|
|
Review King Eternal Order 14446 Posts |
Well, they had a magician (didn't recognize him, might just be an entrepreneur). Anyway, he had a magic set along with a DVD and Jumping Catfish, he did the Floating Bill. They the host said, "If you want to do this trick it comes with this," and she held up a little envelope that had the special something in it.
I'm still burning over this. I had a friend that wanted to sell the Floating Bill at local swap meets and I said absolutely not. Magicians do more to hurt the craft than the FOX and the Masked Magician ever did!
"Of all words of tongue and pen,
the saddest are, "It might have been" ..........John Greenleaf Whittier |
Chris Berry Special user 831 Posts |
All for the dollar. But don't worry, selling magic on QVC really won't hurt us much at all.
Chris |
Review King Eternal Order 14446 Posts |
Most likely not, but when he floated that bill, my heart sank.
"Of all words of tongue and pen,
the saddest are, "It might have been" ..........John Greenleaf Whittier |
Chris Berry Special user 831 Posts |
Buy some helium...lol.
Understandable. It is like my friend who used to do magic. He thought it was cool to openly discuss stuff with me in front of our other friends who were laymen...it wasn't until I threatened him with my wild, blind, easily aggitated albino chinchilla that he finally stopped. Chris |
Reis O'Brien Inner circle Seattle, WA 2467 Posts |
Man, those chinchillas can be ferocious!
|
Steve Friedberg Inner circle 1402 Posts |
'cept when they get fat, Firedice. After all, have you ever heard of a ferocious double chinchilla?
:bg: On a slightly more (but not by much) serious note...I went into a QVC outlet store near my house a couple of years ago, and found D'Lites on sale. Obviously, I bought up almost the entire stock. Chris' point is well taken; if the only effects you do consist of stuff you've seen on QVC, then you're likely to get burned. But considering that the overwhelming majority of us perform effects requiring skills that they can't possibly sell on QVC or HSN...I think we're in pretty good shape, all things considered.
Cheers,
Steve "A trick does not fool the eyes, but fools the brain." -- John Mulholland |
Tom Jorgenson Inner circle LOOSE ANGLES, CALIFORNIA 4451 Posts |
Wouldnt buying them all encourage them to stock more?? After all...they were selling pretty good right then, right? Best to let them sit on the shelf. I tend to think that the normal consumer might think that d'lites were a fairly clever novelty, momentarily interesting, but not worth the (fill in blank)$ they were charging. No different than the Kiosks who major in D'lite sales and Hummer's card. Every generation has their Mouse-on-a-String thing, the only difference was that the WonderMouse used to be a quarter, and todays generation is trained to spend $20 on a trick novelty. The public also has a drawer where old tricks go. As soon as they've shown their friends once, they're bored with the item and in the drawer it goes. No harm, no foul.
I personally feel that exposure is bad for all the obvious and non-obvious reasons, of course...but we plod right along nevertheless...the public just isn't TRULY interested in how we do stuff...most magic secrets bring a let-down to the consumer, not excitement. Magicians are the only ones who get excited about our secrets because we see the whole picture, from secret to effect to response. The public does not. They only see a logical solution that is a let down from the magic they witnessed. Joe Blow from Podunk Hills who sees a floating bill secret is not going to affect anyone from Idaho...and they already know we use threads, mirrors and other stuff, and that we hide the cards behind out hands. I find that most regular people can't remember these secrets except vaguely. And a good double lift in front of them will make them forget their Grandma's name if done right...they just don't remember much...except them 10 year olds, of course. Those we should gag at the start of the show. I'm babbling. I say: Sail by it, don't let it bother you. Exposure is unfortunate and unimportant. There is nothing we can do exept on a personal level. Shutting up that babbling friend is a good idea, tho- But here's a question on the philosophical side: Should't everyone know a trick or two? Isn't the field open to all, and who is to say that a performable secret shouldnt be in the hands of anyone who is curious or interested? Isn't that exactly how we each came to this field? Ah, well. Too theoretical for me to deal with. My head hurts from all this thinking.
We dance an invisible dance to music they cannot hear.
|
Lee Darrow V.I.P. Chicago, IL USA 3588 Posts |
Ever since the first Masked Moron show, I have done a little impromptu survey of my audiences when doing strolling or trade show work.
