I just finished watching all of the Wizard Wars and Master Of Illusion episodes that my cable company had available on-demand, let me say they were BOTH FABULOUS!!!

Wizard Wars: Less Notable Magicians competing against other less notable magicians for a chance to move on to take on more notable magicians for a chance at winning $10,000, all the while performing for the live audience and being judged by even much more notable magicians and magic critics and having to do it all with everyday objects and very little prep time, without any camera tricks all on television.

Masters of Illusions: Less notable Magicians, Much More Notable Magicians, and Comedians, all performing live in front of an audience on tv. All blending together magic if old, magic of new, and comedy, all under one roof and all on television.

Now for any of you magicians whom may complain about these shows and say it is degrading the art of magic and it is hurting magic and tell me I don't know ANYTHING about magic or performing it, YOU ARE 100% RIGHT, I DON'T know a whole lot about magic or how to perform it! But what I do know is this, I am a fan, I am an audience member (be it via sitting at home watching on television) so I see things from the audience's view point and NOT the magician's. What I mean by this is that the audience views and approaches things a whole lot different than the magician. The magician can be 100% convinced that his/her illusions and effects and/or act are extremely entertaining and mind blowing and that his/her art form is awesome, but the audience may see them as nothing but a waste of time and boring and dull. The difference with these shows, both of them are bringing magic back to the people, they are making magic RELEVANT again by packaging them with things that are very relevant now, COMPETION and VARIETY STYLE shows. Wizard Wars is paired with the competition STYLE of shows and Masters of Illusion is paired with the variety STYLE of shows, both STYLES are EXTREMELY RELEVANT. Notice I didn’t say they were paired with a certain show, I actually said they are paired with certain STYLES. Thus making magic relevant and in THE WANT by people again. Yes it will take time to fully get there, but it is already happening now!

You see, most people are smart, smart enough to know and realize that what magicians have done since the very beginning of time, how they accomplish their illusions and effects is by some form of trickery. We know and realize and accept that it is all accomplished by some sort of secret methods or techniques and we are perfectly fine with this, we could actually care less about how it is done ONLY THAT YOU TRULY ENTERTAIN US. But what we ARE NOT fine with, what we WILL NOT tolerate, what we WILL WALK OUT of your shows on or turn the channel on is if you insult our intelligence in a serious way or if you CONTINUE to present your magic in the EXACT same boring and dull STYLES that you always have. You see, we know the world is rapidly changing around us, we know the way we think and act and react is changing as well, that also means that the things that USE TO entertain us the STYLES that it was done in will NOT ENTERTAIN US ANY LONGER and it will all be dull and boring, but WE WANT ENTERTAINMENT and if YOU want to be that entertainment, if you want an audience and to keep it, YOU TOO MUST CHANGE WITH THE REST OF US! Because if you don’t, we will not be there, we will not care, we will not watch. I know this all sounds harsh, but it really isn’t, it’s just simply the truth…NO SMOKE AND MIRRORS!

Both of those series I mentioned above, to me, have done just that, they have changed the STYLES of how magic is presented. As long as they keep putting on shows like these and others as well, as long as magicians and their acts change with the rest of us and really commit to entertaining us, magic will once again become a prominent form of entertainment like it use to be. These style of shows made it relevant, wanted, needed, and enjoyable and fun again to the audiences, they have made it ENTERTAINING. And that is something that most magicians have forgot to do any more.

As I said before, I am not a magician, I really don’t know a lot about magic or how to perform it, but….. I NOW WANT TO LEARN and the reason why is I WANT TO ENTERTAIN, not because of my secret methods or techniques but because of ME and BECAUSE YOU ARE WORTH IT. If you really want to know what makes me tick, AN AUDIENCE MEMBER, A FAN OF MAGIC, then take a look at whom and/or what I list below as my influences on this decision to learn magic and perform and entertain with it. You will see a pattern if you look closely (from my biggest to my least)…

HOUDINI (2-part sort-of-documentary movie on History Channel) – His life was interesting, and yes I realize this was a MADE FOR TV MOVIE so there are probably more inaccuracies than are factual things in it, but it has lead me to finding all kinds of books written about the man and reading them.

DAVID Copperfield – Yes I know he is still alive, but in his day, Copperfield was a TRUE SHOWMAN unlike any other magician before him, with the exception of Houdini. Copperfield did things that made the average audience member feel special, wanted, needed, loved, cherished. He made the audience feel as if they were part of the show and not just watching it, not by his illusions and effects, but by the way he performed them, something that most magicians cannot or do not know how to do to this very day still.

WIZARD WARS and MASTERS of ILLUSION (tv series) – They show that EVERYDAY people can be magicians and/or comedians and can entertain other people with magic and/or comedy, NO MATTER what style is being used.

