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Charities by definition are funds and money raisers for the 'needy'.

Would someone be that needy that they'd want to be associated with part naked women, and the faked-death threat of a magician.

Smoothini is a star, for sure. But this is a pure publicity stunt. And it's an ugly world we live where charity events are used for self-promotion I'm afraid.

this is a strange thread. i know a few strippers, they work at a decorating store but hey if the guy is willing to kill himself for charity so be it! this is his decision to make whether its right or wrong. i personally would rather stick to my DL'S as this stunt stuff is often frowned upon Jonathan goodwin is always hurting himself and stunt magicians should take note how most of his escapes and stunts go wrong

seige wrote:Agreed... a stunt in the name of charity is fine. But an egotistical stunt using charity as a guise is plain wrong.

I've been in the wicked world of marketing for over 10 years now, and this kind of thing is very much frowned upon.

Charities by definition are funds and money raisers for the 'needy'.

Would someone be that needy that they'd want to be associated with part naked women, and the faked-death threat of a magician.

Smoothini is a star, for sure. But this is a pure publicity stunt. And it's an ugly world we live where charity events are used for self-promotion I'm afraid.

I have to agree with you there.

Derren did a publicity stunt that wasn't for charity in the form of Russian Roulette, and I would imagine that he would get worse press if he had said the proceeds were going to charity or something along the same lines. People are generally quite aware(I think) that so-called chairty 'fundraiser events' are used simply for self-promotion all to often.

Speaking of Jonathan Goodwin, of whom I'm a big fan, Derren Brown stayed in his apartment in London for a year (methinks) when he was planning Russian Roulette . Sorry for the randomness of that, but I had to give out at least one price of Derren trivia today, and my family have threatened to kill me.

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I also want to make something clear. I plan to do the stunt, if and only if I don't raise the money. If I do, I plan to do an actual illusion with the truck. But I am pretty confident I can raise the money. Second, in the case I don't raise the money, there are professional stunt coordinators from Hollywood that are donating their time (for charity) to make sure the stunt goes well.

But I have a good team behind me, and we can pull it off.

My little sister has Cerebal Palsey, and one of the charities that will recieve the money does research in that department. Yes I'm doing this for publicity. Hence I wouldn't call it a publicity stunt. It is like those people that call them tricks. When in fact, they are called magic tricks. I really honestly want to raise the money for the charities, but the reward, to me, is the exposure I get from this.

I could think of a few dozen ways to get exposure without raising money for charity. And the stunt itself won't raise money. It is all the lay men and women that consistently come to my shows along the way.

Oh, Graphite Ghost is the company that designs my website, flyers, DVD cover, and also handles my word of mouth campaign along with XXI Entertainment.

Smooth wrote:Yes I'm doing this for publicity. I really honestly want to raise the money for the charities, but the reward, to me, is the exposure I get from this.

At least you are honest about that fact. You can, however, still expect people to be hesitant because, however much you stress that it is for chairty and your reputation, people will still cynically think 'He just wants to become famous'. thus is the way of the world.

Anyway, all the best with the fundraising.

Well it is only expected. People are going to judge no matter what. It doesn't matter what I do, and for what reason, there will always be one person that doesn't agree. When I decided that I was going to be a professional magician, my goals were very clear.

I've always been the type of person that went all out. When I decided to join the military for the United States, I went to the hardest military organization it had. When I was in the Marines and stationed in Iraq, I did the best I could and put myself in danger for the sake of others. When I decided to be a professional magician, I said I was going to be sure that I reached that top 1% of magicians that become superstars.

Yeah it is self-centered. Yes it shouldn't be the goal. But what would you expect me to say? "I want to be some local magician who does his magic part time and never gets recognition for it." That isn't my style. If I was going to be a full time magician, I was going to be sure that I can not only support myself, but my family as well. And now, I have alot of magician friends that just get by. I love them to death.

The difference between me and them, is that I'm single, no kids, and have all the time and energy in the world to take a risk like this. So, what can I do in this world to grab attention and have it directed towards me? If you want to judge me for thinking logically, then I guess I am wrong.

I honestly want to entertain, and I want to make people happy. But at the same time I will not lie for one second and say I want to be successful at it as well. To me it isn't enough to just do what I do in obscurity. I have my mind set out to doing all I can. And it seems to me that more and more magicians (or people within the magic community) want to stop me at it.

I do want to give the money to charity. The charity thing has nothing to do with all this. The real publicity grabber are all the shows that I will be doing this year. Starting with a hour TV spot in Mexico in Feburary (well, we are filming in Feb.), to Germany in March, back to Tokyo in October and all the other things I'm doing. I'm doing the charity thing because I want to give back to the world that gave so much to me. And I see the skill that I have developed can raise money faster than car washes, raffle tickets and everything else these charities are doing.

