As I mentioned on a previous post, the end does not always justify the means. Yeah someone may be inspired to do magic, however countless others are just being spoonfed the secret. And I don't buy the garbage about how it encourages magicians to come up with new stuff. I'm I mistaken when I say that alot of so-called new stuff has been based on older stuff anyway. Just because a concept is old that means it's okay to expose it. That man(I don't even consider him a man) is a disgrace and a sell-out period.
The Masked Magician
- Thread starter Anthony Bass
- Start date
As I mentioned on a previous post, the end does not always justify the means. Yeah someone may be inspired to do magic, however countless others are just being spoonfed the secret. And I don't buy the garbage about how it encourages magicians to come up with new stuff. Am I mistaken when I say that alot of so-called new stuff has been based on older stuff anyway? Just because a concept is old that doesn't means it's okay to expose it. That man(I don't even consider him a man) is a disgrace and a sell-out period.
With that in mind, I'm going to petition my congressman to have all books dealing with magic removed from retail outlets and libraries.
Did you know that most libraries actually have stuff like Mark Wilson's Course in Magic and Modern Coin Magic? Jesus baby-eating Christ, how can we allow that depravity to continue?!
Because it benefited them.
The truth is that secrets are the most worthless things on the planet. But magicians defend them more than they do their own families because of romantic dellusions.
This is the kind of thing that leads to kvlt kiddie syndrome.
But now it can be learned.
The stories that some have related here say that you're wrong.
Could we get some better punctuation in there please?
Anyway, I don't care what's being exposed on YouTube. I know for a fact I'm better than that.
Say that to my parents who have been lifelong fans of magic and they would roll their eyes at you and say, "Do you really think we're that stupid?"
Magicians are arrogant pricks who look down on the intelligence of others. Thank you for advancing the stereotype.
Banacheck and Rick Maue. Two names that immediately spring to mind when I think of people who adapted to beat exposure.
Educate yourself or someone will do it for you.
You don't even know what a sell-out is.
You people are fighting a crusade against an abstraction and making colossal ... of yourselves in the process.
It seems amazing to me that some people can't decipher between a show that exposes magic secrets to a lay audience and a book written by a magician that teaches magic to future magicians. It's a totally different thing. Like I said before and I'll keep saying it "THE ENDS DO NOT ALWAYS JUSTIFY THE MEANS. " What is the purpose of the magician's code anyway? It seems to me like some of you think that it shouldn't exist. So all the magician organizations that make new members sware an oath have it all wrong. There shouldn't be an oath at all I guess. I'm going to see how one of you feel when you come up with something valuable and clever and then have some sell-out expose it to the public.
We must remember that if exposure was completely non-existant, none of us would have learned magic. While I am not justifying the Masked Magician, exposure is necessary (to an extent) to further the art that we all practice. Just, it should not be done over public television!
I agree with you on that. I don't mind magic being taught, but it should not be spoon fed through public mediums. People who want to learn it should be willing to do the work it takes to learn it. It still scares me that so many people are defending this masked "magician."
Plus I would like to add that there is a difference between "exposure" and magic tutorials. They are two different concepts.
"Anyway, I don't care what's being exposed on YouTube. I know for a fact I'm better than that."
Steerpike I agree on somethings, but not everything,for example: how would it make you feel, if you buy a trick learn it practice, perform it, and then someone says, "you did .......... I saw the tutorial on Youtube, I mean Hecklers do that, and they will ruin a show" or they might say, " I saw the exposure on The Masked Magician" wouldn't that make you angry, it would for me.
Steerpike I agree on somethings, but not everything,for example: how would it make you feel, if you buy a trick learn it practice, perform it, and then someone says, "you did .......... I saw the tutorial on Youtube, I mean Hecklers do that, and they will ruin a show" or they might say, " I saw the exposure on The Masked Magician" wouldn't that make you angry, it would for me.
i beg to differ here....
most grand stage illusions are simply not feasible (financially or logistically) for the common magician.
what he exposed are tricks that:
a) use relatively proprietary setups - the same effect, by a different magician will likely use a different method.
b) that most magicians can't do (for the reasons listed above).
c) less believable than impromptu close up magic because of the ability to set up/rig the tricks to almost work on their own.
It doesn't matter why it was created. Once it is created, it is available to everyone who knows of its existence. You can go on and on about your idealism, but it doesn't matter, because the rest of the world could care less.
The magician's oath as we know it was originally written in a time where magicians were at their worst in terms of hoarding secrets and backstabbing. It was written in a time where Harry Kellar became America's greatest magician by stealing the work of his contemporaries.
I don't want to go back to that time.
First, I would take it as a compliment that someone wants to take something as worthless as a secret and show it off to everyone else.
Second, it's free publicity.
Third, it helps to prevent me from becoming complacent.
If you had your way, we'd never be able to rotate new blood into the scene. When I was in middle school, I watched the Masked Magician specials. It began my interest in magic. Are you going to tell me that I'm not a serious magician because I watched an exposure show out of curiosity? Answer that question with a direct yes or no. If you can't, then shut... up.
