talkmagic.co.uk

I've been coming up with my own magic tricks over the years - usually quite straightforward stuff, nothing too complicated. I like the theory of magic, and admire those with magical minds that invent the tricks.

I have been attending the Blackpool Magic Convention for about 8 years now and have learned moves, elements and ideas that I use in my own act. This could be considered Plagiarism, but like everyone else, I use what I see as inspiration to improve my own act. I'm not going to lift someone elses show and implement it wholesale into my own act, but I'm learning from watching my peers perform, and from seeing demonstrations of tricks in the dealer halls.

This year I've seen two tricks I had designed at home, actually on sale by professional dealers. It's obvious to me that no-ones ripped me off, and its purely coincedence that other people have come up with the same idea that I did. I invented these tricks at home on my own, and I'm sure that no-one was hiding in the cupboard taking notes. It;s coincendence, nothing more.

I had often wondered if I could make some extra pocket money by making up some of the tricks I have designed on Ebay. For example, if I buy 52 decks of cards at a bulk price, I can make 52 One Way Decks and sell them for a profit. But this idea makes me want to put together some of the tricks I have been using at home, because I think they would sell well and they are pretty good, even if I do say so myself.

To give an example, one of the tricks I came up with is as straightforward as you could imagine - there are three playing cards on the table (jumbo sized) and I ask the participant from the crowd to prepare to choose one of the cards. I explain that I will ensure that what they feel is a free choice is actually controlled by my own actions, and I will influence their choice without them realising how. They choose a card, I turn it over, and it's the only card with "You will choose this card!" printed on the back.

Likewise, I have a card trick with a theme of finding true love. The participant takes the two red kings, and slots them into the pack anywhere. The cards are then ribbon spread and the two kings are removed, along with the cards that are located next to them in the ribbon. The Kings were put into the pack at random, but the adjacent cards are turned over and revealed to be the matching red queens. Then after a bit of storytelling about how the couples split up, they are reinserted into the deck apart from each other. The story continues that the kings were told there are plenty more fish in the sea, but the kings found this to be untrue, as the cards are ribbon spread face up and every card in the deck is a black spot card - there are no picture cards at all apart from the four red cards that are now magically reunited again.

Now, both of these tricks are based on ideas that I had, when I was playing about with cards. When I started to perform publicly last year, I made up a couple of sets of each of the above and took them with me, and people liked them. The spectators reactions convinced me that there might be a market for them on Ebay.

However, in Blackpool this year, these tricks were on sale, both totally different presentation, but the method was the same as mine. The first used pictures of movie stars instead of playing cards. The second didn't have the storyline with the love and the fish in the sea stuff, it was just a matching pairs routine but the method was the same.

The first trick was created by someone well known and famous. Whilst it's obvious that he's not copied my idea, there's no way I could prove that I haven't copied his ideas - he's a very famous magician, and for all anyone knows I could have bought his trick first, then decided to make my own cheaper version.

There's a limited number of methods in card magic, and it would be foolish for anyone to sit at home with a deck, and suddenly claim to have invented the DL, for example. However, I think it's fair to say that every possible move or sleight has been invented at some point in the past, and it would be really difficult these days to invent a new trick that does not infringe, at least in some way, on someone elses principle or method.

So, first of all, is it possible for a magician to protect his trick method (the secret bit) as his own interlectual property, or is it only the actual presentation that can be attributed to the magician?

And how do the people that invent the tricks that you can buy protect themselves from people discovering the method and inventing their own tricks that are fundamentally the same, only with different presentation?

And how does a professional trick manufacturer have the absolute certainty that their newly invented trick doesn't already exist, invented by someone else?

I assume one of the effects is the Andy Nyman thing, I forget what it's called. I would think that this uses a core mentalism ability re-presented rather than a true card effect, but that is just me.

The magic world is full of self important information nerds who will happily look up the merest mention of an effect in a magic article from decades ago (ahem) and claim the person who invented the effect is a thief, plagarist and liar.

That said, if you lived on an island with no knowledge of the outside world and "invented" the television, I think you would just have to accept someone beat you to it.

This is at best a big can of worms at worst theft. It almost comes down to moral interpretation of the person selling the effect and the audience receiving it.

If you truly believe your presentation is unique then market it as such but a cup and balls with metal instead of plastic cups is still the cup and balls.

If you sell you're version you may get in some kind of trouble, but ther is no harm in using them for yourself.
As a side note, I would like to know what the commercially available version of the kings and queens matching trick is called?

Dumpster wrote:
So, first of all, is it possible for a magician to protect his trick method (the secret bit) as his own interlectual property, or is it only the actual presentation that can be attributed to the magician?

As I understand it, not without revealing it to the general public.

Dumpster wrote:And how do the people that invent the tricks that you can buy protect themselves from people discovering the method and inventing their own tricks that are fundamentally the same, only with different presentation?

They can't, it happens all the time. Sometimes it's with the same presentation.

Dumpster wrote:And how does a professional trick manufacturer have the absolute certainty that their newly invented trick doesn't already exist, invented by someone else?

Usually they give out sample copies to knowledgeable members of the magic community, but sometimes it does still happen.

In my brief time I have independently invented the mirage deck, and rubix remembered (unlike you I am convinced they were spying on me). This happens all the time, and while it feels unfair you just have to concede someone beat you to it, it happens in all forms of creative work all the time.

Jean Eugene Roberts wrote:

Dumpster wrote:And how does a professional trick manufacturer have the absolute certainty that their newly invented trick doesn't already exist, invented by someone else?

Usually they give out sample copies to knowledgeable members of the magic community, but sometimes it does still happen.

Folks like me for example.
the thing is you can release an effect that is based on an existing effect, providing you give full acreditation to th eoriginator, and if that person is still allive, you aproach said person for their permission.

If it was the case that you could be annoyed then Osterlind would be very annoyed by this point. 60% of ideas I have seen as 'new' seperate tricks are something he has put out at on point or another and often decades before.
I realise I may be a little obsessed with the excessive mention of the man but the simple fact of the matter is that it is very true.

The creative world is littered with inventions that are copied, or where the later inventor happens to get the right publicity. From memory, the electric light bulb is one of these and I'm sure that Harry Potter woman has someone say that she stole the idea of a muggle. You could sell your product and see who complains. More likely that you'd be seeing who bought it, but I suspect that unless you are very successful, no one's going to sue you. If it bothers you, apply for a patent. Yes, it does put the method out in the public, but so does a book.