talkmagic.co.uk

Evening all,

I was just thinking today what is going to happen in the future, to performing of magic?

Will it get more popular as a form of entertainment? will all the secrets be revealed by TV shows and the internet just make people lose interest in seeing others perform because they "know how its done"?

Will magic become more of an art form again, instead of the rubbish we have seen lately? (Magic as an art must express your views and personality, if you dont do this with your magic then, its not an art for you atleast).

Anybody have any ideas, predictions etc.. about what the future holds for this great art form?

If theres any real psychics or mediums on the board please let us know. (Put your tarot cards away Paul Bell)

Michael Kras is the future of magic.

No, seriously, I think it will always interest people as the human mind loves mystery and wonder. There are new effects being produced all the time (many good, some not so) but the ones that have stood the test of time are the old classics.

Performed well and with good presentation, magic will entertain anyone as it's more than just fancy sleights, it's about psychology and storytelling too, creating a wonderful moment.

Some of the effects I have performed for people which they have been impressed and astonished with the most are from the Tarbell Course books. Written in 1927!

Yes, magic will last as long as the younger performers are inventive and study and listen to the older, experienced ones.

im psychic...and i predict Mark Lewis shall come along and tell us he is psychic. Mr Lewis and myself regularly have psychic conversations psychically

This question always pops up from time to time. To be honest, I think you might want to hunt around the boards for a while to see what's already been said.

As for "all the secrets being revealed by tv shows" - where are these shows? With the exception of the Masked Magician series, I can't recall any show with the sole purpose of exposing methods, so I would say TV should be removed from the question. sites like youtube have exposed more than anything on TV. To me, the worst offenders aren't even the ones who just post the methods. As bad as they are, it's the thousands of people who post videos as performances - done so poorly that the method becomes obvious. They are more detrimental than anything - because each video that is watched by a burgeoning magician will only continue to spawn masses of terrible magicians.

In truth, the exposure is inevitable. Regardless of how closely you guard a secret, someone - somewhere - will have both the determination and the ability to find and steal it. It's the nature of the beast, I'm afraid.

Having said all of that, I think magic will be fine. I'm sure there are some who sit by the side, just waiting for magic to become "huge" again. I can't say with absolute certainty, but I don't think magic will ever become as immensely popular as in the past. There is so much out there now that fulfills that need to see something amazing. Gone are the days of seeing the likes of a Chung Ling Soo and that kind of thing. In my opinion, part of the experience for a performer like that was the times. Travel wasn't as easy, you couldn't just hop on a plane and be to the orient in a matter of hours. So back then, seeing a strange man from a foreign land; a place not many know well, perform these miracles was something to behold. That kind of mystery isn't as prevalent these days.

There are some who continue to push the boundaries and bring new excitement and wonder back. For me, mentalism is what will become the most popular. To the audiences of the world, mentalism is new and fresh. We all know it's not new - it's been around just as long as everything else in magic, but to the audiences, it doesn't appear that way. There are magicians who are breaking from that as well - pushing boundaries. Those types of performers, who can offer something new (or the illusion of it), will stand out and become the next stars. However, I feel it will be more of an occasional flare-up. I just don't see it becoming more popular than other forms of entertainment.

I don't consider magic an art in the traditional sense, but I also don't share the opinions of people who say that all new magic is rubbish. Yes, there is bad magic coming out, today. Do you really think that's a current trend? Are we to believe that there were never any bad magicians in the world until the mid-90's? Dig deep enough, I'm sure you'll find a landfill's worth of clunkers from the so-called" golden age". The reason you don't see as much of the garbage from the past, is that it has been forgotten over time. The same will happen with all of the bad magic that is coming out. But the great stuff will survive and inspire the future generations.

Benji28 wrote:
Anybody have any ideas, predictions etc.. about what the future holds for this great art form?

If theres any real psychics or mediums on the board please let us know. (Put your tarot cards away Paul Bell)

Put my tarot cards away? Never!

Seriously though, I do like to concentrate on the "psychic" side of things, purely because no amount of exposure will ever change the impact that mentalism and "readings" in general will have on the public. "How on earth did he know that?" is a lot stronger than how "How on earth did he do that?".

Also mentalism is practically impossible to expose on youtube. On top of that, mentalism (and again, readings in particular) is invunerable to exposure. How many books are about these days that either "expose" or "teach" cold reading? How many years have debunkers being going on about how "fake" psychics do "it"? Yet the public still lap it up. Why? Because people want to believe. They do not want to disbelieve.

Anyway, I personally think that magic in one form or another will always be around. Of course the current trend is for up-close or street style stuff, but in another 20 years stage magic could be back in vogue. It won't really affect me. Whatever happens in "mainstream" magic, I'll always be huddled in a dark corner pouring over my tarot cards and mumbling something about dark handsome strangers. Take it from me - it's more interesting in the shadows.

Magic in some shape or form has been around since the dawn of time. Mankind see's wonder in things that it cannot understand and cannot kill.

As an art form, I think that magic will be around for some time to come. Technology may provide some newer methods for magicians to use and media may provide different experiences for the audience.

I read that a 3D television without the need for the those red and green glasses is only months away and they have already experimented with watching footage from different angles. People are always hungry for new experiences and much of what we tend to get is simply old material repackaged into the latest format and there is a lot to repackage.

Hey, nice responses...

I do agree mentalism is very interesting and after i have done more work on general magic like cards and coins i am going to focus on mentalism, hypnosis etc... (dont know why hypnosis i just like it and i have a 30 hour dvd course so i might aswell use it lol).

Mentalism is great and entertaining and baffling, but so is magic, i mean well performed magic just makes u smile and be happy while watching lol aswell as give u something to think about or talk about.

Magic i agree will always be around, i recently have been performing some routines by sal piacente (cant spell his name). His magic is generally based around gambling routines, but he has a memory routine too, ive been performing this to anyone who was interested in seeing it and it baffles everybody its really great.

There is so much great magic out there, i guess its not just about the top sellers in the magic shops, its about the classics or the more hidden/rarely performed routines that are entertaining and baffling.

Paul, you are right about there been lots of fake psychics out there. They do my head in, but i believe there not all fake, the ones who dont ask for money, and dont fish for information are genuine. I know cold reading etc... so i recognise when people are using it.

But a woman at this church thing i went to (never been there before) with a few friends (who used to be married) well the woman claimed the holy spirit spoke to her and told her things about people. She was going to pray over my male friend, but refused to do it without the woman down there with him, she knew they had a long history together and had been talking about getting back together a few days ago but hadnt told anyone yet) and some other stuff, straight out of the blue. None of us had met her before, nobody had asked us any questions etc... and it turned out they had been talking about getting back together but hadnt told anyone yet, and some other stuff.

So that was pretty shocking for all 3 of us. But i still aint going to church every sunday lol no way pedro (as del boy would say)

To be honnest with you, I am not concerned at all about all the secrets of magic being revealed via the internet or TV shows. Here are my reasons:

1. Generally, the effects revealed are taught so badly that the learner doesn't grasp any of the principles in the effect and therefore can be fooled by something very similar, if not the exact same effect.

2. About 95% of exposure is card magic, most of it being Ellusionist effects. The other five percent are Ellusionist effects that involve things other than cards (Greed, Sinful, Revoloution Coin Vanish and whatever the popular levitation is this week).

3. The people who do expose generally have not read a magic book in their life. This prevents them from having access to the briliant effects from books like the Tarbell Course in Magic and Bobo's.

4. New effects are constantly being created, so even if every secret in the world was to be revealed today, there would be new secrets tomorrow.

I agree with what's been said. I don't think that magic is ever gonna disappear because of exposure or anything like that, because magic is about the performance, not the effect. You take a hundred magicians and they'll show you the same trick a hundred ways, and so in effect you'll see a hundred different tricks.

Also, no matter how many hundreds of spoiler or exposure sites you see on the internet, the vast majority of people who watch magic frankly aren't sad enough to spend hours of their time searching for ways to spoil our fun. As has been said already, people like to be fooled, deep down they don't want to know how it's done.

I'm of the opinion that mentalism has a big part to play in the future of magic because it generates the most wonder in people. You ask the average person on the street about Derren Brown and most of them will say "Mind Reader" before the say "Magician". Magic has always been about dressing up a trick as someting wonderous and magical, so it's future is about presenting old effects in the a new way.

I agree with the above, mentalism will play a big part in magic

Most peoples magic performances these days dont have the same feeling of wonder or astonishment they used to (atleast the performances ive seen online)

I am sure the future of magic will be fine, its all down to us, to impress people with every performance we get the chance to do. Keep people interested and wanting more.

We are the only ones who can make sure we do our part to keep magic alive.

Benji wrote:

Most peoples magic performances these days dont have the same feeling of wonder or astonishment they used to (atleast the performances ive seen online)

I'm glad that you put that last bit in brackets at the end of your post

Most of the people who post videos (and I did say most) on places like YouTube etc. are NOT real world performers. There is a BIG BIG difference in watching a live performance and you have to make the effort to go and see one before you will appreciate just how different it can be.

You will see that performances today DO have the same wonder and astonishment but it does rely on people going out to be entertained instead of wanting to watch everything from the armchair.

I dont think there is too many magic shows in sheffield, or atleast not that i know about, i dont even know if there is too many shows in the UK, wish there was a website which listed all the events (performances and lectures etc...) maybe there is.

I dont know

there is a web site

http://www.magicweek.co.uk


Check it out! Also, if you want to see good magic being performed and learn at the same time then join your local magic society.

Joining a magic club is not a bad idea at all but I don't agree that you will see "good magic performed". In fact the standard will generally be atrocious. This is because the majority of members do it as a hobby and do not have the time to develop properly as performers because of their work and other obligations.

You will certainly learn though and I do agree with that part of things. However you will learn what NOT to do. Or perhaps the opposite which is unfortunate. The danger of magic clubs for a beginner is that you may pick up the bad habits of the members and receive incorrect advice.

Join a magic club by all means but use discrimination on who you listen to there.

Benji28 wrote:I dont think there is too many magic shows in sheffield

There's...me. But then I do work across the UK and only rarely actually work in my home city.