The Point Radio: Michael Carbonaro – Now You See Him

Magician, comedian, actor Michael Carbonaro is taking his act to the world of reality television on THE CARBONARO EFFECT. He explains the fun in showing people real magic in their lives – plus more TV casualties and DOCTOR WHO on the big screen? Well, sort of……

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Transcript

The Point Radio Hey, it's Mike Raub. He's Michael Carbonaro. You remember him from the Jay Leno Tonight Show. Now he's taking his magic and mixing it with a little reality for a new show, and he tells us all about that. Plus, Doctor Who headed to the big screen? Well, kind of. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio.

The face of actor, magician, comedian, and improv artist Michael Carbonaro is a somewhat familiar one. Especially to those who saw him in his hidden camera magic segments back on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Talk to Mike about a number of things, including his new show on the true TV network called The Carbonaro Effect. And first off, I was curious as to how he got started in magic. You know, the first thing I thought I was going to be was a special effects artist.

As a kid, I love horror movies and monsters and makeup and special effects. So I used to go to this magic shop in my town where I would buy, like, monster makeup supplies. And they had magic tricks there, obviously. I guess I just started diverting over to the other side of the store and watching the magic and started buying the magic. And I loved performing, I found. So in a way, I kind of found that magic, getting to perform as a magician, is almost like getting to do special effects live.

So who were his inspirations? Well, I learned how to be a magician and how to engage an audience. And boy, even my wedge into the world of acting and stand-up comedy came from emulating David Copperfield as a kid. You know, he's still a huge inspiration. David Copperfield probably the greatest stage showman that's ever been. You know, and as a kid, I just watched how he could, he executed perfectly rehearsed brilliant artistic magic.

He was charming and he engaged his audience and he was funny and free and improvised and played with people and took things seriously and not seriously. I just loved that formula and I just followed that formula as a kid. And very early on, I just sort of was David Copperfield for a long while and developed my love of all performing and acting and comedy from David. David, I love you, wherever you are in Vegas. The new show takes a familiar reality concept and twists it around just a little bit.

It's a magic show where no one realizes that there are any magic tricks taking place because there's hidden cameras. So we're setting up hidden cameras in ordinary situations and not telling people that I'm a magician. So when I perform magic, we get to watch the way they react, thinking that it might actually really be happening in real life. For example, I convince somebody that I'm working at a shipping store and she hands me a flat box and right in front of her I open it and out comes a full-sized real bowling ball. And she's thinking, how does that fit inside that tiny little box?

And I convince her that there's a new process where they reverse the air and ship bowling balls in flat packages. And guess what? She believes it. So do the people ever find out it's all a magic trick? Sometimes I like to leave people just thinking that magic really happened in their lives. And in every show so far, we have one reveal where we're ending the show where I tell someone, you know, when they say, how can that happen?

And I say, oh, it's that thing. Have you ever heard? It's that weird process. It's that weird scientific thing called the carbonaro effect. And they're like, what is that? And I'm like, it's a hidden camera magic TV show that you're on right now. And they're like, oh, my gosh, I thought I was losing my mind.

In the end, are they always cooperative? Yes, everybody is really, really thrilled and really the whole goal of the show is it's fun. It's not a mean spirited show. We're never I'm never pointing my finger like ha ha got you fooled you tricked you. It's not that at all.

It's my greatest inspiration for this show is like Alan Funt. I've seen all of the candid camera episodes and Alan Funt just had this charm and equality where it wasn't about laughing at people. It was laughing with people. And it was it's about holding a mirror up and getting to see how beautiful and funny it is that we as human beings can believe in the impossible. I didn't ask Michael to reveal how any tricks work, but I was curious that there ever was a time where one particular one didn't quite work the way he wanted to.

Absolutely. You know, it's always an experiment. We're like, what can what can I get away with? How far can I push the envelope? And you know, one time I accidentally made a car disappear when I wasn't supposed to.

And that was kind of odd. I don't want to give away what happened because I want you to see it on the show. But the biggest fail, I would say, that happens in performing this show is not so much that the trick doesn't work, but it's almost too believable. Like sometimes I'll show someone that I can turn ooze, you know, like slime and use a special light and a mold and I turn ooze into a live frog, which is this amazing, unbelievable moment. And the person just goes, oh, wow.

And they just believe it. You know, it's almost too believable. And then it's not it's always more fun when somebody, you know, the best stuff I look for is when somebody needs to stop down their life for a second. Say, hold the phone. How is that happening right now?