So do I want to be famous? yeah, to an extent. Let us be serious. Do you think that David Blaine put himself in Ice for no reason? That is just the nature of our business. Look at me as a person and think about how many TV / movie deals are coming my way. NONE. Even if I do the stunt will I be famous? NO. Nobody cares about that.

I've been doing stunts for a decade now, but none of you have heard about it. It just so happens that I have a bigger following, heavy MySpace following at that, and that this claim about the truck has gotten alot more notice than my other ones due to the internet.

Sorry I got long winded at this, but I wanted to make myself clear. When you sit down and wonder about how you want your career to pan out, and your major competition are Cyril, Dynamo, Blaine, Angel and Derren Brown.. you have to think about how do you think Smoothini the Ghetto Houdini can even match up with all of these guys, when you have hundreds of even better performers out there (without TV deals) doing there thing.

I think the matrix and say, "Let me get hit by a truck!"

LOL

Smooth... you are a respected magician, and that's great.

My point was that the stunt makes you seem a little shallow.

Perhaps the CHARITY should be the foremost hype here, and not your death threat!

That would swing the balance round!

I dont think there is any thing wrong with this personally as long as your generally interested in the charities as much as you are as your fame. Lets be honest its a dog eat dog world out there and if you wanna make it big in this game you have to take risks and you have to grab your chance any way you can. I would love the chance to be able to offer 100,000 grand to charities that is one of my dreams in life and that is to give charities as much as i can and i too would do anything i can to give it to them as long as i was being honest and not using underhand tactics to get where i want i would be happy. Also i think the american market is different to ours, the americans like seeing all these stunts where as the british are not so keen on it i dont know why this is but everyone seems to slag blaine off for being in a box for the 44 days or whatever it was but when he does a stunt in the usa he seems to have crowds and fans of millions. I also understand him when he says he wants to be the best at what he does i can relate to that because i will not except second best either i want to be the best and that is why i put so much practice and dedication into the art we all love. I would say 90% of people in this forum would take the chance to be famous because magic is different to most other jobs i mean we entertain and you can be the best magician in the world but if you cant sell yourself to the public then it does not matter, or you could be an ok magician but if you can market yourself and sell yourself well enough people will know and remember who you are. Lets look at Houdini he wasnt the greatest magician but he is one of the only remembered from laymens terms from that time, why because he sold himself he was a business man before a magician. I know everyone wont agree with me here but i thought i would put my feelings across in the matter.

That raises another question about skill. Why is it that magicians usually do not respect the better business oriented magician as much as the technically advanced magician? Assuming of course that the business oriented magician doesn't perform badly.

I personally dont think the skills matter that much well you have to be able to do the tricks you perform smoothly and you have to have some knowledge but i think the most important thing is entertainment. Again it doesnt matter if your a brilliant magician if its like watching paint dry when you perform. I think you have to combine your skills as a magician with good entertainment and be a good businessmen and thats what makes you sucessful. You have to be good at all three to be a great magician. You cant be the best sleight of hand artist in the world and have nothing else because you will not get that far if you dont have anything else.

Smooth wrote:That raises another question about skill. Why is it that magicians usually do not respect the better business oriented magician as much as the technically advanced magician? Assuming of course that the business oriented magician doesn't perform badly.

Hi Smooth,
I think this is kind of true whatever the artistic endeavor, my closest comparison would be in the music world, where commercial music and it's more artistically orientated counterpart vie for the hearts and minds of the punter. Generally (but not always) it is the latter that gains the more kudos in the long run, but it's the former that makes more money!
As far as charity being used to generate publicity I can understand the arguments on both sides, I would also like to make another comparison to the music industry... Sir Bob Geldof. Now I know that alot of folks think he's a saint for the Band Aid thing, but I also know alot of folks who think it was a cynical career move. So who's right?

Flash wrote:alot of folks think he's a saint for the Band Aid thing, but I also know alot of folks who think it was a cynical career move. So who's right?

It could be both - one 'opportunity' covering two results?

I'm really not sure I'd be inclined to put money in a collection jar if the recipient threatened to top themselves if you didn't—especially if the collection jar advertised the recipient's 'stunt', and no mention of a charity.

I think what this is boiling down to is choosing a priority: if the charity is important to you, the charity should be No1 priority, with the byproduct being the promotion.

However, if you're all about getting free publicity, I guess the charity option is secondary.

I do understand what you're all saying but anything that raises money for a good cause has got to be good.

The problem is that there are so many charities being helped that some reporters don't want to list them all. All though on my Blog and website I will name the charities that get the money.