Yes, you tuned in for part one of what the show ‘The One’ had to tell us. You probably think that you already want to vote someone out. In fact, you might be thinking what I’m thinking and wondering how come you can’t vote out a whole bunch of them, including some of the hosts?
But never fear. Despite what judge Stacey has been saying on 2UE radio on Monday, these brave little campers are still doing it for the potential that someone might believe…
“Any kind of talent like this is very much affected by fear and what you’ve got with these people very bravely standing in front of a live studio audience on national television, with a skeptic, you know, waiting to pounce and they’re expected to do and demonstrate their gifts in a very short amount of time… that’s what we’re trying to show here, that even under very difficult conditions… that these people can still come up with some incredibly accurate information.”
Yuh huh…
Skeptic practices skillz
Personally, I’m still trying to figure out why she’s down on skeptics when she herself says: “I would love for Australia … to keep an open mind… a skeptic is not one who disbelieves, it’s one who wants evidence… I want people to make up their own mind…”
So let’s see how ep one concluded? It’s Paranormal Phreestyle Time!
[
Yes, the contestants in ‘Australia’s Next Top Psychic’ (ANTP) take to the center stage to perform a group rendition of Tina Turner’s hit ‘Simply The Best‘, whilst the audience takes to their heels in horror, jamming shreds of The Psychic Directory in their ears as they flee. Thousands trampled, news on Seven.
Oh, alright. It wasn’t quite that bad. But it got close…
Despite what Stacey said about the group ‘being in the firing-line’, many of the contestants didn’t actually perform for a live audience. Some had pre-taped ‘comfort zones’ where they ‘show their stuff’ in the way they apparently do best. There’s a chatty little radio show that gets taped, for example, for Éclair and The Kurgan gets to hang out in a massage booth.
But first, Headless Chook takes to the stage, which is her preferred style -- for a bit of cold-reading. Guessing. Oh, sorry, Daddo says that she’s “displaying her unique gift”! Tch, I get those so confused…
She leaps from relationship to relationship, but with a lot of open-endedness, watching for nods. By the way -- ‘Mary’? #1 Most Popular Name In The USA. I think Skeptic Saunders was probably writing that into his notebook, as the few edits they did allow only featured rather incredulous shakes of the head.
‘Psychokinetic? Raise my hand!’
Amanda of Flop Eared Mule says of Headless Chook that “she’s really quite shrewd not matter how headless she seems.” And I would agree with this -- simply because HC does some of the fastest damned ‘reading’ of an elderly female audience member that I’ve ever seen. Want some hits? Do an impersonation of Ben Elton on crack and see if anyone notes that you’re asking ‘are they dead‘? ‘ at key moments before extending on with lots of lovely Barnum statements.
Andy D sums it all up with:
“I was astonished that the first fraud could sense that a seventy-plus(?) year-old woman’s mother was dead -- err, sorry, had passed and that when the woman said she only had two children “now”, the miracle worker could immediately feel that there was a third. What a pity she had to ask if she was now dead. Surely the daughter’s ghost could have mentioned that small detail while she was channeling her.”
Well, after that sugar-rush, it was time for, well, more sugar -- bring on Éclair!
“Not only wrong, but WTF??”
Éclair is apparently a ‘psychic to the stars‘. In NEWCASTLE? I’m straining my limited knowledge of popular culture to figure out exactly where the ‘stars’ hang out when they hit the excitement and lights of downtown… er, Swansea Heads. Or maybe the locals who phone in and confirm his hits are just so starry-eyed?
Whatever. All the talkback gang swquark happily about ‘twin girls’ (yes, chances that you’ll have multiple births if you’re in your 30′s and older are indeed well known in birth rate records…) and wow, the DJ had a son! This really wasn’t exciting in the slightest and I ended up making a cup of non-psychic reading tea (use a teabag rather than leaves).
Hokey-Cokey comes on up to shake it all about. Gah, another visual intro of her sexily quirking her eyebrows in front of a church, after claiming that she’s a witchcraft practitioner! Beware of burn-offs, woman.
