"Okay, what's he done now" you're asking! Well Scam School of course. So he exposed the Grands "Million Dollar"-bill mystery from the Tarbell books. "So what?" I hear you saying. "We have come to accept that this little turd reveals magic principles that he didn't come up with." I tell you this:HE REVEALS STUFF HE DIDN'T COME UP WITH!. He has no permission to reveal it to the masses. That fucktard didn't even change a bloody thing about it.
Look Mr. Brushwood. You are free to spoil any magic you created. If it builds of the the creativity and genuis of others so be it. But do not, DO NOT, reveal it for the sake of revealing it.
I really don't know how much pressure is really is to come up with new material for a regular show. But if it forces you to fuck magic in the ass. A craft you seem to love, then you have gone too far.
I really have no idea how you justify this! I really would like to know.
I'm going ape shit here, because I do have this particular trick in my act. And I think it is one of those cool little gems that is so great, because it is so great on going around the intuitive solution. This is good magic. And you fucked it all. In the ass. Anal rapist Brushwood.
The thing is. You have a likable personality. You may even be the nicest guy around. But you are not doing magic a favour by doing what you do.
I saw a long stage show of yours on frauds and fakes. That was good. You spoilt nothing, yet you managed to entertain. But this recent outburst of exposure of yours is no better than the Masked Magician.
Asshole!
Maybe it is time to fight fire with fire and expose his book test he sells for $500. See how he feels about that. I'm guessing he would not like at all.
ReplyDeleteOkay I really do not think we should expose it but you really have to wonder how he would feel about it.
include that dumbass called jarek disturb reality he really needs a couple of bullets in the eyes
ReplyDeleteThere is a thread on the T11 forums where Brian defends his actions saying that Youtube is the better version of the library. Also people who know how the tricks are done are robbed of the joy of being fooled. Sorry some people want to know because it is in their personality to have to know everything and couldn't care less about the loss of wonder.
ReplyDeleteyoutube would be the modern library if traditional libraries were filled with books written by illiterates who were trying to remember what they read in original books written by experienced, knowledgeable authors.
ReplyDeleteWhat I said to him was....
ReplyDeleteAs for why youtube isn't a library or what ever is better than a library is the fact i have never gone to a library only to find some books about the Cincinnati Reds blank because some arbitrary bot came in claiming copyright on everything with the words Reds and Cincinnati. even if the book had the rights to write about the team. The library does not have blank books on birds because a record company claimed that the bird singing in the background was copyrighted music. Also when you go to the library you do not have trolls grabbing a book yelling first or trying to tell me how fat my mother is or how I like to have relations with people of the same sex.
So no youtube is not a library or better than a library.
I kinda have to agree with this one. Invisible deck I was very whatever with. It's far too widely sold and known. I do it but I can tell you that the way I perform it won't be recognized to the way he taught it.
ReplyDeleteThis however is something that one would have to DIG for to find and is in the working repertoire of various magicians (Harry Anderson included). Yes ID is too but if someone busts you for using because of him, then maybe you need to have a better presentation.
As for the YT is like a library comment... uh no. You have to get off your lazy ass to go to a library.
Bit of misinformation to clear up here. Let's start with the bill trick:
ReplyDeleteThe effect presented came from Karl Fulves's mass-marketed paperback "Self Working Mental Magic," (it was effect #28).
If it was good enough for Fulves to sell to cub scouts, it seemed good enough for the 6-year, 300-session veterans of Scam School. (Though I did make sure that no living person ownded the rights to the method).
At this point, Scam School students have studied magic longer than most people have gone to college.
As for the discussion of YouTube being a library, here's the letter I wrote that explains such. (I'd like very much to hear what you find wrong with my logic below.) The full exchange can be found here: https://plus.google.com/100984061622671020032/posts/3ncmupPoQVC
(for those who need context, Michael Ammar gave me permission to teach the Crazy Man's Handcuffs, and one viewer thought it was "too good", the effect available "too cheap" and that the net effect was "ruining magic.") Here's what I wrote in response.
Hi Stuart!
If it makes you feel any better, these are the exact complaints I heard about Michael Ammar's "Easy to Master Card Miracles" VHS tapes 20 years ago. The magic was "too good," the format "cheapened the art", and they were far too easily available to non magicians.
Nobody says that anymore.
