My observations tell me that their is a whole new breed of young "magicians" out there who are of the "microwave magic" philosophy. They want to be a magician and they want to be one NOW!

So the Internet and other sources cater to that lust, and as a result we are raising a whole generation of kids who are, and I hate to use the word but it fits, shallow. This horrifies me to think of the monster that we are unleashing on the world in the name of our art.

Apprentice? What does that word mean? Seems to be a dinosaur, if you ask me.

I bemoan the fact that there are (as far as I can see) very few masters out there. But I am willing to admit that I could be wrong.

Do you feel that the ratio of masters to dabblers is rapidly decreasing? Do you feel that this could conceivably if not put in check, someday spell doom for the art of magic?

Finally, who do you feel are the authentic modern masters of our time? When I think of the word, the first person who comes to mind is Jeff McBride. Any agree or disagree on that?

And last but not least, what, in your humble opinion are the standards that one must live up to earn the coveted and honored title of master of magic?

I know this is a lot of questions, but this is a deep subject, and one I have pondered for many years. I would like to hear your input.

You can also blame the top professionals out there who put all their magic on DVDs for anyone to see. You don't need to prove your commitment anymore, you don't need to earn your place as a master's apprentice. You just need 29.95 and a DVD player. Then you can watch it, pause it, flip it off and watch CSI Miami. Come back to it whenever you want.

These modern learning methods give us the wrong impression about what it means to be a student of an art.

When the masters chose to earn money by mass-distribution of their expertice, say farewell to the arts.

Now I am beginning to feel a real sadness settling into my consciousness.

Thank you for your honest reply.

Next week I am going to the Blackpool conference where Rene Levant, Paul Gertner, Greg Frewin, and others will lecture to anyone who wanders in and explain their secrets, or former secrets.
Why?

I've no idea what a master magician is, or how to define one, or if they exist.

Anybody can log onto a number of sites and pick up some tips but they won't learn anything very deep because we know it takes time and commitment to work magic.
Tricks no longer performed are passed of as cutting edge magic.

They will still be beginners, running round doing tricks not magic in the most superficial way, and in doing so reducing an art to a series of jokes because the audience doesn't know they are only surface workers.

If a beginner logs on to a web-site and learns a couple of easy, self-working tricks it does not help him. He thinks there is no depth to magic and all magic is simple tricks. He will never know the pleasure of doing a skillful move or really fooling an audience. Of knowing what he is capable of. Performing magic. Creating wonder. Lifting our spirts.

They won't harm us, except that they reduce the distance between an artist and his audience and in trying to show they’re supposed worth will claim to give up our secrets.

Eddie

"The Magic of Michael Ammar" said something to the effect of in the men’s hut being accepted has to be earned I agree but this is a perfect example, all of you INCLUDING ME are guilty of his theory we all want to keep this little magic world to ourselves. If these opportunities such as DVD were open to us and they are why not take them, not every town is going to have magicians and shops to go to, so people who truly want to learn have to rely on other forms of information to learn.

There are differences between book learning and practical knowlege.

To confound the two is unfortunate.

To consider and discuss keeping secrets from other students of this craft is downright tragic.

To actually succeed in doing such might set the craft back a few hunded years in less than a generation.

Doug, you might find this interesting. Bob Cassidy, whose work I'm just beginning to appreciate as potentially "masterful", emphasizes a lesson stated in Henry Hay's "Amateur Magician's Handbook. Mr. Cassidy quotes at length:

"...If you start off with a few self-working tricks that you can plod through undetected, you may puzzle people, but you won't entertain them. Worse, you won't have entertained yourself. Easy come, easy go. Familiarity breeds contempt...Some notion, at least, of magical acting can be taught in a book; but it takes time to sink in. The time required to memorize a self-working trick is not long enough...The time required to learn a fairly simple sleight probably will be long enough for you to absorb the acting that goes with it.

In short, you can learn to do a moderately difficult trick more easily than you can a perfectly easy trick. On a sleight of hand trick you can't skimp; on an easy trick the temptation is almost irresistible. You won't dare to show a feat of skill that is only half practiced--and this is one of the basic axioms in all conjuring."

(Editing is Mr. Cassidy's) And then, Henry Hay proceeds to teach the student the hard stuff first, and only later the things requiring "no skill".

I think Hay's observation is resonant on many levels.

For one, posters here have lamented the easy availability of professional materials. While that has tended to whittle away at the respect the professionals, or top-notch creative amateurs, receive from newcomers, I don't think that's the only result.

As a beginner, I grew up in Honolulu. The odds of me ever seeing Tom Mullica live during that time were slim. But I had a great amount of respect for the man and his act having seen it on videotape. Had it not been for the availability of the act on tape, I wouldn't even know he existed. Sometimes, familiarity can breed respect.

