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Twice in theaters, getting a blu-ray player specifically for that movie and the Planet Earth series. Reminded me why I wanted to be a filmmaker and ended up being my movie of the year. That opening shot is one of the best things Scorsese has ever filmed. Anyway, I'm of the opinion that all...

(sigh) More drama. Sadly, Criss Angel and Dynamo do have a lot in common. For example, they're both really boring, overrated, and not nearly as good as they think they are.

I wonder if more people would be willing to admit to sharing and pirating if they knew just how much trading goes on in the community? Once you reach a certain level, it may as well be true that you never have to buy another book again.

To get the ball rolling, I've shared books and DVDs in the past. And when I first started out, I turned to the torrent sites because I had no money and nobody would give me the time of day. It's a practice I've long-since ceased, but I admit that I used to do it.

Did you say that mentalism was difficult? No? Then you didn't say the opposite. Do not criticize my reading comprehension if you're going to make claims like that. Offering advice is not automatically a good thing, especially when you're wrong. I am a mentalist. Are you? Mentalism or...

Clearly. I'm going to go ahead and say that you probably never did mentalism. You did mental magic. They're not the same thing. I'm getting very impatient with this attitude that if you can do card tricks, you can do mentalism. No you can't. Mentalism requires a high degree of showmanship...

Are these videos for vanity? Something else?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc

There's a rather significant factor you're overlooking. Who is the target market and does this create value for them? Crowdfunding succeeds or fails based on how much of an audience you're able to attract and convince to part with their money. It's not as easy as you might think.

There is an exception to that. The best marketers in the world give free content away to create value. This is especially true in information products and entertainment. They give away golden stuff for free in order to convince people they've got the goods. Then when the sales pitch comes...

Not a bad answer. There are three really big things to remember about value: 1. It's fluid. Value is changing all the time. 2. It's subjective. Value is not a constant in all situations and locations. 3. It's separate from price. I actually blame the magic community as a whole for the...

Technically it's copyright infringement, which is different. It's not theft because you are not stealing a physical product. You're taking a digital copy of a product. So this whole thing about stealing from the artists doesn't really work. And how did we get to this point? How did we...

In an attempt to violently wrench this thread back on topic, I'm just going to repost what I told you over at E. I would recommend before you ever start talking about things like voodoo and spiritualism that you first immerse yourself in dark fiction. Here's my recommended list: The...

Impressing someone with skill is not the same thing as impressing them with personality. Magic is a great icebreaker, but you have to be able to hold a conversation without the magic or it's pointless. If you go in thinking that all you have to do is a card trick and your made, you're going to...

Either do all mentalism, or none at all. Mentalism is performed differently from magic and should be separate from it. If you want to do some mental magic, fine. But pure mentalism should not be presented beside magic.

You're either lying or just not very good at telling jokes in text. I'm leaning on the latter. Also, clearly you haven't seen me around before. If you had said something like, "I meant it as a joke, but I guess it didn't work," I would have apologized for snapping at you. But since you want...

Personally, I find the 100 Dollar Bill Switch to be perfectly serviceable. Jay Sankey has a DVD called 100 Dollar Miracles that's nothing but effects that exploit this one utility.

This works. Magic makes a great icebreaker. Though it works even better if you avoid the temptation to talk about yourself and shift the conversation over to them. Then, you learn a little about who they are and they'll want to talk to you again later because not only have you done something...

The problem comes from a lack of quality control. The community is conducting a massive social experiment in real time, but far too many of them don't care for actually using the scientific method and the whole thing is getting very political. David D's stuff is pretty consistent and the...

Someone provides an answer describing things someone may not have thought of at first, and some guy takes it upon himself to show his higher intellect and infinite wisdom in the world of teaching and advice. Instead of trying to sum up your infinite wisdom in the world of teaching, and...