I understand these are crazy times for magic, but YouTube is the greatest educational library of tutorials in the history of mankind. And it is a library. YouTube is where we go to learn how to change a tire, apply makeup, dance, snowboard, give CPR, and (yes), learn a really good magic trick.
Both the IBM and SAM have addressed the distinction between "teaching" and "exposure," and their conclusion was that the difference was a deliberate, intentional act on the part of the prospect that indicates their desire to become a student of the art.
Notice they didn't say "you have to join a club to be a magician." They didn't say "you need to pay me 20 bucks to be a magician." They essentially said "You need to take a conscious and deliberate action to show that you are willing to give up tasting sugar, so that you can be sugar." And I think that's a pretty great way to handle it.
Scam School is not a television show, and there's not a single person who watches an episode by accident. Scam School is minting the next generation of magicians and hopefully teaching them respect for the craft and good presentational skills.
Personally, I think learning magic on YouTube is great. What's NOT great, and what I'm trying to fix with this episode, is the culture of magic piracy that's running rampant on YouTube. Magic desperately needs to reward our best creators, and they deserve to get paid for their works. This sense that it's okay to buy a DVD from Theory11 and then post your own tutorial of someone else's revenue-generating work has got to go.
Unfortunately I can't control other people, but I can control what we do on Scam School. This episode was all about giving proper credit where it was due, and I feel really good about it.
Anytime we teach a trick, if there's a single living person who owns the rights, we get permission directly from them. This is how we featured material from Banachek, Michael Ammar, Diamond Jim Tyler, Dan Martin, Danny Garcia, Rich Ferguson, Robert Strong, Andrew Mayne, Robert Neale, and Martin Gardner (who I got to meet and discuss Scam School with before his passing).
My hope is that if we can create a culture of appreciation for our art, and gratitude for those pushing it forward, maybe we can create the same culture of self-policing that has kept thieves and knockoff-artists in the fringes of magic for the past centuries.
I suspect this won't change your position, but I respect you enough that I thought I'd clarify mine.
Best,
Brian Brushwood
Again why it is not a library...
ReplyDeleteAs for why youtube isn't a library or what ever is better than a library is the fact i have never gone to a library only to find some books about the Cincinnati Reds blank because some arbitrary bot came in claiming copyright on everything with the words Reds and Cincinnati. even if the book had the rights to write about the team. The library does not have blank books on birds because a record company claimed that the bird singing in the background was copyrighted music. Also when you go to the library you do not have trolls grabbing a book yelling first or trying to tell me how fat my mother is or how I like to have relations with people of the same sex.
So no youtube is not a library or better than a library and it is certanly not the greatest. Any 13 year old with a webcam can make a video and post it. There is no filter for good or bad. It was everyone who wants to. SO you are shotgunning shit at a wall and well there is a ton of shit stuck to youtube wall. Really people learning CPR from youtube? I pray I never need CPR from someone who learned it from little Billy on youtube.
You want to learn a really good magic trick, why go to youtube? Know what you find on youtube? Fourteen year olds who just got the latest thing off the wire trying to teach it begging for likes and subs. They only reason they are showing how it's done is to get subs and likes. They can't talk to real people. That is why when they get something that cost more than $10 they won't expose it. Or they use the title of something killer with the words exposed only to say they arne;t going to show it they just want you to like and sub.
Now lets talk about this part...
"Both the IBM and SAM have addressed the distinction between "teaching" and "exposure," and their conclusion was that the difference was a deliberate, intentional act on the part of the prospect that indicates their desire to become a student of the art.
Notice they didn't say "you have to join a club to be a magician." They didn't say "you need to pay me 20 bucks to be a magician." They essentially said "You need to take a conscious and deliberate action to show that you are willing to give up tasting sugar, so that you can be sugar." And I think that's a pretty great way to handle it.?
You know there are people who could give two shits about giving up the wonder, they just can't stand not knowing how it's done. They are the people who can;t stand that others are in the spotlight for two minutes and they want to blurt out how it is done. They are the buzz kills at parties like ass clown...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1ExAg8XHCY
Youtube is part of the problem. They see you doing it and think "Well this is how I can get likes and subs." They want fame, even if it is on the internet and they see your show as a way for them to get there. So they pull out the card get their junk in frame and make an exposure video.
