I see this mentioned a lot, but I don't buy it (at least, not 100%). I readily admit that I LOVE finding out how something is done. I'm curious by nature... a hacker... a creative problem solver. Magic speaks volumes to me on that level. Does that hurt my enjoyment? Is my inner child all shriveled and emaciated? Hardly. When I watch someone performing, I get to choose whether to simply enjoy the illusion or whether to analyse it. Honestly, I think that studying so much has given me more opportunity to simply enjoy the illusion. I know I can figure out how to replicate it, given a little bit of time, so I feel no compulsion to find out the details. Knowing that I'm able to figure it out means I don't have to figure it out (errr... something like that).



Very, very true! The friend I'm slowwwwwly teaching right now is very much like me. She's very curious. She MUST know how something works. Not knowing drives her crazy. So I bribe her a little bit at a time, dangling the carrot and giving her little bites along the way, all the while trying to remind her that it's ok to be curious, and it's ok to want to know "how it's done", but that there's an equally important aspect in the enjoyment and appreciation of the illusion itself. I've been working on some of the tricks from True Astonishment, and demonstrated a couple to get her feedback on my presentation, all the while reminding her that even though she feels compelled to learn how they're done, she should also take time to simply enjoy the illusion. I don't think the two are necessarily mutually exclusive.

If the enjoyment is gone after finding out how a trick is done, it was likely never there in the first place. Their inner child was probably dead and buried long ago. =(

I am against exposure on youtube and forums and whatever
but not against buying a dvd or book and learning the secrets
it doesn't help at all the password protected sites you could also google the question to get the answer.

At aradia:

I'm referring to those who don't enjoy being fooled. They feel that their intellect is being insulted, and have to know everything. There's nothing we can do for them. They will find out whatever they want to find out, no matter how hard we make obtaining the information or methods.

If they really believe their intellect is being insulted, I doubt there's anything left of their inner child. Sad, really. I can't say I see a problem with wanting to know "everything", or even simply seeing an illusion as a puzzle instead of entertainment (that IS entertainment for some people); I'm a glutton for knowledge. =D But I definitely know the kinds of people you're talking about. I have to wonder what happened to... well... their sense of wonder.

Yeah, it's a real bummer that a layman can just log onto Ammar's website and buy the secrets just like that. But that's true about any magic trick pretty much. What can be done?

Other than people who either affirmatively want to learn the secret or people who affirmatively want to learn the art, how many people are going to plunk down serious money on a whim? The fact that a true lay person can access Michael Ammar's web site, presupposes at least three things:

1. He's heard of Michael Ammar and is curious enough to Google his name and then go to his site in the first place. And,..for what?

2. Having gotten onto the site, he knows what he is looking for and what all those items with strange sounding names actually are...and do.

3. Even actually having a general knowledge of what a certain something is or does, he is willing to pay money for things that he, at best, barely knows anything about.

Additionally, with layman, I believe that most magic secrets are relatively safe and, even if generally known, such secret will not be realized or revealed by a performance that is well performed and that is original in nature (and is not just the parroting back of the "off-the-shelf instructions" that came with the trick).

In this regard, I'm reminded of a beginning magician friend of mine that once showed me a hoary old card trick he had just learned out of a beginning magic book. Not a bad effect but the performance was "right out of the book". The following week, I performed the "Fogel's Triple Prediction" effect that was in Eugene Burger's "Intimate Power" manuscript. My magician friend's jaw dropped and he repeatedly begged me to show him how that effect was performed...not realizing that the principle involved was used in the very same effect that he had shown me the week before!!

After refusing to explain the effect to him for well over an hour, and, after repeatedly advising him that I didn't need to explain the effect since he already "knew it" and had, in fact, shown it to me the week prior,...after all that, I finally revealed the explanation and he just sat there stupefied as he realized that he did actually know the secret and that it was the performance and the scripting that had caused him to be fooled. That day, my friend learned one of the real secrets of magic.

I relate that story only to suggest that original well-thought out scripting and well done performances will preserve the secret from the layman--including those who know the underlying secret.

Now, that said, if someone goes onto the Internet and posts the secrets of the latest David Copperfield or David Blaine illusion and makes specific reference to that effect and the named magician, such revealed information can be extremely damaging to such magician.

Just my $00.02 worth.

Mike

P.S. I just flashed back to one of my favorite magicians, David Williamson. I have all of his videos and even tho I have watched them repeatedly, David's misdirection and timing is so strong, he still "fools me" every time. By that I mean, my eyes follow where he wishes me to look and my mind "sees" what he wishes me to see. I love watching and learning and re-learning from the masters. The point is...if I, who know how the "effect goes" is still fooled every time, what chance does the casual layman. They may generally know a magic principle but, in the hands of a master, they don't realize that it has just been used. They just won't recognize it when they "see" it.

The net is the public library of our era.