Phenomenon recap. So you don't have to.

The following was written more or less all on the fly while watching the second episode of Phenomenon:

They picked up the pace at the start of the show again today with most of the contestants doing a quick trick right in the beginning. They varied from poor presentation and a dumb trick to poor presentation and a good trick. The trouble (and the cool thing) with magic is that everything is in the presentation. Try to find a video of the nail gun trick from last week's Phenomenon. Then go find the essentially identical (in magical effect, at least) Russian roulette routine that Derren Brown did. It's all about the presentation; it has nothing to do with the trick.

I feel like Uri Gellar is trying really hard to "gain legitimacy" by making it impossible for anybody to believe that he's doing anything other than cheesy tricks (whereas he has historically claimed, at tremendous legal expense, to have super powers). He did a trick that amounts to an interesting math problem.

It was more than half an hour into the show before we even heard from Criss Angel. It wasn't until last week's contestants had been culled and the first of this week's contestants had given his performance. The first contestant actually had really good stage presence. He did a good NLP-style trick (like Derren Brown's advertising trick). Except that he got a tat (or claimed to get a tat) of the reveal. It was well done. I just wish people would come up with their own angle. Like I said, all magic tricks are identical... I just wish that they would come up with their own material... (I think it was the noted ninja Ricky Jay who said, "There's nothing new under the sun.")

The second competitor--the only female--was a little awkward on stage, but still had veru good presence. She did the hidden knife routine. You've probably seen it done by Criss Angel on his show. He does it better. For some reason, she used these metallic bases to hold the knife, that you could see under the covers. I don't know why. I've never seen the trick done like that, and I don't think it's a good change. Most viewers will assume that there's something about the bases gives away which one has the knife. It doesn't... at least, that's not how the trick is normally done. It really detracts, and I don't understand it.

Maybe I'm jaded. Maybe I've just seen too much magic, so I've started to recognize tricks that other people have probably never seen before. The third contestant was Guy Bavli, who Randi said would probably steal the show. He appeared to stop his heart. You have probably seen this trick done before by Criss Angel on Mindfreak or by Derren Brown in one of his previous stage shows. It was very well done, actually, and originally presented. Angel's criticism was that it might not have been the best trick choice given the time constraint, but I think he did a good job of doing the setup and building suspense within the time constraint.

The fourth contestant was Belgian. I actually have not seen this trick before. He gave everybody in the audience a numbered matchbook, had them remove some of the matches, and then throw the half empty box onto the stage. He had the celebrity assistant choose an unrevealed card. He then "used a pendulum" to find the box with the same number as on the card. He then also revealed the number of matches in the box. It was actually extremely well presented (and presentation is everything), very original, and he had great personality. The trick was actually not that impressive in the abstract, but he really gets props from me for coming up with his own presentation (rather than, say, doing Derren Brown's routine). Criss Angel agreed (after making sure to not let Geller get away with suggesting that divining actually works).

The fifth contestant did a spirit writing routine. It had an interesting presentation through the use of a sort of trippy AV track in the background. It was well acted insofar as it is difficult to write backwards while pretending to have a panic attack. Some of the audience members appeared disturbed, so that's a good sign. He was apparently "the most controversial" contestant I guess he claims to actually have super powers.

And Angel called him on it. Criss Angel pulled out an envelope and offer both contestant-number-five and Geller a million dollars if they could tell him what was in the envelope. Angel was bleeped twice (he said "bullshit") and he and the contestant approached each other. The contestant looked a little belligerent and fought off the host saying something about "being an ideologue" or something. Angel just kept saying, "tell me what's in the envelope" over and over again. I've gotta say that Geller's coming out of this looking like a reasonable (if untalented) guy. It's a live show: they cut to commercial. Good times. I expect Randi to lay the smack down on this guy tomorrow in his newsletter, as promised.

There was then a canned homage to Houdini and Angel followed by a plug for the 4th season of Mindfreak. Then there was a little blurb about the bullet catch trick, the point of which I didn't really understand because contestant six did not do a bullet catch.

His name was actually Mike Super. He was young, with spiky hair, fun, and a little crazy. I liked the presentation. He definitely established his own character. He did a sort of fill-in-the-blank murder mystery routine that ended in a slate revelation. It was an entertaining routine in the style that's usually referred to as "comedy magic." It was actually really entertaining and well done. I fear that Mr. Super will not be in the running because he's not going the straight-man mentalism routine route. Host: "Chris, what do you think?" Criss: "Well, you didn't claim that you have real psychic ability, first of all." Contestant: "I don't." Criss: "I think it was entertaining. It was a hell of a lot more entertaining than the last act." Followed by some notable groans from the audience.

The Ghost Hunters commercial during the break was a nice "fuck you" to rationality.

End of show.

I was really disappointed that Angel didn't do any tricks. I also don't know what to think about the little blow up between Angel and contestant-number-five (he doesn't need a name). I didn't even know that the contestant was claiming real super powers until Angel called him out. I also think Angel came out of it a little dirty; people don't like people who upset the apple cart. I think he maybe played it a little poorly. He seemed a combination of nervous and angry just before making the challenge. It could have been done more calmly.

But I would have been just as nervous and angry. On the other hand, I'm not a professional performer. He could have faked calm.