talkmagic.co.uk

The film industry has quite an impact on the pubic, much like the press. I wonder what impact films like ...

The Great Buck Howard
The Illusionist
The Presitge
Smoking Aces

... are going to have on the public's attitude to magicians.

Any thoughts?

I should start by saying, I have only seen The Illusionist &
The Presitge so cant comment on the other 2 movies you mention.

It's an interesting question. I think in the past they could have had a significant effect, however these days there is so much competition, Criss Angel's Mind Freak, Blain's TV specials, Derren Brown etc, plus You Tube and so on, and all this is so readily accessible to everyone, it is hard to imagine any "one" of these new movies having a huge impact on influencing perceptions.

something, albeit a TV show not a movie, that has gotten people's attention over the last few years, and so may have had significant impact on how people perceive magicians... "the Masked Magician..." love it or hate it... it got people's attention.

B0bbY_CaT wrote: it is hard to imagine any "one" of these new movies having a huge impact on influencing perceptions.

No, but there seems to be a run on them.

The first one has not been made yet.

With any luck, we might see a renewed interest in the vaudeville style of magic and illusion. Just a thought.

And on the subject of magic in movies, I watched Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog for the first time last week, and thought the magic sequences at the end were tremendous - utterly ludicrous, but by far the most surreal representation of stage magic I've ever seen. I laughed myself silly.

Though slightly off topic, I like Eric Mead's card trick version of the Aristocrats. It can be found, but unlikely to pass the mods inspection as a link here

the smoking aces, mr. wilson from the real hustle fame was the advisor apparently..

i dunno if it'll spark much interest in magic, though in smoking aces, they're using the bike design card backs in the posters arent they - you might get some people interested via the iconography...

though Derren Brown has a new series out next year, so i predict yet another influx of Brownettes floating about...

i've said it before, get sadowitz on the box again, but give him a magic show instead...

abraxuswrote:

i dunno if it'll spark much interest in magic, though in smoking aces, they're using the bike design card backs in the posters arent they - you might get some people interested via the iconography...

hopefully this wont equate to every spec that's seen the movie thinking your standard bikes are now gimmicked "magic cards".

Aye, Smoking Aces wasn't really about magic at all. A bit of nice xcm and what at first glance was an intriguing colour change but then turned out to be a DF'er, as you pointed out Bobby Cat. Overall an entertaining film though.

We might not call it magic, but laymen seem to.

well i haven't seen any of these. however, i do intend on buying the prestige and seeing smokin' aces pretty soon. i have seen adverts, and i thought they looked like a good picture.

i didn't have much of a rep for magic in school, but as soon as the prestige came out i got more and more people asking me to do magic tricks. i even get teachers asking me and with smokin aces coming out, which looks like an action packed film, more and more people keep comin. im not complainin but... i think that these two films alone has had a big impact on the interest in magic in my school. can't say anything about the rest of the country but yeh.

abraxus wrote:though Derren Brown has a new series out next year,

I thought that was going to come out in a few months.

To coincide with his tour? ... which i needless to say can't wait to see!

To be honest, i know absolutely nothing about card tricks.. for the OP of this thread. It has inspired me to learn to be honest.. even with my friends.

Smokin' Aces has def. inspired me to mess around with card tricks, especially the ones in the movie.


If any one has seen the movie and can name all this card tricks, like when he pulls out 3 aces, a joker, an ace
juggles the cards, i dont know how to explain it, i mean if you can some how point me into the right direction ide be well on my way to learning how to do it.

thanks, sorry im a noob.