A good friend of mine, and a former magician, passed away the other day. I met him here on the Magic Café many years ago and, as we got to know one onother, I realized that we shared a lot of the same interests. He and I both often built illusions and other items for the same reason - to see if we could. However, where I would often give away or dismantle my creations after I played with them for a while, he would use his. He was a typical middle-aged guy with a full-time job, who performed as a hobby, and loved it. Most of his shows were given for little or no money to help raise money for various organizations. He (like most of us) was no David Copperfield, but he enjoyed performing and the audiences enjoyed and appreciated him.

I say "former" magician because, after building and performing for many years, he simply stopped, and he "vanished" from the Café. He sold some of his props, but threw most of them away. When I asked him why he quit performing, he pointed me to a series of threads on the Café. One of these threads concerned the best way to perform a popular illusion. He posted a link to some of his perfomances of this particular illusion. Although a few Café members thanked him, several well-known members chimed in, trashing his performances, the appearance of his equipment, and even the attractiveness of his wife/assistant. He also received several vile PMs and emails, one of which said that he should just die and leave the performing to others.

I share this story because, from time to time, I read responses to a post on the Café that criticize the poster's efforts, and not in a helpful way. Members will post videos of particular performances for the other members to view and enjoy, without inviting criticism, but the criticism still seems to come in waves. Even when the members request constructive comments on their performances, the responses sometimes come off as being mean-spirited.

All I ask is that we respect the efforts of our fellow magicians of all skill and experience levels. We are a small enough fraternity already without driving away our "brothers".

It is a good point, and one I relate to. I used to be obsessed with card magic about 15 years ago but became pretty disgusted with magic as a whole after exposure to so many apparently unbalanced people that seem to flock to magic sites and the vitriol they engaged in. I also started looking at the behavior of some of my "heroes" and became more and more repulsed. I've been a bit lazy organizing my book collection for sale, but it is on my list of things to do over the next year. The only reason I came to this section of the site is because it isn't about magic.

Magic, for what ever reason, seems to attract more than its share of immature folks with borderline personality disorders, not that there aren't some fine performers and people out there. I don't think magic has benefited from the rise of online magic forums.

Magicians in general all have cannibalistic tendencies which is why I always call myself a juggler who does magic. The IJA's motto is "share the art", while magicians believe that you must sell the art.

I used to use my real name on this site. When some members started falsely accusing other members of being pedophiles, going as far as creating fake websites in order to destroy a persons career, just because they disagreed with something they did, that is when I started using an alias.

I'm saddened to read about your dear friend
Clinton. I could feel your heartbreak whilst
Reading your post.

Perhaps I may have interacted with him.
I am certain that I would have offered
Him words of encouragement.

Have you kept in touch with his family?
Please pm me his name if its ok with you.

Blessed be.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, Clinton. May he rest in peace.

As much as I've enjoyed the Café over the years, I think it's a real shame that so many people seem to take it so over-seriously. Yes it's an online chat room for people involved in magic, but that's really all it is. These chat rooms attract all kinds of people, and dishing it out is real easy when you're hiding behind a username and the rabbit in the hat. I'm all for letting people express their opinion, but find it much easier to just ignore posts or posters that I don't care for, than to get into an argument or take things personally. It's not worth it.

And let's not forget that not everyone in the Café is a "magician." From posts I've read over the years, I have to believe that some people are here just to start arguments for the fun of it. They probably do the same thing in other chat rooms.

George
I often wonder if some people at this forum have any interest in magic at all.

I wonder the same thing, Al, but nowadays you can join just about any chat room and get into the conversation, whatever your reasons may be. Ah, the wonders of modern technology and all...

I suspect that the majority of participants in most activities are beginners and/or casual hobbyists. And I suspect they account for an enormous proportion of the commerce, too. Why do you suppose so many magic tricks are advertised as "no sleight of hand" etc.?

It's fascinating, I observe a similar difference, if I understand you correctly, with the way magicians look at sharing their material ("teaching" in particular,) compared "flourishers."
"Flourishing," as it's own art, really only took off in the internet age, from what I can see, and even within that, only really being its own market more recently (relative to the overall web age.)

In other words, while there were a good number of inclusions of flourish material marketed either as part "magic" videos, or as sort of combination DVDs, with an amalgam of both, then started to have a bit of more flourish exclusive videos, like D&D, Cap Casino, etc.
However these were still very much sold within/market like a branch within the "magic" marketplace tree.

