talkmagic.co.uk

Is magic becoming too grungey? what with theory 11 and ellusionist it seems like everything is becoming edgey. 'Underground magic' is a prime example. Is the 'new age' of magic the grunge age? and is this a good thing? thoughts............

Its just evolution isn't it, 3 decades ago it was Stage magic what everyone wanted, the likes of David Copperfield, Lance Burton. Then came David Blaine, Criss Angel and everyone wanted close-up magic. And now you have these "grungy' types as you described, I'm assuming you refer to Daniel Madison and Dan Sperry. Not to say one form or magician is better than the other. Vegas Casino's still draw thousands to see stage magic. There have been acts which havent changed their routines in years despite the 'masked magician' (on a tangent it just proves that people want to be fooled). David Blaine, Criss Angel, Derren Brown have spawned countless TV based "close-up" magic, not to mention your average youtuber who goes to theory 11 and E, learns 2 sleights, 4 flourishes, 6 tricks and poses on the 'intrawebz' as the next Aldo Columbini. As for E and T11, well T11 is a site for newbies, the content, the tricks, the forums, its fairly obvious at the audience they're targeting, they do have some of the big names in magic on that site though. As for E, well the quality of their material leaves much to be desired, there is some good stuff there, but some of the stuff is too expensive or just not worth the money. Its posed as revolutionary and new but most of its just recycled. its just evolution.

I don't think that it has to become grungey, that's just the sales angle that shops like Ellusionist are aiming at the kids. You perform how best suits your personality. I've been restyling myself lately into more of a 1920s mental magician, which I'm finding is working really well.

Hopefully. Then everyone will get sick of the crappy colour changes and fancy cards and what something new, elegant and classy. That's where I step in.

I'm with Lenoir!

"Grunge" is just another phase that magic is going through.

Forty years ago everyone had to learn a four-coin assembly or matrix; now it is hideously colored cards.

This, too, shall pass, as the saying goes.

Frankly, I find that grunge sucks.

Meh its just a progression from David Blaine, into Criss Angel intoa hi-bred of their love child mixed with russell brand and skinny jeans...eh voila you have grunge look magic....how can they fit cards in those tight tight pockets, let alone anything else liek sponge balls

Magic Chris wrote:how can they fit cards in those tight tight pockets, let alone anything else liek sponge balls

I bet they get 'sponge balls', just wearing those tight jeans!

yeh thats sort of wer I was goin with that lol

taffy wrote:I bet they get 'sponge balls', just wearing those tight jeans!

and probably a diminishing wand...

I doubt that there was very much of a wand to diminish in the first place

I hope magic doesn't go back to its old ways with all the classic routines - entertaining yes, modern no. Theory11 (I'm missing out Ellusionist deliberately because It's 1 big scam) is basically creating magic that is modern, stylish and unique. If you hadn't noticed already magic had become 'geeky' then David Blaine came along and changed that view and that then turned into underground magic which brought along the likes of artists such as Daniel Madison, I'm not trying to offend the older people on the site but I can see that it's obvious that the younger people have learnt magic from places like Theory11, Daniel Madison, Dan & Dave, etc which means their style is totally different to that of the older magicians out there who I've got to be honest are great at what they do but magic needs to keep up with society, It's like computers - as time goes on the computers get better and better technology thus making the computers faster and nicer to run, with magic as time goes on it's simply evolving so that it becomes something totally unique and sets itself apart from the wanabe magicians to the serious magicians. Obviously you're going to see this as biased seems all of this information is coming from a 15 year old but I do think this is what magic needs to kick start it again.

"Magic Is Dead"