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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
I understand rage baiting is all the... rage.. nowadays and a seemingly surefire way to get people to engage with your, I'll be nice and call it "content", but it looks like you don't know how your own craft works.
If I was a client looking for someone to hire for whatever magical reason, I sure wouldn't go with the person who seems to not know how their own tricks works. Now if you were posting someone else's work saying the same things, that's a different matter but... IT'S CLEARLY YOU IN THE VIDEOS!
Please stop doing this, you're better than that...
One of the things I am pretty proficient at is finding ways to make various things, both physical and technological, do stuff it wasn't intended for.
"Just like Michelangelo saw the angel in the stone, I look at a guy like Kevin Costner and see a giant peach grub who can fart the Blue Danube!" - Elijah C. Skuggs
Much like Karl Marx, I tend to believe the means of production should be in the hands of the people, at least when it comes to selling your own magic products. Obviously not everyone has that desire or ability but for those that do, here is a hot tip for all of you.
In an attempt to move into the modern age I decided to make a lot of my DVDs into downloadable videos. To do this I looked into various shopping cart software that wouldn't ding me left and right and that is when I found the company Vibralogix. They have a few code based programs and one of them is called "Vibracart Pro".
One of the many things you can do with this program is send a download to someone in case something messes up or you just need to send a gift to someone. I realized that it generates a unique download code every time you do this. I realized I could use this to make download slips for my physical products that I sell in my lecture. It also lets me control how many times the download can be accessed and how long until it self destructs. When combined with something like a Tinyurl shortener, I can print out slips and even have QR codes. I made a video below to show you just how easy it is!
Why is this important you ask? It adds another layer to prevent theft. Obviously once one person has it, they can send/give it to their friends and there isn't much you can do about that. However, this prevents them from just sharing the download link as if it was a password protected YT or Vimeo link. This adds an extra step which might deter some since it has a download limit.
It will take some set-up but the manual is very robust and yes, they do have a Wordpress plugin to interface with the backend if you prefer that. The nice thing is you never have to implement the shopping cart anywhere if you just need the codes. (I've even used this shopping cart as a personal materials calculator for our escape room company on a private page)
There are places like Amazon that can also kind of do this, but you have to give them money and for a bit more effort, you get to retain control over everything.
If that's your kind of kink, then you might just like this set-up.
Vegas is a small community and we all mostly know each other. If someone needs to know something we can get hold of each other pretty easy. Obviously in the rest of the world not stuck in the middle of a desert, it's different. One thing we talk a lot about when we gather is on the subject of creating and crediting. Obviously independent thought happens all the time. Collective conscious and all that jazz.
However, I just would like to say to everyone who thinks that creating something in a vacuum without seeing someone else's idea gives you the right to publish or sell it...
IT F$%#ING DOESN'T!!
I don't care if a biblically accurate angel came to you on a DMT bender one night and graced your mind with this golden idea, if you didn't create it first, IT'S NOT YOURS!
"What about things like UBER and Lyft?" That's a service, not an art.
"Well Coke and RC cola..." That's a product, not an art.
"What about..." I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR BULLSHIT WHATABOUT-ISMS THAT YOU TELL YOURSELF THAT CONVINCE YOU IT'S OK!
If you don't get permission from the originator, you are stealing. Plain and simple. All you have to do is reach out and ask for their blessing. Usually they will just ask for credit. Sometimes they will say no and if they say NO, stay... the fugg... away from it. Sometimes you can partner up with them to improve and collaborate on it. Hey great!
To all of you armchair dickbags on internet forums, the moment I hear any of you say "Well no one owns ideas and blah blah blah" all I ever think is "Spoken like someone who has never created anything good in their life". Take your cover band ass to the back of the line.
If someone says to you, "Oh that's like so-and so's thing..." and you don't reach out to the originator, then you KNOW you are in the wrong and just don't wanna be told so. That's your inner Jimminy Cricket telling you you're a POS you're ignoring. Just listen to it and...
