The Selfish Magician

Sep 2, 2007
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The Selfish Magician



If you’re a magician, and have ever been to youtube, you will see countless magicians performing for their webcam or video camera. Now, webcams I don’t mind, seeing as how they might not be able to afford a video camera, or just plainly don’t have one. But on the other hand, there are people performing for their moms with a video camera. Now, I’m not against performing for family. They are great! But if you have a video camera…why not perform live? These people are what I call a ‘Selfish Magician’ or, in more hateful terms a ‘Youn00b’

A Selfish Magician (Yes, it’s a proper noun now) is someone who performs magic for themselves or the camera to get comments instead of performing out for people. Magic is not a tool to entertain your self, maybe flourishing but not magic, but it is a tool used to entertain other people, be it at a restaurant, on the street, at school, or even a stage in front of thousands. But it is not for sitting in front of your camera a performing a magic trick twenty times until you don’t flash and put it on youtube, or Veoh, or what have you. Now, I am perfectly fine with posting video on youtube, if you don’t own a video camera, it’s not your fault. But if it’s with a camera for, your dad for example, you are just being selfish, or too lazy to go out and find at least a friend or better yet, a stranger.

Selfish ‘Professionals’
If you go to sites like pub-tricks, you will see people releasing ‘original’ effects for about five dollars, and the demo video is done on webcam, or video camera for, you guessed it, their mom. In most instances these people have probably only been working on the effect for about a month or two and are looking for a quick buck with an effect which is already released somewhere. Not only that, these ‘creators’ are aged from 14 or 15 up to people in, what looks like, their fifties or sixties. Now, I’m going to stop myself before this essay becomes a rant and just get to the conclusion

In conclusion, Magicians are seen as one of three things: kids who have nothing else to do so that they just do magic for the camera, Criss Angel wannabe’s, and individuals who go out and entertain. I don’t know about you, but I want to be seen as the individual who goes out and entertains. The amount of Selfish Magicians today is growing with the ready access to the internet and cheap webcams. And with that it makes a performer who actually goes out entertains have a harder time doing just that: entertaining people because they have to break the barrier that magic is a little kids hobby that they all grow out of.
 
Jun 24, 2008
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Harrisonburg, VA
Perhaps they're just hobbist who enjoy performing the magic but have yet to work up the courage or nerves to perform in public. Perhaps they just don't want to perform for people, having an interest in magic and doing it doesn't mean you have to perform. People do things for themselves and it doesn't mean they are always selfish it could be that they just enjoy it more for that purpose.

People don't always do something to be viewed in a certain light. I wouldn't go out and collect coins or something along those lines just to be considered a coin collector. I would do it because I enjoy it and thus I feel these people are hobbist and not actual artist of the craft. It's their choice who they perform for, if they perform or if they just enjoy knowing how a trick is done and making videos of it.

I see your point, if you can make a video of it you should just do it in public if you can. Fact of the matter is how many of these people are comfortable enough to do this for people they don't know in person? I'm willing to bet that most of them are not which is why they perfer youtube.
 
Sep 2, 2007
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Faded Temp: I respect your argument. and would like to say that though there ARE hobbyists, hobbyists know themselves as hobbyists and thus are not on the list for claiming themselves magicians (And no, I'm not saying Criss Angel wannabe's are not magicians). But Selfish Magicians still call themselves magicians, while people hobbyists call themselves just that.
 
May 3, 2008
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Singapore
www.youtube.com
WARNING:I dont wish to incite any arguement or come across as offensive, so with that disclaimer, to the point.

not EVERYONE has the time and resources (not cameras) to go out on the street and perfrom their effects, and even if they do, some may not wish to. Personal preference i guess. I was doing webcam magic before i started out going on the streets. The constructive feedback i got pretty much fueled my interest in magic.

If a 14/15 year old decides to create an effect which sucks (which im sure many of us here have done) and tries to get it out there and sell it, sure, we criticize it, we cant just brush them off as suckers. It kills them inside and makes them think the magic community is full of testosterone fuelled close minded idiots

Hell, back when i was getting into magic i worshiped the overgrown goth kid that we're come to know as Criss Angel, but i've progressed beyond that now.
Ever questioned how long the "Youn00bs" (i lol-ed at that one) have been into magic? Constantly putting beginners down and critisizing their every move is going to kill off the number of people getting into magic.