She hangs grimly onto the hand of old-age gentleman selected from the audience and gives some ‘problems with chest…’ claims. Oh, really bad at whispering, by the way. Her radio mic picks up what is meant to be a privately discussed ‘there’s something wrong with your prostate’ -- and the man says ‘yeah, yeah… but NO.‘
Since she said that she personally ‘feels’ any condition that the person she’s reading has, I’m pondering exactly where she felt that ‘prostate’ problem. Or if she was just feeling like a bit of an arse?
At this point, the camera cuts to Richard Saunders who is shaking his head in dismay and writes something rapidly on his notepad. I’m wondering if it rhymed with ‘clark boff’:
Saunders -- Yes, very interesting -- this is what we call the ‘win-win game’; she said there was “something with the prostate” but what gentleman of this noble age wouldn’t be likely to have a prostate problem…
Stacey -- [yells something illegible about how her dad's prostate is fine!!]
Saunders -- … but seriously, would it be any surprise?
Question for the audience during the taping -- there were two hits broadcast, both of good medical likelihood considering the man she chose to ‘read’. How many ‘misses’ did we miss out on seeing?
Let’s move on before we have to feel anything about what Daddo says is a ‘feeling going on’. Because now The Kurgan takes to the stage to talk about his feeling an energy flow via Reiki. With a pre-filmed ‘healing session’, he talks about how he’s after a ‘healing reaction’. Which seems to be not unlike cold-reading, quite frankly. Ripping off Hokey-Cokey, you bad, bad immortal!
With a towel-wrapped woman being patted about by him on a table, he identifies ‘sleeping problems’… which is kind of not unnatural if you’re in pain. Again, we are only given edited footage where the ‘hits’ that are revealed and Daddo makes a big thing about how his PhD in Philosophy gets him the title of ‘Doctor’… oooh, what a healing link that is! Daddo, Daddo -- just one question. Would you let him check out your prostate? Or just prefer he buggers off in a TARDIS?
Let’s see how he goes next week when spotting health issues is one of the challenges!
‘Oh balls to this -- it’s actually a paperweight crystal
FINALLY! Some proper psychic-equipment paraphernalia is popped onto the stage, for some readings by Trinity! I was wondering if anyone brought their own crystal ball! Pity she didn’t bring any conviction to a reading that had a lot of ‘in the future, I see… ‘ statements. As for the likelihood of a former footballer having back and leg problems… sheesh. AND she didn’t use any of the stuff on the table! What a waste.
Poster Girl for Tylenol is a ‘psychic housewife and mother’ -- she can scan the body for ailments apparently! He likes to read at her house and gets a lady to be her guinea-pig for some health problem reading. Apparently she taps into the energy of the person’s body… and next thing you know she’s grabbing her stomach again. I think out of all the potential abilities, one that has you regularly grabbing your midriff and moaning about pain would be the worst. Within a minute of her doing this, everyone watching the show with me were rolling around holding their stomachs going ‘I FEEL THE PAINNNN!!!’
Oh, she has more Native American Wiccan in her kitchen than is probably healthy. What if the eagle feathers fell into the soup?
Sadly, again, Saunders isn’t given a chance to analyse what is going on with this sort of performance. But then maybe Stacey would interrupt to yell about her daddy again, so perhaps that’s a good thing.
Last up is the Postman! He looks out to the audience and selects someone who has been renovating. Apparently seeing a lot of water equals ‘kitchen being replaced’. Not quite sure of that and really not sure why her dead grandmother is so concerned about it… especially when there was a fire that ended up in the kitchen being replaced… isn’t water kind of the opposite of fire? Again, it’s a cold-reading spectacular and none of the judges get a chance to say anything.
BUT! Before the end of the show, Stacey goes on about how there were ‘hits after hits after hits’. Kind of like that YouTube video, I guess.
Saunders, however, points out -- ‘yes, there were some very good hits, I’ll admit to that… but if you count them up, there were a lot of generalisations, a LOT of generalisations. A lot of misses, some good hits.’ Some good edits too, I suspect.
Audience claps. They cut to the sequence of ‘every ANTP participant wrote down who they thought the three finalists would be!!‘ Wouldn’t it be kind of embarrassing for the final ‘One’ not to have chosen themselves? Or even the top three?
At any rate, next week at least one will go. And it’s implied that it’s going to be up to the viewing audience too? Since skeptics are rather keen on crashing internet polls (even when the rules clearly say ‘residents of this country only can vote…‘), I hope they don’t pop it online… but then, they should have seen that coming, shouldn’t they? 
