Readers Talk About NBC's "Phenomenon"

Here's a compilation of readers’ posts in response to our commentaries about the show. "Phenomenon" is a reality show that pits several contestants against each other "American Idol" style. The show is complete with a host and judges: Criss Angel and Uri Geller, who provide feedback. Television audiences vote via phone or the web for their favorite contestants. The winner takes home $250,000. The losers are eliminated.

Criss Angel Versus Jim Callahan

As far as Criss Angel’s stupid rant, hell, the show is called looking for the next great mentalist isn’t it? Isn’t that what Jim C. was pretending to be? — a mentalist. If Criss Angel was TRULY against mentalism, he wouldn’t have been on the show to begin with. I agree with Jim — Criss is an ideological bigot.
Comment by DKS — November 6, 2007 @ 11:32 am

I don’t think that argument was scripted–Criss embarrassed Uri too!
Comment by Chris @ Martial Development — November 1, 2007 @ 3:33 pm

I totally think that the argument was scripted. Maybe not word for word but at least planned.
Comment by JoeV — November 4, 2007 @ 4:01 pm

Criss Angel himself, in confronting Callahan, - who so far was the only one actually trying to sell to us that he had real supernatural powers - calling his performance “comical” and adding “I’ll give you a million dollars if you can tell me what is in this envelope,” exposed his own trade and revealed that he himself does not believe that there is a true power of mentalism and that therefore all his great performances are based on simple tricks as well.

No wonder he has not yet given us any taste of levitating from person to person or across the stage. While in his own show he so easily levitates from building to building, in this live show of supposedly finding a mentalist phenomenon, he has not even been able to even levitate two inches out of his seat.
Comment by Mike — November 10, 2007 @ 1:51 am

Uri Geller as Uri Geller

Uri Geller has had no problem looking like a fool, as a judge or otherwise, frequently over the past 30 years.
Comment by N.A. — October 29, 2007 @ 7:57 am

Uri. I’m sorry. But, he should have stayed hidden away. His attempt at mentalism really did come across as something out of a pyscho ward.
Comment by Ric Singleton — October 30, 2007 @ 12:05 pm

As a beginner magician, I overall appreciated the show. But I felt very sorry for Uri Geller, who did a very bad job with his thought transmission and looked like a fool as a judge.
Comment by Luca Speroni — October 28, 2007 @ 1:29 pm

Uri has substantially vitiated his image by participating in a program so ambiguous. It would have been better to have some parapsychologists as scientists, investigating the reality of the feats- or just a real magic show that aped American Idol like most of these formula shows do. Magicians would do better than mentalists.
Comment by Johnny Blue Star — October 30, 2007 @ 11:46 am

Criss Angel

Criss Angel seems to have forgotten that the show is about the contestants, not him. It became a Jerry Springer magic and mentalism show. James Randi surely put Angel up to attacking Uri. Randi hates Uri and since Randi devotee Banacheck is an Angel advisor it was easy for him to influence Criss to attack. They all are scum.
Comment by Bill Perron — November 6, 2007 @ 3:22 pm

I think that you hit the nail on the head…no pun intended. Criss also seemed to be one-upping the contestants with his ‘when I did something like that’ comments.
Comment by Joe Vecciarelli — October 25, 2007 @ 12:16 pm

I do appreciate that Criss has taken magic out of the closet and put it back out on the streets. But, one can only go so far as a regular everyday performer to live up to the media crafted creations in real life. Criss has modernized magic to make it ‘fit’ with the attitudes of today. But, it’s already become boring.

If you go to Youtub.com, you can see all kinds of young kids exposing the floating trick he created. Criss and his emo, thug, rock star whatever the heck look he is trying for has become just a clown of different costuming.
Comment by Ric Singleton — October 30, 2007 @ 12:05 pm

I only wish Criss would dress up, clean up,cut his hair and look like a professional performer instead of a weirdo. Adults don’t like his wardrobe, but I guess this is all for the young. Do you have to be weird,and act weird to do magic tricks? Copperfield may be out of circulation for awhile now, so Criss and some others must step it up to keep regular magic and mental-magic going big time.
Comment by J.R. — October 30, 2007 @ 1:34 pm

Bad for Mentalism?

This show gives magicians a bad rap. Mentalism doesn’t play well on TV and the contest format is just a contrived distraction.
Comment by DKS — November 6, 2007 @ 11:32 am

This show is hurting mentalism more than it helps. And it is giving magic as a whole a bad name. The show is boring and disappointing and most of all, sadly revealing that there are no true mentalism powers, but that it is all cheap tricks. It seems that away from their comfortable fields, put on live stage and without any camera tricks or dramatic editing, mentalists can’t do much at all, but repeat the same few tricks based on the same principles.
Comment by Mike — November 10, 2007 @ 1:51 am

Although I believe there is a future for mentalism, I am not sure that is can be showcased in a show of this nature. On the one hand, mentalism can so easily be faked- someone “feeling” that another person is “tickling their chin” or guessing a celebrity picture, even though one’s hand is trapped in a wolf trap (which also can be faked).

