also moves them around – which also means he can spot the correct one easily. Oli and Jan both hold hands over the cylinders, Oli must remember the feeling. And Oli’s hand is under Jan’s when he squashes the cylinders. 3x correct, then more talk about fear and feeling before the final two. Both hands above them, raise the one he thinks the knife is under a little, and Jan pushes down the other – at any rate, he must have been very sure about the knife’s location.

Geller: convinced, “great!”

Contestant 5: Ully Loup

Again as last contestant. Like Vincent Raven last year… Commercials. Oh god, a trailer for a Galileo Mystery about telepathy. That can’t be anything good. Back to the show – “the gate to hell will remain closed today”, so he only wants to “look very carefully through a window into the darkness”. C’mon, I can do that to. It’s already dark outside.

He fetches a crystal ball from a black box. “Window to the soul”. Fear clouds it, a viewer (the one from before) already lookes quite scared when Ully stands before her. Another may feel Ully’s finger on her forehead and think about her birthday. Ully stares into the ball and names her zodiac: taurus. Then a man with a surgical job. Just the typical “warm-up” with the audience.

The 3 celebs to the stage, “I welcome you to the realm of my realities”, a slogan that might fit several mysticism dreamers, too, though they are serious about that. Vanessa gets an envelope (black, of course) between her hands and may have a look into the ball herself. She notices a feeling – passion. Olly gets the same envelope, doesn’t notice anything at first, then either Sido(?) or a skull. Then of course Lorielle. “Ball bloodshot?” Does he overlay someting into the ball with his odd finger movements? Lorielle fetches a red scarf from the envelope and may sit down on the stage whereas the others aren’t needed anymore.

“It” is told to recognize something again in the ball that Ully holds in front of her: a heart with a crying eye. “Loriele, I don’t want you to look inside my heart, please don’t.” Again. Lorielle startles when he holds the ball in front of her again and rotates it, sees herself as a little boy again. Blabla. Ully feels a kind of spiritual kinship. And he actually takes off one glove and takes her by the and before they hug. Well, his psycho routine is somewhat more intriguing when he leaves out such emotions, I think.

Geller was also touched.

The decision

First about Vincent Raven‘s health situation: He’s apparenly too ill or at least not fit quickly enough, he will not perform in this season and not defend his title.

Jan Rouven gets Geller’s immunity, enters the next round immediately. Commercials. Audience reactions: videos that don’t show anything that didn’t happen in the studio. Geller again liked everything, Lorielle liked Ully best, Oli Jan Rouven, Vanessa Waayatan.

And who must leave? Waayatan. Well, the audience will be without the inflatable tomahawks, then. And the show is over with a little overtime.

Ratings

A slight increase: 1.71 millions total (5.4% market share), 1.24 m. 14-49 years (9.8%).

A slight decrease for Farid’s Street Magic: 1.27 m. (5.4%) and 1.03 m. (10.5%).

See also:

• My pre-show report with all ten contestants.
• Skeptic’s dictionary: Uri Geller.
• ProSieben page about the show (German).

» Go to all my posts about Uri Geller. «

Photos: shadowvincent/Fotolia, wilhei66/sxc, shadowvincent/Fotolia

© cimddwc.net 2009 | Permalink | 10 Comments

It’s time for all six remaining contestants: Gabriel and Daniel, Manuel Horeth, Waayatan, Jan Becker – searches “the neeedle in the haystack” or rather an apostrophe object hidden in the studio with the help of the celebrities’ eyes –, Jan Rouven – he is “hung headlong on 3 burning ropes several meters above the ground. With the help of his mental abilities he wants to find the correct key to save him from falling on pointed spears” – and Ully Loup.

Celebs today: Singer Joy Flemming Fleming, Tatort actor Ingo Naujoks (who had been pre-announced for last week but wasn’t there) and current Playboy girl, jungle camper and guardian angel parking-space wish bullshitter Giulia Siegel, about whom ProSieben writes (as usual, all quotes were translated by me):

She daily speaks with her guardian angels and even wrote a book about it. At “The next Uri Geller” tonight, she will meet Germany’s best mentalists, some of whom will attempt dangerous experiments. Let’s hope Guilia won’t need her guardian angels tonight…

Following the show, there will be half an hour (gross) “Street Magic with Farid”, about which the wunschliste.de newsletter wrote:

Better a good steal than a bad copy: What’s just a stopgap on Disney Channel with Cody Stone under the name “Magic Attack” now makes the jump into the night program on ProSieben: Farid [...] walks through pedestrian precincts and shopping malls and performes magic tricks in front of passers-by caught unaware.

According to Pro7, one of the performances will be reading the PIN numbers from the eyes of bank customers. Does Farid need money that desparately? Anyway, maybe I’ll write about that too, or maybe not, depending on how I feel like tonight.

The show

Geller begs for more viewers – call friends and relatives, they want to see it too, he says – and again announces one of his silly “experiments”, this time with “mind waves” or something like that which you’re supposed to feel at home. Celebrities introduced without letting them say anything – are they scared of what they might say or of running too long with 6 contestants today? Well, then they could use shorter clips from their earlier performances – yawn…

Contestant 1: Jan Becker

“Only the mysterious is beautiful”, Jan says in his clip – well, his apostrophe haircut is mysterious, but certainly not beautiful. Blue suit – blue being the color of the deep, of the subconscious, he says. “We are heart beings”, which he wants to prove with a “simple ritual”: we all are told to point at ourselves – and everyone alledgedly points to his/her heart. (Or far away from it, but at least to the upper body and not to the brain.) And make couples, hug “from left to left”, hearts next to each other – Jan with Giulia, can understand he likes that.

Ingo “sprints” back to the sofa to fetch the envelopes with photos the 3 celebs were told to bring along. Left hand of each celeb on Jan’s heart, concentrate on the photo, of course; Giulia hides hers somewhere in the audience while the other two hold their hands over Jan’s eyes. Quasi-hypnotic hands-breath-flying-heart babble and gestures, the audience puts on white masks. Ridiculous. With Giulia behind him, he walks around in the audience, with intermediate stops where he describes parts of the photo. Moves on. Stop. Detail. Moves on. Slowly on the stairs, into the correct row. Feels around the finally picked viewer befor taking the envelope from her back pocket. So either a transmitter in the envelopes or it’s been whispered to him (at any rate the photo content must have been), the microphone fixture had enough space for a speaker right next to the ear. Yet more about the photo before he opens the envelope: photo of her with a friend and something about a tooth necklace.

Always follow your hearts, and another hug with the “completely perplexed” Giulia.

Geller thought it was great etc.

Contestant 2: Jan Rouven

See above: Danger that he wants to evade with a mental connection. Giulia with her experiences in jungle danger is to help him – don’t mind, actually, she really does look better than Joy. She’s told to take a few of 500 keys and try to open the lock that prevents access to the saving switch that operates the suspension device, and it works multiple times – “that seems to be your influence”, Jan says, and I fear the guardian-angel bunny even believes that –, so he must fetch another lock, and it doesn’t work with that. The key that came with the other lock is mixed with the others.

