SEMIFINAL 1 - AARON CROW
Mentalist Aaron Crow was under pressure to up his game after his dangerous Samurai-themed audition routine (Above), and did so with his Semifinal performance.(Below) He used host Declan "Dec" Donnelly as a volunteer for his trick. He borrowed a ring from judge Amanda Holden, and put it inside an apple. He placed the apple on Dec's head, William-Tell Style, and stood on a revolving platform with a bow and arrow. He fired the arrow it went through the apple and hit a target, with the ring on the arrow. It was a trick I've seen before on The Magicians, but Aaron performed it well, even though the arrow was a centimeter or so off the bulls-eye, not that that really mattered. More problematic was Aaron's refusal to speak before or after the performance, which would have allowed him to be more accessible and appealing to the viewers at home. Furthermore, the risky nature of his act may have tuned off some viewers, and, as a result, Aaron lost out in the vote to safer and inferior acts such as Dance Act Youth Creation and Opera singers Richard and Adam .Like Series 4's Stevie Starr, another dangerous and unconventional magic act, Crow was talented, but too unconventional to reach the finals. He did well, however, and the judges liked him (Though Simon Cowell stated that he preferred his audition and was disappointed that Dec survived), and that's all that mattered.
SEMIFINAL 3- STEVIE PINK
I am not a fan of camp magic, as my disdain for Jeff Hobson illustrates, but I thought Stevie Pink (real name Steve Kovarez) had potential based on his audition (Above). How wrong I was. In his audition, Steve chose to let the trick speak for itself, and did a cheesy but effective spin on the levitation illusion. For his semifinal performance, however (Below), Steve put himself front and centre, and his performance was a disaster. The trick itself, which involved making a shirtless man on a motorbike appear in a pink Shadow box, was alright, but the patter was terrible, and the trick wasn't good enough to compensate. Steve also wasted time with a number of showgirls who contributed little but eye candy. Of the judges, only David Walliams, who loves all things camp, refrained from pressing his buzzer (Though Aleesha Dixon only did so after the performance) I think that Steve should have tried to incorporate more inventive illusions in his performance, and should have chosen not to use such irritating patter. It was sad to see a magic act flop so badly, as they almost always did on BGT before David and Karen's arrival, and whilst Stevie wasn't the worst magic act on Britain's Got Talent as Simon claimed, it is down there with the likes of Doctor Gore and the Deans of Magic. Steve only came up with the "Stevie Pink" persona months before his audition, and he should have scrapped it at the planning stage. Needless to say, he didn't get through.
SEMIFINAL 4-JAMES MORE
The last, and best, magician to perform in the semifinals was illusionist James More, previously seen on Penn and Teller: Fool Us. His audition version of the Impalement illusion (Above) was exciting and entertaining, if easier to figure out on repeat views then other versions of the trick. In the semifinal, however, James really upped his game with a version of the "Table of Death" (Below). He was chained to a table below a row of spikes, and the spikes were lit on fire and dropped on him. However, by the time the spikes dropped, James had vanished from the Table and reappeared behind the judges. Modern, exciting, engaging, it was everything a Britain's got Talent magician's performance should be. The judges were all praise, and Simon called James "The best magic act we've ever seen". Despite this, he didn't make the top 3, with the public voting for far blander acts like the singers Alex Keirl and Asanda. This means that there will be no magicians in the final of Britain's Got Talent this year, but, hopefully, a great magic act will make it next year.
