On Jun 6, 2021, funsway wrote:
As always, Whit, your experienced wisdom is cause for thought.

"Magic will survive. There will always be those who find the joy in it and a way to share it.
The rest is all preening and posing and foolishness."

My concern is what the observer expects of magic today as opposed to yesteryear, and of a stranger claiming to be able to demonstrate inexplicable phenomena.
It is not just that secrets and methods have been exposed on Youtube and "for sale anywhere." The entire concept of my offering a "real experience of magic" is corrupted.

Yes, some individuals may understand and appreciate magic as art and charm beyond "gotcha" and skill demonstration,
but as soon as they are in a group they become weird and distracted by impressing peers - "preening and posing and foolishness."

Good magic has a kind of informational intimacy that must be respected to be enjoyed. With many people today confusing "peer or herd approval" with intimacy,
thet chances are great that in any audience some individual will use deliberate exposure, posturing or even shaming to "gain points" to enhance their phantom presence.

Of course, many unpracticed performers of the "buy today, perform tomorrow" bent fuel this silliness by exposing both method and the validity of being a magicina
through bumbling, repeat performance on demand, or effects inappropriate to setting or audience.

If the magician does not "find the joy in it," how can they expect that for an audience?

Doing tricks has become too cheap and easy. Performing magic effects takes practice and audience engagement skills - nether available as a download on the Internet.
Working towards any long-term memory of "must be magic" is something for which neither performer or audience seems inclined to work for - or understand.

the result is (for me) that I perform only very rarely and then only for those who can appreciate magic without some cry of "entertain me."
If I was trying to make a living off of "doing tricks" today I would learn balloon tying.

On Apr 27, 2020, Dannydoyle wrote:
The 3 card Monte and shell game have been exposed more than any other effect in the name of education for marks. People RUN to get in line to play those games. Has exposure slowed that down? I should argue no.

On Jun 21, 2021, MikeLarkin wrote:
What a joke. People claiming that people exposing effects created by others matters naught! For one thing, it matters to the people who create the effects. Many people who actually create magic do not like to see it openly revealed on the internet, partially because it is something they came up with, and (I presume) partially because they will be robbed of potential sales of any products they put out.

There is also a cringeworthy element to magicians taking credit for magic they had no hand in creating, something Paul Harris himself discussed on his True Astonishments interview. He felt slightly sleazy getting all the credit after performing someone else's matrix routine, and I am sure it is a bit galling when he sees magicians getting all the credit for things he himself developed. You can argue there is an element of self-interest there, but there are actually lots of small ways you give respectful nods to the people from the past who we basically stand on the shoulders of.

On Jun 22, 2021, MikeLarkin wrote:
I'm not proposing anything. But that doesn't mean it is fine for people to upload, say, the Professional Close-Up Of Michael Skinner, for example, onto YouTube.

I know the old argument that the Masked Magician didn't harm magic. There is an element of truth there, but back then you could not just watch that show whenever you liked, or search out specific effects. And was there not controversy over later seasons that started exposing more practical effects, whereas old episodes where showing quite impractical methods?

There is a balance between making magic open to people interested in the subject, and just having a free for all.

On Jun 21, 2021, MikeLarkin wrote:
What a joke. People claiming that people exposing effects created by others matters naught! For one thing, it matters to the people who create the effects. Many people who actually create magic do not like to see it openly revealed on the internet, partially because it is something they came up with, and (I presume) partially because they will be robbed of potential sales of any products they put out.

There is also a cringeworthy element to magicians taking credit for magic they had no hand in creating, something Paul Harris himself discussed on his True Astonishments interview. He felt slightly sleazy getting all the credit after performing someone else's matrix routine, and I am sure it is a bit galling when he sees magicians getting all the credit for things he himself developed. You can argue there is an element of self-interest there, but there are actually lots of small ways you give respectful nods to the people from the past who we basically stand on the shoulders of.

On Jun 21, 2021, MikeLarkin wrote:
There is also a cringeworthy element to magicians taking credit for magic they had no hand in creating, something Paul Harris himself discussed on his True Astonishments interview. He felt slightly sleazy getting all the credit after performing someone else's matrix routine, and I am sure it is a bit galling when he sees magicians getting all the credit for things he himself developed. You can argue there is an element of self-interest there, but there are actually lots of small ways you give respectful nods to the people from the past who we basically stand on the shoulders of.