A mishap? They should have lowered the suspension device before it was locked, someone must fetch a thin thing – as long as that takes, this might have been a real mishap (added later: or was it the wrong (trick) lock from the beginning that would open with any key after it would have replaced a real lock? So would the trick not have worked anymore at all?), but Geller got the opportunity to stand up and raise concerns since something already went wrong before – “should he do it?”, audience applauds. Something else isn’t quite right either, Uri wants to see no blood, acts strict, doesn’t want to allow this to be performed now – and Jan must leave the stage! Can be back only in the next show – if enough viewers call for him.

Oh man, what’s the use of this crap, get a few thousand more viewers for the next show? So no action today? (Or does Jan have too little tricks suitable for TV?) Really a greeeeaat “scandal” staging – or cover for a capital mishap… that could even mean some work for the Pro7 press release writers.

Farid speaks a few words, some clips from his Street Magic show are shown. “Modern” cutting methods – hardly one second per scene and trick… well.

Contestant 3: Daniel and Gabriel

It’s gonna be romantic, they say. A large dividing wall with 5 photos (Venice, Bochum, Caribbean, New York, Zermatt), clothes stand and a big clock to prepare a rendezvous (and Ingo is to help) – identical on both sides of the wall, and of course one of the two will receive what the other picks. Ingo picks the Matterhorn photo, Gabriel waves his hand in endless strange movements in front of it and Daniel receives and takes the correct one.

Time: 12:01. (Or 12:00, depending on perspective.) More numerous movements that might well be the code for the time (or picture or clothing) which Daniel can receive as pulses. (Or as distraction from other signalling via feet morse codes or something like that.) The blue track suit jacket somehow suits Ingo… Three ladies enter the stage: sexy blonde in black mini dress, black-haired casually in jeans and a young businesswoman. On the other side too, apparently twins. Ingo picks the one in jeans, if anyone wants to know, and Daniel of course takes her twin sister on the other side. Fine, then I’ll take the other 2×2.

Geller enjoyed it – but he wants something more intense. Yeah, and stopped Rouven before…

Geller’s crap

Geller guarantees we wouldn’t trust our eyes – and get pen and paper ready. Warning, thought transmission through space and time. Brief commercial break. Geller pressures for speed. “Remote viewing” of Geller’s hidden photo “of a giant building” in a capital city. I’m guessing at numerous sketched Eiffel towers… With his Hebrew 1,2,3 he wants to beam first the city and then the building into our minds.

And what a miracle, it’s correct! For a lot in the audience! I’m clairvoyant!! On one drawing, he says, it’s even the exact same size, but even that’s something I disagree with. Verena in red asks for audience pictures and mails.

Okay, honestly, who would straightaway think about any different “large building” in a “capital city”? Colosseum in Rome? TV tower in Berlin? Tower Bridge in London? Erm in Errm… all that’s second choice at best.

Contestant 4: Manuel Horeth

…today turns thoughts into music. And blabbers about there being no more free thoughts tonight. A rolled-up plan hangs from the ceiling, will be shown at the end. Joy and Ingo to the stage. Over 700 CDs in white boxes are ready. Longwinded selection of a CD box that’s not opened yet (so there could have been the same CD in all boxes except the first few per row that were opened), longwinded mental fuss with “mental eye” and stuff. Joy must draw the cover that she’s “seen” on a board – table and chairs, glasses, picture. Correct. Revolverheld, Chaostheorie. Well, only somewhat correct, she drew 4 chairs around the table and only a small picture, but the cover shows them side by side and the “picture” (Rubik cube with portrait) is much more dominating. But apparently they couldn’t whisper that to her or arrange that before…

15 titles, Giulia picks a number: 2 – that’s the song “Ich werd’ die Welt verändern” (=I will change the world), which also is printed on the aforementioned plan (a poster), and Revolverheld play (parts of) that song live right away! Nice addition to this trick.

Geller really liked the creativity.

Contestant 5: Waayatan

Wants to detect which dangers are hidden in the shadows. The deal with the eerie talk and the look when saying “also in yours” is something he has to practice a liiiiiittle more… Joy wastes time picking two helpers from the audience. Typical hand feeling stuff by Waaya with the celebs and the helpers. Several weapons are ready on a wall which the people are to pick and hold in front of them such that the weapon can’t be seen in their shadows, for they step behind shadow walls, illuminated from behind. Meanwhile Joy covers his eyes – he has to kneel down cause she’s so small.

He “feels” around the shadow cabinets – is there a little gap he can see through, or can you see through somewhat from nearby? Or is there a mirror above, the way he keeps looking up? Whispering assistant? Well, he then tears down the paper walls after he twice said the correctly “sensed” weapons and twice the wrong ones. That probably rules out an assistant (unless it was intentional).

Final word: “He who bears peace in the heart needs no weapons” – and the remaining weapons that had not been chosen fall down (remote-controlled). Giulia says she don’t mind her wrong weapon guess, she liked it anyway.

Geller was all the more convinced of “real powers” because it didn’t work every time.

Contestant 6: Ully Loup

Wants to adjure the four elements. Geller’s a little scared to say “the stage is yours” – yeah sure. The celebs ball a sheet of differently colored paper and put it into an urn – an urn with a textile cover you have to stick your hand through to put something on its ground. Not quickly, but slowly one after another, “the energy of the colors will catch hold of your thoughts” and stuff. And then they shall take a paper ball with the left hand out again – warning, don’t try to grab a specific color – and hold it such that the color can’t be seen. Combined with ado and tattle in Ully’s typical strange style. Well, who knows what kind of inner workings the large urn has – maybe with compartments from which colored paper balls fall in a defined order.

Ully senses a fancy way of thinking in Giulia on whose shoulder he hangs – does he mean her guardian-angel silliness? – babbles something horoscopy pseudopersonal or alledgedly a trait of the color and which color he “sees”, which is correct. One after another. Open paper ball, put heart’s desire into a feeling, name feeling in one word and then put this into the “symbolic color”.

Ully takes all 4 balls and then calls upn Satan, Lucifer, Belial and Leviathan from the four directions, “shem ham forash” – which Vincent Raven at the end of season 1 translated as “The wing beat of my ravens will watch over you! In death as in life” – and the balls go up in flames (his large gloves and his sleeves got enough room for assistive material), leaving behind a black heart of stone, symbol of the fulfulled wishes of the celebs and his own unfulfilled, what makes him happy nonetheless. The celebs apparently were really impressed – well, got to admit that he knows his mystic psycho style, a tightrope walk between ridiculousness and atmosphere…

Geller considered the performance credible.

The decision

No immunity from Geller. Commercials. Audience reactions: So many images and mails – which they claim to be analyzing, for whatever reasons – they never received, they say. One with “Venice” crossed out before “Paris” was written. Well, the Eiffel tower is easier sketched than, erm, the Rialto bridge or the Marcus Square/Tower or whatever.

