I haven't been paid for performing since the 70's. Today, it's just for friends and such. And I don't feel like learning a new method to my classic effects, like the Dye Tube. I'm 58 and Old School. You do NOT expose! Period. However, not everyone agrees.

Doug

Not wanting to continue to learn is not a good argument against exposure.

I have always said we need to be more than the sum of our secrets. Is there a secret to juggling, instruments, or singing?

I think secrets are necessary but their exposure does not herald he end of magic. People have been exposing the shell game and the Monty and psychics for decades along with faith healers and on and on. Hasn't brought down the take any has it?

If you are getting busted t the problem is not exposure.

In my case, it WAS! Twice! No, THREE times! YouTube. However, it is the type of person. They invited me over to do Magic. It was to embarrass me. I know that now. That is a lesson learned itself.

Doug

You can't compare singing, juggling, singing to magic as far as secrets because let's be honest, magic IS about secrets and people look for secrets in magic they don;t look for secrets, or something being "hidden" in other performance arts. Secrets are not the most important thing so as long as they are not being revealed either. You can be as entertaining as you want but if you show how everything is done you will annoy and bore the audience. The most common phrase I have ever heard is "Wow how did he do that?!" Or them asking me directly. Some want to know most actually don't because if they really did they could find the information eventually. The biggest problem with exposure these days is you have all these lazy kids exposing magic for attention, and because the information is so easily accessible they do not respect or appreciate it.

Back in the day it was hard to gain entry in those days, and it was not cheap and you had to wait 6-10 weeks for a magic trick or book in the mail. Magic is secretive art and the secrets are the glue that holds it all together and makes it work. I don;t care how funny and entertaining you think you are if your secrets are exposed or you expose them intentionally you will not last long as a performer and do your audiences a major disservice. So secrets DO matter in that case. However in the context of a show they should not be the primary focus. But audiences will wonder and want to know even if it is only during the duration of the show. Magicians today learn so many secrets so easily that they take for granted how special they are and the information is far too easy to acquire that is why.

Back in the day we paid good money for them, and protected them and our art. Some of us still do today, with the exception of those kids who download them free on pirated sites and never paying a dime. That is the problem. That said none of has affected me on personal level but I do find it to be disrespectful and wonder why these idiots even waste their time as they never accomplish much anyway.

Never had that happen in 34 years, but in that case be more selective with who you perform for and what you perform. Also only perform for paying audiences. In that case if it did happen at least you got paid and then you know not to perform for those types of idiots again. Most people are not going to even know what to look up on Yotube, unless you announce the name of the trick like many moros do, and most are not even aware of Youtube exposing magic tricks. It takes an interest to even be aware of that. Some hobbyists who struggle and can't perform are usually the ones who go down that route or as I said broke, lazy kids looking for attention.

Spot ON, Sir Brad! You are an upstanding guy!

Doug

Thanks, I just tell it like it is and based on my own experience. Nothing will be prefect all the time but that is why you create some filters to increase the odds in your favor. Magic is a hard art and even harder to make a living off of, and one thing I cannot stand is people who are too stupid too appreciate all the work that goes into it and only want to try and bring someone else down or "expose" them for their own personal gratification because they themselves suck at life and are discontent with their own life. So they want to bring others down with them.

That is almost always the case. Kinda like my long-time buddy Jamy Ian Swiss said during an interview, he had a guy one time trying to bust everything that he did and he said to the guy some to the effect of "If you invested that much time into your own personal life, health care etc; imagine how successful you would be instead investing all of that energy into trying to bust my card trick." What a productive life those types must lead.

People who see shows for free generally do not appreciate them as much as they did not hire anyone to perform they just happened to walk in on it usually. So they perceive as not being worth anything. But there are many who do appreciate free shows as well. But it is safer and more worth my time to do shows tht I know people really want to see and are willing to pay for. That cuts a lot of the riff-raff. You may still get isolated idiots but that is all. But if you do great magic, and baffling magic you will not have a problem. You can still be entertaining with simple magic and story-telling as well but people also want to be fooled and amazed. In the end that is what magic is about and they will be a lot more "entertained" as well.

Magic is about mystery, astoundment, amazement, and wonder and what attracted me to it in the first place, as well as those callsic old school gleaming stage props. Otherwise you may as well just be a juggler, clown, comedian or a singer.

To the You Tube "tutors" and gratuitous exposers everywhere- Ralph said it best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHZmP15rs0

Craid Petty said it pretty well on his Facebook as well In his WPR rant voice most likely.

An open statement to all the 'YouTube' magicians that have exposed magic and filmed tutorials and uploaded them.

"I was looking at YouTube the other day and saw a video exposing Darcy Oakes BGT Act. I must say I thought all of Darcy's performances were amazing and he did an unbelievable job. This video and other videos of this type disgust me.

I want to know you in the hell you think you are. You obviously have some magical knowledge in order to put a video like this together. I can only assume you are jealous of Darcy's success and in a pathetic attempt to get people to like you feel the need to expose his act.

You need to know that it doesn't matter how many acts you expose you are the most insignificant piece of crap in magic. Nobody cares about your little videos and nobody cares about you. You will never get even a millionth of a percent of the success of someone like Darcy because he has worked hard to get where he has while your solution is to sit in front of your computer making ****ty little videos so you can feel a little better about your crap life.

Do me a favour whoever you are and wherever you are GET OUT OF MAGIC. Take up another hobby or get a life instead of sitting in your bedroom in your parents house trying to feel important. I don't want you, magic doesn't want you and magic doesn't need you.

You really are a joke and the funny thing is every magician knows it except for you. GO AWAY!!!!!"

I love the response when this guy asks the audience if "Anyone has ever heard of the masked magician?" Dead silence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2cbQPquoKI So yeah we are fine.