talkmagic.co.uk

do you think doing a trick for an adience that you know another magician has done is right ?


personnaly i think doing your own trick and being original is what being a magician is all about i would like to know what you think?

if you actually never perform a trick that you've seen or read anywhere then you must be insanely creative!
and also, it depends on how you view it, do you mean perfectly copying someones routine, or using their gimmick? or a sleight they created?
i'd love to see how much you could do without DLs or something equally basic.

on that note, i could claim my ACR is original since i've never seen anyone perform the same sequence of sleights that i use, but that would just be a stupid thing to claim now wouldn't it?

can we have some ellaboration please

edit: we could all follow this philosophy and put Jay Sankey out of business within the week!

im talking about using the same sleight
basicly just doing what the performer you got the trick from is doing

I'd bet everyone uses effects that aren't theirs... you almost half to. BUT, I think your question is more akin to doing material i.e. someone else's routine, in which case I do not believe that is ethically or professionally right (though a gross number of wannabe mage do so).

Not sure I understand what your question.

It is clearly wrong to steel someones trick or method before they have put it in print (or on DVD). However to use ideas that have been published is completely fine.

personnaly i think doing your own trick and being original is what being a magician is all about i would like to know what you think?

No, not in my view!! If we just did out own effects - even the most creative magician - would be heavely restricted.

Like Isaac Newton wrote to fellow scientist Robert Hooke "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants".

Its the same with magic. Most of our "creations" we create by standing on the shoulders of giants. There are however a few contempora magicians who really seems to have created some very original magic. Dan Harlans magic with elastics was impossible to do before the elastic was invented by Thomas hancock in 1820. If any magic historians are reading this, what type of magic existed before Dan Harlan came along?
What was the first elastic trick? Anyway, I see no problem in doing magic as long as the effects either has been published, or they are your own invention. If you are doing your own variant of something you have seen, I think you strictly speaking need permission to perform the effect from the inventor. However I am sure there are difficult border cases.

Also sometimes its completely OK to be inspired by an effect you see performed! I perform for example a Haloween effect inspired by an effect I have seen Darren Brown do, however my presentation is different and ALL elements in Derrens routine have been published and so its not really his effect.

To echo what has been said above...I agree that using another person's act is wrong. Using the patter from the book you've bought isn't as bad, but it's certainly not the best way to go about doing things.

I do not think that being original is what being a magician is all about. Bringing about that sense of wonder, of utter astonishment - of giving your audience a meaningful expereince, that's what magic is all about. Being creative in your presentation and routining etc. helps to achieve that - but it is a step on the path, not the destination itself.

I think it's fine to use the mechanics of a trick form a book or DVD, afterall that's why it was published. But I alway try to take the trick and add my own patter and way of doing it so that it fits in with me.

I'd never go out and totally copy someone elses routine.

Surely if we all could come up with our own sleights and tricks then we'd all be very well off? People have to use things that other people thought of, simply because there are not many more to create these days, especially when you're talking about sleights

all sleights are as old as the hills, even anything new is still based on an old idea. I really don't think it's possible to come up with a totally original effect

Nope I invented all magic so everyone is ripping me off. All them false counts are actually called Markdini counts. The Markdini pass etc etc Houdini's escapes yeap me again, cups and balls I invented it I also invented cups.


There wouldnt be any magic if you didnt use other peoples slights or tricks. Or even based your own tricks on them. Dont see it as useing some one elses ideas see it as they have giving you a gift to use.

to say that to be a magician you have to invent your own tricks is, i think missing the point of being a magician, insulting almost every magician of the last 10-20 years and perhaps your being just a tad naive. look at most if not all of the big name effects or creaters out there, there is no new slights no new ways of cutting cards, it is using existing methods to create a new effect. i would love to know what method you use instead of a DL what way you vanish a silk without a tt or a Raven. how you vanish a coin without a slight that is decades old. there are many sites out there producing *new* tricks in fact they are old tricks reinvented for todays market and audience. i think perhaps that "ballersunit" is being slightly optimistic when he says that he only does tricks that he invented i doubt he has a worthwhile routine that would be worth showing. i may be wrong tho so ballersunit post a vid let us see this brand new trick trust me if what your saying is true I'm certain you'll get the credit you deserve from this community

Singers sing songs by others rather than just their own.

Ok i didnt invent all magic it would have made me older then mandrake by a year or two.

I Just cant understand why you would not use other peoples effects or slights..enlighten me.

You mention not using another magicians sleights.. that would make it impossible to learn magic!! No DL's. glimpses, glides, shuffles and cuts, peeks, passes, forces..

you'd just be sitting there with a deck of cards, talking.!!

I think its fine to use all the material you can in order to learn, then adapt that to your own personality

He wouldn't have cards.

Unless he invented them.