Of course I PERSONALLY like it very much, because it got me into magic and for ME is the coolest form of magic (speaking for myself here).has it become cliche? Do you (or did you) like it? What are your thoughts about it?
Of course busking still 'happens' everywhere in the world. ButGuerrilla magic is not new. It's been around for centuries.
Also I am afraid you're wrong about busking. For a very long time busking was the most common form of magic. In India, China, and Egypt it's still very common to see magicians doing street performances for tips. Watch Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour.
You do make a good point about this being the new face of magic, though. I don't think it is right now, but you are quite possibly correct that in five or ten years that shift will happen. Magic is more popular, and more accessible than its ever been. I hadn't thought about it before but you're right - there's a solid chance that moving forward the introduction to live magic will quite possibly be in a guerilla sense.
That's both good and bad. While magic is certainly more common than ever, it's still not actually common. The first magician a person sees live is still the ambassador to magic for that person. If that magician sucks, and that's more likely now than I think it ever has been, that puts a sour taste in the audience's mouth and they'll be less likely to engage in seeing magic in the future.
On the other hand, because there are more opportunities, there are more chances for magic to be redeemed. So that's good.
The reason I said it's more likely for a magician to suck, is because of that accessibility I mentioned previously. It's very easy now to decide to learn a magic trick, learn it poorly, and then subject people to that trick. There's no filter of having to learn from a person directly, or being forced to learn from a magic shop where the owner can kind of meter what you purchase.
Because of that lack of filter, it's up to each and every one of us to do our very best at all times. You never know when you'll be the one who will redeem magic in the eyes of someone who saw a bad magician before and thinks magic sucks. Further, you never know when someone has seen a great magician, and it's up to you to maintain that magic is awesome.
Good thought.Yeah, okay, but what about chimpanzee street magic?
Hmmm...I don't claim to be a scholar on ancient magic, to be clear. The studying I've done does tell me something though, and it's pretty interesting to me.
Back in early days of humans, shamans would use techniques similar to what we use, in order to enhance their rituals. Palming things, sneaking them into places, etc. Think psychic surgery more so than cups and balls. The sneaky techniques enhanced the chances that the ritual would work - placebo. Move on down the line of history and all forms of holy men took up the practice. You can find plans and such for temples in Greece and Rome that had magic effects built into the very building (The Secrets of Magic, Gibson), and oracles and such.
Continuing forward, until 400 ACE magic was directly linked with the occult and witchcraft. From 400 to the 1800s it was also linked with carnivals and circuses, until Houdin brought it onto the stage and into the parlor and made it respectable.
Now, I don't know specifically how much people were approaching random strangers, but there are references to magicians performing miracles for random passersby in a lot of the books I've read that talk about magic before this century. Not to mention, Paul Harris has been doing his wandering mystic thing for ages - he was a massive influence on Blaine's decision to focus his show like that.
What I tend to do is look for people with fussing children, and walk slowly as I make my approach.
As I stated, I think part of my success with this method is the fact that I'm still on the young side (haven't graduated high school yet). That being said, I most certainly don't make a point of approaching every kid out there to show tricks, instead it depends on the family. If there is a kid throwing a temper tantrum I'm not going to approach because his parents would likely not be welcoming as a result. What I meant by "fussy" was pretty tame, I was referring to that kid who's bored out of his mind and annoyed while in line for something, and his parents are getting exasperated by his constant pleas for attention.I'll be honest - when I first read this, I had a big ol' "double you tee eff mate" moment. If I had a child that was fussing, and a dude that's over 6 feet tall approached me, I'd be very cautious about that situation and I'd probably tell you to bugger off. But I thought, maybe I'm unusual in this. Maybe I'm being overly defensive - because I'll also be honest about myself, I'm a hermit and I don't trust strangers.
So I posted on FB about it, asking my friends who are parents, what they would do if they were in public with a fussy kid and a tall man approached them and asked to do a trick for their child.
The responses somewhat surprised me, but not a lot. About 1/4 of them said they'd be wary but let it happen just in case it cheered the kid up (Evenly split women and men). About 1/4 of them felt "shanky" about the idea - ie: very cautious, looking for a scam, borderline openly hostile (Mostly women, one man who is a former martial arts instructor). 1/4 said they'd prefer someone not interrupt a possible teaching moment with a distraction. The other 1/4 said they would take it on a case by case basis. So pretty evenly distributed, with what seems like a slight bias towards "OK, but I'll be watching you carefully".
Food for thought, and a lesson for me to be at least a bit less paranoid.