People love lists. A personal list. You may disagree!
5. Simon Lovell, for dealing with Magic Makers!
Simon Lovell is an interesting fellow. When seeing his material I see a hint of genius... A hint of, not genius itself. It always feels he is not showing how great he truly can be. And that makes him interesting. However he made a deal with the devil more than once. This time: Magic Makers. As you all know Magic Makers is the company that has some peculiar timing when it comes to releasing magic. Usually after a product hits it well on the market, Magic Makers comes out with a similar product, crediting very old sources to prove that their release is not a rip off. It is a mystery to me, why Simon Lovell deals with such folk. Also, he won a Merlin. It should be a sign of a good magician to openly refuse accepting the Merlin.
4. Harry Lorayne, for becoming so full of himself, that his shadow is way longer than the man!
It is no secret that Harry Lorayne's ego is way bigger than Harry Lorayne. This can work in ones favor. Dai Vernon and Ed Marlo are good examples. But not so much in the case of Harry Lorayne. His contributions to magic are numerous, yet tooting your own horn for so long becomes a tenuous experience for the others. Just look over at the Green Monster; Every single post is advertisement for his books. There is no helpful contribution whatsoever. So why post then, if you have nothing to offer? In addition to that, Harry is a master of adoring himself with borrowed plumes. Publishing other peoples material he has managed to make his name pop out more than the ones he is writing about.
3. Jerry Sadowitz, for adding no more!
I love his material. His card magic is among the finest you can find. Well thought out, clever methods, devious plots. And there is this ever growing hate of Jerry Sadowitz towards the magic community. He got betrayed in the past, people stole his material and I can understand how the hate started. So it is natural that he is not offering any more ideas to the magic world. I get that. But I am disappointed that a brilliant mind refuses to spark his ideas around in the hope that it might ignite another flame of brilliance by another magician. Understandable? Yes! Still sad though!
2. Gary Kurtz, for not returning to magic!
He is one of the many talented magicians who has turned to the other side doing mentalism. And he does it quite well. Yet his magic was great and so magic lost one of the great makers of magic ideas. And lately he has dropped of the edge of the world completely. His website has serious functionality issues. Videos and pictures are not working. So what happened?
1. Jay Sankey, for having sold out completely!
Yes he did! Jay has realized that he can make a lot more money selling to kids than selling to magicians. And that makes me sad. Money seems to bring out the worst in humans. Something is broken with Jay. I really hope he gets it fixed as I still think he still has the creativity and the potential to become even more than he already is. In my act I use three Jay Sankey routines. Three! That's more than any other artist.
1. Simon Lovell's contribution to the Erdnase project is enough to mark him down as a major asshole for good. He is either a clueless idiot or a shameless liar. Perhaps both.
ReplyDelete2. In terms of the ratio of contribution to ego, Vernon had the smallest ego I have ever encountered in any walk of life.
3. Ironically, as much as I admire him, Sadowitz seems to have an ego that is right up there with Harry. Albeit with a little more substance to back it up, and a lot less cuntiness in expressing it.
4. Gary Kurtz wrote one of the most underrated books in all of magic - Leading with your Head. In it he spells out the details of the philosophy and approach that is more subtly conveyed in Erdnase.
5. Sankey... meh.
Enjoyable post
ReplyDeleteAs said before Sankey wants to sell magic not to only magicians but kids too and someday lay people as well
its all about business and expanding ones customers circle :p