On 2010-08-29 00:06, nucinud wrote:
I turned AGT a bunch of times. They have called me and asked me to come down every time they have been in New York. No waiting on line - just show up.

On 2010-08-28 23:20, DoveDaddy wrote:
As Josef Stalin once famously quipped “It’s not who votes that counts, it’s who counts the votes.” AGT not only counts the votes, they also control every aspect of every act on the show. AGT controls and directs act choice, music selection, staging, lighting, camera angles, and scripting of the judge’s comments. AGT focuses on one aspect of each performer and creates a story-line around them in order to build viewer interest and drama for the show. As a result, each act then becomes pigeon holed within the AGT story-line. For example, AGT rejected the dove act of “anti-conjuror” Dan Sperry and instead only allowed him to perform tricks with “shock” value. And from “pyromaniac” Antonio Restivo, AGT only wanted fire, more fire and nothing but fire. As for Murray, AGT wants Big, Bigger, Biggest; thus his need to borrow illusions (so next week get ready for Bigger). AGT overtly hypes their favorite acts and throws the others under the Piers Morgan bus. It’s all about programming to increase AGT viewership. After all it is the number one watched summer TV show; and ratings bring in advertising dollars, which is why they call it entertainment business. Ever notice how many 30 second commercials there are between each act. Besides the TV show there is the AGT live tour starting October 1st, which will play in 25 different cities. Only the top ten finalists will perform on this tour so it was predictable that Dan, Antonio and even the non-magic act “ArcAttack” would not move into the finals as their acts were just not conducive for the tour. Dan for example is booked for the entire month of October at Fright Dome in Las Vegas and thus unavailable; and as for Antonio, I seriously doubt that AGT wanted the challenge and expense of obtaining “fire” permits in 25 different cities across the US. So why are there four vocal acts in the finals so far? Well, two reasons, money and audience demographics. AGT is merely the little brother summer fill-in for American Idol, which itself is the nation’s number one TV show. Besides, singing acts are more highly valued than variety acts and are given four times more remuneration than variety acts under the terms of the AGT management option contract. Why? Well, the simple truth is that there is much greater profit and public demand for audio recordings of singers than video recordings of variety acts. This issue of magicians versus singers is discussed elsewhere on the Café here: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......um=62&12
As a popular entertainment art form, magic is probably at the bottom of the general public’s list. Beyond the members here at the Café, the general public just doesn’t have much interest in magic so why would they vote for a magician on AGT? Even David Copperfield can only fill theaters with several hundred magic fans, while any Suzie singer or Boy band can fill arenas and stadiums with thousands of adoring music fans. Why? This topic is discussed elsewhere on the Café here: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......m=27&219
So are magicians delusional to think they can win or even compete on AGT? If you were fortunate enough to earn a spot in the AGT semi-finals or perhaps even the finals, do you have two signature acts in your bag of tricks that are new and different and can be performed in 90 seconds without getting buzzed or dissed by Piers? Is it even worth trying? It doesn’t seem to have hurt Kevin James or Nathan Burton’s magic careers. It would be nice to hear the viewpoint of this year’s AGT magicians, but with the confidentiality clauses in their AGT contracts I doubt we ever will. So all things considered, my question is Should magicians boycott AGT?