I think the youtube magicians, the "selfish" magicians, are merely mostly beginners who seek to find an avenue in which they can easily get feedback from their peers, and most have found this through webcam magic. I doubt that they only perform infront of the webcam.
 
Mar 6, 2008
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Walla Walla WA
A lot of kids are getting into magic with regular access to the net. This is great yet most will grow out of it. It is mostly kids that are "Selfish Magicians" as you put it. Think of it this way the best practice is for friends and family. If you have the mechanics of something down, that's only ten percent of it. The rest must be learned, patter, presence, your being, crowd control. If you don't have these then to preform in front of strangers is nerve racking. If you are starting out than to film it for family is great, you can go back and fix the mistakes you made. Now on the note that there are people out there just filming in front of a camera for comments on youtube. Well i would have to say that if you are looking up magic videos on youtube than you have an interest in magic and your a chance to help someone boost there confidence. This is great. i think that just because they haven't filmed something in front of a camera out on the street doesn't mean that they haven't preformed for people. They may feel that they are not good enough to post those videos if they have filmed them.


peace

The Toad
 
Jun 24, 2008
493
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Harrisonburg, VA
Though I think that not everyone is aware of what a hobbist really is. Think about it from this angle... I feel it's safe to assume that the majority of the people on youtube posting magic are not a regular member of websites like T11. Given that I feel they haven't seen the discussions on this and what the real difference is and perhaps from their point of view they feel that just knowing magic makes you a magician.

I agree though, performing for actual people is much more rewarding then performances over a video done on youtube. I feel that everyone that wishes to perform to any extent should work their way to that point because it is one of the best things you can do. Not only does it improve your magic but it can also help improve you as a person.

Also don't forget those of us that perform over live feed from time to time. I perform live via webcam for friends of mine that I hardly ever get to see. :D
 
Jun 24, 2008
493
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Harrisonburg, VA
Toad has a point and I feel I'm a good example of that. I perform via webcam though I have a camera, I have posted several videos on youtube yet I keep them to myself and none of which are public performances but I do those all the time.
 
Sep 2, 2007
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as Toadwiked and FOO:L have said about not nessicarily haveing the equipment, I covered that: "...now, I am perfectly fine with posting video on youtube, if you don’t own a video camera, it’s not your fault"
 
Nov 30, 2007
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Personally I wouldn't want to film for an audience because they might not want to be recorded (sure they might not care sometimes and you could just ask) but most importantly I think that the video camera would take away from the magic making sure that the camera can see you and everything like that. I think that if the video camera isn't a big distraction it might be okay but I think most of the time it will be a distraction.
 
Sep 2, 2007
122
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La Crescenta, CA
Ooh, goody, an argument that hasn't deteriorated into insults :D

There are people who perform both for the camera and for live audiences. I'm assuming that this is the kind of person that the original poster is coming from. However, I can really tell the difference between people who have PRACTICED before going in front of their cameras, and those who haven't. People like Jordan Lapping and Miika Pelkonen (sp?) who perform for webcams and such have a certain professional air to all their videos, not to mention they post public performance videos as well. Jordan has flawless patter to each of his videos, and also has complete confidence and smoothness, a trait that Ineski also has. This is in stark contrast to "YouNoobs," who do one of several things:

1. They perform for the camera multiple times until they have one that seems good to them, but lacks flow to the rest of the magic community.
2. They do it once because of impatience and post it.
3. They do it once just to show the rest of the world they can do something without dropping cards.

I really wish that people would at least PRACTICE, perform for real people for reactions and feedback, fine-tune, and THEN turn on the camera. I don't think it's too hard to find an audience out there that won't tune out on you in the first 30 seconds of your performance; if you can't, then you probably aren't even ready for that camera yet.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jun 24, 2008
493
0
Harrisonburg, VA
I just think it's wrong to assume that all of them are Selfish. People are different to do things differently, that's all there is to it for me. Foo:L you make a good point because it's bad enough performing in public in general sometimes, why would you want to increase the problems by adding a video camera in the mix. Personal preference does sound about right.
 
As for the Criss Angel wannabees, I getting sick of the biggest one of all:

http://www.youtube.com/user/xXxTllusionxXx

What a You-n00b!
I told him to perform for real people on the street and he said he would, but never did. I actually posted his message to me saying he would on his page, but he deleted it. Everything this kid does is copying off criss angel TO THE EXTREME.
The thing that bothers me about it is that everyone is like, your so amazing! In my opinion, BS.
 
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