America's Got Talent - Stripper Magician

Ya know, I don't think its such a bad idea, i just think the execution was very unpolished and in general he seemed like he needed to rehearse more and hone the routine and make some different choices. If someone else like Dan Sperry or an alternate universe David Copperfield did this trick, it would still be very controversial, but i believe could be taken seriously on more levels.
 
Dec 18, 2007
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Not necessarily, but when you have other magicians committing credit card fraud from their own magic shop and others practicing very illegal and unethical practices, I'm sure that it dwarfs the issue of making a ring appear on a nipple chain.

So other people's bad practices justifies other's doing things? Or does it create an odd moral balance?

Yes, Magic is rife with thieves and A--holes, it always has been and for that matter, it's far more gentle and kind than it was not so long ago when piracy was dealt with via baseball bats to the legs or hammers on the hands. . . then again, we didn't have nearly the problems we have today when it comes to such things (and people say corporal punishment don't work).

Take a look at the real side of magic history if you want to see the naughtiness and ugliness; but too, you will see how magicians have deliberately worked at weeding out those negative influences. For the past 25 or so years we've been focused on the issue of sexual predators within our ranks both, the pedophile sort as well as the drunken womanizers. While the con-artists are abundant and you'll find tales of most every personality being guilty of theft in some way, that's usually IN HOUSE laundry and not known to the general public. Our old friend Hank getting what he deserves in that he's burnt more than a few folks over the years, but such isn't as novel as it sounds. Granted, Hank went far further and deeper in his crimes, but there are few shop owners of old that didn't hustle their patrons or serve as a front to the local pawn shops. Magicians are hustlers & fast-talkers as well as methodic planners; in times not so far removed we really were the guys our mothers warned us of hanging around with.

This is all past-tense, at least as best we can make it. The catch is, we can't justify the little transgressions by comparing them with the larger ones if we are to make forward progress within the public ideas around magic. The more tasteless crap we allow, the more raw our patter and rude our humor, the more we dig ourselves into a deeper and deeper hole with the general public -- that consumer base that pays our bills.

Why are magicians still making the same base fees today I was seeing 30 years ago?

Because we've not stepped up to the plate and gotten our own house in order and in so doing, gained respect from those that would employ us.

This is the reality -- the onus sat upon OUR shoulders and thus, the burden we each carry and are thus obliged to address; making effort to correct.

Hopefully folks can understand such.
 
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