YOUTUBE (The world’s largest library) – No matter what you think about it, make NO MISTAKE about it, YouTube IS the world’s largest library. You can go there and learn to do just about ANYTHING, just like you could any public library. Now you can claim all you want that to use YouTube to learn to do magic is unethical and/or illegal, but that is simply not true. There are MANY of magic illusions and effects which are considered PUBLIC DOMAIN and/or AUTHORIZED as by their creators to be taught on YouTube for all who wants to learn magic to watch and learn from. You can claim all you want that by having to pay for an effect or an illusion you are less likely to expose its secret, which is simply not true either. There are many of people that will buy effects and illusions just for simple fact of knowing the secrets and then expose them to everyone else, NO MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY they cost and NO MATTER what venue or media they need to use to expose them. Simply put having to pay for something or making it harder to get WILL NEVER DISCOURAGE OR EVER DISRUPT A DETERMINED person from doing whatever they want to do. So just like purchasing a book or video or whatever from a magic shop or online reputable magic dealer, YouTube is just another avenue for LEARNING (key word is “LEARNING” not exposing) magic or anything else, it is all in what you intend to do with it, no matter what you say or think about it, this is true and you know it!

BREAKING THE MAGICIAN’S CODE: MAGIC’S BIGGEST SECRETS FINALLY REVEALED (tv series) - Say what you will about this series. Make claims that it hurt magic all you want, but the simple truth is that Magic as an art form, as entertainment was dying and it was dying VERY, VERY, VERY QUICKLY everywhere around the world. This series rescued it, it brought people’s attention back to it. Yes it did the unthinkable and the unethical and more than likely the illegal, by revealing these secrets, but it got people whom that were NO LONGER INTERESTED in magic INTERESTED AGAIN. It also brought in a WHOLE NEW GENERATION of fans as well. This series gave way to a whole new generation of people wanting to become magicians by inspiring them, simply by revealing these secrets on television and them watching it and saying to themselves, “I Can do that, I will do that!” and then going out and doing it. Like I said, it may have been unthinkable and the unethical and more than likely illegal on the series part, but it did inspire MANY to follow their dreams.

PENN & TELLER – Truly MASTERS OF ENTERTAINMENT, they could hand you a bag of dog poop, you could know fair well that it was real dog poop, but they would make it so entertaining that you would take it and enjoy it thoroughly. Then you would want more.

DAI VERNON – Simply mesmerizing, a true showman and teacher. I could write 10 more pages on why he is an influence and still not be close to being done.
Michael Ammar - Simply put, a real GENIOUS, an innovator, performer, and teacher.

JONATHAN & CHARLOTTE PENDRAGON – Masters of magic and showing that slow is DEFINITELY not better. Especially when it comes to “Metamorphosis”. Quite possibly the very first real magicians I had ever seen perform live many, many, many years ago.

Yes these are all the influences on my life wanting to learn magic and learn to perform it and entertain with it. Some are a lot, lot, more recent then others

What brings a non magician to this board?

You are entitled to any opinion you like.

As I said in my post, I want to LEARN to do magic now, I want to entertain and to gve back to peope and make the happy with magic. I feel like this is one of the sites on the internet (as well as others) that can help a non-magician such as me to gradually over time transition from fan to magician with lots of practice and study.

I prefer the magic on Wizard wars. It is really clever stuff, and you get to see up and coming magicians. Some of the tricks they devise are really great. Episode 3 they had a rocking chair they had to use as a prop. One of the magicians was sitting on it the whole time. At the end he turned it into paper. GREAT TRICK! Penn said as far as he knows, it is brand new magic never seen before. Anybody else see it?

I believe he explained it.
He is a magic fan.
Nothing wrong with that.

I did explain it, but here it is again.. As I said in my post, I want to LEARN to do magic now, I want to entertain and to gve back to peope and make the happy with magic. I feel like this is one of the sites on the internet (as well as others) that can help a non-magician such as me to gradually over time transition from fan to magician with lots of practice and study.

I do notice how you showed up with fairly strong opinions. Often those can be less helpful to the learning process than many think.

Do you live in a town with a magic shop our a club? I ask because those are a far better way to start this journey than online. Seeing things live and talking with people really makes a difference.

If not then obviously this is the only choice. Either way welcome.

Yes I do have very strong opinions, and while they are very strong, I mean absolutely no disrespect of any kind, in fact I have the highest most respect for magicians and and everyone associated with their craft. I just actually find that having very strong opinions actually helps me learn better, simply because it makes me question things to make sure I have them correct.

No magic shops where I live, closets is probably 150+ miles away. Also no magic clubs either.

Yeah, books,videos, the library, and the internet is the only things available where I live.