User Reviews

If you're the kind of person who likes to know the how of magic is done, don't miss this show! Once you watch a few of these shows, it becomes fun to try watching the show then pausing and figuring it out before the reveal. You'll start to notice a pattern and start thinking more like an illusionist. I definitely don't get all of them, but a fair number after the demonstration I can pick out how it's done.

Really this is B-level camp. The show doesn't take itself too seriously, and as a viewer you shouldn't take it super seriously either. (I think that's part of the show's charm.) Yes at times it makes fun of magicians (especially the assistants), but there is usually a valid thought behind the criticisms.

The show is well shot considering how dark many sets must be for the illusions to function. Occasionally they'll completely blow the explanation for a trick, but the vast majority (95%+) are understandable on the first pass. Thoroughly enjoyable if you really *want* to know how a trick is done!

One thing that watching this show regularly does is kind of destroys the mystique (for the viewer) for common magicians. My local TV station used to show "Masters of Illusion" directly before MBSFR, and the two in rapid fire didn't work well. MBSFR survived, but Masters of Illusion was dropped from the schedule, mainly because I think MBSFR shows how many of the performers on MOI were just complete hacks.

I suspect working magicians have a similar reaction to this show. But if you're part of the howdy-do-dat crowd, it's fun to see the curtain pulled back!

When I was a kid, I was afraid of while watching it beacuse of the mask. It was fun and the secrets of the magic shows that everyone was curious about were being revealed, the event that had been expected for years had come true.

The one thing I learned from this show is that magicians have very little to do with most of the tricks or illusions, if you will. The assistants do 95% of the work. If the assistants mess up the illusion fails.

It's a fascinating show and it's really shocking how simple many of the illusions are. I can't believe I never figured out how truly easy it is. The right camera angles and the magician keeping you from noticing what's actually happening while the assistants, the real stars of magic, twist their bodies into crazy small spaces. It made magicians like Kris Angel and David Blaine look like the phonies they are.

I read once that (Criss Angel), a known magician, claimed that the revealing of this show is false, implying that those are not the real techniques magicians do their tricks. Well, I don't believe (Criss Angel), and I never did!

This is a rare, wicked and bold show. Watching it is insightful; that's why it is rare! The details are very well done, the narration is lovely, and it could say some things, long-time unspoken, that may burn down many careers for many magicians. Outrageously, rather insanely, bold in my viewpoint.

It has its problems. For one, the Masked Magician. I don't mind being masked; on the contrary, it's such a good idea to abstract the matter, inspiring that he's every magician. What did annoy me is that the mask was so cheap and ugly. And the moves of the man behind it were mostly effeminate!

The narrator is (Mitch Pileggi), best known as the FBI agent (Walter Skinner) in The TV classic (The X Files). Choosing him was masterstroke, since he used to be, in the aforementioned show, the highly reasonable voice inclined towards believing the unbelievable. True that he did here an attractive job, having a nice voice persona, but the material that was written to him wasn't totally great. The remarks about how the girls are beautiful, how the masked Magician can please them, went on and on. I loved most of the material no doubt; it was part of the revealing "show" of the magic show, though repetition is hell!

On a deeper level, there is couple of problems that this show causes. Firstly, breaking the code, any code, is bad idea itself. It is betrayal. But for the sake of pure science, being informed; I vote yes. The thing is I believe they did it for the money, and the sake of raising the holy ratings. Somehow it says that everything in the world has become breakable. Therefore, (Criss Angel) has all the rights to be angry, accusing the show with even false indictments!

Secondly, while breaking the magicians' code is risky thing to do, it's boring as well. At some time, breaking kung fu's secrets was a crime. Now breaking the magicians' secrets isn't. However, it can be for anyone who enjoys thinking about "How". So, it spoils the fun, killing the magician along with the magic. Although.. you can always "Not Watch".

So if you're so curious to uncover the secrets, just watch. If you want to prove your own intelligence, then keep watching the tricks, think about them, and use this show as a corrective reference. And as for the magicians, after praying for God that people won't catch this show anytime, anywhere, they must do some very hard work to create and renovate!

We are in awe at the Magic trick then we try to figure out just how did they do that! Near the end of the series my kids are practically novice at figuring the trick out. Very cool show!