Hey I am 16 and I am putting out Lecture notes and a DVD...Cool huh?

[Justin Miller]

AGHHHH! i went to edit a word that was mispelled and I erased the entire post..sorry guys. If you want the entire post the cafe has it. Now before some of you say "he erased it on purpose because to much heat" give me a break.

Justin (shagrinned) Miller

 

[Close-Up Expert]

AMEN!!! This is what I've been simply SCREAMING since forever! TBH, that Dan Army kid irritated me the most, but at least he's laying low now after all that criticism about his supposedly "ground breaking" book called BLACK...Sheesh.

I went through a stage similar to this way back when, but then pulled my head from my ass and realized that there is a time and place for everything, and my time now is to learn learn and learn. Then when I'm 100+ years old, I might just be getting a handle on this thing they call magic....LOL!

Best.
Steve

 

[Krash]

I actually do not blame you Mr. Miller. I mean, if I happened to be in Danny and your position I would pretty much be feeling the exact same way. Then again, I definatly just started learning at the age of 18 last Halloween, and I hope to learn so much more from anyone that I can. I also, completely understand what you mean about some of us thinking that we "know everything" when it comes to this lovely art of ours. I surely wouldn't be caught taking something like creating and selling lightly.

I'm all for hard work, practice, and whatnot as well. I think that it's pretty cool that you and Danny are still pretty good friends with this Calvin kid. He certainly is a lucky kid, eh?

What I would give to have someone of the caliber of the people who sell their work at sites like Ellusionist or Theory11 take an interest in someone like me.

I, like most of us here, are definatly on the same page with you and agree that it's high time we do something against the pollution, as you put it, that is corrupting the future of magic.

Keep up the good work,

Shane K.

 

[MoonlightKnight]

Great advice. I don't really understand why someone would try to put out notes and a dvd if we haven't even heard of him. Mr. Miller is right, he is a well known MASTER of magic. If nobody has heard of you, and you have a DVD... How will it sell? Haha. I dunno, just doesn't strike me as smart... Thanks for the advice Justin!

 

[Ben Long]

Showmanship, damnit!

If I may add something:

As a young magician, one might be able to do False Sybil in .3 seconds, locate a card from behind the back with no breaks, and make a signed selection appear in the spectator's tighty-whities, but this amounts to nothing if one doesn't have the performance experience.

Anyone can invent the next 6-foot impromptu levitation, but it is all worth crap unless the performer has the experience from being open season for spectators and hecklers alike. Magic isn't just the trick. In fact, the trick is minor. The trick is just the icing. The ability to deal with the audince, to engage a spectator, and fulfill the role of entertainer--that's what makes a magician.

Lecture notes? I can think of maybe ten magicians in the world who are qualified to have those, and the majority of them are dead. The tenured professors with doctorates from every last university--that's who gets lectures.

What do magicians need to do now? Stop looking at Youtube and learn to goddamn act! Nobody wants to hear somebody mumble some half-assed patter for a crappy card trick.

You can pull a real-live elephant out of my ass, and if you don't sell it, I won't believe it.

Learn to be charismatic. Every magician who is anybody can do that. And it is possible to improve one's charisma. This is a performance art, after all, so don't just perform, PERFORM!

 

[wilfred]

but the Buck twins have been releasing notes since they were 16?

 

[MitchellStafiej]

Good advice, and hopefully, as I did, the people releasing effects at a young age and too quickly will learn from their mistakes. I think that is the only TRUE way to learn something. From your failures and mistakes.

Mitchell

 

[Ben Long]

but the Buck twins have been releasing notes since they were 16?

Yeah, well, you'll occaisonally get those prodigies who graduate college when they're twelve.

But answer this: Can you think of anyone else (that is, who's actually relased material that's good)?

 

[trashmanf]

yeah good point wilfred. I think what we're seeing here from justin is sour grapes. just like how lots of old people now will tell you how ANY change is bad. he just doesn't want the next generation stepping on his toes or taking up the limelight.

how immature Justin! alot of older magicians in general take this supercilious rhetoric tone, with its ridiculous absolutist statements about how EVERY person from this age to that age just has NO business releasing their material.

ive heard from a lot of people that said they wished they hadn't wasted the money on Justin's LOOPS volume from the DVD series, does that mean i should go online and make a huge diss post about everyone in his age group?

 

[wilfred]

true.
the twins had mentors like chris kenner, lee asher, etc....
most kids dont have that kind of luxury.

 

[Justin Miller]

Lets take Dan and Dave though as the exception not the rule. I mean lets face it they have Kenner as a mentor and have been around the business of magic for a long time..and the major difference is that THEY ACTUALLY BROUGHT SOMETHING NEW to the table.

The twins are indeed the exception.

Justin N. Miller

 

[Justin Miller]

yeah good point wilfred. I think what we're seeing here from justin is sour grapes. just like how lots of old people now will tell you how ANY change is bad. he just doesn't want the next generation stepping on his toes or taking up the limelight.

how immature Justin! alot of older magicians in general take this supercilious rhetoric tone, with its ridiculous absolutist statements about how EVERY person from this age to that age just has NO business releasing their material.

ive heard from a lot of people that said they wished they hadn't wasted the money on Justin's LOOPS volume from the DVD series, does that mean i should go online and make a huge diss post about everyone in his age group?

lol is all I can say to this post.
I knew this would come but to take cheap shots at me..come on.


