talkmagic.co.uk

We went to see Night At The Museum yesterday, and while I enjoyed the movie as a whole, I take issue with a particular scene.

The movie shows a couple of magic tricks, including a French Drop, which is well done, but then completely exposes a TT. A scarf is partially vanished, and it is clearly seen exactly what has happened, scarf sticking out. There was absolutely no need to expose it. Kind of soiled a movie I otherwise enjoyed.

/vent

grrr, time to form a picket outside the cinemas ala the exorcist first time around...

we CANNOT, MUST NOT, and WILL NOT allow this film to be seen. whos with me....





why the silence? lol

You only see what you're looking for. Although i haven't seen the movie, chances are that normal spectators wouldn't think twice about it unless it directly says or shows a TT on its own

It pretty well does. It's not just that you see it if you're looking for it. He tucks the scarf half-way, then holds his hand up, palm out, fingers all vertical, bright scarf sticking right of out of the edge. Then a character grabs at it.

Certainly there are plenty of people that won't think twice about it, but it seemed a bit... rude, showing it like they did.

Exposure at such a nominal level will only concern those that do tricks vs. knowing how to do magic.

Also, magic lies in the presentation, not the method. Good presentation of a TT vanish will still hit specs right between the eyes. All being well, they won't have time to stop and think about what they briefly saw in a movie.

With many TT's now appearing in Christmas stockings up and down the country, courtesy of Marvins Magic, I kind of suspect that the secret is out of the bag anyway.

nakedmagic wrote:why the silence? lol

Terrible, head splitting hangovers...

The one I've always loved was when a patron would ask, "Do you do the one with the vanishing cigarette with that plastic thumb thing... that's one of my favorites..."

If it's such a guarded secrets, why is that kind of comment so common?

Ok, ok. It was just something I didn't like about the movie. I guess the people that live in my cave don't have any knowledge of small things like that.

pcwells wrote:Also, magic lies in the presentation, not the method. Good presentation of a TT vanish will still hit specs right between the eyes.

I agree with you and Craig on this one, not because I'm for the exposure of magic, but because you could use a TT carefully and cleverly for someone who knew what it was, even someone who actually owned one, and it would still amaze them. Also, many people already know about TTs (partially thanks to our friends at Marvin's Magic) so the 'secret' has sort of lost it's secrecy.
Even without these facts, if you consider how many people are actually going to go and see the film and how many are going to notice the TT, then how many are going to see a TT being used in the near future and know how it's done thanks to the film's 'exposure' and finally how many people are going to have the bare-faced cheek to shout out 'it's a .....!' then the odds really are very small. It's not exactly going to deal a devastating blow to the magic community.

Many years ago when he was still able to effectively interact with others, boxer Mohamed Ali used to come into Hollywood Magic and do all sorts of tricks (he more or less was allowed to play with whatever he wanted) but, being a good Moslem, he would then explain how each trick worked.

Yes, he was exposing commercially available tricks to any and all that came into the store and yet, it was typically one of the busiest days the store would know, when he came around to have fun and play.

There is not one major name in magic that you can think of who hasn't exposed, in some way, how certain tricks work. When I was young we found the "How To" on many tricks on the back of cereal boxes or even in a Cracker Jacks box and of course, Comic Books of the day... then again Dante, Blackstone, Will Rock, Leon Mandrake and a few others all had either comic strips or dime store novels with their names on them and always a trick or two explained in each issue.

The Magic Land of Alakazam as well as the Magic Circus, two of Mark Wilson's biggest projects, both had features in which they taught the audience how to do a trick... in other words, some folks have taken the whole "exposure" issue a bit further than it need be taken. If it weren't for the tid-bits fed the public here and there, we probably wouldn't see some of the growth around magic that we've seen off and on over the years.

It's something to think about...

Look into the work of Salvano - TT work where the tip is _never_ on the thumb

I believe International had a lecture tape by him.

Take care, Ian

Craig Browning wrote:Many years ago when he was still able to effectively interact with others, boxer Mohamed Ali used to come into Hollywood Magic and do all sorts of tricks (he more or less was allowed to play with whatever he wanted) but, being a good Moslem, he would then explain how each trick worked.

Yes, he was exposing commercially available tricks to any and all that came into the store and yet, it was typically one of the busiest days the store would know, when he came around to have fun and play.

There is not one major name in magic that you can think of who hasn't exposed, in some way, how certain tricks work. When I was young we found the "How To" on many tricks on the back of cereal boxes or even in a Cracker Jacks box and of course, Comic Books of the day... then again Dante, Blackstone, Will Rock, Leon Mandrake and a few others all had either comic strips or dime store novels with their names on them and always a trick or two explained in each issue.

The Magic Land of Alakazam as well as the Magic Circus, two of Mark Wilson's biggest projects, both had features in which they taught the audience how to do a trick... in other words, some folks have taken the whole "exposure" issue a bit further than it need be taken. If it weren't for the tid-bits fed the public here and there, we probably wouldn't see some of the growth around magic that we've seen off and on over the years.

It's something to think about...

So, just to clairfy,do you think that exposure is a good thing, as it helps to move magic on (similar to Val Valentino, masked magician), or just that (like me) you think that not all exposure is as bad as it is made out, and that some of it can actually have a good affect on the community?

Well, first of all I think Val has been given a wrongful rap by the magic community in that a lot of the things he "tipped" were so far from the truth behind how magic actually works it simply ain't funny... then again, he's laughing all the way to the bank in that as the Masked Mage he's working quite regularly... so let's not go down that path.

But yes, I believe that some level of exposure is going to happen and people need to stop crying about it. Hell, there's a show in Vegas that has had a reputation for decades as being the best place to go if you want to learn how something is done and she's still working... (and no one says a thing about the cute big busted blond bimbo that can't even do a dove pan without flashing it).

Yes, I'd get bent if someone were out there actively exposing "cutting edge" magic which, thank the gods, no one has been ignorant enough to do just yet... granted, Banachek is still trying to find one of those nifty remote winder things one of the expose' shows used to show how PK Time worked (he never knew he was doing it wrong) but such is the reality of a huge chunk of the stuff being "exposed" i.e. it's not legitimate exposure... kind of like Copyright's idea of Hoax Mentalism...