So, I recently had a semi-lengthy discussion about this subject over the Cafe that seems to have fizzled. But it gave me a chance to further develop some ideas that I've been rolling around my head for some time now. I thought I'd pull the pin on this little grenade and see what develops. I probably won't respond again tonight, as I've got the house to myself an Assassin's Creed Syndicate - but I'm curious what you folks might think.
I've got a way to remove all power from the exposure of magic tricks. Also, it will never happen.
All it will take is for everyone performing magic (Or at least the vast majority) to use personalized, unique presentations. And all that takes is for every performer to see another performer, and NOT do what that performer does.
Let me explain my thoughts; the fear that exposure generates is that someone will be trying to do a trick and an audience member will know how that trick is done.
The only time this matters is when that performer is relying on the secret of the trick to give it value. These are the performances where the magician is just telling the tale of the props (Say-do-see patter), or just saying, "look, watch" and all attention is on the trick, and once the trick is done that's that. 100% of the value of that performance style is that the performer knows something the audience doesn't. If the audience finds out that secret, everyone is equal and nothing interesting has happened.
This is further compounded by the fact that many, many magicians will perform the same tricks, the same way, as other performers. They see a good performer do a trick, and they go out and buy the trick and perform it the same way the person they liked did it. Whether that's David Blaine, Daniel Garcia, Gazzo, Kozmo, Wayne Houchin, etc. doesn't matter. I've heard all of these people comment about people copying their DVD presentations word for word, or I've seen people copy them.
So when a large number of magicians are doing the same tricks, and they are all doing that trick in such a way that the secret is the most valuable thing - that's when exposure can hurt them.
So, the easiest way to remove that danger entirely is to perform unique material. There's two ways to do this: Take the tricks people are performing, and give them a unique presentation or perform material that other people are not performing.
If one were to read through Tarbell they'd probably get about a thousand tricks no one is doing currently. Even Mark Wilson's book has a bunch of stuff that no one does. It is not difficult to find material that is not being done by every performer out there. I guarantee every single person reading this probably has at least one resource with a few tricks that no one is really doing. Do that stuff, and no one will expose it because no one knows what it is. The tricks that get exposed are either the tricks that everyone does, or the "hot topic" tricks that are popular at the time.
To create unique presentations is easy, too: Put your own personality and interests into the script. A lot of my performances revolve around abilities that people didn't realize they had. I try to be uplifting and encouraging for people, so I like to show them that they are capable of so much more than they realize. To that end, I can take almost any trick and just turn it around so the focus is on the volunteer, and suddenly it seems like a completely differen trick to anything they've seen before.
Watch what other people do, and don't do that.
The reason I think this approach would eliminate the danger of exposure is because the human mind is really good at recognizing a pattern, but really bad at applying patterns to something that doesn't match up. So if the script is different, or something disproves a method without being obvious, there's nothing to associate a known method with a new presentation. The trick they are seeing has to be pretty much exactly the same as the trick they have seen exposed to trigger the memory.
Why do I think it'll never happen? Because too many magicians are lazy. Too many people are satisfied performing an exact copy of someone else's routine. Now, here's the part that may sound controversial - If you're not willing to put the effort into creating unique, personalized performances, you no longer have any right to complain about exposure, because you are part of why exposure has any value.
I'll just let these thoughts percolate for a bit and see if anything comes up.
Note: I'm not trying to say that I'm right and everyone else is wrong. If you disagree with me, feel free to debate! That's how we advance these sorts of ideas. I probably won't respond today, maybe not tomorrow either, but I will come back and read every response posted.
I've got a way to remove all power from the exposure of magic tricks. Also, it will never happen.
All it will take is for everyone performing magic (Or at least the vast majority) to use personalized, unique presentations. And all that takes is for every performer to see another performer, and NOT do what that performer does.
Let me explain my thoughts; the fear that exposure generates is that someone will be trying to do a trick and an audience member will know how that trick is done.
The only time this matters is when that performer is relying on the secret of the trick to give it value. These are the performances where the magician is just telling the tale of the props (Say-do-see patter), or just saying, "look, watch" and all attention is on the trick, and once the trick is done that's that. 100% of the value of that performance style is that the performer knows something the audience doesn't. If the audience finds out that secret, everyone is equal and nothing interesting has happened.
This is further compounded by the fact that many, many magicians will perform the same tricks, the same way, as other performers. They see a good performer do a trick, and they go out and buy the trick and perform it the same way the person they liked did it. Whether that's David Blaine, Daniel Garcia, Gazzo, Kozmo, Wayne Houchin, etc. doesn't matter. I've heard all of these people comment about people copying their DVD presentations word for word, or I've seen people copy them.
So when a large number of magicians are doing the same tricks, and they are all doing that trick in such a way that the secret is the most valuable thing - that's when exposure can hurt them.
So, the easiest way to remove that danger entirely is to perform unique material. There's two ways to do this: Take the tricks people are performing, and give them a unique presentation or perform material that other people are not performing.
If one were to read through Tarbell they'd probably get about a thousand tricks no one is doing currently. Even Mark Wilson's book has a bunch of stuff that no one does. It is not difficult to find material that is not being done by every performer out there. I guarantee every single person reading this probably has at least one resource with a few tricks that no one is really doing. Do that stuff, and no one will expose it because no one knows what it is. The tricks that get exposed are either the tricks that everyone does, or the "hot topic" tricks that are popular at the time.
To create unique presentations is easy, too: Put your own personality and interests into the script. A lot of my performances revolve around abilities that people didn't realize they had. I try to be uplifting and encouraging for people, so I like to show them that they are capable of so much more than they realize. To that end, I can take almost any trick and just turn it around so the focus is on the volunteer, and suddenly it seems like a completely differen trick to anything they've seen before.
Watch what other people do, and don't do that.
The reason I think this approach would eliminate the danger of exposure is because the human mind is really good at recognizing a pattern, but really bad at applying patterns to something that doesn't match up. So if the script is different, or something disproves a method without being obvious, there's nothing to associate a known method with a new presentation. The trick they are seeing has to be pretty much exactly the same as the trick they have seen exposed to trigger the memory.
Why do I think it'll never happen? Because too many magicians are lazy. Too many people are satisfied performing an exact copy of someone else's routine. Now, here's the part that may sound controversial - If you're not willing to put the effort into creating unique, personalized performances, you no longer have any right to complain about exposure, because you are part of why exposure has any value.
I'll just let these thoughts percolate for a bit and see if anything comes up.
Note: I'm not trying to say that I'm right and everyone else is wrong. If you disagree with me, feel free to debate! That's how we advance these sorts of ideas. I probably won't respond today, maybe not tomorrow either, but I will come back and read every response posted.