Hi,ive been watching magic recently on tv and it was a few days ago that I was thinking about how the change of magic in the media has become.

In the past we had people like paul daniels, david Copperfield and lance Burton but its now gone in the direction for things such as street type magic. I appreciate street magic as I see it as one of the forms of magic that is more real and personal, the thoughts I do have on the present use of magic in the media is the chance that it has become cheapened and has become something with less depth to it than it use to be.

Has magic become cheapened in the media and maybe overall?

Ive seen people on youtube, commenting and making videos on how the tricks are done and stating it for everyone to see and how magicians on tv like the masked magician , pen and teller, chris angel are doing the same, althouth the last two mentioned might have only only done it a little.

I can see how reavealing a secret a little might help even play a part in a presentation although to go in that direction can get into an iffy situation but are we encouraging people in society to look at magic more at how its done than to appreciate the experience of seeing something that seems impposible, mysterious etc?

Is this encouraging people to see magic in a more left brain way than see it maybe in a right brain way?

I found an article in Tops circa 1936 that is very similar to what you are saying. The original author complained about attendance at magic shows being down and exposure in the media of that day.

http://topsmag.com/Newest_Tops/?p=1968

It will only become a cheapened art if we allow it to be.

Keep in mind, everything moves in circles, and everything old will be new again and vice versa.

The difference is that, because of the internet, such exposure is far more widespread that it ever was in the past. You had to make an effort back then to obtain magic books and props.

I believe that several hundred years from now TV will be looked upon with sentiment now reserved for things like the black plague. It has cheapened everything in its greedy effort to give people their fondest wishes, for a price. Magic included. Exercise included. Wellness, and peace of mind, and empathy included. How many killings does the average child witness on TV by the age of 10? How do we maintain real contentment when one person, more gifted by nature than others, is paid almost a quarter of a BILLION dollars to hit a little ball further than we can?

Not just magic, the cheapened part, not just magic...

The art is not cheapened, individual magicians are.

In the visual arts it's already been looked upon as an electronic fireplace and there's even a sculpture made from a TV set facing a wall.

IMHO TV is just a thing. The notion of "economy of attention" is more likely the matter here.

Hard to compete with the media arts. Very few make a full time living anymore from magic (compared to 20 years ago). There is always hope though for the masses to get tired of the tube and a resurgenace begins.

You've just got to believe in yourself. Work hard- get in the work. pick good material. PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE

For double standards see the "Magicians" BBC 1 second time around.

They belittle what others do by showing that without practise or skill anyone can do magic. Last week a BON sandwich was performed by suppose celebs !!! Definition of a celeb being under question as well !

The IBM ring 25 and Magic Circle do nothing about these expose shows (Wonder why !!) Although it goes against their codes of ethics.

So what can be done ???? Not a lot but there is one magician who advertizes that if anyone has been fooled by these sub standard Magicians,,,to contact him and he will reveal the hows for them by email or a phone call !! Shooting himself in the foot,,,or cutting his own nose off,,,,I think not, for the damage has already been done by the TV Prostitutes and maybe it is starting to bite em back with big teeth.

Where is the magicians code,,,,proberly sold with the secrets on ebay.

Ken.

Sold? Heck, these days, you don't even need to pay anything.

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......rum=2&42

Is magic becoming a cheapened art?

Yes.

Interesting topic

Not sure "cheapened" is the correct word for what is happening in our specific society (magic) and in society at large. The root cause of the lessening of the impact of magic on individuals is that information is now free (or at least we expect it to be free). How many of us on this forum do indeed go to youtube and see if we can find out how the latest DVD effect is done ... I know I do.

The fortunate thing for most inventors, and / or regurgitators of magic is that the majority of youtube want-to-be's are unpracticed, pubescent, jabbernowls ... who are obviously the product of our 17th world-ranked public school systems and who can usually not put a complete sentence together without saying “um” or “ya know” or “er” ... I really don't think youtube is the problem because relatively few people go online seeking how a trick is done on youtube.

