Branson Critic Awards: Let The People Speak!Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Someone once said, "there are things you know, there
are things you don't now, there are things you know you don't know, and
then there are things that you don't know you don't know."What does
it mean? We don't know. (Rim-Shot!).
But we do know there is one thing we did not know but if we had known
we didn't know we would have wanted to know. There is a huge, swirling
controversy whirling like a Dervish on crack-rock through the usually
staid Branson (MO) entertainment world.
[We mean no offense to the Dervish. Some of our best friends are
Dervish. We know some Dervish families we'd be proud to have live near
us — assuming it their homes were downhill. We even know some Dervish
at work and other than the fact that no one wants to eat with them for
fear of becoming nauseated by the post-meal spin, they're just like
normal people. Frankly we feel the press took our comments about the
Dervish out of context. Our point was only that Dervish are
high-energy contributors to the world of magic. Leave it to the press,
though, to find a way to twist words far from their original meaning.
When we said, "Yo, Top-Boy, who pulled your string this morning?" we
meant, "we care about you and your culture." But you are our friends,
we need not defend ourselves here].
But back to the controversy. The other one.
We stumbled out of the our 1999 LTD and learned two things as soon as
our scruffy coconut hit the pavement: first, show leagues in Branson
want to put an end to fan-based selection of the award winners; and
second, the fall from our LTD is higher now that we have the classic
vehicle up on cinder blocks.
We didn't know the shows wanted to exclude fans from voting. We also
didn't know that some of the show leagues encouraged past winners to
reject the awards because they were awarded at least in part on fan
participation.
Wow. Talk about your wacky world. You would think getting fans
involved in the selection of awards would be a natural for a town
built on the loyalty of fans.
The awards are presented in seven categories: Best Show, Best
Performer, Best Comedian, Best Band, Best Singer, Best Musician, and
Best Morning Show plus special Editor’s Choice Awards.
Past winners include Quinlan's Inside Magic pal Darren Romeo, the illusionist protégé of Siegfried
and Roy.
The current selection process really does involve the fans. "The
Branson Critic Magazine is a volunteer organization of writers and
researchers for shows and 'everything Branson' and has accumulated over
2,000 reviews," according to a spokesperson for the organization.
"Branson Critic also has a forum where fans of Branson
shows discuss, debate and vote for the Branson Critic Awards."
The winners will be named on October 1st. Make sure to check out the Branson Critic for the results. Of course, if Mr. Romeo wins again, we'll tell you here.