Gary Hardy-Brown and Paul Hardy-Brown (according to facebook as the last names are not on their website) are the two identical twin illusionists from England. Here is their website. Following now is a nice little video that Marco Tempest linked to in an email he wrote. (BTW: I wonder how in the world I ended up on Marco's emailing list.)
I am not going into the thievery aspect of it. The video does a pretty good job doing that. No what I am wondering about is this: If those guys are identical twins and they are into illusions, why the hell do they reveal the fact that they have an identical twin? If we only knew about one, the show would have so much more possibilities. Have they watched the movie "The Prestige"?
OK, OK... just kidding of course I will mention the aspect of theft. Did the brothers really think they can get away with that unnoticed? And when caught they actually denied it. When asked by Marco Tempest they replied: "We are both disappointed and sorry that you thought we have used/copied some of your ideas. [...] The footage you speak about was just us 'playing around with video media' with some new/old ideas, but you seem to have laid claim to these!"
Hilarious. I know it is part of the magicians job to lie, but this is a bad lie. The footage is just too similar to have come up with independently. Look at the video, at 1:12 you see Marco Tempest holding a sign saying: "Did you see it grow?" at 1:19 you see one of the twins holding up a sign using the exact same words. The rip off cannot be more blatant.
Oh boy, I wish this sort of derisive conduct would be a new thing in magic. But unfortunately it is not. Especially in the illusion category.
Hmmm, it's common for magicians to perform something someone else came up with. If we didn't, it would be almost pointless to publish. That said, the fact there was no creative difference in the performance and the fact the flat out denied using Tempest's effect makes them pretty good fail candidates. If only they admitted they copied it, I wouldn't have had a problem with it.
ReplyDeleteI tried to talk to these Brüno lookalike's back-stage at the "World Magic Awards 2009", trying to solicit an apology and learn what kind of moronic strategy they where perusing. Had no luck... They insist that they have come up with carbon copies of my work completely independent from ever seeing me perform. WTF? Somebody please sponsor to have their heads examined (and to have their hair rearranged).
ReplyDeleteI guess a little comparison video was in place to get the discussion going on "theft and imitation" and to add some drama to their rather dull career.