Justin N. Miller

 

[Ben Long]

Jeez, now that I think about it, I haven't honestly seen anything new since the trilogy. Everything else is old hat.

Personally, I think there's plenty of material on the market. What I want to see now is innovations in presentation. If you do that, I will be impressed.

Prove it's magic.

There's so much stuff I can ignore. Make me pay attention.

And trust me, it won't come naturally. The people who are under the age of fifty who have lecture notes, they're the one's who are naturals.

Sell the effect. Build it, shape it. Play it like a piano concerto--there is so much more than just hitting the right keys at the right time. Because a magic performance is very much like a piece of music. The tune can be catchy, but if you don't play it right, it's a train wreck. Any good musician knows that there is far more to a piece than the notes.

Magic doesn't just happen. You've got to work your ass off to make a what seems like just a trick into something beautiful.

 

[Eddie]

That may be true. But that is how Dan and Dave got big...

You can't blame humans for now wanting fame and fortune.

 

[Deleted member 2755]

Justin Miller,

Personally I have never heard of you until the LOOPS DVDs were put out by Ellusionist. I then started looking up facts about you. I respect you and the way you pull off your magic. I also love the way you do Silver Dream. I think you are a genius and I wish I could meet you. I would also do anything to be one of your students, but sadly I am just a 16 year old in a small town in Jersey across the country from where you are.

I 100% agree with you. That is why if I EVER came up with an effect (and believe me, I've been trying) I would never put out the DVD or lecture notes myself if I had the chance. I feel it would be mediocre. I would either A) just enjoy the illusion myself, B) sell it to a site such as Ellusionist or Theory 11 (but with a good deal. If they just offered my $500 worth of free stuff, I would never go along with it. I could make more money myself by putting out the DVD.), or lastly C) wait a few years. I would wait until I fully have myself together with a good camera crew and editors to really make sure I could teach in detail and make a DVD that will just have people think "wow".

Justin you are one of my favorite magicians and I back you up fully 100%. Don't stop doing what your doing. I highly respect you and your opinions.

-Doug

 

[Chicken]

You know what they say..." sixty percent of all magic is recycled garbage." Wait. i don't know anybody who says that.


-Chicken

 

[Ben Long]

May I also just say:

You do not (in my humble opinion) know a trick--that is, you have not really learned it--until you have perfected it in front of your mirror with your flawless patter, then performed it for some drunk A-hole who saw how it was done and told everyone in the room, and then you, pissed off, ahve gone home and practiced it, saying your patter in between defeated sobs, and then gone back out and nailing that same jackass in the nuts with the awesomeness that was your once failed and immasculine performance, but is now like a nuclear missile made of biceps.

That's when you're allowed to say you can do a trick.

You must also officially register your awesomeness with the FBI as a lethal weapon.

Bottom line, though:

That's experience, without which, there is no magic.

 

[The Royal JRA]

if you are between the ages of 11-21 you have no authority in putting out lecture notes or a DVD for any reason whatsoever? HAHA well what if your 10 can you release lecture notes and a dvd then? So 11-21 is the exact age huh? I dident realize there was an age law for magic. Well I'm 22, but I guess Ill have to show you my ID..

 

[harapanong]

Joshua Jay, one of my heroes in magic, published a BOOK at SEVENTEEN.

What irks me isn't the fact that these people releasing notes and DVDs and young... it's the fact that they call it groundbreaking, when it isn't. I mean, if it truly is very original and revolutionary, why shouldn't we let them publish it?

It's when the things they produce are total crap, yet advertise it as God's Miracles... THEN we should be angry.

Hey, these youths want to feel good. It DOES feel good to be able to show everyone something you created, original or not. When you hold a set of notes in your hands that YOU wrote, you feel a sense of accomplishment. Can we blame them?

Heck no! I am a youth myself at 17 years old, and I myself dream of becoming big in magic. In fact, I am writing a set of notes now! I am not going to sell it, neither am I going to claim my notes are revolutionary. In fact, it's full of tricks that aren't very original, and are simply variations of tricks already in the market, that I adapted for my own use.

What are you going to do? Bash me? Sure, go ahead.

What I mean is, you shouldn't put something out and claim it's really new and incredible, when it ISN'T. If it's just ideas or variations, and you wish to publish it... publish it under that advertisement of "just my take on some tricks". David Stone's DVD, The Real Secrets of Magic, was proclaimed "Best Magic DVD of 2006" by Genii Magazine, yet the tricks in there aren't even his. Go, go watch it. He himself, right at the beginning, states that he isn't a magic creator, and the tricks here aren't "entirely his", but simply adapted to fit his working situation of restaurants and parties.

But that's the thing: He doesn't claim the tricks to be new! We accept that honesty, I watched it and I love it! Some of his card tricks are pretty simple and unoriginal, but hey! He admits and accepts it, and that's why it's one of my favourite DVDs.

- harapan. magic!

 

[Ben Long]

You know who's allowed to have lecture notes? Ricky Jay. If you're not Ricky Jay and you're not dead, then you may not have lecture notes.

Ricky Jay deserves more props than he's given, even in the event that he gets all the props in the world.

Ricky Jay IS the Chuck Norris of Magic.