Now the decision: Longwinded as usual, in the end it’s Daniel and Gabriel who must leave.

And, surprisingly: this time they were 5-6 minutes too long. Despite the short commercials that didn’t even give me enough time for intermediate updates of this report (well, its German version)…

Won’t write about Farid.

Ratings

Again a little decrease in total – 1.63 million (5.1%) – with a little higher share of ages 14-49: 1.14m (8.8%).

Farid’s show: 1.48 million (6.2%) / 1.07m (10.7%).

See also:

• My pre-show report with all ten contestants.
• Skeptic’s dictionary: Uri Geller.
• ProSieben page about the show (German).

» Go to all my posts about Uri Geller. «

Photos: shadowvincent/Fotolia, wilhei66/sxc, shadowvincent/Fotolia

© cimddwc.net 2009 | Permalink | 14 Comments

Today the four surviving contestants from show 2 are performing again: Manuel Horeth, Gabriel and Daniel – one wants to see with the other’s eyes –, Amila – “plays with the men” – and Waayatan – “a path full of threatening obstacles: barbed wire, board of knives, spears, scorpions and broken glass are blocking his path. But the mentalist wants to recognize and avoid them – blindfolded!”

A short news report about Vincent’s health:

Raven father Vincent Raven suffered a stroke due to an aorta fissure, had to spend one week in hospital. He’s on the mend since last weekend. Doctors call the quick recovery “a miracle”.

Miracle. Of course. Pro7 just has to mention that. Anyway: get well!

Celebrities today: Actress Eva Habermann, actor/comedian Ingo Naujoks and the next Queensberry casting band member Leonore Bartsch, or Leo for short (20), who says: “I’m a person who kinda believes in supernatural things. We’ll see if the contestants really have such a great power or if all is flimflam after all.” Well, the first sentence already indicates that she won’t look at it that objectively…

The show

English translation of my report will follow in a few days.

“The most mysterious show of Europe” welcomes us with a wooden structure which will be Waayatan’s obstacle course – do Indians fly kites? The shape looks somewhat like a kite from above… Scorpions, sharpened bamboo, cactuses and more are also ready, probably to be placed on the framework later on.

Celebrity introduction: No Naujoks, Sky du Mont is the man between the two ladies. Eva is all convinced by that Hamlet quote and the using-10%-of-our-brains-stuff, Sky’s mother believed in astrologers and fortunetellers.

Contestant 1: Waayatan

The danger Indian starts the show – guess they have to remove the “path of the warrior” to make room for the others. All three celebs needed. Waaya holds a section of a blindfold before Sky’s eyes so he can confirm you can’t see through, then lets Sky blindfold him with another section that appears different and somewhat translucent – and stands aside to “concentrate” while host Stefan tells the others to put the dangerous obstacles on the wooden bars (not on the crossings). By the way, they’re about 1m above the floor.

Nail board, scorpion terrarium, tomahawks, barbed wire, wooden spears, arrows, knives, cactuses; the front part of the course has glass sherds on the pillars and removable boards in between which they use to create “gorges”. At the end he must jump left or right – either on a cardboard box or on pointed bamboo that’s placed on one side only now. So far the “chronicler’s duty”-like description of the whole thing… “Don’t try at home!” Aww, what a pity, I had planned to prepare the collar beams of my roof-top apartment accordingly. (On the other hand, why care about what Pro7 says?)

Waayatan stalks successfully over the boards, of course, garnished with “spiritually feeling” hand movements. He also steps through the terrarium with some lethargic scorpios (enough space for his feet) and on the glass sherds (had no other option for the “gorges”) – the pressure distribution prevents serious injuries, simple physics… And at the end a not overly elegant backdrop on the cardboard box.

Geller says: “incredible mental control”, “stronger presence on stage”, “great”.

News on Vincent Raven

He’s not in the show, of course, but recorded a video greeting – illness details see above. He says he mostly healed himself in the first 3 days in his dreams with the help of his ravns. At least he also thanks the doctors.

And Geller announces a “live experiment” in which he wants to “override the laws of physics” – with a compass! Like in that ancient trick of his with a magnet on a thumb or similar? At home, you wouldn’t need a compass. But first:

Contestant 2: Daniel and Gabriel

Sky du Mont must examine a board and 5 thick pens if they’re okay. And the ears of the receiver (who has longer hair) for earphones. Eva must pick one of 5 given symbols on another board far away and paint it (robot head, erm, circle), the sender (Daniel or Gabriel, whoever) moves along with his hand in large movements, the receiver paints it correctly on his board. Another level of difficulty with a color of Leo’s choosing – this time a triangle standing on one corner in red. The sender first makes gestures above the pen, and after the receiver picked the correct pen in the second attempt also over the symbol as before-

Zev, erm, Eva is to imagine herself inside a gallery, red curtain, picture in golden frame made of simple elements. Paint: Frame, sun with rays, cloud with raindrops, bent Ms as birds, rainbow, all in orange. “Don’t laugh”, she says… The way the sender now wobbles over the lines, this could easily be a direct radio transmission to the receiver who feels it somewhere (on his body under the vest, sole of his foot, wherever) – the birds, at any rate, were turned into misplaced Vs, the rest was matching quite well.

Geller: phantastic etc.

Geller’s trickery

Those who got no compass at home, take a pencil or knitting needle, paper, bowl of water; and put a spoon on the TV. Commercials. Gödde says, smirking, “”The stage is yours” to Uri, who now babbles about mental energies and examinations the American military once did on him.

Needle on water, paper slightly folded on pencil top, spoon on TV; Uri takes off his jacket in order toshow he got nothing hidden. But he keeps on his pants. The audience is coerced to hold hands and make a chain, the compass moves a little – but you only see it from above, closely, sometimes with Geller’s fist. Somewhere there will have been a magnet, just not necessarily on his thum. And “maybe something completely different happens at home” – flickering lightbulbs and more – which in turn is to and will be misinterpreted by the believers as Geller’s influence. Verena with the numbers, unfortunately nt her own.

Contestant 3: Manuel Horeth

The memory manipulator walks in front of a few audience members for preparation, picks one in row 1 which simply caaaaannot be arranged. Insists after closed eyes and waving about to see 4 instead of 3 outstretched fingers. Waving about also to pick the celeb: Leo. Told to relax. Manuel got an orchid book from which Leo is to pick a photo (by saying “stop” when Manuel thumbs through). Leo is to imagine the (assumed) flower on a walk in the forest. Concentrate, look in the eyes, etc. Scent. Plant at home? No. Blabla. More Blabla. Leo then tells of another image, a Ferrari, who Manuel, according to the trick, is said to have manipulated into her thoughts.

Sounds to me simply like prearrangement. Or he flipped the page quickly before he held the yellow orchid in the camera (it could be seen that he closed it with his finger inside, but before that, the selected page was never shown on camera) and in the later removed the photo from the book (or swapped the book entirely).