You say is a living person hold the rights, do the people who own the publishing rights not count? You say they shouldn't by a DVD from T11 and then make their own video on how it is done, but you are doing the same thing by teaching things from books that some company still owns the publishing rights to. There is a large chunk of people under thirty who thinks everything should be free and on the internet. No living person hold the rights to the book test. How would you feel if they started making videos called Book Test exposed as seen om Scam School?
Finally to the point about people bitching about the Ammar videos in the 90's?
I was in magic when the Easy to Master VHS first came out. I do not remember hearing one person at Glass City or Magi Fest talk about how it cheapened the art. I remember every magician I knew in the Ring and at the Rings we visited having copies of Easy to Master Cards and Money. They had full sets of the McBride tapes and the other tapes L&L were putting out.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Brian in that what he does is not exposure. Most of the tricks he teaches are dead simple. If some guy in your audience blurts out how you did a trick, it will be your responsibility. It doesn't matter if he found out through a free resource like YouTube, if he bought a DVD, found it in a book, or if your performance simply wasn't deceptive enough. Why doesn't it matter? Because in any event, you're still stuck with an awful audience member. Now you can attempt to avoid this with better versions and performances of your trick. However, you will have to ultimately work on crowd control. Being upset about how YouTube works and ranting about it on a random forum isn't going to change anything. Like it or not, this IS how the world works. If anything, people like Brian should push you to become a better magician and perform new and better effects. Without them, the magic community can stay stagnant and perform the same tricks the same way and no-one would be the wiser.
ReplyDeleteThese are simply my opinions. Please feel free to disagree.
With All Due Respect,
Nathan Hight
I agree with Brian in that what he does is not exposure. Most of the tricks he teaches are dead simple. If some guy in your audience blurts out how you did a trick, it will be your responsibility. It doesn't matter if he found out through a free resource like YouTube, if he bought a DVD, found it in a book, or if your performance simply wasn't deceptive enough. Why doesn't it matter? Because in any event, you're still stuck with an awful audience member. Now you can attempt to avoid this with better versions and performances of your trick. However, you will have to ultimately work on crowd control. Being upset about how YouTube works and ranting about it on a random forum isn't going to change anything. Like it or not, this IS how the world works. If anything, people like Brian should push you to become a better magician and perform new and better effects. Without them, the magic community can stay stagnant and perform the same tricks the same way and no-one would be the wiser.
ReplyDeleteThese are simply my opinions. Please feel free to disagree.
With All Due Respect,
Nathan Hight
So showing how something works, like say the Invisible deck, in an open public forum is not exposure. And because someone only knows how the ID works because Brushwood showed it on youtube is my fault? It's my fault that some kid who can't talk to people or are so desperate for attention and trying to become youtube famous is my fault? You know this is not a new problem, but how people can do it is new.
ReplyDeleteThen you have something like Jay Sankey showing how to do Angle Z claiming he came up with it in a year after madison published it. Then just kept showing it on youtube free of charge.
Know what happens when people start showing how stuff is done? The creative types stop sharing with the larger magic community and goes back to how it was just a few years ago. Only showing at conventions or little gatherings. What happens in the random youtube magician or those who only buy the latest and the greatest thing become stagnate, not the working pros. Not the ones who still hold onto that magic workings should be kept secret.
Let me share something with you from 1898...
"Don't Give It Away" Sargent The Merry Wizard
Mahatma May 1898
I notice with regret a tendency among
magicians of a certain class, to select some
trick o£ minor importance and to expose the
secret to their audience. Now this is not
only extremely bad art, but in many ways
it militates directly against the performer
who indulges in such questionable methods.
In the first place, when the audience find
how easily they have been deceived, they
imagine that all tricks are of the same nature
and give the performer no credit for being
skillful
My pupils often say to me that they have seen magicians win a
laugh or applause by this kind of work, but the man who has to resort
to that method to gain applause is in the wrong business.
Many excuses are offered by these men, the favorite one being
that others do the same thing. Granted, but are they the highest
^ype of magicians ? Are they the successful ones, and if so, have
they succeeded on account of this kind of work, or in spite of it ?
That is, have they so many good points that this weakness is forgivable
in them ? If such is the ease it seems to me that it were far
better to imitate what is best in their work, rather than to perpetuate
their weaknesses, if, indeed, it is necessary to imitate at all, which I
am by no means willing to allow.