talkmagic.co.uk

There is an American reality show where celebrities are put on a show, where they are trained to perform tricks, the best are kept on, and the worst are voted off. But it is sponsored and has a cash prize from the magic website ellusionist. The problem that I have with this is that this will cause laymen to go onto the site and buy the DVD's teaching them secrets. These will undoubtedly, be revealed on youtube. I just wanted to know what everyone thoughts were on this show. It is called Celebracadabra, it will be on Vh1 in April, Sundays at 9. Just in case anyone wanted to tune in to see if it's any good.

Awaiting your opinions,
Ian

I herd Jay Sankey talk about this show on a podcast a wile ago, I forget which one it was. As far as I remember, he said that the show itself was collaborating with the magic castle, so I assume it will be somewhat respectful to the art of magic.

As far as the show causing people to go by dvds and expose secrets, I don't really see how this is any worse then with any Blaine, Copperfield, or Brown special. If people see magic on TV, they could just as easily go to a shop, or google magic dvd's or something. People know that means to learn magic exist, advertisement of a website that sells teaching material is not going to increase exposure.

I really don't see how this could be a bad thing. People who aren't interested in magic aren't going to bother going out and buying the tricks, the only people who will are those that have an interest in magic. I can only see this as a good thing as it'll encourage more people into magic.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I really don't see how this could be a bad thing. People who aren't interested in magic aren't going to bother going out and buying the tricks, the only people who will are those that have an interest in magic. I can only see this as a good thing as it'll encourage more people into magic.

I agree. When something's both free and comes to them, people will grab it. But when it takes the effort of getting off the couch to spend money to learn something, they tend to give it a miss unless what they've seen has really enthused them to the point of action.

As long as it breeds the right sort of enthusiasm for magic, then thats great! theres too many people in magic that are scared that the whole world will find out the secrets and expose them! Books expose secrets too-just because its magi that read them, doesnt mean its not exposure! If it gets just one more person into magic then great I say!

I'm not quite as enthusiastic I think the issue is the whole celebrity/reality aspect of it, which encourages faddish attention. I'm happy for new people to get into magic, but I'm not really happy for a million people to watch that programme, google "ellusionist", buy one of the DVDs on learning card magic and finding out a load of fundamental sleights which will then get forgotten when they desperately need a new BMX (after a reality show on BMXing... ) but you can guarantee will be remembered when they see a magician who happens to use them, to an unfortunate result.

If it was some televised stage show or something, a really amazing magical production, and that in itself got some people interested in taking up magic, then great - being inspired like that is probably what kick-started all of our interests. But going out and buying proper instructional material because you want to be like Chantelle, which then wears off in a couple of weeks - I'm not sure that's the correct sort. And I find Ellusionist's involvement highly questionable. If they just wanted to "spread the magic" they could think of a new street magic show format, but to me it makes sense that they would plump for the show which they believe is going to get people buying their stuff.


To be honest I don't really care, I think it'll make very little difference either way. I'm still at a kind of halfway house with the whole exposure vs. getting people into magic thing. I don't want magicians to be seen as mean or elitest, but I don't really get this whole "wahey, more people into magic the better, it's a great hobby" type thinking. Magic works on the principle that only a tiny proportion of people know how something is done! It's not like juggling or almost anything else which will benefit from having more and more people join in. I would far rather all those people see some really good magic, and if that sparks their interest, fine. Just seems to be symptomatic of the whole YouTube exposure culture that what is being televised and promoted is the process of teaching magic rather than the final performance.

Another thing is, it effectively aligns magic with circus skills - transparent manipulation skills that celebrities (and therefore also you) can learn to a high standard in just a few short weeks. Not exactly the image I try to portray, don't know about you guys...

On the face of it, I don't foresee any serious problems with this. I think it's very unlikely that someone with a passing interest will go and spend money on a DVD or trick just to see how it was done; they are more likely to YouTube it. And if they do spend their hard earned on stuff, it will most likely lead to something more (which is a good thing). And simply knowing how a sleight or move is done is not really going to help the average layman when it comes to spotting how a magician does something; it is everything else that comes with the performance of magic that will (or should!) help to misdirect the audience away from the bare bones and the method of the effect.

Well ellusionist are obviously in it for the money. But I really dont see any problems if a few kids go out and buy a DVD or two, they can even tell all their friends if they like. This is for the same reason the I don't really care about youtube.

If one of these people watches a skilled magician, they'll never spot the sleight. It really doesn't make any difference at all.

Reality
Show
Celebrities

Three words which mean I shall steer as far away from this sort of thing as possible.

I'm the same Mandrake, I tend to pin my ears back and run as fast as I can from anything to do with reality shows.

As for the whole exposure thing surely it can't be any worse than other TV specials. Also it shouldn't be as bad as when the internet and youtube came onto the scene.

Surely if you do your research and practise you will not be caught out. Think about the Key card placement, almost everyone knows it, yet used correctly I can do great things with it.

There are two points well made here. Firstly, following Mandrakes comments, who watches these shows? I suggest that in the main it is people with insufficient interest (inyelligence???) to research and follow up learning tricks the proper way, ie the hard way.

Secondly I take the point that even if people do realise that you can buy the means to do the magic they are not going to be motivated enough to do it. As an example, I did a couple of basic card tricks for a pushy aquaintance recently and he got really heavy about getting me to show how they were done. So I wrote down for him the entire secret - the name, publisher and price of the RRTCM. Apparently that wasn't quite what he wanted!

At least by the sound of it this show is not in to disclosure so it sounds like just another piece of moving wallpaper drivel

Tomo wrote:I agree. When something's both free and comes to them, people will grab it. But when it takes the effort of getting off the couch to spend money to learn something, they tend to give it a miss unless what they've seen has really enthused them to the point of action.

From what I've heard Ellusionist will be doing cross promotions between the show and their website - including free tricks online.

Mandrake wrote:Reality
Show
Celebrities

With names like C. Thomas Howell, Carnie Wilson and Christopher Reid (aka - Kid from Kid N' Play) you might need to scratch one of those words off the list, Mandrake.

I've never heard about this show and I'm in America ! The only thing I've seen is one episode of Phenomenon with Criss Angel and Uri Gellar. I'm not sure if this is the same thing that you're thinking of.

It's not the same thing, Monker. This is going to be on VH1, which should already be sending up warning signals across the world.