Geller is fascinated. And fears that Manuel put that in his mind.

Contestant 4: Amila

The magic seduction in an interesting black mini dress (corset above, rags below), doesn’t like lies from men. Sky’s time, of course. She walks around him in a pseudo-seductive way, takes her “ring of truth” from her finger. Lie or truth, left or right, something like that. Behind his back he is to put it in one hand, both stretch out their fists, eye contact, Amila gets closer (between his fists – sensor in her ear?) – the camera could show more than just her head… She then knows in which hand the ring is. And again, Where’s the water tank?

Amila fetches a man from the audience in order to reduce the chances of finding the ring by chance. Again the long fooling around with the arms and slight touching of the fist (the gellerentlarvt blog instead speculates about how the fist is held and muscle tension) and the moving between the fists – between the two men, to be exact. And she knows that the ring isn’t in the outside fists – so he signal may have been not close enough. Dunno what that got to do with lies, but anyway. Where’s the water tank??

Geller “got to know a new Amila”, “sensual and sexual”. Great and stuff.

The decision

Another unimportant little story from Eva, another 40 second commercial, then Manuel Horeth goes directly to the next round by Geller’s decision. For the others: phone in. And commercials again. Back: Phone numbers again, that is we get to see audience reactions first: Physics students in Budapest talk about superhuman powers, warm spoons and the like – now what does this tell us about the Hungarian education system…?¹ Well, a guy from Frankfurt tops that off. Two little movies: A blurred jiggling compass, a spoon falling from TV – well, simply can move slowly and shake and fall due to vibration (and warmth?).

The girls are fascinated by the “inexplicability” of the performances, Eva liked Manuel best. And His Divine Shadow, pardon, Uri was enthused this time too and is looking forward to the next show in which all 6 remaining contestants will compete.

Now the actual decision: Waayatan made it, cheers from fans with inflatable tomahawks; Daniel and Gabriel are in the next round, too, Amila is out. After that simple trick today, the sex appeal bonus apparently wasn’t enough…

…and thus the show ends exactly on time at 22:04 (EPG time; in the magazines was 22:15 as always). Well, it wasn’t the best show.

The ratings

…are getting worse again: 1.69 million total (5.2% market share), 1.08 million (8.2%) aged 14-49.

See also:

• My pre-show report with all ten contestants.
• Skeptic’s dictionary: Uri Geller.
• ProSieben page about the show (German).

» Go to all my posts about Uri Geller. «

Photos: shadowvincent/Fotolia, wilhei66/sxc, shadowvincent/Fotolia

1. Of course also Hungarian students may make a joke sometimes…

© cimddwc.net 2009 | Permalink | 13 Comments

The mentalist from Saarbrücken explains the mishap this way: “The experiment demands a high concentration. The connection between me and Simon Gosejohann just wasn’t right.“

An explanation for the press, I guess… has to fit the show. Unfortunately. (Not just) my suggestion: Get rid of Ui and turn it into magician casting (and call it that)! Well, if you were hoping that Amila’s 2nd attempt spares us from Vincent’s and/or Uri’s performaces, you’ll probably disappointed: at least raven Asael and his “daddy”‘s appearence were explicitly announced – Tuesday morning, however, unclear due to medical problems (which Pro7 turned into a “mysterious illness”, of course). Short as the last show was, they won’t have to cut anything out anyway.

Except for that, in the actual contest the four remaining contestants from the first show will compete: Jan Becker, Jan Rouven – “his life is literally on the knife’s edge”, he said on his homepage –, Danny Ocean and Ully Loup — the press release had no room left for them, by the way.

ProSieben also didn’t say much about the celebrities, only mentioning Jana Ina Zarrella who also were in show 7 of 2008 – where she called herself “very very superstitious and easily impressed”, i.e. fitting perfectly in the show –, and her husband Giovanni, former Bro’Sis singer and thus another casting show result. So only another actress is missing, we’ll see who it will be.

The Show

“The show that makes headlines” is starting – Gödde and Geller speak (incl. short clip and international news website screenshots) about the failed water tank “experiment” last week which, as mentioned, will be repeated tonight, and Amila briefly enters the stage in a red dress – “concentration was most important, and that was just missing”, which is why she immediately leaves again to concentrate… yeah, sure. And Uri announces his “experiment”: Contacting the dead, but nobody should be afraid. Guess it will be Ully who does the scaring of the gullible…

Celebs: Giovanni is the skeptic counterpart to his superstitious wife. And the DSF host and race driver Christina Surer from Switzerland is also there, already being mystically miseducated. And a doctor’s there due to the “danger” of the “experiments”.

Contestant 1: Jan Rouven

Dramatized clips of last week’s archery. Today: “The bed of death”, a premiere in front of an audience, he says; a framework with six hanging swords, triggered by ropes, above a board with prepared handcuffs and painted-on body shape. Janaina’s got to help him. Demonstration: A watermelon in the middle, a sword falling down into it. “Don’t try this at home!” 5 remain, 4 of which will miss him, 1 hit him deadly.

Jana Ina is told to hang the 5 ropes, the assignment of which she can’t see due to the box they’re going through (and there might be more hidden in the box – it’s doubtfull that the ropes are directly connected to the swords), onto 5 numbered hooks – and Christina has to hold her hands in front of Jan’s eyes. Then of course the usual mentalist routine with palms pressing against each other and inner voice babble. Then Jan opens his shirt and makes himself “comfortable” on the bed, and of course Jana Ina then – after a countdown (for the radio remote control’s timing?) 3,2,1 – pulls the 1st rope. She fears Jan would remain unscathed and she die from a heart attack… Next rope – her concentration and inner voice is always asked if it’s safe or dangerous, Jan asks her to put this rope back; rope from hok 3. Two left – alright, he’s making it thrilling, but does he have to ask dozens of times whether she’s sure about #5? Unnecessarily long.

Then of course the crosscheck with the deadly placed sword after he left the bed.

Geller’s opinion: Great performance.

Contestant 2: Danny Ocean

Clip from last time’s fork bending. This time he wants to find lost things with a pendulum – hey, that’s something I could use too! Audience in the first few rows had matchboxes with numbers under the seats, from which the people have to take any number of matches and then toss the box onto the stage. With unnecessarily long talking until he reached the “at 3″ for the simultaneous throws – then it won’t be noticed when he drops a prepared box himself (which would be an option for this trick)…

Jan swings the pendulum above the celebs’ hands, Christina is picked and is told to turn off her reason – and pick a card with one of the matchbox numbers on. The pendulum then is said to tell him where on stage the box lies. That is, he swings it such that he gets to the place he already knows. Christina believes in the power of the pendulum, so the turning off her reason worked well. And 200(?) boxes offer enough possibilities to make this trick even longer and more boring. As does the number of matches which he counts agonizingly slow and then swings the pendulum at the appropriate moment.

Geller was missing the blowoff and some energy. Me too.

Geller’s Bullshit

At least Verena briefly enters the stage. Preparation: clear a table, get a glass and your camera ready. Commercials. Few commercials. Uri wants all of Germany to participate – as if all of Germany was watching! Put glass upside down on the table’s center – and one finger from everone on it. Oh dear, that cheap mysticism trick. AND STOP MENTIONING EINSTEIN, URI! Our energy – including “Achad Shtaim Shalosh” (1 2 3 in Hebrew) – is said to move the glass. Which of course moves. By unconcious movements of the participants, that is, since that’s how this routine works on ouija boards and the like. And, fittingly, Geller writes “yes” and “no” on the table – are we supposed to do that too? Mommy’s gonna be mad!

Anyway, the persion Christina was thinking about is well, since the glass moved to “yes” – which the old trickser speaks out in ful. Only advantage of this crap: Verena “cleavage of the show” Wriedt may read the phone numbers and addresses to call or mail, and the on-screen display is actually low enough to not cover anything…

Contestant 3: Jan Becker

Master of the apostrophe-combed thoughts. “The stage is yours” – I’m wondering when someone is taking this serious and atually dismantles the stage and takes it home with him… Short introduction, fold hands, stretch index finger, imagine as magnet, pseudohypnotic relaxing babble. Now hands forward, right palm upwards, imagine there’s a rock on it, arm lowers, left a balloon, pulls it up, and here I stop writing down that nonsense. And some folks are actually surprised that the arms are at a different height when they open their eyes again?? Oh dear.

The Zarrella couple is called on the stage, supposed to transfer thoughts, sitting on opposite ends. Lots of talk. Soul brotherhood, concentration, inner eye, spirit hovers over to the partner’s body. Giovanni got a piece of paper, Jana Ina has to cover her ears (but isn’t her spirit, her mind supposed to be in his body…?), Jan also holds his hand on her head (with loudspeaker telling her what she’s supposed to hear?), and Janan stands up, walks over and kisses her husband. Which is what the paper said. Well, this could very easily have been prearranged with this couple. And if not: see parentheses above.

Geller: Excellent!

Contestant 4: Lulu Ploy

Erm, stop, Ully Loup of course. “Ploy” would fit somehow, too… Uri hopes it’s gonna be spooky again – Inside Ully, there’s a chaos of fear, mourning, hatred, he says, and Uri’s not to ask him anything. But he’s just a human being, anyway. Oh?

The two unskeptical ladies are told to stand up, and he says he won’t play with their feelings and treat them with respect – well, we’ll see. Wants 2 objects of theirs that have a meaning for them (had been asked to bring them along). Janaina: wristband of her little son, feeling in one word: pleasure. Christina with something odd: joy and hope.

Ully had a teddy when he was a child? Really? Oh, to tear out one of his glass eyes. Which he brought. Remember: Lots of talking ⇒ short actual trick. Feels being watched and stuff. Gotta give him his due: He would have better chances at a psycho casting than anyone including Vincent… Fetches 5 small boxes, objects inside. Mix. He turns around, Christina holds a box behind his bald back head, and he “doesn’t feel what he wants to feel” – magnet or another kind of signal from the boxes? Put back. Next also. Wait a moment. Hey, that’s long enough already! Says he feels something for no. 3, put it at Christina’s place; No. 4: feels nothing, open, is empty. Etc.

Hands on the boxes, name feelings again, sure, open boxes, match of course.

Geller had goosebumps again, he said.

Viewer reactions

MMS video: Wine glass falls over – no wonder when just one guy pushes and the table isn’t that slippery. And a few banal e-mails. And a banal MMS video.

Recap with phone numbers for the decision. And again no immunity by Geller because they all were that great. At least Uri says so.

Noncompetitive: Amila

All three celebs are needed. Whe wants to “prove that failure makes her stronger” today. Amila in her “concentration phase” while Verena explains it all (details see last show). Let’s kill time with two anagrams of her other artist name Belinda Roy: nail 'er body – be iron, lady! Christina stands behind Amila while the other take care of the number lock.

And Amila spins down into the round water tank again, the water also raises her dress a little – camera, direction, where are you?? “Giovanni, concentrate!” Sure. Anyway, it works, 2801, everybody’s happy.

She got Geller’s full respect. He doesn’t have mine, but you know that already.

The decision

Jana Ina’s favorite is the sword “experiment”, Giovanni is impressed “that there’s actually a person who can command his wife”. And quickly another MMS movie in which the glas keeps gliding along after the finger left it. Seeing this, Geller believes in the beyond and considers videos evidence, I believe in a table held askew. But that’d be too boring and realistic for Uri.

Get well soon, Vincent, Uri says again he liked the performances today. Now the decision: Jan Rouven made it, One-Can Andy, erm, Danny Ocean put back, Jan Becker passes. Final decision: Ully Loup made it, Danny Ocean is out. Thus the show ends 3 minutes before the end announced in teletext and EPG (22:24) – or 6 minutes after that in the magazines.

Conclusion: Average, at most. Sharp swords (Rouven) and a somewhat atmospheric thing with just a few small boxes (Loup) on one hand, but boring pendulum and laying on hands in the middle. And Geller’s rubbish of course.

Ratings

Went up a little, but still bad: 2.03 million (6.3% market share) total, 1.36 mio (10.4%) 14-49 years.

See also:

• My pre-show report with all ten contestants.
• Skeptic’s dictionary: Uri Geller.
• ProSieben page about the show (German).

» Go to all my posts about Uri Geller. «

Photos: shadowvincent/Fotolia, wilhei66/sxc, shadowvincent/Fotolia

© cimddwc.net 2009 | Permalink | 12 Comments

Anyway, today it’s time for the other 5 contestants, and the press release naturally emphasizes on “the most magic seduction since there are mentalists”, 25-year-old Amila – also known as Belinda Roy –, only woman among the candidates (and originally no mentalist). She wants to step into a water tank (and of course escape before running out of air) – and they need a mental element for the spoon bender show (translated):

But only one celebrity guest knows the secret number code of the electronic lock.

So I suppose the lock is to be opened from the inside and she has to “mind-read” the code, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. Anyway, important is that she’s some eye candy.

Also, today we will see performances by Aaron Crow (“uses a ring, an apple and an arrow, putting a celebrity guest in a dangerous situation“), Manuel Horeth (“Will he be able to predict the right number among millions?”), Gabriel und Daniel (who “even sense and transmit movements which will be determined by the celebrity guest”) and Waayatan (“plays with the shadows and will use them to touch the celebrity guests”).

Celebrities today: Actress Mariella Ahrens (39), Queensberry-(yes-another-casting-show-result)-singer Gabriella (19), whose last name De Almeida Rinne seemed to have been too complicated for the Pro7 press release writer, so the half-Brazilian is only listed with her first name, and comedian Simon Gosejohann (33):

“I’m rather skeptic here. Hopefully Mr Geller will tolerate that and not turn me into a pig or a rat.”

Haa haa. Well, never been a fan of Comedystreet anyway… So let’s switch to Hilversum to the studio to “the show that gets under the skin”, at least according to the announcer… 11 strange glances (9 single and 1 contestant pair) greet us. Uri is in the current Playboy magazine – “I was young and needed the money”, haa haa. No, just an interview. And Uri speaks about the “special power” he has: make one contestant enter the next round directly. He just can’t do without that stupid talk…

Celeb introduction (see above), text stating Aaron pulling a Wilhelm Tell tonight, the celebs alledgedly don’t know yet. Mariella outs herself as mysticism believer – so she fits perfectly in the show –, Simon is rather (jokingly) scared of Vincent Raven behind him, and “Gabby”‘s mother got voodoo experience…

Contestant 1: Aaron Crow

The silent mentalist, grown up in Bruges (Belgium), introduced in a short film. A rat alledgedly once scuttled over his bed, leading him to the “fight fear” topic. Martial arts experienced. So he’s a real “war racoon” (an anagram of his name)…

At the beginning, he plays around with laser pointers and thus selects Gabriella and Simon. Simon babbles something silly, Aaron gestures him to remain silent. Bravo! Gabi takes off her ring, Aaron makes a hole in an apple, puts the ring inside and closes the hole again. Apple on a board with a nail, collective contemplative looking-around, Simon now holds the board above Gabi’s head. Crow unveils a targed on the right and a large bow on the left. Now what will happen…? Gabi’s scared, Aaron turns in circles and eventually shoots. Quite suspenseful, actually… (Fine thread or is he really that good? Hardly.) Apple cut in halves, of course, ring on the arrow, of course. Ending scene with putting on the ring and a kiss which Crow gestured the two to do.

Added lated: The gellerentlarvt blog says: the ring was taken out before and put on the arrow, and the apple was cut by a knife in the board, so Aaron only had to hit the target.

Geller shares Vincent’s opinion who gave standing ovations (remains seated, though), and said it was fantastic.

Vincent will perform next weak already? Why? – Anyway, Manuel’s phone book heap is introduced, as well as Amila’s water tank. And the commercials. Again only 5 minutes including lots of own trailers.

Contestant 2: Manuel Horeth

Hopefully not just an “other lame hun” (yes, an anagram of his name), this “smart mind twister” from Austria. Had been given an (unspecified) magic book by his granddad.

“The stage is yours”, and unfortunately he’s not silent but speaks about the 75 million possibilities of a phone number, which this act is about. With all phone books from Germany, he says. Gabi picks 6 viewers, the other 2 quickly page thrugh the books to check if they’re real. One envelope per viewer with one digit each (he says; will be opened at the end).

Mariella is the “victim” for the eye-staring routine, then she must pick a “special” phone book (any book): Frankfurt and Offenbach am Main, it says. Simon throws a ball over his back into the audience, eye-staring over a distance, the audience member must think about a number between 104 and 1048 (the pages with actual phone numbes in the book) – and then says: 218. Second ball, same game with the column on the page: 3. For the number, he glides down the column with his finger, Mariella says stop. Reads: X 2 4 (X for privacy reasons, of course), continues: 1 7 5 X. Simon writes it on a board.

The viewers (+Gabi) no.2 to 6 open their envelopes: Numbers correct. Unnecessarily long, of course. And X at the ends. (Do magic shops carry fake phone books, or is that remote-controlled display paper in the envelopes? Or does Mariella only say an arranged number?)

Added later: Plausible explanation from urigellertricksentlarvt.de: a manipulated template as “reading help” for Mariella, on which the X as well as the number are written.

Geller: “Phantastic”. Didn’t sound that enthused as usual… (which I’d understand).

Contestants 3: Gabriel and Daniel

The mental double, who alledgedly helped each other in childhood days when one had fallen into a well. “Take a deep breath and relax”, Uri advises the youngest contestants. Gabriel wants to mentally transmit Daniel his body positions. Ridiculous handshake gesture dance, after which they say they’re telepathically connected. Mariella onto the stage; to examine his ears for earphones. Well, there are also solid-borne sound speakers, which he might have hidden under his hair – if that’s how they do it. Anyway, he gets blindfolded now.

Mariella is told to raise an arm of Gabriel’s, Daniel shortly afterwars raises his. (Hope I don’t mix up the names…) Could be coincidence, he says. Again. Right again. Now touch one of 10 fingers (not briefly, but keep touching) – her index finger on his ring finger, the receiver points at his index finger – wrong. Bad peek? Blindfold not see-through enough? Intentional? Second attempt works.

Mariella now has to remodel Gabriel into a statue of her choice – like a dog lifting his leg. Daniel moves slooooowly, then gets it right. And that’s already the end. Well, Mareille may show again how far from reality her thinking is: she believes in such “energies”.

Geller thought it was convincing.

Verena

…not as contestant, of course, but finally, glittering in silver, briefly on stage: she will accompany Amila’s tank “experiment” later on. Later on, for now it’s commercial time again.

Negative word of the year: “experiment”.

Contestant 4: Amila

“The magic seduction”, once rolled over by a S-train, said to have a 6th sense for danger now. Or she just made that up for Uri, who knows. Hope it’s going to be more exciting with her water tank after the two boers, erm, bores (rather 3: Manuel+double) before.

Needs help “from you two”, but all 3 celebs get up. She meant Simon and Mariella. (So certainly it’s time for Gabi later wit the Indian.) Verena explains how it works: 1000 liters of water, no air, lid closed. Combination lock: bicycle lock with four digits, customizable. No eletronic lock as the press release had told. Mariella covers Belinda-Amila’s eyes, Simon sets the lock, Verena writes down the code. Certainly someone in the back will read along…

Amila explains more – she will write the code on a board in the tank, which then Mareille is to use on the lock that locks the tank. And the green-blue lit Amila takes complete responsibility – and takes of coat and skirt before she’s lowered down into the tank, gracefully spinning around. Water’s getting higher, and Amila’s already very wet (admit it, you waited for this ambiguous, cheap joke!). “Concentration”, she says with a tinny echo while Simon hold the hand at the tank, which is filled completely now.

And, thrillingly, it doesn’t work. Mr bolt-cutter’s time – Amila wrote 1923(?), but it was 1963 (year of Goldfinger – later: as Simon said, but it was released 1964). So someone peeked or whispered it wrong… Amila, dripping wet, understandably doesn’t look too happy. (I rather don’t think the mistake was intentional. Or was it?) Well, for this big announcement, even if it had worked it would have been too much technical talks before to be really intoxicating as a single act, I think.

Geller praises her anyway.

Contestant 5: Waayatan

Indian ancestors of the clan of the shadow panthers, who are found on the internet mostly on World of Warcraft pages. Wants to show the power of the shadows tonight. Introductory shadow plays, luckily with less talk as Vincent last year. Somehow I got the impression that Vincect split himself into Ully Loup and Waayatan for this season.

