talkmagic.co.uk

Excellent post there The4thCircle. I too am guilty of revealing once and being met with a face that went from wonder and puzzlement to a frown, a sneer, and a walk away. Why ever would I do that again?

Exposure is only there for thems that seek it. Dynamo's show brought people to this forum, and no doubt to Youtube, where I'm sure many magic tricks were there for the explaining. Thankfully I have seen some of these 'reveals', and the quality of both the camera, the camera angles and the teaching are such that it would be a magic trick in itself to learn anything from it.

I believe the mindset of those that post on Youtube to be one of feeling inadequate. They want to be as cool, as clever, and as revered as their Theory 11 heroes, but have neither the brains nor the creativity to do so. In their minds, revealing a trick pulls these magicians down to the level of the Youtubers. No mysticism, no wonder, just people with a clever idea and 52 bits of cardboard. They see their exposure as a leveller.

I find it delightful when you hear people say 'I don't WANT to know how that's done'. Because they're lovely. They want the magic and the mystery. They want it to be a day-brightener. Its not a puzzle to them, its something to take with them and marvel over.

When Dynamo's show starts again there'll be newbies to the forum, some of which may actually benefit from some of the exposure on Youtube. A self-working card trick they see on there, they then try on their friends and bang, they may get the bug. They may then design their own tricks and be very successful. All thanks to Youtube exposure. Exposure which, lest we forget,they didn't 'happen across'. They went looking for it. Does it matter if they found it there or in a book? If they were determined to find the secret, they'd have done so regardless.

Aza wrote:a certain Baroness of Essex

Do you know her name? I didn't think there was someone with that title.
T.

I don't have my Burke's to hand but I've never heard of her either. Besides a baroness seems a low rank to claim a county!

Grimshaw wrote:I believe the mindset of those that post on Youtube to be one of feeling inadequate. They want to be as cool, as clever, and as revered as their Theory 11 heroes, but have neither the brains nor the creativity to do so.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The youtube problem specifically and why these kids do it.

Thinking back to my childhood, the main magicians on TV used to be Paul Daniels, and later Paul Zenon and Penn & Teller. I also vaguely remember seeing David Copperfield doing a duck/chicken head transposition which freaked me the hell out.

Honestly, all those people were my heroes, but I don't think I specifically wanted to be like any of them. It was the magic that drew me in and they happened to be brilliant at presenting it. When I look at the way the younger generation currently approaches magic, the heroes on TV are people like David Blaine and Dynamo, whose on screen personas appear to be fairly anti-social, not particularly erudite, not classically handsome, and yet they are cool. This hard to define air of coolness leads fans to wish they were like that, and magic is seen not as the end unto itself as it used to be, rather it is seen as a means to the end of being cool like Dynamo, Blaine, Kriss Angel and the like.

Not that I think Blaine, Dynamo etc are actually as monosyllabic as they come across on TV, I don't think they could have gotten as far as they have if they were. It simply seems that the uncommunicative street savant type is just a la mode right now.

Probably doesn't help that there's this huge wave of newly invented, barely performed effects coming to market. A video of some new bit of magic hits youtube and the first response is "When can I buy it". Somehow this sense that secrets are there to be traded, not kept, has crept into the culture. I won't mention any names but recently there have been very visible cases of people inventing a move and selling an 'instant download' video all about it, before they can even really DO the move in a repeatable controlled way. It's a race to the bottom to release as much pap as possible.

Combined with the 'coolness' factor and the methodology of an effect is treated like the latest iPhone, you have to buy it to be cool. Can't perform it? Just tell people the secret, show off that you 'have it', in the same way you'd show off that you have designer trainers. Let the world know you're one of the cool kids.

Sorry, excess bitterness. The point is, magic as an art is going the same way as music. Real musicians are still out there but there's a lot of manufactured pap made by talking over 'sampled' tracks. No one respects the recording industry anymore, and some people are starting to feel the same about magic.

-Stacy

I think you also have to consider that kids are now made to believe they can be this or that without talent to back it up. Just look at the deluded X-Factor contestants or Big Brother rejects.

There's an awful lot of arrogance, and a lot of people reluctant to accept or believe that a 'normal' life is good enough for them. Mimicking your heroes is a way to feel special, as long as you don't hold originality in high regard.

I used to love Paul Daniels as a kid, but he wasn't a hero of mine because I thought he was a space man. Real humans shouldn't be able to do that, I thought.

Stacy,
Don't be disenchanted. When I came into magic I remember a cartoon in a magazine, it was either 'The Gen' or 'Abra'. The subject was two archaeologists inside a pyramid, one of them is examining some hieroglyphics through a magnifying glass and he is saying to his companion, "I think it says 'Is magic dying?'"
As long as there are young people like you around who care; the art is in good hands.
David