Secondly, just because a master's material is easy to obtain, as Mr. Hay points out, that does not mean the material itself will be "easy to master". I share in the hope that the student will learn the most important lessons in the process of perfecting a difficult routine, and in that process, gain some respect for the craft. If true, this will be true no matter how difficult or easy it was to obtain the source materials.

There is one way to dash these hopes, however, and to torpedo the learning process. That's by presenting truly difficult pieces of magic as if they were "easy to master" and "no brainers". Approaching the art from this perspective, the student will not even suspect that there is work that needs to be done, and will never learn to do it.

This was part of the original thinking behind the "Palms of Steel" videos. I wanted to return to the days when the student was told that the material would take work, and that that was a good thing.

I agree with you Daffy about Jeff McBride, I have both the card and regular manipulation series and have sat here many nights wondering about the amount of practice he must have put in to get where he is.

On the future of magicicians...I have spent alot of time looking at some of the sites where younger talent post vids and I am frequently impressed with many of these younger guys.

They are often extremely smart and talented as well as pretty mature in comparison to how I was at that age....(Guess that's not saying much!)

I have spent most of my life with an intrest in magic and have come to the conclusion that the secret of a trick is really not as important as the ability to perform it. I think the ones who succeed have to have the ability to be entertaining and well practiced. For instance I have known the secret to manipulation balls since I was 10 and still see somebody like Jeff McBride,Cardini, Tim Wright and wonder "How the hell did he do that?"

Some of the videos involve awesome skills and practice yet the presentation is dead and others are just the opposite.
I agree with you at some level about all the instructional stuff available, but then I think this will actually take the art to the next level...and already has by some of the young kids videos out there.

If you haven't already check out cheeterscheater.com or sleightgeeks, magicvideodepot etc...

Some real talent out there.

Best of luck to all
Nick

After 18 years of magic, I wanted to start getting serious about it. The old school method was to have a mentor so I asked someone I was impressed with to study under him or her. Now, I am a student learning not how to do new tricks, but rather how to do magic. It takes a degree of courage and (the dreaded word) sacrifice to do that. However, it was by far the best move I have ever made!

Mentorships are perceived as dying out by most younger magicians. This is a shame. And I am not sure why so many do not pursue this way. Is it a lack of accessibility on the part of the masters, or the modern day student's lack of patience?

Jeff is absolutely a master! Also one would have to note Eugene Burger. I now study and practice with one of Eugene's prodigies.

Scott,

There was a time when I myself sought out a mentor, but that dream was shattered by the incredible lack of availability of such.

I think it's just the rush of our frenetic, modern paced world that makes this option so rare nowadays.

As I said in my post, we live in a microwave generation.

I suppose the next best thing is to take the attitude that Ammar and McBride and others can be my mentor in another sense of the word, all that is required on my part is a serious dedication to study their books, videos, and such.

If one is really serious about being serious when it comes to learning the true art of magic, then no excuses will be good enough.

Doug,
The ratio of wannabes to experts is probably about the same as it always has been.

And, as for wannabes wanting everything and wanting it RIGHT NOW, it was ever thus!

The point probably is that you are getting older and wiser and becoming more award of the problem.

There were probably two court magicians back in Ancient Egypt, before the pyramids were built, talking to each other and saying something like, "The trouble with young magicians today is that they want everything right away. Why, in my day..." and so it goes!

If the truth be known, there ARE no experts; we are all students of magic. Oh, there might be one or two who have stopped learning—but that doesn't mean they are experts; it just means that they have stopped learning.

Give the wannabes time: Some will drop out of magic and that's okay; the remaining ones will realizes that it takes time and work and will be willing to invest that time and work—and that's okay, too.

We come and we go; magic continues.

Peter,

You have a marvelous way of seeing things, and putting things in perspective! Well spoken sir!

When I first got serious about magic (about 1 1/2 years ago) I didn't understand that it was more about the presentation than about the effect itself. I spent large amounts of money on "self working" tricks. I presented them without much, or any, patter, and fooled quite a few people, but I would venture to say that not a one of them can remember what effect I did. They remember that I did something, but they couldn't tell you what. Thanks to websites like this one, Eugene Burger's, and other "professional" magician's websites and videos, I now understand that presentation is the key. Thanks to their willingness to "mentor" me I now DO magic, instead of DOING tricks.

I agree with Peter. There are always going to be "magicians" like I once was, but if we continue to put out the message about what magic really is, then, hopefully, some will come to realize the art of our art.

Josh

You are a credit to the art, sir, and your post warms the cockles of me heart!

Guys... We keep going around this issue, the point of the Art Workshop thread was to define some of this stuff, and yet, no one wants to take a crack at it. I suppose it's my crazy posts.