Waaya feels the celebs’ hands for a long time and then takes Gabi and Simon with him. Blathers about the shadows with which an impressed Gabby is supposed to make contact. Close eyes, concentrate, blabla. at..a..a..yawn (you guessed it, an anagram of his name.) Waayi touches her shadow, 2 meters behind her, she felt the touches on her shoulders, she says (did she get the number wrong?) – however, one may wonder when she felt it: only during the shadow-touching or earlier when he fumbled around with one hand before her face etc., that’s how a trick in season 1 also worked. Finally (when she’s standing) he touches the shadow of the folding chair which promptly falls down. Nice… but still somehow short for all that long concentration fuss before.

Geller says Waayatan should show more energy, praises him otherwise, wants to see more of him.

Decision

Geller again praises Amila’s risking her life, grants no immunity today, though. I suspect he had planned to immunize Amila, but thanks to the problems she had, he couldn’t do that. But first some commercials; back at 21:52! I hope they don’t take all the time until the announced end of 22:08 (EPG) or 22:15 (magazines) for telling the results.

Applause for the “sensational” celebrity guests – Mariella thought it was entertaining, doesn’t want to pick a favorite; Simon is confused (“Amilia”… “Amil..la”); Gabi was “flashed away”. Don’t phone in anymore, they need time to have the result “notarially certified”, so Vincent may announce his tarot cards and his ravens for next week (when I guess the 4 who won last week will perform again).

21:58: Finally. Welcome to the typically slow results announcement. Aaron set aside; Horeth, double made it. Amila set aside; Waayatan passed. Maximum certainty – at least in the single commercial they inserted. 22:01½: Amila passed, dropped out: Aaron Crow, he’s got to go. Quite a pity, actually.

Aaaargh, a “live experiment” of Uri’s next week. Is that necessary, this shock at the end?

It’s now 22:02 Uhr – over and out, much too early, compared to the announced times. That is the true incredible phenomenon…

Ratings

Even more desastrous than last week: only 1.85 million (5.7% market share) total or 1.26 million (9.5%) in the 14-49-year target audience.

See also:

• My pre-show report with all ten contestants.
• Skeptic’s dictionary: Uri Geller.
• ProSieben page about the show (German).

» Go to all my posts about Uri Geller. «

Photos: shadowvincent/Fotolia, wilhei66/sxc, shadowvincent/Fotolia

© cimddwc.net 2009 | Permalink | 11 Comments

The other contestants today are Jan Becker (“reads his opposite’s mind like an open book”), Ully Loup (“plays a dangerous game with the angel of death” – also a raven…?), Jan Rouven (“risks being pierced with a burning arrow” – wouldn’t that rather be a trick for the Kreuznach Indian?) and Danny Ocean (“even bends forks to become the next spoon bender” ).

Celebs are needed, too: Tatort actressn Simone Thomalla, singer and comedian Bürger Lars Dietrich and Next Topmodel (required) fourth Carolin Ruppert:

Carolin [...] feels “an eerie anticipation. Hopefully it won’t be that bad. I must spend the night after the show alone…”

Oh, I believe a few male viewers would like to change that…

Alright, the show starts – “a new chapter, a new dimension”… We’re starting with the 10 contestants in a semi-circle with two strange haircuts at the ends and the lady in the center. Host Stefan Gödde arrives and briefly explains that Vincent Raven, last year’s winner, will defend his title. Quick candidate introduction (see above), then Spoon-Uri waves hello. He’s still overwhelmed from the success of the first season and is sure that the 2nd will become even better. Quick explanation of how it works: One of the contestants is voted out, but Geller can “immunize” one.

New: There will be big “live experiments” (yeah, that’s how they call it…) outside the studio (though that did that last time, too, but pre-recorded) – and Verena “cleavage of the show” Wriedt enters the stage(!), she will be the outdoor host. The flaming arrow archers are shown. Verena in the cold – fully dressed, that is? Can’t work out.

Vincent Raven briefly appears; Uri takes his seat; and the celebriies are introduced (see above). Note to the cameramen: portrait closeups do not need to be cut off right beneath the shoulders. Photo of Caro with falcon on her arm – “what if it were Vincent’s raven”? Probably wouldn’t have felt well, she says. Vincent sits alone in the 2nd row behind the cebs, and the other 5 contestants in the 3rd. And a viewer is to confirm they’re broadcasting live – though he doesn’t have a TV with him. But we know this from season one already.

Contestant 1: Jan Becker

The master of the apostrophy haircut, erm, thoughts. Short clip for introduction, Jan babbles about sea of thoughts and a door to it that he can open. Topically half Uri, his way of speaking and formulation could need more mystic polish to get near Uri in this regard… says he’s rather anxious about what will happen than nervous.

“The art of mind reading in its purest and prettiest form” is what he wants to show us. Time travel with a direcly picked lady in third row – she thinks about her date of birth. Jan gets it right, of course. “It can happen to anyone tonight” – including a lady in row one. Zodiac sign, “last letter: e” – wrong, “was only a test”, ha ha. Aries. Right. “Did wie arrange anything?” No. “Do you believe that?” No, he didn’t ask this last question. Now 3 zodiac signs simultaneously. Of course correct. And that was just for warm-up…

…for now it’s time for the 3 celebs, sit with eyes closed on seats on stage. Simple geometric shape with another simple geometric shape inside – that’s what Simone is to think while he holds his hand next to her head. Carolin: country and city in that country. Lars: PIN number and bank card. Eyes open. Touches each forehead.

Triangle and circle (quite common; didn’t say what’s outside and what’s inside). Spain and Barcelona. 7325 and Visa card (made up, which Jan likes). Simone stays, rest leaves. Eyes closed again, cane touches head, time travel to past, but nice memory, age/date – “fine”. 6.10.89. What happened then? Hard floor, curtains, masks. Stretch arm, he holds her hand. Writes a name on a board which she should say before he shows it: Sophia. Her daughter, see Wikipedia.

People can phone in now for 2 minutes if they liked Jan.

Geller’s judgment: Incredible, stage presence, excellent. Wenn, didn’t knock me off my chair, but I’ve seen more boring and long-winded stuff before. How he did it? Placing a few people you arranged things with in the audience and arrange things with the celebs or read up on them beforehand is nothing unusual.

20:45: commercials. 20:50: back again. Oooh, few customers, no high ratings expected, it seems.

Contestant 2: Kris

…or Christian Finke, “mental poker player”. Clip: work-out some time, sent his buddies 52 cards one after another before he returned. Says he kinda reverses his poker experience to not only look through people but influence them. The stage is yours – and he narrates about poker dominating his life for 20 years (he’s 30 now) with about as little enthusiasm as Vincent last year. Caro on stage, short talk. Pick one of 52 cards, hold at her heart – i.e. half on skin, half on fabric, unfortunately with only little cleavage next to it. Well, she was just 4th place anyway.

