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Ive heard that some magicians tell some of there secrets to one or two trusted people, some not at all, sometimes only an assistant. Just out of curiosity, do any of you tell anyone any of your secrets? Im not asking for any pained confession, and i ask that anyone who answers be treated respectfully even if you disagree with their conduct ( i know this is a touchy subject, and rightly so). I would still like to know.

-As for me, i admit i tell some of my secrets to my closest and dearest. People i trust, and who prove that they hold on to the secrets by not telling anyone before or after i perform, even if its friends of theirs. I still dont even tell them my best tricks.

Id like to hear your thoughts

Why?

I was just curious


If its a bad subject or stupid or something throw it in the sin bin, i dont know

mostly because i dont know many magicians and i was wondering if what i was doing was very unethical or pretty common, or whatever.......

You're very easy to mess with, you know

Basically, Thou Shalt Not Reveal is the very best way to live your life in magic. No boasting about how it's done. The effects do that for you.

i know im easy to mess with.... and thank you for the advice...

The secret is rarely as impressive as the effect.

Take the advice of Christian Bale's advice in "The Prestige" - "Once you tell them the secret, you're nothing to them."

It depends in what way you do magic. You may want to be known as someone who can do a few tricky puzzles with cards, but you lose any mystery by telling others the secrets to your magic... it really does just become "a few tricks".

Unfortunately, by telling the secrets, you are also spoiling that effect for those people for the rest of their lives, and spoiling it for anyone who may in the future want to perform that effect to them. The simple truth is that when you do not know how it is done, even the most simple or common trick can be magical when performed correctly - is it really your job to decide what is "good enough" not to reveal? Please bear in mind the number of other people that decision affects - when people create effects, it is on the understanding that you will put in the practice and not reveal it... it really isn't your secret to tell.

when i was first starting, i used to use one of my best mates (known the devil for nearly 20 years) as my living mirror...

i used to ask him to deliberately burn my hands as i performed a few effects...the best thing about that was he has such a short memory that i could do the same effect two months later when i got better and he'd have no clue whatsoever how i did it...he's got a right old goldfish-memory...

but apart from him, nada...zip..zilch...dont tell anyone anything about the hows and whens...cant remember who coined the phrase, but it's a good 'un..."a magician guards an empty box..."

all good points... and like i said before, the only person(s) who i would ever reveal anything to is ONLY my very closest and dearest. Thats it! Anyone else is SOL. Except of course another magician who might be helping me with the effect.....

by the way, with my best tricks, even my closest dont want to know the secret.

My nearest and dearest is exactly the same. She does not want to know how any of my effects are achieved. She would rather be able to enjoy them again. This is the point that many secret hunters do not get.

She is only just recently showing interest in actually finding out how just a few of them are done, although as yet I have not shown her how to do any.

At the moment she is studying a degree, so has more than enough to read (she has half a library in her room, I kid you not), but when she has more time I may give her some useful magical tomes to read if she is still interested.

Its the same with anything new that you learn. If you are told, it could well go in one ear and out the other whether you want to learn or not, but if you find out yourself then that knowledge has a far greater chance of staying in there for good. That knowledge also has more chance of being respected in turn by the the new student of magic as they have worked towards it, not just been shown quickly over a pint.

The only people I tell are ones who are going to be performing the effect with me on stage, other than that, I let them wonder.
It's a bit like seeing a behind the scenes documentary of a film like Star Wars, when you see what's behind it all, you just think it's "clever" rather than magical or amazing.

I can't understand people who spend ages learning something and then are keen to reveal it to anyone who is interested. Some of them just want to boast of their skill and sleight of hand, but although people may be impressed by the quickness of your actions, they're far more impressed if they think you can read their mind or make something float or vanish.

The most annoying people are ones who come up with their own wrong theories who repeat them like a mantra hoping you'll say "No, you're wrong, THIS is how it's done..." but many people just don't want to know.

After all, most of us learn these skills to entertain people (other than those who just want to show off) and a well-performed magical effect is far more entertaining than an explanation. In the same way that eating a well-cooked meal is far more satisfying than reading the recipie.

One of the simplest - and most effective, reaction wise - is the good old vanishing of a lit cigarette (or pen) using a p*ll. The explanation is so silly when you think about it, but the wonder of a lit ciggy being pushed into your hand (with rolled up sleeves!) and then vanishing when you blow smoke on your hand has an enchanting effect when performed just right.

Why would you want to spoil this for someone?
Keep the magic.

I tell absolutely nobody. I have spent a lot of money and time on what i do. Why in the world would i want to go and tell everybody how to do it for free?!?

That said, i have made one exception, and that was to my dad. He has seen me perform for anywhere between 2 and 20 people, and he has no idea how to do any of my tricks. One day, he came to me and said, quietly 'Mate, ever since i told them at work what you could do, they have wanted to see something. Could you come to work with me and do a show?'

I came up with the idea of teaching my dad how to do a short, visual effect. I showed him Card warp. I went into his work, fully prepared, my dad knew fully what he had to do, he just didnt know when. After a few tricks, i said 'It isn't just me you should be watching, it runs in the family....', passed the cards to my dad, and he did a spot on performance of Card Warp. It was a pleasure watching him do this for his work mates. Even afterwards, when they asked how he did it, he remained silent and soaked up the reaction. Since then, i have shown him a few more effects and watched him practice, and helped him along.

I play basketball along side my dad for a team, and now i think we make a great team in magic. It feels great!

Dave knows some secrets and because I use him to test all my routines on I don't think that really matters.

I don't actually tell him how something is done but he knows enough to know the sorts of things to look out for. Which is great for me as if I can get something past him, I'll get it past any spectator.