Magic has been especially popular on television the past few years. This month one of my magic acts shared some of the television magic fun with Ant & Dec on ITV. It was for Britain’s Got Talent. It’s one of the most-watched shows on British television. Magicians have gone through to the finals the past few years (and last year, a BGT magician won). Anyways it’s all very popular and when I’m out performing magic, people always ask me how the BGT magician did it? Of course, that would be telling!
Building on the popularity of the series, the eleventh season of the show has rolled around this year. BGT wanted a magician to appear in their commercial for the new season. So in March my act ‘Norvil & Josephine‘ was invited by the the Britain’s Got Talent production team to perform in the latest BGT commercial. Here’s what happened…
Related articles:
Norvil does magic in a Hackett commercial.
The making of a fashion film with magic for Canali.
Producing shows at Leeds City Varieties.
I’ll admit. Norvil & Josephine are hard to miss even on a normal day. But without even knowing you may have seen them already in the commercial on ITV. Because they appeared in fancy dress! Norvil took on a demented hipster look in a six-spiked beard. Josephine was busy levitating, sporting a costume that was a cross between a Victorian bride and a Copacabana show girl. We filmed the commercial over two full days on location. We shot it at the spectacular Hammersmith Apollo Theatre with a cast and crew of over a hundred.
The BGT magician commercial is a sort of domino effect comedy of errors with one blunder kicking off the next. It all leads to when Norvil’s magic spell on the levitating Josephine is broken as she plummets to the floor. Then a cocky Ant & Dec skip into frame. Norvil zaps them with his wand making, erm, something disappear as they run out on stage…
So the jury still may be out as to whether Britain’s got talent. But it’s pretty certain that it’s definitely got magic. – CH
Spoiler alert: so while a lot of people have asked us how did the BGT magician do it and when we’ll be competing … the commercial was only to advertise the season, rather than being clips of who’s competing.
Say hello and drop me a note in the comments below. Thanks for coming along with me and I hope to see you again after a few more turns in the trail.