Not everybody is aware of their philosophy.

And there are many, for whom lack of awareness, lack of hope, is an organic dysfunction. Perhaps I should rephrase that...their lack of ability to sustain hope. Philosophy has nothing to do with it. And that's why straitjackets were invented.

This is an extremely interesting conversation. I was recently discussing why I do what I do with a friend who feels that too many talented people waste their life "entertaining" when they could be doing something to make the world a better place. Harley just explained it better than I was able to and given me more material to chew on as well. Thanks.

On the subject of trying to make the world a better place, I like the late Kurt Vonnegut's observations:

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/cold_turkey/

Kurt also said that the best thing in the world to do, is roll around on the floor with a dog. An astute, man, Kurt.

If I am not mistaken, in the first comment on th thread it was asked if an EA is trying to bring up (in simpler terms) the next criminal to break out of jail or cuffs.

I don't think anything of what we do is meant for that. It is for entertainment purposes, and some of us actually help out the police by showing them what to look for and avoid bad things happening.

It would be like asking if doing a card trick is to train the next con artist on the street corner. And trust me, there are some awesome sleight of hand specialists in South Africa. It is just a pity that they are not magicians, but pick pockets, ATM card fraudsters and such. They did not learn their trade from magic, but from living on the streets.

Magic is there to mystify you, make you beleive that anything is possible, this can help your life out quite a bit.

Escapes does a similar thing. It can, at times, make people understand that they can overcome ANY obstacle in life. Nothing is impossible if you beleive in yourself.

Not all magicians use gimmicks in escapes.

I for one do magic, but my Escape shows are kept seperate from magic. If I do an escape in a magic show, I use gimmicks. But my Escape shows are standard equipment. Nothing gimmicked. I even get people to bring their chains, locks, rope, etc. so that they know it is not gimmicked. I don't do escapes from under cloths, etc. unless it is in my magic show or otherwise specified with the escape (eg. buried alive or trunk or such - which is normally only done as a magic stunt by myself) So escapes to me are definately seperate from magic.

Regards
Wolflock

Sorry, not the first comment. Cant seem to edit my post anymore. Oh well. Apologies for the double post.