Britain's Got Talent has now entered its tenth series, with 45 acts competing in the Live Shows for a £250,000 prize and the opportunity to participate on the Royal Variety Show. This year, two magicians, Richard Jones and Christian Lee, have made the Live Shows (You can view their auditions below), and both will be seeking to equal, or even surpass, the success of other BGT magicians, such as Jamie Raven, who finished in Second Place last year.
Neither Richard nor Christian were involved in the first Semi Final, but the nine participants in it included the Crossbow Artist Ben Blaque. Ben cannot be considered a magician (although he did participate in The Illusionists, the West End magic show headlined by Jamie Raven last Winter). In fact, during his audition (Below), which involved him firing arrows at balloons held by his assistants, and setting off a chain of arrows which shot an apple off his head, the threat of things going wrong was 100% real.
However, for his Semifinal performance, Ben Blaque performed a "Crossbow Roulette" stunt (above) which felt more like a magic trick than a demonstration of his sharpshooting skills, demonstrating why he's being mentioned on this blog. After beginning his routine by firing at the silk ropes holding down three large balloons (he only managed to release one of them), he got BGT judge Alesha Dixon to serve as his glamorous assistant. The "Crossbow Roulette" stunt involved a set of five crossbows aimed at a wall which Ben was strapped to. Four of the crossbows would miss Ben, and instead hit targets surrounding him, but the fifth was aimed at his head. Each crossbow was attached to a random lever, and Alesha had to choose four levers and pull them, firing the crossbows they were linked to. Fortunately, the levers Alesha pulled were attached to the four safe crossbows, ensuring that Ben was unharmed.
Ben's routine was definitely suspenseful, as the notion of him suffering serious injury was terrifying enough to keep the edge of their seat. However, when I liken this routine to a magic trick, it is not a compliment. As the crossbows had been arranged to hit their five targets already, and Ben was not the one firing them, the routine failed to make use of Ben's skills as a sharpshooter, which made his act stand out at the auditions, It merely showed that he was brave to stand in front of the crossbows, but bravery does not equate to talent. In addition, it is easy to suspect that the routine was set up so that Ben's chances of being hit were far less than they appeared. If this was the case, then I don't mind too much. Russian Roulette-inspired tricks are common on Americas Got Talent because they are very exciting to watch, and that was certainly true of Ben's "Crossbow Roulette" trick. However, for those who preferred genuine danger of Ben firing crossbows blindfolded, or with the help of an iPhone camera, the reliance on machinery makes Ben's Semifinal routine less impressive.
The problems mentioned above would not have been as conspicuous if Ben's routine went to plan, but it was ruined by a couple of significant mistakes. The first of these was Ben's failure to release all three balloons with his crossbow at the start of the routine. The second, far more problematic, mistake occurred when Alesha pulled the first lever. The wires linking the levers to the crossbows were tangled up, so when Alesha pulled the lever, she fired two crossbows instead of one, ensuring that she was only able to pull three levers and not four. Although Ben was not harmed by this error, it's never comfortable to see a danger act make a mistake.
In spite of the flaws with Ben's routine, the judges' comments were very positive, with head judge Simon Cowell even arguing that the mistakes increased the tension of the routine, and thus improved it. However, the British public were less impressed, and Ben finished Seventh in a weak Semifinal. Hopefully, Richard Jones and Christian Lee can do much better.
No comments:
Post a Comment