There was some good discussion going on there .

It got jerked.

It magically disappeared.

The original poster made a threat (not credible in my opinion) but a threat none the less to a Member (no real evidence that this person, one of the 2 jerks, was really a member as they weren't named) of the Café. This could possibly be the reason the thread was killed. I would hope the OP would come back and post this again, this time without the threats and requests to duel and let us discuss how to handle those particular situations.

O.K For the record- Misterbill is right- one of the "jerks" was not a Café member, I made that up. (He was as I understand it a clown/ magician on some level though.)

Although I regret and apologize for making statements filled with such vitriol, anger, and rage my catharsis experiment seems to have worked.

Yesterday I felt very guilty and ashamed about my angry rant.

I performed yesterday with a bit of a feeling of guilt. I was kinder and calmer in front of people than I had been the last few times.

I tried some of the suggestions made by those who responded- (not to take myself too seriously, to try a little self depricating humor etc.) And it made a world of difference. I came to the conclusion that If your not in a good mood when you go out to perform or if you are angry inside- people will subconsiously sense it and feel that you are projecting your greif on them.

I thought about how kind most Café members/ magicians are. Instead of a well deserved attack for statements well beyond the boundries of good taste and civil behavior- You gave advice and support.

When faced with hecklers or jerks (or anyone who wishes to take away one's sense of pride and self respect) for whatever reason, we are forced (as entertainers) to bow out of the situation gracefully. If this causes you anger you need to get rid of it in a constructive manor or it will build up or and either hamper your performances or dampen your experience of "magic" in general.

I am sorry if I offended anyone.

- Mark

I'm assuming it got pulled due to the threats (meant or not) and the vulgar language.

So you made up the part about one of the jerks being a Café member?

Yes. Actually, I have no way of knowing if he was or not. If so, I hope he read my message- so that he would have an idea of how upset I was at the time. I hold no grudges and I have stated my case. It is expected that you will run into ignorant people from time to time. It is rare that that somone would be a fellow performer on some level.

Actually, I have heard this happens more often than you would believe from many pros. I don't think it is any kind "new" trend either, as Dr. Tarbell discusses this very phenomenon in his lesson on ethics in Volume 4 of his course.

We can only speculate as to why a magician would do this to another magician -- jealousy, insecurity, etc. And this could be correct, but as I have never had the desire to do this to any performer, I really don't know why anyone would act like this. I heard a younger magician once say he would do this to another if felt like the others performance "sucked." What a load of baloney, says I. There is no excuse to justify this behavior. I would love to hear from people who actually do this, what their motivations for it are. I'm not talking about laymen calling out guessed methods either, I am talking about magicians who know full well what the method is and telling others around them what is going on during a performance. Why would you ruin the performance of a fellow magician in front of an audience of laymen? Why?

Oh sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a bad topic, I thought maybe it was moved or something. I thought it was pretty clear that it was just venting, but I can see how it could have been a problem.

I didn't read all the thread because it didn't interest me but in defense of Mr. Cinemagician he is from New Jersey which is a local where saying 'good morning' comes off as mean to those of use from less barbaric regions of the US (outside the Eastern seaboard above Virginia). We must be sensative to other cultures.

Haha!