talkmagic.co.uk

Hey guys,

So a few weeks ago i was doing one or two cards tricks for kids at my school and as you can imagine people decide that they want to take up magic. Now usually this wouldn't be a problem at all as it would give me someone to learn and practice with but the problem came when i asked them where they learn their tricks and they produced a whole host of magic exposure sites.

Obviously i tried to explain that by using the sites that they do they are virtually stealing and that usually kids who just want to impress who few tricks use. The kids that use these sites intelligence came through when they told me where to go, which was quite amusing.

Anyway getting to the point, these guys are using magic exposure sites to learn various tricks that are very impressive. Now what i get is people coming up to me asking me how sown so did such and such a trick which i cant tell them for two reasons:
1. Exposure
2. I don't know how some of them are done myself.

I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how i could prevent these people sing these type of sites or just generally stop them performing and then showing how it was done to people watching, aswell as telling people how my own tricks were done.

Give the tricks false names

I wouldn't worry too much about it. People who use magic exposure sites exclusively to learn magic get tired of it very soon. A lot of people on the forum have comdemned me for using an occasional trick explanation on YouTube. I very rarely use YouTube and buy my effects.

Sir_Digby_Chicken_Ceaser wrote: cant tell them for two reasons:
1. Exposure
2. I don't know how some of them are done myself.

Don't forget reason number 3. You might know one way to do a trick but that's no guarantee the performer is using that method !

Couldn't be more right mandrake.

It's also a great excuse to use when you really have no idea at all !

The safe way out is to stay away from Ellusionist stuff, it's mostly this that ends up pirated. Also as someone else said, don't say "and here's a trick called Torn by Daniel Garcia!" because that's magical suicide too.

Hmmm - tricky one, really.

Bear in mind, though, that anybody can easily perform a trick badly (see youtube etc). Exposure sites give instant gratification, which - in some senses - you won't get with a paid-for effect.

Having seen both sides of the coin, I'm pretty confident in saying that - generally - if you buy an effect, as opposed to essentially pirating it, you'll be far more vested in learning it correctly, than something you've stolen 'on a whim'.

As with any form of entertainment, the real impact lies in the presentation, rather than being able to simply 'show some moves'.

The 'buzz', that any real entertainer gets, comes from not only producing the correct series of moves, but from connecting and actually affecting his audience...something you're NOT gonna' learn from a transient flirtation with exposure sites

smack em

joke! or is it?

As bronz says, stay away from the "commercial" stuff! Get your effects from either a book or an older, cheesier video... the effects will be just as good and you'll save some £££ to boot!

Don't worry about it, if that's what they're doing you can't really stop them.

The best thing to do is to upstage them, they're learning a very small number of one shot tricks with limited methods and probabaly from a very bad tutorial video.

Put together a strong routine and they wont be able to compete, when that happens notice how quickly they drop magic.

just spread a rumour about them...that they like animals a bit too much...

nah dunno...basically what others have said, learn from the past masters books...

maybe something with I.T. and freak 'em out?

a good kick in the shins?

A friend of mine did this to try and find out how I did a few tricks not long after I got into magic (spoon bending and the pena coin). She just couldn't let it lie about the method so found out on the net. She said it was quite easy to find as well.

I was a bit annoyed but got over it and got more into cards and sleight of hand. She hasn't a clue how I do a trick now even after countless inspections of my "trick decks" and scanning the internet for methods.

A good tip is to not tell the name and do not use "popular" tricks that will have been seen on TV.

Another tip that I love is- don't show them any tricks, there are the ones missing out and usually learn their lesson when your other friends are laughing in the next room after a trick but you refuse to show them

If you could swear on this forum this post would be full of it.
these sites cheese me off no end. A bunch of no talent little twits who think they are clever because they know how something is done but haven't got the patience to practice or the skill to pull it off. i'd like to give each and every one of them a big old slap.
not just that but these kids are sometimes putting themselves and potentially others at risk at this point i would like to put a link here to one of the most dangerous things i've seen on the internet but it would involve some exposure so i can't, what i can say is it involves a sharp knife, a coke can and a trick called "staked". ******* idiot.
another thing that pees me off is when you go on pooptube to watch a performance theres always some little kids exposure vid, some even dare call them tutorials!!!
rant rant rant grrrr grrrrr grrrrrr!!!!!