And then I engage them and try and come up with some weird mumbo jumbo and and fun improv to explain why this is real and happening. And they believe it. So is Michael's love for acting kind of taking over for the magic? Well, it's always been all of it for me. You know, I love acting and I love comedy and I love magic.

And the carbon auto effect is is an outlet for me to do all of those things at once. You know, I'd say my greatest and most exciting television success that wasn't magic was when I got to to work with friend Drescher on happily divorce because it was like comedy and it was improv and she was awesome to work with. And I got to do a couple of episodes of that show and she let me play. You know, anything where I get to perform and play at the same time. I think anybody who does comedy or improv or any kind of performance would agree that it's when you're playing is when you're at your best.

And I just love to play. So this show is an outlet for me to play with all of the little things I love to do at once. Catch new episodes of the carbon arrow effect every Thursday on true TV and you can always see more at true TV dot com. I'm rolling with the latest in pop culture partnering with Activision. I.D.W. will be doing the very first Skylanders comic book series.

It'll be written by Ron Mars. Among the artists will be Mike Bowden and will be based on the best selling kids game franchise. In fact, it has been the best selling franchise in that genre since his launch in 2011. I.D.W. said the Skylanders comic book series will be available both in comic stores and in mass market retailers as well. Welcome back to the 90s.

The death of Wolverine upcoming at Marvel will be celebrated with a couple of different things, including some etched hollow foiled covers for every issue of the series. Marvel promises there'll be plenty of these copies available for fans. However, there will be some different dates and retailers have to follow to order the books to be sure to have them. You may want to check with your retailer if you want to be sure to get some of the hollow foiled covers. There's a little glimmer of good news out there for fans of Supernatural, especially involving that spinoff that pretty much everyone thought was going to end up on the CW fall schedule.

But as we found out earlier, this week did not. The president of the network has told reporters this week that while the pilot just didn't get there, the idea is still up for discussion and certainly not off the table. The events and BBC World Wide are teaming up to bring Doctor Who to the big screen, at least in select cities. The 10th Doctor episodes rise to the Cybermen and Age of Steel are being brought to the big screen for this event, tied together with the second night that will have a premiere of the BBC documentary Wings 3D, narrated by David Tennant.

The Doctor Who episode, by the way, will have bonus content. The whole thing takes place on the 16th and 17th of June. It'll again be in only certain theater markets. Check your local theaters to see if they deal with Fathom or go right to the source, fathomevents.com. FXX has canceled the Jim Jefferies show legit with the final episode of this season actually being the series finale. Meanwhile, across the hall, the FX network has also canceled Chosen, the animated series that began just a few months ago.

Teddy Sarafane, the guy who did Terminator 3 Rise of the Machine and also wrote the Tank Girl movie, is making his feature directorial debut with a new horror sci-fi thriller called Aldergeist, and he's inviting you to pick the city that it premieres in. It's a special Demand My City contest for the theatrical premiere of the film. It'll also involve certain people who enter the contest to be eligible to be taken to the premiere with an after party and some other prizes as well.

If you'd like to get involved or check more about the movie, you can do so online at Aldergeistmovie.com. You might be able to call it collateral damage, but CBS has officially passed on the How I Met Your Mother spin-off, How I Met Your Dad. The official word is the pilot wasn't working, but still there's a lot of online angst about the series finale to How I Met Your Mother. In the same announcement, CBS also said that next season will be the last for 2 and a half men, making it 12 seasons in total for that show. When it came to graphic novel sales in comic stores in April,

Image came off as the big winner with 7 of the slots in the top 10 for the month, and DC the big loser with only one title in the list. The official top 10 best-selling graphic novels in comic stores in April started at number 10 with The Walking Dead volume 1. Pretty deadly. Volume 1 also from Image was at number 9, and number 8 was Saga volume 2. DC ended number 7 with The Joker Death of the Family.

At number 6, Guardians of the Galaxy volume 1, Cosmic Avengers from Marvel. At number 5, Amazing Spider-Man Family Business. Number 4, Saga the first volume. Number 3, East of West volume 2, We Are Not Alone. Number 2, best-selling graphic novel. Saga volume 3, and number 1 on the list, the best-selling graphic novel in April in comic stores. Ryan K. Vaughan, Sex Criminals, volume 1.

That's it for right now. The podcast out comes out every week a couple of times on websites like ComicMix.com and MichaelDavisWorld.com, and of course in the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and you don't have to miss anything. You don't have to miss any pop culture either, because we crank that out 24-7 at Get The Point Radio. Listen to GetThePointRadio.com or take us anywhere you want to go on any device.

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