talkmagic.co.uk

New show in Netherlands to expose Mentalism

http://www.telegraaf.nl/video/prive/6417663/RTL_ontmaskert_mentalisten.html

I guess I'm lucky to have a dayjob.

But seriously - I wonder how bad the exposure is going to be and how much damage it will cause. If it's popular, then I'd say it might cause a sort of evolution of mentalists, who'll be forced to ditch plain old surefire mentalism (now burned) and go for methods that include the use of suggestion. After all, suggestion is still magic, and it's something you can't really describe or explain on TV.

At least, I hope not...

It might affect the Netherlands, but not us, for now. But if you can be original enough, and present the effects differently, using the same methods, and no-one will notice. This is one of the things I love about magic/mentalism

If it will go well in the Netherlands, you can be sure that within a year someone will bring it to the US / UK.

I think if you learn enough methods, mentalism loses much of its charm for the lay audience. Once they learn of the SG, for example, it'll be very hard to do stuff that involves it. It's not disastrous, but rather a missing 'spice' in an effect. My point is that if they know enough methods, you lost plenty of the spice in every effect.

From the clips it looks like some of the effects were also featured on the Secrets of Psychics Revealed show a few years ago.

Lets just keep fingers crossed that these corporate mongoles in the uk don't jump onto this trend. The silverlining of exposure is that it forces evolution of methodology, as dup said, but still the more serious mentalists and magicians will constantly be doing that anyway. Its just unnecessery. On the whole over-exposure us potentially hideous. Not because everything we do, our audience will know (because only enthusiasts will care to 'research' all the exposure... which, surely, is what all magician's do??) but because we get this cult of irritating amateurs who think they know everything- who watch a great trick, invisible touch/ ash on palm thing, and snort at it 'I know how you did that, that's easy'.. to which I reply 'well then.. present it without being obvious, and try and be even remotley entertaining and not talking in monotone and get any form of reaction from the poor sould you force to watch you, the shallow, smug, personality-lacking creature!' Tarbell made a wonderful point, that morons like this, who watch performances and boast about how they know the secret to elevate their self esteem, gain nothing other than contempt from their peers who rather enjoy the thing which and ACTUAL PERFORMER has created within their emotions called magic.
sorry... i digressed a little there, but exposure is a big topic.

Best answer I've heard for "I know how you did that!"

"No, I did it another way."

But yeah, I'm getting tired of people who hear I'm doing magic / mentalism and swagger, "Oh, like in Magic Secrets Revealed, right? I watched that, I know it all."

Then I give them a simple 'mind reading', and they get confused :>

On that note, sometimes extra-high-confidence on the side of the audience is not a bad thing for the performer. That way, the fall into confusion is much more rapid, effective and long-lasting.

dup, we do not want to confuse, you never want to confuse. When I first began I set out to confuse people- and at the end people would go 'I don't get it.. so how did you do it' without any emotion. Once we go beyond 'tricking them' and getting them to want to know 'how did you do that' then we go onto the more rewarding stuff. We aim for wonder we aim for delight and surprise and awe, but we don't want to confuse people- as to how it's done will be confusing, but wonder and entertainment and joy is what we want to bring. We bear magical powers and mystery, we perform miraculous, once in a lifetime feats of wonder. I doubt I'd meet jesus and be 'confused' afterwards.
And btw, I thought it was pretty standard if someone catches you 'Nope, definatley not that one ' 'aw, then it was some magnetic force field' 'not quite '

I don't think this sort of thing is a big deal at all. Not many people actally sit down to watch these and of those who do, how many really ever remember the methods? Not something I'll be loosing any sleep over.

More channels added daily, and a steadily diminishing number of viewers...

TV has well and truly lost its power. I very much doubt that this show will garner enough viewers to make a difference to our work.

Those who are concerned, though, would be well advised to watch it, and adapt their presentation and repertoire accordingly.

Pete

I now consıder myself somewhat of an expert on the EFFECTS of exposure, and the reason for this is because of my Youtube channel, I remove all the comments and so now know how many people (atleast on the internet) know the methods, and also how much they enjoy them.

Let me give you a breif overview:



Portal (Copperfield):
90% of the comments are of pure amazement, no one has yet guessed the correct explanation; quite an achievement for a video thats been watched over 25,000 times.


Flying (Copperfield):
About 5% of comments need to be removed (though less people know how the box is done interestingly), but the vast majority are in awe of it, and say its a beautiful effect.


Walking on Water (Angel):
EVERYONE knows how this is done, it is VERY rare that I get to allow a comment to this video, because well over 90% of the viewers can either guess or already know how its done. Criss Angel has as big reputation for using camera tricks. This trick WAS exposed by the Masked Magician very recently, which may explain this too.


Vanish the Statue of Liberty (Copperfield):
I'd say about 60% of people know how this is done, and so a lot of comments need to be removed. This seems to be because, unlike Flying and Portal, this trick was NOT patented by Copperfield, and so the Masked Magician could expose it. As a result, lots of people know how this is done, but thankfully not everyone.


Vanishing an Aeroplane (Copperfield):
I have yet to find a single comment with the real explanation, and this video really seems to fool laymen, a lot more than the statue of liberty. Considering that this video has been watched some 30,000 times, I'm very suprised just how effective this method is. This was never exposed by the Masked Magician.


Walking through the Great Wall of China (Copperfield):
About 50% of all the commetors know how this is done, and the rest tend to think its a fake wall. In my opinion this video is seen as a puzzle by a lot of people, which is a shame. After the video of the Masked magician exposing this hit Youtube, then lots of people started to know the real method, thankfully still only about half.







My point of all this typing is to explain that public exposure, atleast by someone as big as the Masked Magician, DOES greatly damage an effect. Effects which have NOT been exposed remain with a great deal of mystery around them, whereas effects which have been exposed are full of comments by people who know how its done.

Corrolation does not PROVE Causation, but in this case I think it deffinetly implies it strong.


Exposure damages an effect very strongly, people DO remember the methods. I'm sorry if this seems arrogant of me to claim to know for certain, being such an ammature in the world of magic, but if you do not believe me please check out my Youtube channel for you'reself: TheMagicofIllusion

P.S

Can someone please translate the video for me? And the meaning of it? I can see theres some guy dressed like the Joker, which worries me... if the charecter is interesting, more people will watch.

that's interesting...






And, if you do effects that are yours and no-body has seen the masked nitwit expose, then your laughing! Like this ! It really shouldn't matter if the methods are the same, it just needs to look slightly different to whatever the masked muppet has put out there, and you'll be fine...

As you can tell, I can't quite decide on a name for the masked-not-a-real-magician that can be posted on a public forum!

spooneythegoon wrote:that's interesting...






And, if you do effects that are yours and no-body has seen the masked nitwit expose, then your laughing! Like this ! It really shouldn't matter if the methods are the same, it just needs to look slightly different to whatever the masked muppet has put out there, and you'll be fine...

As you can tell, I can't quite decide on a name for the masked-not-a-real-magician that can be posted on a public forum!

I must disagree with you Spooney.


If people see exposure of Mentalism they will know it is all tricks and illusions, and not 'Psychological suggestion' or such like; or whatever story you use to explain you're powers.

I can see what you're saying Eshly but your little comparison is only taking into account people who are viewing your magic on YouTube. Most of those are probabaly the type who go hunting for methods anyway, I'd doubt very much if you'd get the same percentages if you were to perform for a real, live audience.