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“The Next Uri Geller” show 2 (2nd season 2009) – Opinion, tricks, explanations

by cimddwc · 2009-01-20

This is a report about one of the second season shows from 2009. You may also:
» Display all my reports about this season 2.
» Display everything about the first season 2008.
» Display all articles about Uri Geller.

Gabel betet stehenden Löffel an Second show today – hopefully again without Geller’s “experiments”, i.e. the tricks that mostly annoyed because of their presentation as actual paranormal events in the first season, which however we were spared in the 1st show.

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 Next Uri Geller” show 1 (2nd season 2009) – Opinion, tricks, explanations

by cimddwc · 2009-01-13

bent So what can we expect today, which hopefully entertaining magic tricks and performances and which mystic Geller babble? In the press release, ProSieben features the “poker mentalist” Kris – with tattoos of the card colors, alledgedly “the sign of a secret poker guild” –, quoting him: “I can influence luck”. (All quotes are my translations.) Yo, anyone can so by cheating, so watch out you don’t get caught.

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 Next Uri Geller – 2nd season 2009 – Contestants and Pre-show report

by cimddwc · 2009-01-08

This is a pre-show report about the second season from 2009. You may also:
» Display all my reports about this season 2.
» Display everything about the first season 2008.
» Display all articles about Uri Geller.

bent Let’s start this pre-report for once with a search request that brought someone here to my blog: no it’s starting again uri geller… Yeah, and like last year, I’m gonna report about these shows (each Tuesday at 20:15 on ProSieben Germany) near-live in German and do the English translations within a few days.

“Shocking Experiments?”

Brief “newsflash” from ProSieben last Saturday (like all other quotes: my translations):

“I will amaze the viewers with new experiments”, Uri Geller promises […] “Maybe I will even schock them – in a positive way.” Something to look forwart to.

The world-famous spoon deformer could only shock in a positive way if he admitted to not have any “extraordinary powers” but using tricks all the time. Surely he won’t, so I fear it will at most be an increased amount of his silly–mystical babble that will baffle the viewers.

“The mysterious Vincent Raven”

That was the title of a show last Tuesday in which Uri visited “raveb daddy” and 2008 winner Vincent Raven (Homepage). Vincent of course guided him through vaults and blathered with him on a cemetary about his beloved “otherworld”. Yeah, the “Anderswelt”, as he says in German – Vincent appears to really believe in that stuff… and thus it was mentioned “from time to time”. Uri, too, appears to be impressed – but among two magicians who sell themselves as real psychics, that’s no miracle. They also showed clips from “The Next Uri Geller” 2008, still displaying the tricks as real. And Geller often spoke in German with Vincent – seems he was well-prepared. (Who wrote the dialogs?)

Childhood memories of Raven’s were also a part of this show, and Vinnieboy could again prove that he is simply unable to tell a story in an interesting fashion, and that’s not just due to his accent and inflection. And, well, schadenfreude is assumed to be bad, but the best scene of this show was Uri Geller’s face when Corax, one of Raven’s ravens, bit his index finger (down to the bone) when he attempted to pet her once too often. Well, even a “mystifier” puts his trust in disinfectants, x-rays and antibiotics in such cases…

Ratings: 1.15 million (4.4% market share) total or 0.82m/7.0% in the 14–49-year-old target audience – the weakest show of Pro7’s evening, even “The 100 most annoying whatever” had 4.9%/8.8%.

Defending the Title

raven As was also mentioned in the Raven program: Vincent has to defend his title – “10 new contestants compete against Vincent Raven”. Luckily only in the finale, thus we’ll be spared Raven’s long-winded cawing in the beginning:

Vincent Raven, last year’s winner, will defend his title in the final. Only then will be decided in an exciting duel: Who is “The next Uri Geller”?

The Contestants

Though apparently being speculated about for yuite some time, e.g. at Freaks of Magic (German) – on Thursday ProSieben finally published the contestants on their website, and apparently not all of them are originally focusing on mental magic again (quotes from Pro7’s detail pages, translated):

Danny Ocean

Unfortunately (especially for the ladies who all appear to love George Clooney) not the character from the “Ocean’s Eleven” etc. movies, but “The misperceptionist from Nuremberg, 34 years old, real name Danny Meier. On his website he also calls himself “Reality Hacker”. Looks quite okay, basically, somehow a styled jack of all magic trades – at any rate, I think without his TNUG participants no-one would ever have written a text about him like that on ProSieben’s site (no matter if he wrote it by himself or the P7 guys did):

A drastic experience keeps its grip on Danny: Ten years ago, he was torn out of sleep one night and felt a foreign power that suddenly controlled his body. Searching an explanation, he noticed that he can do inexplicable things himself.