You're scared by people not hating a guy who exposed magic tricks. Man, you're going to have a stroke when you find out about really big things like the Holocaust.
On paper, yeah. But in the real world, the line kind of blurs.
David Blaine wrote his book Mysterious Stranger both for magicians and the lay audience and teaches how serveral tricks are done. People who don't actually want to be magicians will still know how those tricks are done, and you'll probably burst another vein over that. Same with Criss Angel's book.
No, it wouldn't. Because a mature adult accepts the world the way it is, and then seeks change. He takes responsibility for himself. If he encounters a problem that cannot be solved directly, he solves it indirectly.
I don't get mad, because that doesn't do me any good. I take a proactive approach. That means I have to work harder, yes. But I'm okay with that. Some people would complain that they shouldn't have to work harder like that, and I say those people are still little boys and girls who shouldn't even be magicians because they're lazy.
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With all due respect, you're dead wrong. Let me tell you something because you are in fact being the idealist. I'm speaking from personal experience and a practical perspective. When a layperson tells me about a secret they learned, all of the time it's from a show like the masked magician or some other genius on youtube. It's never from a instuctional magic source, so you're argument is baseless. Who the hell is anyone to decide that, 'oh now it's time to expose such and such a secret because it's old and overused and they should come up with something new. That's arrogant thinking at its best. I wonder what the great masters like Dai Vernon, Slydini, Paul Harris would say. Even more recent ones like Mark Wilson(yeah I know hwe has a book which, by the way, does not support your position). I just can't see them saying that it's okay what he did.
How many magicians have had a show or effect ruined because someone saw a tutorial on Youtube, or you were doing a trick that was revealed on the Masked Magician?
It doesn't matter bro. Magicians are supposed to create provacative thoughts. Our job is to suspend peoples disbelief in the impossible. Doesn't it make sense that exposure does not help in that matter. The more secrets get revealed, the less likley it is for someone to believe.
You're right, I'm just saying that I find it unlikely that because of the Masked Magician it would hurt anyone except for stage magicians, and even then, people will still go see stage shows.
How am I an idealist when I'm telling people to stop trying to change people who don't want to change?
As opposed to everyone who disagrees with you?
Where do you think those exposure videos on YouTube come from? Those kids had to buy the effect first.
Arrogant? Sure. But it's not the end of the world that you and every other reactionary Chicken Little in this community think it is.
Probably something along the lines of taking reponsibility for themselves since they can't make exposure go away.
Incidentally, Penn & Teller are notorious for exposing numerous utility sleights in their shows and did a version of the cups and balls with clear plastic cups. Dai Vernon loved their act.
Namedropping may persuade some, but I'm not so easily impressed.
You don't have to like it. But you need to stop your griping and accept the world the way it is. Don't give me any of that ******** about how things should be, how you believe the ideal, right way is. The world does not and will never conform to us alone, and you have to accept that before you can begin to affect change in yourself and those around you.
Sorry, once again you're 100% dead wrong. I accept nothing because" that's the way the world is." Are you serious? You mean when one sees a wrong, he is to stay silent? I think not. If there is something going on that I feel is hurting the art that I so dearly love, then you damn well better be ready to hear me roar, and I won't apologize for it.
You're going to have a coronary when I tell you this, but I have a show called Psycho-Skepticism. I do a mentalism act where I go in telling everyone that what I'm about to do is ********. I won't tell them how I do it, but this is a blend of education and entertainment for the skeptical, analytical, and inquiring individual.
That's one of my answers to exposure. I take an indirect route. People are going to watch exposure, so I give them a show that doesn't actually expose anything, but serves as an education about the modus operandi of con artists and fraudulent mediums.
Compare that to the threads popping up here every week with a new petition to tell YouTube that we're all a bunch of babies and want exposure videos deleted immediately and outright. Who's taking the more constructive approach?
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I said no such thing.
To accept the world the way it is does not mean to admit helplessness and espouse inaction. No, those are the words of a child instead of an adult. It means you stop reacting to everything. You become a cause instead of an effect because you're free of the victim syndrome, saying how everything should be.
I have accepted that exposure happens and will never stop. This is the way the world is. That's liberating. I know that I don't have to crusade against this. I can make my own way, and act in such a manner that this does not have to effect or hinder me.
Rather than reacting to exposure, I can stay ahead of it. And that is what magicians should be doing. Tommy Wonder himself said that exposure sucks, but it simply proves to magicians the important value of constant evolution.
Oh so as long as it's just stage illusions then it's okay, am I understanding this correctly? What about the guy who exposed street magic effects? I'm sure you heard of him. What if I decide to do a special and expose Holy Moly, the false transfer, two card monte, the double lift, the pass,etc.. I guess that would be okay with some of you, right? Theory 11 was created to advance the art of magic and we have so many people defending exposure and saying that I should not complain.