The visual reward is often lacking, which at least gives you the chance to be mystified as to how the trick was done. In mental magic, for the most part, it can all be faked in advance. Even the phone book trick, which was the most convincing, could have been faked- but that was the closest one to creating the illusion of true mentalism.
Comment by Johnny Blue Star — October 30, 2007 @ 11:46 am

What’s Wrong With the Show?

Honestly. This is the first television show I’ve seen that actually offended me so much in terms of insulting my intelligence that I felt compelled to find somewhere to complain about it. I can’t believe money is being wasted producing this piece of crap, when people are starving in Africa, kinda deal.
Comment by liz — November 4, 2007 @ 7:58 pm

A very slow disgusting-TV Show!. I have seen and known many of the great “wizard” performers: Blackstone and his son; Dunninger; Neff; Baker Brothers, the spook show people; Kreskin; Penn & Teller; Siegfried & Roy, etc... and been there and done that kind of stuff, including TV and radio “magicshows.” You must build up “magic,” not in any way tear it down with criticism. The “Idol”shows are all so awful anyway. It ends up saying only one is better then anyone else? Presentation is so important. Competition=TV show among magicians? Whoever came up with that idea? That unknown - magician jerk and his awful low-rated TV shows..?
Comment by J.R. — October 30, 2007 @ 1:34 pm

Remember..Randi received that million dollar free gift a few years ago for proving mentalists are fakes. Copperfield is in personal trouble. Criss dresses up and Uri’s effect of spoon bending has been done by Randi and others. Now, how many viewers believe super-natural talents performing on network TV..? Straight magic-mental tricks are for fun and enjoyment. The show is falling flat forgetting that. Let’s have a little more “show-biz” –”tongue in cheek” performing and make it entertaining-fun to watch..! Trying to make viewers believe this to be real is a trick going wrong.
Comment by JR — November 9, 2007 @ 11:28 am

If I were in charge….I believe the success of such shows as American Idol and Project Runway etc. comes from there being a CHALLENGE and a HISTORY. If they incorporated a challenge to the contestents each week and more behind the scenes drama .. this show would be much better show. Next… The success of such performers as Criss Angel and ESPECIALLY David Blaine lies in the format. They perform a lot of their stuff OFF STAGE and ON THE STREET. It plays as MORE believable and more spontaneous. (even if its planned for weeks ahead of time) This show (as it is now) seems too contrived and fake because of the stage format.. and I don’t CARE about the contestants because of the lack of behind the scenes footage.
Comment by Corey McCarty — October 30, 2007 @ 1:59 pm

As a long time insider of magic and mentalism, I watched the show with some investment, but not too much investment...The reason the show falls flat is not because of any of the reasons you gave but rather because the producers failed to take into account that the judges differences are not sufficiently polarized, and there is no “judge # 3? to be the wild card in the true style of American Idol.

Angel, in ads for this show, promises he will “bust” anyone who claims to be doing something other than a trick. But noone made such a claim or “crossed the line”, so he couldn’t bust anyone and instead had to try to say something useful. Gellar stuck to the idea of trying to give credit to those who “made him believe” without coming out and saying they are demonstrating “real” powers. The show therefore fails to be “explosive” as it supposedly intended because you need to mix combustible things together to create an explosion.
Comment by tasoti — October 27, 2007 @ 10:50 pm

I too felt that the show was flat, but I place part of the blame on the producers. A good producer can edit the boring and make it exciting...I think the show could be brought back to life with a change in format. Let all forms of magic participate. Have Criss build up the magicians as the best and have Uri build up the Menatalists as the best. Now instead of tearing down the art they would be building it up.

Mentalism is by nature a slower form of entertainment. You have to set the stage to be serious, it takes time to dig deep into yourself and bring your powers to the surface. Trying to move it at a fast pace does not allow you to properly set the mood for this form of entertainment. But this makes a slow presentation for television when repeated over and over again over the course of an hour.

Magic is often performed with dance to the driving beats of dance mix music, explosions, flashes of light and amazing visual disturbances. This makes for good television. With a mix of the two, the audience would be taken on a roller coaster ride with all the highs and lows, the unexpected turns and heart stopping moments. I say give it back to the producers and tell them to do their job and make it work.
Comment by Kipp Sherry — October 30, 2007 @ 10:58 am

More Reading:
NBC's Phenomenon: Week 3
NBC's "Phenomenon" - Week 2
NBC's "Phenomenon" - Week 1
Between 2 Minds by Guy Bavli and Haim Goldenberg