The real problem is the well-known and often-viewed performers in our field. The most aggregious example was Penn and Teller's revealing of how the cups and balls routine is performed. ... I imagine some of you stopped using that routine because of them. Also the revelations of the “masked magician” was certainly disturbing, although many of effects revealed were large stage effects that are, in my humble opinion, some of the weakest, stale and least believable of all magic.

The very best that magic has to offer such as the close-up work with coins and cards belong almost exclusively to the skilled performers ... something our youtube munchkins are incapable of performing and therefore unable to reveal in most cases. All of the information about such magic has been available free in our public librarys for over 80 years or more, but I'm certain most of the revealers on youtube are too lazy to read and as a result, the best of magic remains unrevealed to the lay public.

Gentlemen ... fear not ... good, jaw-dropping, expertly performed magic is still alive and well even in our “tell-us-how-it's-done” eWorld.

Keep on performing, inventing and re-visiting .... remember that magic epitomizes the notion that “everything old is new again”

Bob C.

Sorry for two typos in my last email ... I'm tired and a bit medicated with my two metal knees and two metal hips and one metal ankle. Sorry again. Bob C.

I think with CGI and the Internet, it has become somewhat cheapened. There used to be just one magic shop in my area but with the Internet, people can learn/figure out/buy any trick they want almost instantly. Also, with special effects in movies, vanishing objects isn't quite as magical as it once was.

Plus 10 on that, especially when they know a secret and they think people will like them better if they tell the secret. Magic is only as good as the people performing it, and keeping their mouths shut about what they are doing. I've always thought of magic as entertainment, and fooling people while entertaining.

From the view point of a guy who's been a dealer for 43 years I would have to say NO. Loudly.

I remember getting some of the first dozen Cig Thru Quarters from Johnson Products. I remember getting some of the first Color Monte's. And on and on. I remember NO videos of any kind. A selection of books so small you could almost have all titles in print in stock.

Magic isn't cheapened. There's just more of it. I am constantly freaked out at the incredibly cool stuff that's offered for sale. And, the quality! Is there crap? Sure. But, there has always been crap. A lot of early catalogs of magic almost defined the term magically. Good grief the stuff that was sold. I remember when the first Vernet TT's hit the market. Wow!

The percentage of bad, good, great magicians is still about the same in each category. Nothing has changed and nothing will except that the more minds working on coming up with new and innovative stuff will simply produce more and cooler innovative stuff. And, the about the same percentage of junk.

I have the entire file of Pabular, Tops, The Phoenix, The Wizard magic magazines all on these little disk thingies. How cool is that? Hidden treasure.

Magic is rocking right along and exposure sucks, but it's like an intermittent case of some horrible disease the comes shakes stuff up and then is gone. Most folks don't look up the methods on YouTube. People have lives for crying out loud. I've lost count of the folks who said that I fooled them with the Linking Rings and THEY owned a set!

There is so much incredible material available that if you just stayed away from the few things exposed you could do a new trick every day for like forever. What's so funny about the Magic Castle? If you just don't do anything 'popular' in your tryout to be a member it's very likely that the committee watching will NOT have seen what you are doing! And, these guys see tons of magic!!!

Magic is fine.

Yeah, it's not like magazines were more widespread than it ever was in the past, making magic secrets available to anyone at the newsstand.
It's all the same, just a new generation. It's always worse now than ever before, and the situation demands our action.
It's also always ends up being the same old chicken little song.

Wrong. If you think the exposure situation back then was even remotely as widespread as it is today you are sadly mistaken. Believe me, when I started out, magic materials were no where near as accessible to the merely curious members of the general public as they are today.

True, the sky isn't exactly falling, but the trivialization of magic in the Internet age is hardly a fantasy.

I didn't say it was as widespread as today. I said, at that point, it was more wide spread than anytime in history before, the same claim you are making about the internet's effect.
Also, your statement is true, it is more widespread than ever, that's just not something new, and it's not exactly nevcesitating the call to arms that people have been pushing for almost a century.