It wasn't long before it really took off fully as it's own market, IMHO, but developed wholly within this current digital age of media as accessibility.
As such, we've seen a VERY different attitude/approach, I think.

Flourish video downloads/moves are made readily available in one off teachings for incredibly reasonable prices, quite often completely free.
Looking at T11's The Wire we can see this influencing the price of magic one offs and quickies, for lack of a better term (largely the "amateur" market as well, if you will.)

An argument could be made for the "value" of tricks over flourishes, though I'd imagine some of the pure flourishers (those who don't do "magic" tricks) might disagree.
Adding a new flourish to their repertoire is probably views the same as adding a new effect, or knuckle busting slight to "ours."

I am sorry to hear about your friend, Clinton.

Good point, sorry for the loss.

Sad to hear. Yes, there are many Magicians on here that seem to enjoy thrashing someone who chooses to build a prop and use it in a show. They seem to feel if you don't go and buy your illusions from a top notch builder your simply no good. Not many of us here, myself included, can afford to buy new items from the big guys. Yes, the props they build are top notch, but they do cost an arm and a leg. I envey the person that can go out and build something and use it in a show. Also when it comes to making remarks about a person's Wife or assistant, that's going way overboard.
Take care, Bob.

I absolutely agree, but we have to remember that not every beginner or casual hobbyist wants to move on and get better. It's a conversation I used to have all the time back in my performing days (early 1970's), when "we who charged a fee" were continually upset with "those who didn't charge a fee." The customer's argument was frequently, well, if I get an amateur, he'll use it as practice for later when he becomes a pro, and I won't have to pay him. My argument right back was that amateurs don't necessarily want to become pros --- for a lot of them it's a hobby forever, while the pros do it for a living.

My point above was that being a username-carrying member of the Café doesn't necessarily mean that you're serious about magic. And that is totally fine with me. It's a free chatroom. However, I do believe that some people take the Café too seriously.

I only talk magic on the Not Very Political, Still forum of the political website I frequent.

Sorry to hear about your friend. He's probably not an isolated case.

Yes, I am sorry to hear of your friend, too. I have lost several lately, and all had a true love for magic. I fear there are others not far from that point. I could not imagine them being treated this way so close to their final days.

Magic itself can be a cruel mistress. Many who do it, do it for love. Love does not often pay well when the magician ages, even if it did years ago. I have known several magicians who were once pinnacles of success, but ended up living their later years in relative poverty. But whether once a professional, or always a confirmed amateur, at some point if they continue, it is done for love.

I also know of a few magician/inventors who have quit because of the disrespect shown to their creations. This is no different than the kind of disrespect shown in the case mentioned here. There is no excuse for this.

Magic is accessible to anyone. The only thing anyone really needs is some reason to become involved. Whether it is for love or money, your reason is not my reason, and certainly not anyone else's reason. No one "owns" magic, and therefore no one controls the rule book, or has the right to bully anyone else.

One of the things that I love most is hanging out with the old guys in the magic club. I don't care if they are good at it or not. I don't care if they were once at the top of the game, or if they never did a show in their life. They are all there because they love magic.

The same is true for the young guys too, I suppose. I so often see young hopes dashed and misguided by self-important idiots who insist on telling them how they should learn and do magic. It's not always helping, it's often just disgusting.

It is OK to offer suggestive, POSITIVE criticism, especially when the person on the receiving end is doing whatever it is he's doing without malice. But, it is never OK to do it in a cruel manner. It makes me very sad, and frankly angry that someone who loved magic so much, is now not able to see that cruelty repaired.

Clinton, sorry for your loss.

Yes, the Café can be cruel, I can only hope it gets better...

Too many people hiding in the shadows throwing stones I feel.

But we can hope.

I don't think it's the Café per se or magicians in general so much as it's the internet. I'm on other webgroups and you see this nasty attitude towards people in general. I think it's the anonomous [sp] nature of the beast that brings out the worst in some of us.

And I am sorry for the loss of your friend and our loss of his magic because of those who can't type civil replies.

I agree, it is the nature of the beast.

No. People basically suck. It's our nature. One of the goals of civilization is to make us suck less than we would in a natural state.