Having something be a "hit" in today's world is a double edged sword. You get a bump of clout, but you also get a slew of idiots coming up behind you to steal and expose your creations on the internet.
Knock-offs have been running rampant through our industry for some time obviously but it always baffles me when I see anyone defending it. I'll see other magicians in the comments taking the side of the thieves and ex-posers. This even happens in private magic forums! Some tourists defend shitty behavior and I am here to say something to ANY of you I see doing that, no matter where it is...
D-E-D
When I see someone defending the theft of another's creation without their consent or permission all I think to myself is, "Spoken like someone who has never created a thing in their life". I am sure our paths will never cross but you better HOPE I don't recognize you if we ever do. You are not a magician, you are a slug doing card tricks and the way you interact with others online tells me plenty about you and your mindset and I'm pretty sure we won't get along.
So take your idiotic "hot takes" and edgy comments and let them wash over you in your mediocrity. You will never be viewed as a professional until you wise up (and that might be fine with you) but don't go around bitching about people who want to take the art seriously when they chide and ignore your dumb ass after you make asinine comments about how theft and exposure is ok.
When the topic of exposure in magic comes up you get some really interesting "counter-arguments" from, not only the people doing it, but also.... apologizers? It's wild. They almost all say, "Why was it ok for this person(s) to do it" or, "What about magic shops, libraries, etc?".
It is a tough argument. Why is THIS ok:
But when certain other individuals on social media do it, it's not ok? Why is it ok for Mac King to teach magic on a national TV show or what about the masked magician guy?
These are all fair points. Here are a few counter-arguments:
1. They have a better gaming chair - In the case of P&T, it was done VERY well. It was done as entertainment. It was also something they created so they have the right to "expose" it. They are making fun of magic as a whole, not exposing any one particular effect. There is NOTHING in the current magic world that remotely looks like that. Sure, there are elements at play that one could say "That's close enough to other things" but here is the other part to it.
It's being done as a parody and when you "hide it in comedy" people dismiss it. You can show how something works, but then negate that with a different method. People are simple creatures and yes, while the phrase "if someone thinks they know 10% of how something works, then they think they know 100% of it" is viable, in a case like this, they will never see anything like this done by other magicians in this exact way.
Now, I would be remiss in not talking about the time P&T exposed how a thumbtip worked on national TV but that brings me to my next point...
2. Choice - This is the big one and I think the one that lays these lame what-about-isms to rest once and for all.
In ALL examples made of why one is ok but another is not, there is always a choice being made. You are warned up front about what is going to happen or are given enough time or warning that you are about to learn something you might not want to know. "Secrets Revealed" showed you how everything looked first and then TOLD you they were about to show you. You could leave the room, change the channel, mute the TV, put a change bag over your head, or otherwise avert thine gaze.
If you want to learn a magic trick from a store, you have to first make the choice to WALK in that store and engage with that person and then DECIDE to give them your money. Library? Sure, you have to walk in and go to 798.3 and crack open a book and actively look up that info.
Social media exposure is the equivalent of someone running up to you on the street and showing you how a Tenyo trick works and then running away. You have no time to react, you were not searching that out, you were a hostage in that situation. Sure the person is actively searching out videos to distract themselves from their dreary day, but in the world of randomly curated videos and auto-play, that info gets fed at a lightning pace and the "secret" is usually shown in the first few seconds so by the time you realize what the video is, it's too late.
One last thought: This goes back to the P&T video. A lot of times the things people get mad about is the exposure of products others are actively using. It's not THEIR creation to expose. (weird how the people showing how things work, don't expose their OWN creations isn't it?) Imagine that instead of showing how something like vanishing flowers worked, you just created your own version that worked similarly, but wasn't that EXACT prop.