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for part two, and for quoting me (I wish you’d fixed up my stupid typing though
– should be “…feel that THERE was a third. )
This show has been what I’ve needed to start my own thinking blog. So it’s proved positive in that respect – or maybe not so positive. We’ll see.
My first real post is my summary of the show’s premise and style, including my disappointment at the lack of public humiliation of those who failed auditions. I’ll add my thoughts on episode one shortly but you’ve done such a nice job, with nicknames and everything, I might just post a link here.
What error? There is no error! You wrote so wonderfully, that I blatantly stole the lot. Good job!
*quickly edits out the error and pops in the correct spelling*
And since you are blogging, I will request you add yourself to the Skeptics of Carlos blogcircle by emailing the address on the site with your entry – and I will then add you to my blogroll. That is the punishment of all commentators who dare to write succinctly. Ha!
Thanks. I’ve sent my details in and I now have three blogs on The One (which is a few more than it probably deserves).
Whoo hoo! My hero!
Oh, beware, blogging can become addictive! Choose a focus and go with it – otherwise you end up posting links to Stephen Fry during your busy times and your audience goes WTF?! *blushes*
I’m a yank, so I don’t have a chance to see the show. But based on your description, I am *SO* awed by the strength of your stomach! I would’ve had to turn it off in the first few minutes just to avoid puking. GAH!
I checked out the comments thread on the official site. Interesting to note that believers in woo suffer the same persecution complex as christians when skeptics raise valid concerns or point out the smoke and mirrors.
We are all apparently negative people that enjoy putting believers down
O Felis,
I see now but seven left, for thou hast pissed me twain!
Heh.
I guess it must be pretty sad to not be expecting much, and to get still less.
I got a couple of chuckles reading the post, and feel glad I didn’t waste my time on it.
Oh, I enjoyed it. I think that as another commentator said, it can be an inadvertent lesson in how to recognise cold reading! And it’s always a joy to see someone I know who is actually a well-read, well-mannered skeptic on TV.
At some point, there’ll be less and less psychics, with most likely less and less convincing examples of their abilities… and Saunders has already shown that he captures the camera significantly more than the other judge – simply because he can engage Daddo with his statements and leads into discussions about why he says what he says. Just more interesting!
We are all apparently negative people that enjoy putting believers down
Yes, why is it that if you express doubt but say that you’re willing to be convinced with evidence that you are deemed “closed-minded” but if you choose to believe without evidence and refuse to accept an evidence to the contrary, you are “open-minded”?
I can never work that one out. Maybe I’m closed-minded.
Moments where you start questioning your mind – always require a song (by the way, he’s a lovely person off-stage too)…
Of course the “water” vision was correct – they used water to put out the fire!
I am, however, concerned with the Kurgan’s claim to be a Reiki “Master”. Reiki is a form of energy transmission, and is a hands-off healing modality (that’s why they can save money and send it through the ether to you). Why, however, does the Kurgan feel it necessary to rest his hands on a woman’s breasts. For a very long time?
“Erhgrghrhhhh” was my immediate response to that element! As long as he doesn’t call her ‘Candy’, I guess she’s kind of safe… *erhghhhh again…*
By the way, someone purporting to be him isn’t short on modesty at all – recently on the Channel 7 ‘The One’ site the following was posted:
Jason the Amazing Betts here (Reiki Master) from The One. Hey, when Richard says “Count the hits, but don’t forget the misses” bear in mind we are not striving for perfection. We do not claim to be perfect, but “Malta”, by golly, is a perfect hit, and not just some psychic stab in the dark. So there….In every example, test and challenge, true psychic powers ARE demonstrated. “I get the name Sandra” (her name is Sandra), “Your mum is in the locket?!”, “I see tiles and carpet. Are you renovating?” are real. The audience knows. We make mistakes, sure, but our hits are real hits that noone can deny.
Uh, yes it can be denied. ‘Jason’ then got the response:
I’m sorry Jason, but we never get to see all of the misses on the TV, we only get to see the “good” stuff. It is obvious that the show is heavily edited, as it needs to be other wise it would be 3 hours long. I’m sure there are many misses that we don’t know of.
“Jason” then stopped writing… hopefully Channel 7 told him ‘stop making an idiot of yourself by posting on the board.’
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