Look at card without him seeing it. His hand on her shoulder, her hand on his heart (”beats quite fast”), think about the color, he stares in her face and talks, recognizes (through her minimal reactions?) black, spades; Queen of spades. Marked cards?

Four audience members, picked by Caro; deck of cards (with rubber band) passed around, each is to memorize one card when bending half the deck up. Rock music ’cause he must concentrate – that’s a plus. Hand on each shoulder, stare in the eyes. Then he draw 5 cards on a board (which we can see, but those on stage can’t). Unnecessarily they are told to raise a hand when they see their cards, “give me 5″, sit down – or for Caro: “give me a kiss on my cheek”.

Another 2 minutes to call, again Geller’s opinion: He’d be scared to play poker against him – understandable. “Very talented”, hopes for many more shows with him. Well, I think he was quite okay, but nothing worldshaking.

Contestant 3: Jan Rouven

“The man with 7 lives” (cats got 9, don’t they?) – his manager considers some things too dangerous, he says. Jan “loves playing with danger” – “as mysterious as incredible”. We switch to Vernena outdoors – with Caro. Verena in an ugly fur coat, by the way. There’s a doctor and the archers, Jan’s heart’s beating fast. He’s sure it will work, so “the stage is yours” – though it’s a parking lot this time. 4 large boxes, 3 of which, picked by Caro, will be hit with flaming arrows. Jan enters one of them without Carolin seeing which – but she’s told to make her mind up and look Jan in the eyes before he hides. A way too long mind reader babble follows, she’s to imagine everything in slow-motion, bla bla. A TNUG show without long-windedness is apparently impossible.

While Jan climbs into a box behind a screen, the two ladies to some smalltalk. The boxes stand on a platform that appears to be reflecting in the front – lights are briefly blinking when someone in front, archers or someone next to them, passes by, and legs can be seen too – so Jan’s got enough space to crawl under the boxes without danger. At least boxes 1-3 burn very fast (so that’s why he had to talk that long before) and quite effectively (and Jan of course steps out of no. 4). “Caro is flabbergasted, everyone’s flabbergasted”, Verena says – well, even if she noticed something, she’s certainly not allowed to say anything.

Geller shivered on his chair, incredible tension in the studio. Hopes to see more of Jan. Well, why not. At least he was faster than Raven with his burning coffins last year.

Contestant 4: Danny Ocean

Illusionist with charisma, or something like that. Geller says Danny does something for which he himself is famous – and Danny says he didn’t understand what Geller said so he has to repeat it before Danny can say his rehearsed line about fork bending – a minus right at the beginning…

Lars onto the stage – told to fetch a few forks from the canteen (with camera accompanying him). Boah, does this have to be? We’re told to fetch forks too (though nothing more about them later). Lars gets a handful – is that “as many as he can”? Well, at least it was fast, short distance. Danny waves one of the forks, concentrate, a prong is bending – Lars can do that too. Next fork is rubbed, also bends.

Two forks atop each other, don’t match perfectly – Danny bends one by force, now it matches better; one for comparison. Lars holds one between flat hands, rubs, told to believe he can bend it! Center of fort supposed to press upwards – check, right, bent. Keep rubbing with a finger, bent again – or just put the other way round on the comparison fork?

Wants to rule out heat-sensitive material, so he takes a lighter, nothing happens. How did he get this bending idea? Scratches like alledgedly long ago with friends at his head, another prong bent. And then twists it below the prongs.

Well, whether you prepare forks or spoons, the pre-bent or covertly bent metal (whether switched or deposited in the canteen) doesn’t mind. At least the forks with their 4 prongs are more “diverse”… Geller’s old tricks are known, anyway (cf. links below).

Geller says he’s honored, “seemed almost better than mine”. Well. At least it wasn’t lengthy, but otherwise? Unnecessary like Geller himself.

Contestant 5: Ully Loup

I somehow expected a lower voice for this soul wanderer, judging by his photo. “It’s about the living, it’s about the dead”, “maybe there will be an extrasensory perception”. Yeah, sure. Simone has to get up. “Curses are the only spells that really work.” The “Angel of Death”, a painting in some strange style that rather looks like a crucified alien Jesus is lowered from the ceiling.

Simone’s told to write a female name of a person close to her clearly (an assistant probably has to be able to read it on a monitor) on the first card. (Ully doesn’t look.) Male on no. 2, name of a dead on 3, celeb – she knows none, “think about poliics” – on no.4, another celeb first name on 5, the nervous Simone takes forever… “I’m really blocked, I’m so nervous.” Did she forget the prepared names, or what? Mix the cards.

Vincent – pardon, Ully – puts the cards in a row. Simone then is told to point on cards, if the last one is that of a living person, that person’s to encounter the angel of death in the future – curse and stuff. Would rather fit into a crypt like Vincent’s than in such a large studio. “Do you want to face this responsibility?” Doesn’t, of course. Concentration. Speak name of the dead – Jan Jr., hand on one card other hand on another; the other 3 are put away on a stack, one of the last 2 then too.

He turns the stack, calls [name] lives each time. The last – still under her hand – is of course the dead name. (Probably marked or slightly different in size.) This, however, wasn’t done that quickly, he of course needed some time to play with the feelings of the gullible among the audience (and celebs).

Geller thought it was great.

Decision and Conclusion

Geller immunizes Jan Rouven, no arrows of outrageous phone fortune to suffer from today for him. So you’re supposed to phone for one of the other 4, those who called for Rouven before, well, they thus gave Pro7 a little present (though still remain in the 5000€ raffle).

Commercials again. Then “giant applause for the courageous celebrities”. Simone doesn’t want to know how that worked with life and death and stuff. Carolin is confused and calls Rouven Jan Ullrich…

Vincent, who will face the best two in the final, is all relaxed, while we’re waiting for the notary with the result. Which, of course, is announced exaggeratingly slow, as usual. Including 15 second spot for a nun yoghurt. Loser: poker mentalist Kris.

Briefly announced for next week: Amila and her water tank. And thus we’re done on time at 22:13 – it simply wasn’t that lengthy that often as season 1 –, so quickly switch to Eurosport for snooker! Just a little positive note: There was none of Uri’s audience dumbing “experiments” and no alledgedly respectable occupational group as “trustworthy vitnesses” – two nonsensical things from the first season that ProSieben kindly saved us from.

Ratings

Can be called quite disastrous: only 2.21 million viewers total (7.0% market share), 1.54m in the target group aged 14-49 (12.1%) (source: Pro7 teletext). That’s less than any 1st-season show.

See also:

• My pre-show report with all ten contestants.
• Skeptic’s dictionary: Uri Geller.
• ProSieben page about the show (German).

» Go to all my posts about Uri Geller. »

Photos: wilhei66/sxc, shadowvincent/Fotolia, shadowvincent/Fotolia

© cimddwc.net 2009 | Permalink | 15 Comments