I've seen many magicians the likes of: Allan Ackerman, Darwin Ortiz, Jerry Sadowitz, Daryl, Manuel Muerte, Andrew Wimhurst, John Bannon, Brad Christian on tapes and in live perfomances, but have never seen the great ones such as Dai Vernon (in his peak), Harry Lorayne Max Malini, Hofzinser, Sam Schwartz, Alex Elmsley, etc. Who were better performers?

This may be unanswerable, as there are very little one-on-one comparisons possible. And, of course, the fact that today's magicians started out with advantages that history's magicians discovered—and left to us all.

Yet we have some of the most innovative magicians among the living, and it's not just making up new illusions.

A terrific example is Michael Close. His videos (I'll probably never see him live, but I can get his videos) are filled with him taking other people's tricks (with permission and full credit) and adding verisimilitude AND adapting it to his persona. By showing his processes of thought and creation, he teaches us how to adapt and create.

(Aside: Closely Guarded Secrets, his new e-book on CD, is even more in-depth. See my critique elsewhere in this forum.)

Despite these restrictions, I'll go down as stating that there never was, nor has yet been, any magician as good at publicity as Harry and Beth Houdini. She evidently did quite a bit to expand his legend even FURTHER after his death. Thurston, as Walter Gibson said, was fully as famous as Houdini during their lifetimes; Hardeen (Houdini's brother) was just as famous in Europe. So I give Beth credit for making Houdini even more famous in afterlife than before.

And, nope, Blaine—while excellent at getting publicity—hasn't yet made himself a household word. It's possible, but his character isn't something that people would feel comfortable with being a part of any household.

Good question, I believe today's audiences are harder to fool than in the past. I was looking through an old magic catalog and they had an item that was a phone that would ring and you remove it from inside your jacket...these were the days before cell phones.

Does anyone here remember Dick Tracy talking into his watch? When I was a kid I never dreamed anything like that would be possible. However I never dreamed I could watch movies in my home with no commercials! I was a product of the golden age of movie theaters and drive-in theaters.

I'm not sure what all this has to do with magic but what I'm trying to say is things are changing all the time and people are more intelligent out of necessity. Which makes it harder to fool them.

Evidently "Beth" Houdini wasn't as good at publicity as you think, if she was you'd remember that her name is BESS!

Best, PSC

It's interesting to look at some of the old footage of some of the past "masters" contained in the You Asked For It VHS tapes and the Don Alan's Magic Ranch series.

Except for Don Alan himself, many of the old timers weren't very good entertainers by today's standards = just my opinion...

In one of Michael Ammar's cups and balls tape they show a clip of Dai Vernon performing live on a television show, at the time he was 77 and does cups and balls routine as good as any magician alive today! What my question is if he was this good at 77 how good would he have been in his 30s or 40s?

shomemagic

I had one of those phone in jacket. It was a killer in its days. Man, I'm old.

She was great at publicity for HARRY, but I guess not for herself. Or I might just be stupid.

Harry is still with us. As energetic as ever. Sam is still with us, and looked his pleasant self on Saturday at the pizza place. Alex Elmsley is alive last I heard and as urbane as ever. Sorry, you won't get to meet Max Malini. He was something of a mountebank. Hofzinser is long gone, though the reviews of his performances speak volumes about how to design and perform good magic. Dai Vernon is gone, and was quite the professor when I met him back in '87.

What do you feel makes a good performer?

Are today's performers BETTER than the legends of yesteryear?

Some are, some are not. I think each generation adds its own voice to the great conversation. It is difficult for newcomers to understand the past contributions if they can't see the examples. As Jonathan pointed out, we are just going to have to content ourselves with reading reviews about people like Malini and Hofzinser. (Every indication would be that those two performers were of the highest caliber.)

On the other hand, you can obtain tapes or DVDs with footage of Dai Vernon, Slydini, Fred Kaps, Cardini and other past masters. It's too bad that most of it isn't more widely available. I wish that the S.A.M film library and the Magic Castle film library of performance videos were available for viewing online (for a small fee per download) as Quicktime and/or Windows Media Player movie files. Something along the lines of the British Pathe online service, but obviously on a smaller, more specialized scale.

By the way, you can see footage of some magicians on British Pathe. Use the search engine here.

I think that the past masters of magic were great for their day...

And the magicians that are good right now are great for today...

Who a person likes and when it was is a personal choice. I like to watch good magic. And I feel that good magic is good magic no mater what year or date it was performed.

It is classic like the cups and balls. You can take an old effect like this and perform it in the 1800's or do it today and if it is performed well it is a good effect and good magic.

The Jack Pyle video (at my web site) doing the punch deal was taped at Jack Kodell's house. Jack Pyle does the bridge deal and I feel it is just as entertaining to watch today as it was when it was taped.

Good entertainment is good entertainment no matter what the year... At least that is what I feel about it...

The answer to any question of choice is, "it depends." The great ones of the present certainly wouldn't be where they are without the great ones of the past; the pioneers, the visionaries, the groundbreakers. That's not to say that those kinds of performers do not exist today. After all, look at how far magic has come since.

If one were to make an intelligent comparison, the answer would then lie in the audiences. Take a present-day audience into the past and chances are the mentality of today could very well out-think the trickster of yesterday. This, of course, is an unfair comparison since the mentality of the past would in no way be able to keep up with the conjurers of today. The pace is simply too fast, too different, too evolved.

And it's not just the pace. Technology, science, and even perceptions have advanced so far since the Kellars, the Thurstons, and the Vernons. Magic will always be one step ahead of the world's technology, science, and even perceptions. And we count on this fact to keep us as magicians in existence; to maintain wonder.

The question of "who are/were better performers" can only be answered by saying, "it depends." How can you compare a B.B. King to a Jimmy Hendrix? Everything is a matter of perception. EVERYTHING. So depending on where YOU stand, you'll either see the past, the present, or the future. Everyone will have different opinions. Which should you listen to? Only yours.

In light of that, I shouldn't even give my opinion, but I'll give it anyway...

"...it depends."

-E

Performance occurs in a social and historical context. There is a conversation between the performer and audience. The rules of communication change in different social and historical contexts.

That's why it's impossible to compare magicians or actors of different eras. Brando spoke to, and influenced, a generation of actors. But the way Brando found to communicate was unique to his historical circumstances and would not necessarily have the same impact today as it did in its time.

Each performer learns from the past and adapts to the context of the present day. What seems, for example, to be the height of Realism in acting is redefined in each generation. Brando, like Edwin Booth a hundred years before, was considered the most realistic actor of his time. And yet to see his performances now is to realize how stylized his performances really were by our standards now.

When the ancient Greeks prayed to their Gods what did it mean? I don't think we can know.

Jack Shalom

Right Jack!

Have a look at Peter Lorre in the film 'M'

-Jon