As far as young magicians being shallow, I'd say most young people are pretty shallow anyway. So, no matter what Art we're talking about, it's pretty common especially these days to have hordes of DVD happy young people. That's why so many people say about the Piano, for instance, "Oh I took lessons as a kid". But they stopped, that's shallow. Is there anyway to cure this? I don't really know. Part of the secret lies in books, certainly. I was started on a classical reading schedule at about five years old, until I was at the point where I would devour bookcases on my own. I think this helps give oneself a good idea of what came before, and a little knowledge about many things in life, and a healthy dose of anti-ego. In other words, books show you that you are not the only person in the world, and that other people have gone through the same stuff you have.

Other than books, I think traveling is good, same sort of thing, it expands your horizons. I have been lucky enough to do extensive traveling, and I think it teaches a lot.

But let's face it, these things are unrealistic to expect from the masses, so in magic, like everywhere else, we are going to have the same cancerous youths of other areas, and I think we can survive it.

Lastly, I am intrigued by mentorship. I have always thought that this would be an ideal way to learn magic, but now I'm not so sure. I've never seen a professional magician perform, save one Blaine Special, and one Sankey tape someone sent me. The Café is one of my only links to the magical community. I've barely entered magic shops, ecetera. Because of this isolation, I have developed I believe differently than others of my age, and it give me an interesting perspective on the Art. So, while I think mentorship is 1,000,000,000,000 times better than learning from DVDs, I'm also advocate some independent perspective on the Art.

:stout:

It's too bad the Art Workshop thread disappeared. It was definitely thought-provoking.

Regarding mentoring; no DVD or book can provide instant feedback like a live human.

In January the magic shop where I work offered free beginner magic lessons to anyone interested. The catch? They were on Saturday morning at 9:00. Though hundreds of fliers were given out and many people expressed interest, the largest actual class we had was a total of five students. Most weeks one or two people showed up.

We have a lot of aspiring magicians who shop there regularly and want to learn magic fast, but when it comes down to physically getting yourself someplace to hear a lecture or take a lesson, the dedicated are separated from those who will probably eventually give up the art.

Note: I'm not saying you have to attend lectures to be a real magician, I just mean that a dedicated student will take advantage of the available resources, be they lectures, lessons, or books at the local library. They'll devour everything they can find on the subject and glean from it as much as they can. If they encounter little, they'll grow in a different shape and form, but they'll grow, nonetheless.

Back-lot basketball players don't harm the NBA by their existence, do they?

It sometimes seems that we banter about the conflict between the fiddle players and the violinists. The fiddle player plays some pretty rough-cut, toe tapping stuff while the violinist plays the more melodic and serene classical music. Both are artists, entertainers and performers in their own right. Watching either perform can stir the heart and soul.

Among our art are the fiddle players and the violinists. Those who pick up a few tricks, put them together in rough-cut form, and entertain. For them, it's a hobby. Something to do on Friday night in the bar. For others, magic is an art to be studied, practiced time and time again, perfected into a symphony and theirs is practiced with more glitz and glamour. Still others collect the fiddles and the violins because they, in and of themselves, are art whether the strings are vibrating or not. And so among our colleagues are those who collect magic effects with no intent of ever entertaining others with it.

My point is, there is room for all of us. We are not a one-size-fits-all art. And where there is a demand, whether for the barroom fiddle player, the concert violinist, or the collector of fine instruments, someone will come along to meet the demand. We, as artists, cannot and should not try to define what that demand will be. Rather, when we find the serious student, we should encourage, guide, motivate and assist and we should teach the principle of true magic: to amaze, either with pure foolery or with truly excellent presentation. Oldmanxxvi may have said it all


How true.

As a second point, while the sale of cheap magic tricks on the internet may cause the production of excess stomach acid for some, there is nowhere that sells the heart and soul of magic. That comes from within. And perhaps that's the strongest argument of all for mentoring and apprenticeships.

Daffy, the short answer to your first question is no, the ratio of masters to dabblers is not decreasing. My guess is, if anything, it's getting better. There has always been a relatively high number of hack magicians. Since I haven't been around long enough to really remember the "Good old days" I'll quote from my reprint of Fitzkee's Showmanship for Magicians which was first published in 1943.

"Magic, as exhibited by the majority, is the indulgence in a hobby which rarely instructs, seldom amuses and almost never entertains."...

In the same paragraph he says that magic devotees are extremely likely to become, in his words, "an insufferable bore". Fitzkee filled this book with rants about the state of magic and performances of magicians which had me laughing out loud because his criticisms can just as easily describe today's group of hacks as those of his day. Just like today, not many people back then wanted to devote the time and effort to achieve anything beyond mediocrity.

Why do I think it's getting better? The greater availability of good information on the internet, in magazines, books and videos makes it a lot easier for those who want to learn to do so. Sure, some folks will learn the method to a trick, go out and mangle it for a few folks, then find another trick and repeat the process but only the most narcisistic and self indulgent of those can find that kind of performance fulfilling.

Hopefully, they will grow out of it and either stop performing or start to delve a little deeper into what it takes to create magic.