You do well on national TV and you will be turning down bookings left and right. Instant fame and fortune.

Decomposed

Still waiting to hear from my friend as to if he minds me naming him and telling the story or not. Will keep you posted.

Best,

Tim

I think a lot have AGT confused with downunders GT (AGT). This is what most are ranting about and it has nothing to do with America's Got Talent:

http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article/845674......ot-water

It is sad to watch the video I admit, but while the shows may be similiar, I think its best we keep this all in perspective.

Respect and Peace

Decomp

No. No confusion here. They are all the same franchise and run the same way. The video I posted was from Australia but the blog link listed here was American. I sat through tapings of Canadas Got Talent and it was the same thing.

Best,

Tim

I would be lying if I said it didn't have a profound positive impact on the types and amounts of bookings we receive. We have been very lucky since the show.

I just saw the latest episode of Australia's Got Talent- after searching for 3 hours. (The important thing is that I found it.) I only watched it for "Merlin award winner" Cosentino. He uses his brothers in his illusions, which makes him one of my favorites. Anyway- the bumper ad AGT runs right before Cos' segment shows him saying "This is a dangerous stunt I have never done here before." He ends up performing the broom levitation , with his red head female assistant. This is a guy known (by me) for creativity, great escapes, and complete originality. I really hope he keeps illusions in his act. He has an upcoming TV special that will be mostly street magic and dancing with his red head.

If he doesn't mind, that would be excellent to hear. I mostly just want to know if the deal's as good as it sounds, or if they have some kind of catch to it.

No word back yet but I can basically tell you this. He was promised a top 10 spot as the top 10 go on a short " AGT Live" tour. They said they needed a magician as they couldn't just have all singers. They needed to balance out the top 10 to attract more people to the live show tour. The problem was that it only paid $1500 a week. My friend makes more than that from a one night gig and he would have lost money so he turned them down.

If you check out some past threads you'll see how lousy the contract is that you have to sign to be on the show. The winner gets a million dollars but its really $25K a year for 40 years. The " show in Vegas" deal isn't a permanent gig either. Its a few guest spots in a show held in vegas and that's it.

Good luck to you if you decide to go for it.

Best,

Tim

Thanks again for all the help and advice!

Here is another Got Talent Story. A friend of mine performed on Canada's Got Talent. It was a mess from the beginning. This guy is a seasoned pro and seemed like a sure thing to do well on the show. He does the big box stuff and wasn't going to haul the big boxes to the first audition so he chose to bring a demo DVD which is allowed. When it came time to hand in his DVD they wanted to see a card trick. . He was prepared and even had a portable DVD player with him to be able to show the demo. They refused to watch it and said " Give it to us and we'll watch it later" . Basically they wanted to record something. He told them he can do a card trick but he doesn't do them and wouldn't be doing one on the show but they insisted so he did one.

When it came time to talk to a producer from the show he extended his hand to meet the guy and shake his hand. The guy refused to shake his hand and threw his arms up in disgust and said....." What are you doing? We don't shake hands. " It was basically one of those ... "I am the big producer guy and you are not worthy of shaking my hand." sort of things. At that moment I would have turned around and walked off. My friend is more diplomatic than me and continued on.

OK.... So the show plays one of those " control" games and waits until the very last minute to let anyone know they made it through. He gets a call and is asked to audition at the Toronto taping. He has to be there early in the morning and they keep telling him to have a good backstory. Here is where it gets interesting. During morning rehearsals the stage is cleaned off after another act and my friends assistant slips on the stage and as she falls she scrapes her leg on the side of the prop and scratches it. This normally wouldn't be a problem but she is wearing a long white " greek goddess" sort of dress and the dress that touches her leg gets a bit of blood on it. They are backstage cleaning it before the real taping and the cameras are right on it. It makes for good backstory. The assistant is a dancer and has lots of scars on her legs from dance mishaps. She points them out to the cameras and explains that magic is more dangerous than people believe. The producers seem to love this angle as it adds a danger element to the performance. ( the illusion was a spiker illusion )

So.... it comes time to tape in front of the audience. My friend goes on second last. I take that as a good sign as I am sure they want to save the better stuff till the end. He goes on and all goes well and the audience loves it. Seems like a guaranteed YES YES YES.. thing. Then it comes time to take a vote and the evil judge ( the one who plays Piers part ) starts right off with . " Well I know that the girls do all the work in magic and I don't like how you treat your girls so its a NO from me." The audience Booed at the statement.

The other judges said yes so he went to the next round.

I was stunned to hear that judge say that but after the taping when I spoke to my friend he told me about the cameras all filming the " injuries in the biz" backstory backstage. The judge had not seen this footage and was cued to say this because when it went to air the viewer at home would have seen this back story just before they saw the act and they would think the judge had also seen it as it would have aired just before the act was introduced.

One other thing...... once you left the stage they told you that even though you got a YES from the judges didn't mean you'd make it to air. This also happened to my friend. His segment never made it to air which is a good thing I guess the way he was screwed over. Lots of mediocre acts that got 3 X's did make it to air however proving the show is not really a talent show but rather just a glorified gong show.

Best,

Tim

Has anyone noticed every year there are less and less magic acts? Just go to U Tube and look at past seasons and you will see a heck of lot of magicians but not anymore.