Well, I want to lay my cards on the table (
).
I love YouTube. But I hate exposure.
And since exposure has been so thoroughly covered elsewhere, I’d like to offer my views on YouTube.
I had a YouTube incident performing for some kids recently. The usual thing, you know?
“Yeah I know how that’s done, I saw it on YouTube you just blah blah blah etc….”.
I hate this. It weakens effects. It p***es you off.
But has it really been any different?
Before YouTube, this still happened. A messy Erdnase change for example, might cause a shout of “it was up your sleeve!” from a group of kids. Now, as you know kids are driven by a very strong curiosity. To satisfy their curiosity they’ll convince themselves that this was how the Erdnase was done. Hey Presto, effect weakened.
How do we counter this type of reaction? Well we don't protest, we just roll with it. It’s part of the showmanship. YouTube has simply knocked this up a peg or two.
The kid on that first clip was also being driven by his natural curiosity. Since curiosity underpins a lot of the mystery of magic, I am hardly in a position to try and discourage it. Especially in children. There’s an old Russian proverb, if I remember rightly, “There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out”.
I don’t think we’ll ever stop exposure on YouTube. I think we are a bit delusional if we think we can: The entire might of CBS and NBC have failed to stop YouTube. We need to start to ‘roll with it’ in exciting and new ways. Interestingly enough, NBC reacted the same way we are doing now, by trying to ban exposure:
http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/multimedia/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002073088
But a rift was already starting to show:
"The marketing guys love YouTube and the legal guys hate it," said Ian Schafer, CEO of online advertising company Deep Focus
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117960880.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
And six months later they reach a deal:
http://www.youtube.com/press_room_entry?entry=c0g5-NsDdJQ
So how do we adapt? Well really I have no idea, but we have to adapt.
Take a look at the second clip. It may be a bit stupid, but this guy is looking in the right direction. Imagine a spectator looking for the tutorial, seeing and believing this guy, then watching you perform the trick live? Belter.