Gabriel and Daniel

“The mental doubles” Daniel Kalman and Gabriel Palacios, both 20, from Bern and Basel. Which is supposed to indicate a pretended telepathic connection: “but both almost always know what the other is currently doing – or better: what he is thinking.” Well, guess they won’t show a moaning porn-like way of talking like Vivian from season 1 (luckily)…

Manuel Horeth

“The smart thought twister” (30) from Salzburg. “He not only reads minds – he also looks into the future”, ProSieben says. On his noisy website (even the menu items are shouted!) he looks quite okay, actually. Hope he brings his two assistants with him…

Waayatan

Where does an “Indian shadow hunter” (37) come from? Bad Kreuznach, of course! And latest local fashion, as the Pro7 photo shows, is – mathing the seasons – naked upped body, Indian stuff and a, pardon, daft smile. His granny alledgedly was a “medicine womman in the clan of the shadow panthers” – can’t find that clan in Wikipedia, but on numerous World of Warcraft sites… Freaks of Magic give him an exotic bonus – though I fear that might not help much if he exaggerates things too much and rather makes a fool of himself. Well, we’ll see.
Update: His new homepage (which Peter reminded me about, thanks) – in the page title: “Waayatan Tecumsee Ohanse, Waayatan, Wajatan, Waijatan, Weijatan, Wajatan, Wayatan, Waiyatan, Weiyatan”. Should I do something similar here…?

Jan Becker

“Master of the thoughts” (33), Berlin, “a mental magic professional” (website); he “possesses the power about the most valuable that us human beings have: the freedom of our thoughts”, Pro7 says. Well, I still got my thoughts, and they’re saying that his apostrophe haircut looks wor’se than man’y fool’s apostrophe’s. At least we can hope that he knows his business…

Jan Rouven

The next Jan, “the man with the seven lives” (28), Neuwied. “Loves danger”; his homepage displays him, among other photos, impaled on a giant drill, the P7 photo with fire in his hand. Appears to me like a Gothic Copperfield… which doesn’t have to be bad as such, as long as he doesn’t overdo that image in his presentation.

Kris

“The irresistible pokerface” (30) from Münster (originally named Christian Finke in the overview), tossing around poker cards – “Muscular upper arms, six-pack and an irresistible smile. When Wenn Kris […] enters the stage, ladies’ hearts beat faster.” And I fear he might come across too clichéd and in essence boring… but I’d like to be convinced otherwise.

Ully Loup

“The soul wanderer” from Berlin, at an age of 47 the oldest of the contestants, whose website is still under construction. “Ully Loup is not like the others. He’s living seclusively and hides behind his mental abilities: He is an iridiscent, fascinating artist with a fateful childhood.” And with black gloves. The ProSieben photo somehow reminds me of a sort of sci-fi inquisitor or a Babylon 5 technomage…

Amila

“The magic seduction” (25) from Saarbrücken. According to Freaks of Magic also known as Belinda Roy. Will the new name being similar to Fujitsu Siemens Computers products be an advantage? Well, nobody will care, the “mental vamp” – “her shows are charged with eroticism” – is visually not uninteresting (*cough*), and I’m predicting that alone due to this she will at least reach the semi-final.

Aaron Crow

“The silent mentalist”, he’s not talking (36) and focusing on martial arts and the like – winner from the first Netherland season and already participating in the world finale on 4 March 2008. Probably Uri Geller said to himself: since that guy’s not talking, we can easily invite him again, so I got more opportunities to babble nonsense myself…

This and that

Raven’s “Amulet of the portals” (or whatever he calls the “Amulett der Pforten” in English) which he has shown before is also for sale in his shop at the bargain price of only 427 CHF (ca. 286€/390 USD) (46 mm diameter, silver) – that is, it were if it weren’t currently unavailable due to high demand . And there is – probably a first – the novelization of the amulet:

A certain Vivienne Marceau, ProSieben reports, wrote a novel about the raven daddy (currently unavailable, though): “Vincent Raven – Das Amulett der Pforten”.

And as Wunschliste reports, last year’s finalist Farid gets his own show on ProSieben: “Street Magic with Farid” from 10 February at about 22:15 – five shows right after “The Next Uri Geller”.

There was also a fittingly placed Galileo Mystery – didn’t watch it, the skeptics’ GWUP blog got a critique in German.

Magic start into the new year

by cimddwc · 2008-12-30

Anyone remember my announcement in September to publish summaries from the “Witch Calendar” for 2009 (Moewig-Verlag) by “Anthea” (not depicted here)? Well, this is the first post, so may it provide a good start into the new year to all witches (and those who want to laugh about ’em). (Note that all quotes are my translations.)

One curiosity first: The disclaimer at the beginning of the calendar also contains this sentence:

Especially the suggestions and recommendations in this calendar are non-binding information according to § 676 BGB.

Aha – but how does the cancelation of transfer contracts of stocks apply to witches? Well, maybe I don’t know enough about stock magic to understand that. Let’s head on to magical recommendations that are of a more common nature – and keep to the perfectly fitting quote that starts the sheet for January 1st:

Mix a little foolishness into your serious acts and goals! Sillinesses in the right moment are delightful!
(Horace)

Short memory

Witches – or the stars? – apparently only have a short memory and/or not much variety to offer. On 7 January, it says:

Wednesday is attributed to the planet Mercury which invites us to think and act practically. Both, however, should always be imbued with spiritual truths.

And on 14 January:

Wednesday is attributed to the planet Mercury which invites us to think and proceed practically. As messenger of the gods, Mercury wants us to imbue our daily acts spiritually.

Well, maybe there will be a witch pharmacy remedy later on in the year that cures that. Or does the author hope for such “truths”, self-defined in the spirituality department as usual, such as astrology become more true if repeated often enough and that the readers will remember not to act too practical and ignore such astro-absurdity in the first place?

Or did she just have problems to properly fill the 5 sheets per week? A suspicion that, given the many other platitudes and pure name listings, doesn’t seem to be too far-fetched to me…

Retreat and walks

On the one hand, you’re to retreat in January just as nature does and rebuild your strength, and meditation, music and arts are said to be “especially beneficial for your soul” – on the other hand treat yourself to “lots of fresh air and movement”. On 14 January, you’re supposed to do that for an Indian god, the sun god Surya – who, judging by his origin (10-15°C in north India, warmer in the south (Wikipedia)), hardly will be used to our winterly cold:

Honor him with a walk, even if the sun doesn’t shine – it’s still there.

Oh? Now I never would have thought that! But is that really enough honor for this god?

The menu for the first half of January

Not too rich, this menu – even if the following is just an excerpt:

Lime blossom tea helps on Jan 1 against cough – but what helps agains the “typical” new year hangover? Here the calendar clearly gives away some of its potential.
Two bananas per day are an ideal flu protection – and no, don’t stick them in your nose, the chief which explicitly writes “eat”! (Pity.)
Millet gruel or other millet meals – but only on Wednesdays since Mercury (see above) is connected to millet. One should ask astrologers which dice they tossed to get these attributions…
“Eat apples always between 10 and 16 o’clock” – the body allegedly absorbs the active agents especially well. Damn, that was a few minutes too late yesterday.

And the solution against acne and skin imperfections: slap a mash of yeast and milk on your face!

But how’s that supposed to help if the imperfections aren’t in the face at all? Oh, witchcraft, I forgot.

What are the stars telling?

The stars often babble of e.g. “matching” gemstones or enumerate capricorn celebrities – often without giving any advice at all. Or tell hints for capricorn-witches or capricorn witches – probably only master astro witches with Eris in the 13th house know when to use the hyphen and when not1 –, because that’s the current constellation in early January. (Sorry, dear self-satisfied star shamans: sign of the zodiac; you got to dodge astronomical knowledge, of course.) But how will that help other readers who’d like helpful hypocrisies, erm, hints for the current day?

Thursday is connected with the planet Jupiter who demands from us to outgrow ourselves and thus become the rulers of ourselves.

Now what dangerous advice is she giving here?!? That is, dangerous to astro advisers, mystic mongers, divinity dealers and bullshit providers who oh so much like to sell the sole messages of salvation (each his own) and see the people be ruled by the stars – or rather their interpretation of them – and all the other stuff. But who among the calendar’s target audience will ever think about this…?

Let’s end with another perfectly fitting quote from the 16-18 January sheet:

When giving advice, we are all wise, but blind toward our own mistakes.
(Euripides)

In this spirit: Happy new year!

Photos: alitaylor/sxc, cinezi/sxc

in German, it was sometimes with hyphen and sometimes written as one word [↩]

Solution to Quote of the Day 15

by cimddwc · 2008-12-20

ugly witch I combined this quote with a quiz about its origin last Saturday:

“For certain there never were witches and warlocks in this world, but it’s just as undeniable that throughout history people believed in cheaters who had the talent of acting as sorcerers.”
(my translation)

6 people participarted, 11th, 18th and 21st century were each picked by 2. Correct is: 18th century. Last weekend’s Donaukurier, where I found it, attributed it to Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872), but German WikiQuote shows as confirmed source Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), Italian adventurer and author. Guess a DK editor might have messed up copy&paste in this quote collection…

Photo: sgursozlu/sxc