“The Next Uri Geller” 2008 – Summary of 1st show

This is about a show from the first German season of “The Next Uri Geller” from early 2008. You can also:
» Show all my reports from the first season.
» Show everything about the second season 2009.
» Show really all articles about Uri Geller.

It was terrible! I wasn’t even watching TV, when suddenly I heard a drawer in the kitchen open, a spoon came flying and turned on the TV! A strange guy seemed to loudly clear his throat – and that on ProSieben which I don’t even have in my channnel list! Very closely I evaded a second spoon that came rushing with full power, smashing the remote control so that I couln’t switch channels anymore!

Aaaargh!

Okay, joking aside. More notes about yesterday’s “event”, the first edition of this German show, which to me only was an event because I had blogged live…

• English readers probably find a lot of info on CSI (ex CSICOP), or watch the (English) videos at the first of the following German links: GWUP-Infoseite zu Geller; GWUP-Blog (including funny video); special page that also informed live/a>.
  Also (also German): trick explanations on Welt.de und at the tz.
• The question is how much the contestants are behind the “real powers” balderdash which also was clearly shown in the short films introducing them – or if they rather submitted to the show’s demands. In any case, I think a magician who doesn’t think too lowly of himself should not have applied for such a show in the first place.
   
  Addendum:
  Nicolai Friedrich Update 16 Jan: clearly writes about magic tricks used to write that on his HTML site – in the German Flash version only, he writes (translated) that he’s “able to transfer his mental abilities to his audience so he can create telepathic connections between people, look with the viewers’ eyes, move objects with the power of his mind and take a look into the future.” So he adapted himself to that stupid show motto.
  Hayashi (Ryan Lam): Found no homepage, but in show announcements, he’s quite often called magic artist, e.g. “European champion of magic”;
  David Goldrake: Homepage currently not accessible, only the Blog. In a press release there, he’s named an “illusionist”;
  The couple, Duo Sonambulo: In that lengthy Flash animation, the word “entertainment arts” is mentioned once, but much too often for my taste, they talk about paranormal stuff;
  Vincent Raven: (my translation:) “No magic show, but a mystic spectacle from the past awaits you.” – “an artist of illusion and fantasy invites you to a world of the strange. Illusion show in mystically staged atmosphere. Vincent Raven seducts you into the realm of myths and spirits.” Umm, well…
• The performances were, in part, quite okay, but nothing to sweep you off your feet. Especially that raven guy’s “world of the dead” communication trick playing with the feelings not only of the celebrities (who probably had been paid well enough), but also many viewers, was somewhat questionable.
• Ratings: 3,85 million (12,1% market share) aged 3+, 2,69 million (20,1%) aged 14-49; only RTL with US series had more. ProSieben can probably be satisfied. Just a pity that way too many are probably not skeptical enough…… (source: teletext and Quotenmeter.de)
• Updated: About the brief guest I had mentioned, Dr. Friedbert Karger: He used to be at the Max Planck Institute for plasma physics and apparently had himself become confused by a “Poltergeist” so much that he’s quite popular among parascientists now… The show’s producers were probably glad to have found a doctor title holder to utter “confirming” statements, forgetting about the proven existence of magic tricks.
• The visitor numbers here were quite good for me, but blog seemed to be rather listed sufficiently high in the search engines for the search combinations of “Uri Geller” and “Son[jy]a Kraus” to attract visitors… a few critical ones, luckily, also came, but also one who search for “next uri geller what do you have to say to throw spoon down from tv set”.
• Live blogging is quite exhausting – I certainly won’t do that again for this show. If at all, I’ll just watch the recording time-shifted to be able to skip over uninteresting parts.

» Detailed explanations (German) at “The Tricks”.

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