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I have tried to search this subject and not found it on the forum but I am sure I will be told off for not searching enough if it is, but nevertheless I would like to voice my opinion on this subject and I would welcome the opinion from anyone else!

When I started to learn magic almost 40 yrs ago, videos and DVDs were but a thing of the future and books were the media of learning if you could afford them......!

I was very lucky and had a grandfather who invented tricks and so I had someone who taught me the basics and gave me a knowledge of the principles of magic from an early age!

So come the revolution of the Video and then the DVD, now we have a new media of learning when we can call on the masters of magic to be our guide but is that necessarily a good thing??

IMHO, a book is the media which teaches you the effect and then offers maybe a little bit of patter suggestion but doesn't give you any style of performance, so encourages you to develop your own style and therefore you adapt the effect to your own individual type of performance.

DVDs/Videos, on the other hand, IMHO are more inclined to encourage the watcher to copy the performer word for word, action for action and although most of the teachin DVDs encourage you to emulate the performer in this way, I firmly believe it is only the seasoned performer who will think beyond the DVD/Video to develop his own style around a particular routine or effect.

Where as someone new to magic might not have the experience or know how to even think that way, I believe a book forces you in that direction!

Please feel free to let me know how you all think on this subject!

jbmagic wrote:

DVDs/Videos, on the other hand, IMHO are more inclined to encourage the watcher to copy the performer word for word, action for action and although most of the teachin DVDs encourage you to emulate the performer in this way, I firmly believe it is only the seasoned performer who will think beyond the DVD/Video to develop his own style around a particular routine or effect.

I think that this paragraph in particular sums up both sides of the debate.

In general. I agree with what jbmagic has written and each has their place in learning. What the DVD and video has bought for some is the ability to learn visually given that there are many who cannot read or will not be able to translate text into actions.

For a beginner, I don't see too much wrong with copying everything from the video, including the style of presentation. The whole package will help improve the beginners overall confidence etc. As you said, they will develop their own style with time.