There is probably no real reason to post this question; however...here goes.

What if your closest (physical distance/milage) magician friends were only interested in the how's and "what is the newest thing in magic" and not keen on history, presentation and entertainment quality of magic. And yet...your closet friend (16 years) is not a magician but would be willing to give feedback and offer up valuable conversation.

Question: would you feel comfortable showing and repeating versions of effects and teaching/exposing some methods in the hope of bettering one's performance?

The quick answer is probably just to ask how committed he is to learning or becoming part of my magic and sign him up as a "magician" and all my stress of exposing magic to my best friend will be gone...

Just a rant I guess...any replies are welcome.

Ummmm.... I taught one of my friends how to do one trick cause I thought she was seriously interested in magic but then she didn't practise it and exposed the secret to heaps of people. Now when she asks how to do a trick I say, "no."

I think it's better to let someone into your magic circle whom your close to, and who hasn't specifically asked to be included. Like today, for instance. I was hanging out at a friend's house and I asked to borrow a buck, and just experimented with a little levitation thing. She was intrigued at first because of course she couldn't see the SPOMT*. Then I told her why I didn't think it was good to perform yet, and the I had to show her why. Next time we're together, I want to go prepared to try it in front of her again, because I need the feedback from someone who doesn't normally watch this kind of stuff.

But she didn't beg me to know how it was done, and I'm confident she won't expose me to the world if I perform it for others in her presence. That's the key.

CSR

*Sophisticated Piece of Magical Technology

Many magicians use their immediate family as their magical sounding boards. This is mainly due to practical reasons. In most cases these family members have zero plans on becoming magicians and have the opportunity to blab secrets, so basically it comes down to trust. If you trust this friend by all means welcome his input with open arms.

Well, I do expose secrets on purpose. Whenever someone really asks me to have some sort of insight into magic, I usually show him a card trick that he cannot do, for it involves lots of really difficult sleights for a rather simple effect. After showing the effect, I go on explaining the thing in painstacking detail. I tell him what move it is, who invented it, what kind of history is involved in it and so on. After the explaination they are either totally impressed, taking a deep bow for the magic and the skill, or they are disappointed because they understood that they cannot accomplish the effect without having to practice and rehearse for at least 3 years. Or both.

One person was so interested, that he started to learn about magic history and philosophy without actually doing it. He now understands why you should not expose a secret.

If exposing the secret is going to be beneficial to your performance in some way, I say go for it.

In my recent work with a choreographer (I started a thread about it) I was working on a linking ring routine.

Her first recommendation was that I have the rings set out and go and pick them up one by one during the intro to the music.

I explained that that wasn't possible in this particular routine and ended up showing her why. She didn't need to know a lot, but I explained enough so that her suggestions would keep in mind the limitations of the props.

On the other hand, if I'm practicing just for audience response, I generally WON'T tell them anything about the method. If I explain what the move was intended to convey, it's easier for them to see. If they don't see it without the explanation, I take it as a sign I'm doing something wrong.

It is not possible to talk with him about his feelings/thoughts when he sees your effects but without admiting any of his solutions? You can also devise other methods that destroy his ideas and present effects based on them the next day.