Tonight I watched a performer do a fairly verbatim presentation of a David Copperfield routine. This is nothing new. It was obviously more prevalent at the height of his popularity, but it persists in our field nonetheless.
The regular audience didn't know this of course. Non-magicians don't know when they are watching a cover band and when they are seeing original creations. The main reason for this is the fact most people are not exposed to magic on the regular, especially live. Unless they see the same props that are distinctive, (eg: linking rings), they won't know they are seeing something that is not unique to that performer.
After watching this, I wondered how doing someone else's act and taking their praise as your own can be fulfilling? Then I realized this kind of performance is the original artificial intelligence. You think you are doing a good job by taking the work of other people and claiming it as your own. You think the applause is for you when you put in almost no creative effort. It's a mediocre product made by a mediocre person.
The people who make "art" that is a poor copy of someone else don't care because in their mind the applause is for them when all they did was sing a cover song to an audience who hadn't heard the original and has no idea it's not theirs. All they hear is the applause and think they are doing a good job. Their bad behavior has been rewarded and justified when in reality they just watched a video and copied it poorly.
Yes there are many rooms in the house of magic, but maybe there should be a separate house for the imitators. If the domicile we put them in looks the same as the original house, they won't even know they are sequestered away and they can all just steal from each other in one big magic circle jerk.
A boy can dream...