People only know what they see and if the argument is "It's just entertainment man!" then change the prop to resemble something else. You can still "entertain" with something you made instead of something other people are using. Could it be, putting in that extra inch of effort is just too much? Could it be they are just lazy? Maybe for all their talk of "evolving the art" and people need to "get over it" they are just doing it for a paycheck and don't actually give a damn about art at all?
The world may never know...
(PS: I know I have not been very active on here over the years but I'm still around. My life is mainly filled with creating and building escape rooms now, but I still have some thoughts in the pipeline I hope to get to soon. Thanks for sticking around.)
Thievery in magic is nothing new. Hell, in the world it's pretty commonplace no matter what practice you engage in. I have encountered my fair share of sticky fingered fuckery and it's always amusing to hear the justification for such behavior.
Sometimes it's a legit case of independent creation. However, in the this digital age, it's pretty easy to debunk certain claims or at least cast a dubious light upon their statements.
When someone who has created something with or without the inspiration of someone else's hard work you tend to encounter two reactions to being told they have re-invented the wheel:
"I am so sorry. I had no idea. I will remove it/take it down/etc. How can I make this right?"
Or...
"Wellllllllll......"
Obviously, the first response is the favored one but it seems to be the more rare of the two. Have you ever heard someone joke about a magician saying "You use a red deck while I use a blue so they are totally different". Well, that is more than a jape my friends. The moment someone gets defensive, they move from "independent creator" to thief and should be treated as such.
If you are a creator who has been taken from does this little ditty sound familiar?
"I have had things stolen too so I know how you feel"
It's almost as if they think this gives them license to steal from others because of some sort of "dicked over club" you are all part of now. In a sane world, that statement would mean they know how much it sucks and don't want to do it to someone else, but when used as a battle tactic their deception becomes transparent.
What's worse is companies like Murphy's Magic have made it easy for a knock off effect to spread like wildfire before anything can be done about it.
Did you know most of the online magic shops have their stores tied directly to Murphy's database and when something new gets uploaded to the site it gets pushed out to ALL of these online shops instantly? Most of those online shops have NO idea what is listed on their site. You have to go to the source to get the infection removed and by the time they decide to contact you back (Anubis forbid it's a weekend) 100s of people have probably bought the stolen effect and is well on it's way to being exposed on youtube.
You see, you always give up something for convenience, and in this case it seems to be a bit of artistic integrity.
So what do you do when someone shows you their ass? That's kind of up to you. Naming and shaming is time and soul sucking. Ignoring it to prevent the "Streisand Effect" can work but that means the offending idea is in the wild. You can threaten bodily harm or litigation but that can come back to bite you in the ass. I sadly don't have an answer. Sometimes you can shut it down before too much is done, provided you have the right amount of evidence in your favor but even then the damage could already be done.
At the end of the day, it sucks no matter which way you slice it. Hopefully these words of "wisdom" have prepared you to be a little less taken aback if someone 5 finger discounts your work.It helps to know the warning signs and know you are not alone.
And if you have to punch someone in the face to feel better so be it.
The last year or so has been rough for magic to say the least. The world is eating our workers and I want to talk about one of them.
An Amazing Guy
I met Young Fred Gwynne Thom Peterson early on after moving to Vegas. He and his awesome wife Annabel was visiting and we chatted a bit at McBride's Wonderground. He was from MN and had moved to the UK so it was a rare sighting.
Right before the plague ship rolled into the USA, they had decided to move back to the states (good timing right?) and I got to see them a lot more, but looking back now, not nearly enough for my tastes.
Now you might be asking yourself, "Who the $%^#& is this guy?" and you'd be right to do so. Aside from being in another country, he was a worker. That means sometimes no one knows who you are because you are so busy doing private gigs and corporate work you don't get to show off publicly too much. He was underground in plain sight. His lecture was full of original ideas and presentations, great magic, and clever comedy. (He created a topit that allowed you to access your pockets and have it reset again for Anubis' sake and no one knows about it!)