I ask them about him and ask what effects they remember the methods for. Uniformly, the answer has amounted to "uhm, er, well..." or variations. And he was certainly seen by more than people who watch cable shopping network shows! Just a comment from the tranches, Lee Darrow, C.Ht. http://www.leedarrow.com
http://www.leedarrow.com
<BR>"Because NICE Matters!" |
Review King Eternal Order 14446 Posts |
Heck, I can still get fooled by double backers and TT ( if done right). No one remembers the masked fellow's explanations.
"Of all words of tongue and pen,
the saddest are, "It might have been" ..........John Greenleaf Whittier |
landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Exactly. Even the best in the business--with all their knowledge of sleights, gaffs, and misdirection-- are often fooled by other magicians.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that Masked Magician type shows and QVC sales help magic through the publicity (although I would be willing to entertain the notion) but the negative effect of such "exposure" in my opinion is way overblown. Jack Shalom
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
trickster2000 Loyal user Toronto 284 Posts |
I also asked laymen who saw the Fox special, what they remembered, and the only thing they remember is the levitation... no one realy remembered the other tricks...
|
Magic Clown New user Kissimmee, FL 14 Posts |
Tom has a very good point, didn't we all start somewhere?
Here in the Orlando area, you can go to almost any flea market, magic shop and yes even theme parks (Universal Studios sells the bill and card levitate)and buy your own. Heck, even at the Orlando international Airport you can buy one complete with a video. So hearing that it was on QVC doesn't surprise me much. My point is that if no one sells magic at any level, how are we suppose to keep the art of magic going? If we stop selling even the dollar levitate and those who currently know how to do it are the only ones allowed to know how it's done, then who's left to carry on the art after we're all gone? Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to stand on a podium and start revealing how everything is done, but we still should provide an outlet to allow those interested in the art of magic to learn and go forward.
Donald Carpenter
Fuzzy the Magic Clown Professional Magic Clown www.magicandsmiles.com Show Them the Magic and Watch Them Smile |
daffydoug Eternal Order Look mom! I've got 14077 Posts |
I tend to agree with the posts that reveal that most viewers of the Masked Buffoon's specials will forget most of it within a relatively short time.
It's simply a fact of human memory and it, in itself and at best, is simply fallible! What we don't use, we lose. This is the only comfort I know of concerning the exposure on Fox. A year or two later, people will remember practically nothing of the secrets that were exposed. They will be in a perfect position for an excellent magician to fool the pants of of 'em. Long live Magic!!
The difficult must become easy, the easy beautiful and the beautiful magical.
|
Reis O'Brien Inner circle Seattle, WA 2467 Posts |
There will always be some magic products that will bleed over into the regualr markets. Especially the quick tricks that will give Johnny Knownothing an interesting thing to entertain his buddies or pick up girls with.
When I was a wee lad, I would see magic tricks being offered for order in the back of comic books. They were usually dime and penny, sponge balls and the like. So I knew that this art was available for the right price. What I didn't know was that the art goes so much deeper and what I thought was the hidden secrets of magic being offered to me via the back pages of Spider-Man was actually just the tip of the iceburg. Do you know what got me into magic? I bought a deck of "Magic Cards" at a local dollar store. They actually said "Magic Cards" on the box! They turned out to be a Stripper/Marked deck, and a poorly made deck, at that. I thought, cool, I'll learn a magic trick or two with these. For a buck, who could beat it? Little did I know that I was cracking open a pandora's box of interest inside myself. So, probably 5% of the people that ordered from QVC's magic offerings will ever take it anywhjere deeper. The other 95% were probably magicians already or the curious who will play with it for a while and then forget about it. So a layman knows how D'Lites work. Is that really a threat to our ancient craft? |
Dragunsfyre New user Robert 71 Posts |
And there's something to be said for the fact that such sales might generate an interest in magic in someone who may have been on the fringe of jumping in but wasn't quite sure where to start. The products which are mass marketed are usually limited in use, made for the inexperienced or casual consumer and don't really divulge any real secrets anyway.
It's not what you look like when you're doing what you're doing;
it's what you're doing when you're doing what you look like you're doing. |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Did you hear the latest? » » Magic for Sale on QVC (similar to Home Shopping Network) (0 Likes) |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.04 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |