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When I first started doing magic, I made the mistake of sharing the secrets with a few people. I later learned that doing so was a no-no. Or was it?

After all, I have learned almost all of my magic from books and videos. That means that somebody had to share the secrets with me and many others.

Does it depend on whether or not the person with whom you share the secrets considers himself or herself to be a magician (or aspiring magician)?

Does it depend on what secret you share? For example, I cannot help but think that it's okay to teach a bunch of kids at a party how to make a rubber band jump from one pair of fingers to the other, or how to make two paper clips leap off a dollar bill and join together. Am I wrong?

Is it really more a matter of practicality than ethics? I mean, not much of the art is lost when you teach someone an age-old rubber-band trick, but then sharing the secrets of more advanced effects just leads to the effects becoming less exciting and mysterious for the general public.

What do y'all think?

Dave

I think sharing the secrets is a bad idea, overall.

Sure, it might be fun to show some kids how to do a simple trick. This isn't a HUGE thing, but I don't do it, personally.

Sharing ideas and secrets with someone you KNOW is a magician isn't something that particularly bothers me. As you said, we all, in one form or another, learned what we know from another magician - so this concept is what keeps the art going.

Showing the secrets to a total layman is a BAD thing. Not only does it make the entire situation less magical and exciting, but it will kill you for any subsequent performances with those people.

For instance - If you show them how you do Twisting the Aces. Anytime you do an effect that involves a count, they think they know how it works. They might be wrong, but the effect is lost on them.

There are tricks that I find so clever, with methods so incredibly smart and fantastic, that yes - I want to share the secret, just so others can marvel at how cool it is. However, if I do that - it's no longer a cool effect. It's just a trick I used to do (but now CAN'T, because they know how it works).

So, I say no telling. Keep your secrets and keep amazing your audiences. Tell too much, and you won't have an audience anymore.

I have to say that showing secrets to people with a genuine interest in magic is not wrong. If people hadn't helped me in my early days I would never have become a magician. I tried books in the library but they were never designed for left handed people who couldn't follow poorly written instructions.

Today, with widely available DVD's its a bit different but I don't see anything wrong with helping out genuinely interested fans of the art of magic.

I am keen to share what little I know with those who can demonstrate an interest in magic. I do have a problem because, for instance, having done an hour's show last week I found myself approached by two people who asked how a trick was done.

Naturally, I didn't tell them, but they then discolsed about a dozen tricks and their operation as proof that they were bona fide magical types. When I dug a bit deeper, it appeared that they bought tricks, read books and basically 'collected scalps!' No interest in doing magic, just had to know!!!

I will never turn anyone away, but learnt from this experience that all that possesses knowledge isn't a magician,

Vic

Tenko, I know your pain. I still have a hard time deciphering some handlings from books, because of the poor descriptions.

What kills me the most, is that quite a few moves are a bit more difficult given the printing style of standard playing cards (ie - the peek).

I know there are cards with double indexes, but they look too cluttered and messy. I've been designing my own personal "lefty" deck, but I don't think I can ever get it made on quality card stock.

Demitri wrote:What kills me the most, is that quite a few moves are a bit more difficult given the printing style of standard playing cards (ie - the peek).

I couldn't agree more. I have all of Daryl's encyclopaedia series and he makes everything look SOO simple. When I tried the various glimpses that he demonstrated, it was only then that I realised there was something "odd" about me - I'm left handed so the peek etc. just didn't work! I tried to modify the technique but it's clearly not appropriate to swap the deck into the other hand for a moment, do a glimpse, then return it. I simply have to avoid glimpses - unless any lefties have come up with a solution that works convincingly?

There are some glimpses for me that work, but they're not the obvious ones. Mostly, the oldie of getting a glimpse of the face of the cards as you lift it from a spread is the best one, but there are several that work. Also, you can occasionally modify them slightly to be able to make it work.

Kati

for the lefties having glimpse probs.... have you ever thougt about using cards with indices in 4 corners?

Demitri wrote:I've been designing my own personal "lefty" deck, but I don't think I can ever get it made on quality card stock.

Yep .

Waddingtons have four indices and I agree they look a bit cluttered. Also, unfortunately, gaffs and so on are made in Bikes - and Bikes are 2-indexed.

Kati

katrielalex wrote:Waddingtons have four indices and I agree they look a bit cluttered.

Just to take this topic even further off course ...

That's because Waddington cards are Bridge cards rather than Poker cards like Bikes. Although having said that you can get Bridge sized Bike decks which also have four indices.