Connection lost...

 This is an open letter to all magicians,

Almost all magicians should avoid using AI for your promotional materials.

Did you skoff at this edict? Good. That means you are paying attention so let me tell you why...

A long time ago, much longer now than it seems, business cards and websites were expensive for various reasons. To get a proper business card made and designed was pricey as was to have a proper website designed. It took time, money, and skill to have those promotional materials made for you and the people who had the funds to get the stuff made were working professionals.(or semi-pros with real jobs)

Enter Vistaprint. Quick and cheap credentials at your fingertips. Any huckster could get business cards to legitimize their schemes. There were even kiosks in malls to get them knocked out fast. This let any two-bit amateur have a piece of paper that said "professional" on it for pennies compared to getting it done professionally. I am sure many people were scammed because of some Hollywood "producer" back then. 

 Then came Wordpress. This allowed industrious people with no skill to charge hand coded website prices for just slapping on a free template and undercut people who knew how to actually make a website by hand. Later on Wix did the same thing and made it even easier. Many magicians had a website with the "powered by Wix" tag at the bottom because they didn't want to pay for a proper website and went the "free" route.

What's my point you ponder? Eventually enough people were able to spot the difference between a professional product and a cheap imitation. Anyone with a flimsy templated business card or website had people second guessing their legitimacy. If the promotional material was cheap how good could the performer be? Were they faking it til' they were making it? In most cases... yes. Yes they were. Today it is less of an issue because the tools got better and more commonplace as well as the costs came down. Those examples were, thankfully, in a very niche place. They served one purpose. 

This is where AI comes in. It is FAR more pervasive because it fills many holes (giggity). It ranges from searching, to writing, to art, to coding, and beyond. The one thing AI and the previously mentioned examples have in common is they allow(ed) mediocre people to make mediocre things. People with no training or credentials could suddenly be "legitimate". This kind of evolution can be dangerous as it's already hard enough to cut through the cacophony of modern monetization.

 

 The reason I suggest that the modern magi think twice about using AI is thus:

1. People are already starting to be able to spot the use of AI because with no actual understanding of it, what is produced has a "look". The AI art style is very apparent and people will start to dismiss your promotional materials because of it. As I am oft to say, once one thing is suspect, everything is suspect. If you think that cartoon of you saved you a few bucks from hiring an actual artist, you have no idea how much in bookings you are losing because you come off as cheap and look like every other amateur using it.

2. Many magicians already have enough problems connecting with their audience due to lack of training and perhaps some social cue inhibiting genetics. What you DON'T need is something else thinking for you that ALSO doesn't connect with people. It's like the AI leading the blind. If you have no understanding of your tools, don't expect it to produce something that will make up for your experience deficit. It's like staring at your circular saw on the bench and wondering why it's not making you a table already. 

 The term "AI Slop" exists for a reason, and when you start using it to promote your show, business, etc you will get lumped in with that slop. Do it the right way and hire a professional. Obviously that is harder and harder due to the things I have mentioned above, but that is where recommendations and asking friends comes in. Do it right or reap the rewards of doing it the lazy cheap way. Up to you. 

Do the work and think for yourself...

Distinction matters...

 Over on FB, Luna Shimada made a post giving the history of her father's Parasol act and how it differs from the modern umbrella act. I asked her if I could share it here and she graciously said yes. So if you are into some history, kick right back and you'll hear a tale... 

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In 1968 my family and I were traveling all over the world and we ended up in Mexico City. It was my mother’s idea to create a magic act that drew on my father’s Japanese culture. So they went back to Japan and purchased a number of traditional Japanese paper parasols and materials.

Japanese parasols are different from the umbrellas many magicians use today. They are made of paper and bamboo, sometimes silk. This distinction is important.

 

My parents began creating what became their very original parasol manipulation act. Up to that point nobody in the world had really seen anything quite like it.

 

My father had been performing a dove act when he met my mother, and at that time many acts followed what magicians call the diminish and return concept. A particular object, whether it was a bird, a bottle, or something else, would be the recurring theme throughout the act, multiplying, vanishing, and reappearing in different ways. That structure was very common in magic of that era.

 

My mother thought, you produce all these doves, why not parasols. They are larger, more visual, connected to your culture, and artistically beautiful. It was a natural evolution of the diminish and return idea, but expressed through Japanese imagery and aesthetics.

That was the beginning of something entirely new.

 

 

The act quickly took them across international stages and gained attention and recognition. When they returned to Japan and performed it on national television, a young magician approached them. He had been inspired by their parasol act and asked if it would be acceptable for him to develop a version of the idea in Western style, performing in tails and producing Western rain umbrellas rather than Japanese parasols.

 

At the time my parents thought it was an interesting concept, though artistically quite different. Producing rain umbrellas did not carry the same cultural aesthetic as traditional parasols. But they were artists, not territorial people, and they did not see it as competition. So they gave their blessing.

 

That young magician was Fukai.

 

Fukai went on to develop what became the well known umbrella manipulation act using specially designed umbrellas that are much smaller than traditional parasols. Because these umbrellas were engineered specifically for magicians and later manufactured and distributed within the magic community, the umbrella act became extremely popular and widely performed.

 

The important historical point is this. The Shimada Japanese parasol act came first. Fukai’s umbrella act was inspired by that original concept but adapted into a Western performance style with different props, music, and staging. It is not THE parasol act. It is a parasol act adjacent utilizing different materials. 

Japanese parasols and Fukai umbrellas are actually very different instruments. Parasols are larger, more rigid, and do not collapse nearly as small as the umbrellas designed for manipulation. Working with them requires a different handling and stage presence.

 

And just to be clear, there has never been any conflict between our families. I have great respect for Fukai and Kimika. They are wonderful people and my parents were fond of them as well. Our paths simply developed in different directions.

 

Fukai chose to manufacture and share his umbrellas widely with the magic community.

The Shimada family took a different path. Our handling and techniques were passed down through personal mentorship, teacher to student, in order to preserve the integrity, history, and lineage of the act.

 

Many years later, I went on to create my own parasol act that was drawing on the traditions of my father's act, but I modernized it, re-conceptualize the presentation, and even created my own techniques which needed to evolve due to different costuming and different criterias. This version of the parasol act became solely my own creation and skill set. I took my father's work and adapted it to my own style..

 

 

Still using the traditional Japanese parasols, though not umbrellas.

Today many magicians refer to umbrella manipulation as the parasol act, but technically speaking they are not the same thing at all. To most performers it may seem like a small semantic difference.

 

But to artists and to magic history the distinction matters.

 

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As a side note, I always liked Luna's Parasol act as it had a subtle story of a universe being created and I thought that was cool. She also has shared some of how the act worked over the years and there is some clever stuff in it.