Thom and Annabel moved to LA for a change but when you ask the universe for that, you need to be VERY specific or it might change your world for the worse. Back in March, Thom succumbed to something wicked that came his way leaving behind a grieving widow and a legacy of unknown and amazing magic (as well as the memories of a great funny smart guy).
I'd been meaning to write a post since the day he shook off his mortal coil but never found the right mood. I mourn not only the loss of his physical form, but the ideas that will never be, the laughs never to be had, or the late nights discussing the unforeseeable future.
A future that is a lot less amazing for those that knew him.
Today I bring you a pseudo-guest post.This was a previous post elsewhere by Lee Presson of "Lee Presson and the Nails" that I have obtained permission to re-post here. (Also don't forget to check out their music over here if you like bad ass swing music.)
Vermouth
"This is a tough one to try and describe, but I'll do my best. I've often compared research for any theatrical endeavor to the vermouth in a martini. You pour it in, you swish it around, you dump it out. Then you put in something completely different, be it gin or vodka, but the hint of that vermouth still remains. So with that metaphor in mind, let's take LPN as an example: I immersed myself in Jazz history, I learned as much about it as I could, I listened to as much of it as I could... and then I dumped it all out and tried to develop an original stage presentation. But the hint of all that history is still there, see? (also the 70 year-old songs help)
Or say, Edgar Allan Poe at Dickens Fair. I obviously can't play him as he actually was because this is supposed to be a Christmas fair... a CHEERY occasion! So, same thing... do the research, learn as much as I can, then toss it all and ask myself the following question: given what I know about this man, how would he behave at a party if he were given the chance to forget about his inner demons for just a few hours? I think he'd be grateful for the opportunity, and that's how I play him.
There are two ways to play a character. One is to pretend you're the character, and the other is to pretend the character is you. I choose the 2nd approach. Take the role and make it yours. Just don't forget the vermouth!"
A little bit of everything...
This is a great way to think about taking something and making it your own after learning about what has come before. The history of an art is import if for no other reason than to know you are not wasting your time re-creating someone else's wheel. It's also good to know the "Rules" of something so you can then bend, break, and discard the ones that don't apply to you or what you are doing.
The problems lies in those who don't think they don't need this knowledge and they end up being a pale comparison of something that came before them because they never bothered to research in a time when it's easier than it ever was.
The internet giveth and the internet taketh away. It has enabled some amazing things in our world but it has also created so many voids. For a few years now I have been lamenting the loss of journey and discovery and what it might be doing to future generations.
I am the last generation to not have internet and then have it. That means I have experienced wacky things like video rental locations, records stores, and and brick and mortar magic shops. You see, there was a time that when, if you wanted something, you had to leave your house to go procure it. If you didn't have a car you had to bug friends or family to get you there before they closed (or take public transit) and Anubis forbid they didn't have it and you had to go to another (and another, and another) store.
Never again will you discover new music while searching through piles of CDs for that ONE song you recorded onto a cassette tape from the radio. You will never know the JOY of standing in a Blockbuster Video for hours while your siblings fight with your parents over what movies to get. Long gone are the days of going into a badly lit treasure trove of magical offerings while some grumpy mage slings advice you don't want to hear but one day will be thankful they did.
We have lost something amazing without the act of the journey and discovery.
Everything is at our fingertips now and because of that so few things have any real value. You cherished that record or CD because you had to travel the realm and interact with the locals to get it. You had to slay that dragon called "the outside world" to find your treasures. Now so much is disposable and that includes magic.
The social media generation doesn't have to work hard to learn or obtain the secrets of our art so they treat it like everything else... disposable distractions. Without the experience of the journey and discovery they no longer put stock into it's importance hence it becomes another trivial and fleeting toy to be abandoned as quickly as they purchased it from their phone.
