Example. I saw a magician doing a terrible presentation of 2ITH1ITP. With sponge balls. The execution of the sleights was horrible and the patter. I thought that he completely trusted in the fact that the build in structure of the basic routine will save him in the end. Turns out it wasn't the case. He actually thought his sleights were deceptive. He actually thought he fooled everyone. How do you tell a delusional person that they are in a delusion? You can't! Outside of the delusional bubble it is easy to see what is wrong. But inside you are unable to.
Like telling a Christian that his believe in an omnipotent power, that knows all about you and that takes care of you, as long as you are nice, is nothing more that the belief of a child that Santa Claus is real.
So in this case I gave up telling him, that if he would close his hand a little later it would be a better sleight. I didn't tell him that referring to the sponge balls as tomatoes is not a good way to go. Because even if he improved upon that routine he wouldn't get magic.
Over the weeks I have met several of these people. And I finally understood. Among the tons of painters out there, there is is only one who is an artist. But a huge fuck ton of those painters would claim they are artists and they would honestly believe it. You could hold an abstract painting of Piet Mondrian next to their version of cubes and lines. They wouldn't see the difference.
They paint something abstract and would call it up to part with Picasso. The fact that Picasso had a classical education as a painter and that his skills as a 14-year-old was alongside the renaissance painters does not matter to them. Their work is the same.
So we see a magician attempting a Color Changing Silk routine with the patter of Billy McComb failing in both regards.
Failing to get the routine right, and failing to see that they failed to get it right.
So I decided to do my part. I will not feed these people anymore. No more free magic from me. No Christmas presents for you. Andrew: You were right!
Welcome to the club.
ReplyDeleteIt is things like this why I stay away from Ring meetings. I know there are some good people there and I send young magicians to he meetings to talk to those I trust but like 90% of them are either terabads who think they are the second coming of Slydini or they lift your stuff word for word.
ReplyDeleteIt is these people who take gigs and have not clue what to do. They will come to your gig and then start handing out their cards or start doing bad versions of the same effects you are doing. These are the same people who when they go from effect to effect their style changes because they are doing the patter word for word. Never making the effect their own.
Than again we should be ready for a whole new crop of David Blaine clones since he has a new special on TV in the US tonight. I prey this is just a dark time in our profession and art. Maybe those of us who really care and love this thing we do will out number the YouTube kids and the Madison clones. That we can make magic what it was before E and T11 came along.
That is a great pity - I enjoy your material a great deal. These people have always been with us - from magic clubs and the library at school, where they went straight from reading a routine in a book to attempting to perform it with no practice or any idea of making a trick their own.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time I had hoped that with easy access to good performances by pros on youtube etc, the standard may have lifted. Instead, what appears to happen is that people see a trick they like, find some 10th rate 'revealer' on youtube and then base their copy of a good trick on the paltry skills and routining of the revealer.
It is discouraging, but I'm sad to see that it has discouraged you.
ive been saying this for like how long? the last 5 years i think :)
ReplyDeleteI never liked magicians anyway and Andrew was right all along
Greetings from Malaysia. One of the many weird visitors you have (from one of the previous post you made)
ReplyDeleteA sad thing to hear that you will no longer be writing publicly. I learnt quite a number of things from your blog. If not for your blog, I wouldn't be exposed to other great blogs such as the ones you've listed on the right side of your site.
Thank you and take care.
None of this is new, at all. I got into magic back in the late 70s and it was this way then, and I kinda fell out of it. Tried again in the 80s, same things. I stayed away this last time for a good many years. On a recent trip to the magic castle I got re-bitten, and find myself in a world of the same things, and same people, only now with youtube and blogs and internet sales, and the invention of the DVD. None of the problems you talk about are new in any way, just that soapboxes and podiums are now so much easier to come by. As I get back into magic it seems like these great sources I have just found - like you, and like The Burnaby Kid - are going away. I just hope that I can find some sort of like minded and trustworthy people out there to talk to about this stuff. I don't plan to back away from magic again, but it's sad (although I guess not surprising) that so little has changed.
ReplyDeletethis some real talk Im starting to really enjoy this blog
ReplyDeletebtw I just discovered this blog I dont know how I missed it all this time :)
I have been reading your blogs for a while now (admittedly, more stalking than participating), and I really enjoy them. I completely get where you're coming from. Hope you'll consider aging me to the list for "Weekly Magic" and SSMB.
ReplyDelete