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Darcy Oake on Britain’s Got Talent

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The magical ascension of Darcy Oake's career just keeps rising higher.

The Winnipeg-born magician has moved on to the semi-final rounds of Britain's Got Talent following a performance in which he made multiple birds appear out of thin air.

Oake, the 26-year-old son of veteran CBC Sports broadcaster Scott Oake, will now attempt to advance to the Britain's Got Talent finals with his next appearance on the show scheduled for Monday night.

During a recent interview with The Globe and Mail, Oake said his magic career was sparked in childhood when his father asked him to pick a card, any card.

"He put it back in, shuffled the deck, then picked my card," said Oake. "As a kid, that was just amazing to me."

Oake began his career as a magician on cruise ships before deciding to take his act to a higher level by auditioning for Britain's Got Talent.

"If it goes well, it can change the game," Oake said in April about his decision to compete in the London-based talent competition.

Oake's breakout moment occurred during his audition when he made six doves appear out of thin air.

"You are without question the best magician we've ever had on the show," said BGT judge Simon Cowell. "I think that we've uncovered a star in you. I really do."

The YouTube clip of Oake's bird trick has since received more than 24-million views.

In each of his Britain's Got Talent appearances to date, Oake has performed in casual leather jacket and jeans, and with the now requisite several days of unshaven stubble.

"I always want it to be something I'd want to watch," he told the Globe. "Not some guy in a top hat and tuxedo."

And should Oake go all the way on Britain's Got Talent, it's unlikely that he'll follow the suit of David Copperfield and other famous prestidigitators by headlining his own Las Vegas casino show.

"Most people would say they hope for a show in Vegas, but I'm not sure," said Oake. "It's hard to say what this leads to – but just to be able to do this as my job, I'm so grateful for that."

MODERN SAINTS

The late John Lennon and Johnny Cash have become the saints of modern culture. University of Waterloo researcher Kathleen Riddell has posited the theory that most people today identify closely with dead celebrities whose images and ideals have become mass-marketed. Riddell's thesis focuses on the cultural impact of three deceased music figures – Lennon, Cash and Jimi Hendrix – and suggests that dead celebrities often create communities around the precepts they were associated with while they were living, with Lennon's peace activism serving as prime example. "It's not a replacement for traditional religion," said Riddell. "It's more about ideals. We wrap our values into them, our ideals and our struggles."

Source: CBC News

GRAD TIDINGS

Ed Helms remained true to his most famous TV character while addressing graduates of Cornell University last week. The comic actor (who attended Oberlin College in Ohio in real life) paid homage to his addled 30 Rock persona of Andy Bernard – who constantly referenced his Cornell pedigree – in his speech at Cornell's convocation ceremony on Saturday. Said Helms: "I think the best commencement speeches provide a moment of inspiration and a moment of excitement for the future. Ultimately the advice itself kind of dissipates into the ether." As a proviso, Helms checked with grads, "You guys know I'm not Andy Bernard, right?"

Source: Mashable

WHO'S FIBBING?

The whole world wants to know: Did a tipsy Jennifer Larence really get chastised by Miley Cyrus for upchucking at an Oscars after-party – or was it all just a tasty talk-show story? During a recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Lawrence related the incident in which Cyrus supposedly told the Hunger Games star to "get it together." Last week, one of Cyrus's Twitter followers posted a picture of the interview along with a quote from Lawrence. Miley's response: "That never happened." Cyrus immediately deleted the tweet, but not before hundreds of fans grabbed screen-shots.

Source: Perez Hilton

FILM FRICTION

Quentin Tarantino chose the Cannes Film Festival to declare cinema is dead. The director made the bold statement in Cannes last week during a 20th anniversary screening of his breakout hit film Pulp Fiction, which won the 1994 Palmes d'Or award. Tarantino told attendees, "As far as I'm concerned, digital projection and DCPs [Digital Cinema Packages] is the death of cinema as I know it." And Tarantino obviously isn't up for a fight to bring back 35 millimetre film to movie houses. "The fact that most films are not presented in 35 mm means that the war is lost," he said. "Digital projections, that's just television in public. And apparently the whole world is okay with television in public, but what I knew as cinema is dead."

Source: The Independent

DISSING WHITNEY?

The family of Whitney Houston feel her life and times deserve more than a cable TV movie. Last week, the U.S. cable outlet Lifetime announced plans to mount a biopic profile of the late singer to be directed by actress Angela Bassett. Sources have since told TMZ that the Houston estate is so enraged by the channel's plans that they're considering a lawsuit to block production. Said the singer's sister-in-law Pat Houston: "Whitney is certainly worthy of more than a television movie. If Whitney were here today, this would not be happening."

Source: TMZ

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