Sure, there are those who know the intrinsic value of certain things, magic or otherwise. However, they are currently outnumbered by those who vie for imaginary internet points and that quick hit of sweet, sweet dopamine. The joy of those thumbs up and views fade fast and they have to chew through material to get that high over and over. Who has time to sort through bins and shelves when you can tap a few buttons and be done with it?
So my advice to you is make more of an effort to go on adventures. Call up a friend, leave your house, and go on a journey to discover something new.
Today I am recovering from MAGIC Live here in Las Vegas. I only got about 20 minutes in the dealer's room to look around but I have seen some videos of random effects popping up. One such video got my usual reaction to the glut of the magic released nowadays... "So what?".
There are so many "minor miracles" released into the magic marketplace disguised as this HUGE thing. Sure in the right hands, almost anything can be a show stopper but how often does that happen? I'm getting kind of sick of seeing mediocre wizardry touted as amazing magic when the effect is basically only good as disposable video fodder.
Long gone are the days of performers putting in many, many hours to make sure an effect was as solid as it can be. This is not new of course, but it slowly seems to be now be the norm. Far too much is being released far too quick for a quick buck. I'm not saying everything I have ever released has been gold, but I at least gave it more than a week of gestation before putting it in people's hands.
Some of you might be too young to know, or remember, that there was a time in America where variety acts were well respected. There were TV shows that showcased their talent and didn't treat them like some second class citizen waiting to be exploited for clicks, views, or ratings.
Culture tends to be influenced by it's media. Clothing, hairstyles, and other trends come from what we consume. If the media doesn't respect the variety arts, then the general public doesn't tend to either.
Let's harken back to the days when programs like "The Ed Sullivan Show" would bring on people who spent YEARS perfecting a skill set and not for being "famous for nothing".
This is George Carl. One of the great Vaudeville clowns. Did I say clowns? Yes... yes I did. We equate clowns to those who sport facepaint and bright costumes, but there is a whole other kind of clown that doesn't need all that "finery". The physical comedian, the slapstick connoisseur, the... well... clown.
George Carl was a master of many things (as one had to be back then) and created a lot of gags and bits of business that have since passed on into the acts of others, whether they know it or not. As performers we should know what came before to appreciate what we have (or don't have) now and carry on the traditions of entertaining an audience with whatever we have on hand, be it our coats, our arms, or just ourselves.
I often wonder what it would have been like the first time someone saw a Nielsen bottle or Fantasio candle used. Things we take for granted but would have BLOWN OUR DAMN MINDS the first time they appeared on a stage.
Now imagine people seeing a trampoline for the first time.
Larry Griswold co-created the trampoline as we know it today and used it in his act. Can you imagine people going nuts for a trampoline or thinking "WTF is that thing?!".
Innovation and creation has to start somewhere. The mother of invention and all that. Who knows, maybe one day you will create something that will blow people minds.
Have you ever read "Showmanship For Magicians"? I don't blame you if not. Fitzkee can be a bit of a dense read. (Protip: Just skim the book and read the bolded and ALL CAPS text. It summarizes the important points and saves a LOT of time)
In the book he suggests that you watch other performers who are the top of their field. Not JUST magicians, but singers, comedians, actors, athletes, etc. See what they are doing and you are not.
With that in mind, I now want you to watch this video:
Observe his timing. Watch as things happen and he just keeps going like it's normal. He doesn't turn and mug to the audience. (He COULD if he was a different performer) He just plows through undaunted which makes it even funnier. It's these bits of business in the middle of exhibiting skill that makes the performance so good. Even if it's not your cup of whatever you drink, you can and SHOULD still appreciate what goes into doing an act such as this and entertaining a theater full of people.
The internet is full of performances like these. Over the next few weeks, I will share some of them with you.
While everyone is on social media talking about knowing Amazing Johnathan, let's talk about the man himself shall we?
For those who might not know, he recently passed away and it sent a shockwave through the Las Vegas magic world. Most know him for his stand up comedy and magic. A lucky bunch of us got to know him on a personal level. Unlike other celebrities in our profession who kind of hide away and keep to their own little inner cliques, AJ was very giving with his time and information. His circle of friends and family grew every year because he liked to have fun and do silly things with silly people.
Since he left this mortal plane, many of us have been talking about his legacy and what he has left behind. His body of work was vast and while he has been stolen from by countless hacks, no one has ever really been able to follow in his footsteps. I think the reason for that is that no one could. He was a truly unique animal that came into the entertainment world at the right time and place.
His biggest influence on the world of magic was that he gave permission to all of the rest of us who wanted to do something different. His material spoke to many of us and said, "It's ok to be weird and do outlandish things in the name of fun! Magic is a tool and doesn't have to the be the focus.".
For all of us touched by his noodley appendage, I think it's our duty to keep that going and let future performers know it's ok to take the piss out of magic and be a little over the top, even when the world might not embrace it at first.
The world is a little less Amazing now, but that's doesn't mean it has to stop...
Have you ever seen the magic documentary "Make Believe"?
If you can't come in first place...
For those who have not, it captures the magic convention competition scene in it's death throes. These kids were basically the last generation in the magic competition scene, at least in North America.
There was a time when acts "came up together" in the competition circuit. Imagine seeing Juliana Chen, Jason Byrne, Greg Frewin and James Dimmare all vying for a shiny paper weight to put on shelf that said they were "the best"TM.
These acts would see the others other perform, most would be friendly towards each other, and even offer words of advice and encouragement (at least from various reports I've heard). As they would get booked at gigs they might suggest some of these other acts for next year or to be on the same bill. It was, an albeit small, community with many of what we now know as top pros of their time.
I feel the camaraderie has moved overseas as other countries like Spain and Korea have taken to magic as a serious stage art.With conventions like FISM Asia, the competition is a little more stiff with some heavy innovations in what one can get away with in a manipulation act. There is also more emphasis on things like character and originality than we foster here in North America.
So what happened? Well, many of the prestigious competitions here are either
gone or their luster has faded. Desert Magic Seminar and the Golden Lion
Head's award (celebrating originality) are defunct. The international
conventions such as SAM and IBM are often used as stepping stones to
FISM but the performing level of the contestants has dropped over time due to the lack of opportunities to hone an act.
The internet is a bit to blame as well as is typically the case. While new info can be seen and shared instantly, you also don't have to wait a year to see your friends and the new stuff they've been working on. There is also a much bigger emphasis on being seen by as many people you can instead of crafting an act and skill set that will carry you across the globe.
As usual it's not one thing that kills an idea, it's a slow build of many factors. Until another "prestigious" opportunity arises that provides notoriety, (as well as monetary gain), it's going to be some time before we see another magic competition scene like the ones we had before.
Recently someone tagged me in a post of some asshat revealing one of my tricks on social media. This is not the first time it has happened and it won't be last because there are some who believe magic exposure is "The Future" (TM).
I suppose there is a teeny tiny part of me that is flattered something I created is good enough to steal. However, with the rampant exposure and theft on social media it got me thinking about the ratio of people creating magic vs those consuming it for clicks, views, and pennies.
In a previous post I talked about how it takes very little brain energy to steal from someone and put it online. It's the bottom rung on the entertainment ladder. These bottom rung feeders will just keep taking and never contribute. This will cause those who do create to keep more and more to themselves to keep it secret... keep it safe.
Sure there will always be people pumping mediocre magic into the marketplace because it's easy and most of it only looks good on camera anyway. I think that is the reason so much mentalism is being released because it's hard to "reveal" and can't really be done over social media. (And no one really cares)
So to those who attach themselves to the magic community like barnacles I say this: enjoy your ill gotten gains while you can you leeches. One day you will only have yourselves to steal from (more than you already are) and if you show up at a magic function and I steal something from you like your wallet or phone, don't act surprised as to why.
