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I've taken to calling Derren's use of "psychological illusions" an exalt of the weird. He's creating a reality. Magic can be presented in a number of ways, the important thing is for it to be consistent and have a sense of verisimilitude. For example, Drop's description of an entire rogues...

Cry me a river. I found your coddling of a plagiarist to be intellectually offensive. We'll call it even.

So the only way to be original is to do things your way? Did you miss where I said that's totally irrelevant to my point? Who says it's a matter of having faith in the product? Which is bull****, because the human eye is nothing like a camera. I get away with murder right under my...

Absolutely. Competitions like these should be a tool for self-improvement not a vehicle for ego validations. You guys take this challenge and rock it. You have my full support. You may not be experts at magic and manipulation with these particular objects, but the desire to experiment and...

I would argue they should accept it's going to happen, but from a business perspective, I cannot fault them for not wanting to show certain part of a trick in the trailer. I still think that's completely irrelevant to the point, and just sounds like a conceit. Have you noticed that most...

What you described there is what cold readers have been doing for centuries. The trappings of a theme go a long way to creating realism and theatricality. You mention studying psychology. I would approach this from a less literal perspective. Just throwing this one out there: consider...

A Mega Man villain of me would be Obscure Literary References Man. He throws flowery language and the names of little-known authors at you until you're bored into a coma. Nah, I'm kidding. The Mega Man version of me is Stud Man.

It's funny, but not for the reasons Likenthrope thinks it is.

Well, 'scuse me dawg, but I ain't be dissin', I just t'ink he need to quit frontin'. Hate the game, don't hate the playa. Know w'um sayin'? When he posts one, I will. A-durr! There are 5 steps to mastering a skill set. 1. Emulation 2. Distinction 3. Evaluation 4. Invention 5. Innovation...

I would argue that if you're going for comedy, rehearsal is essential. Comedic timing is paramount. The advantage to rehearsal is that it allows you to think on the fly without spending a lot of brain power just trying to remember what comes next.

If we set aside the issue of lying to people who actually do know the history of the subject (and it will come up), writing a complete mythos grounded in reality is a significant help. As an example, look at some of the movies from the 1950's pretending to understand science. One such movie...

You keep saying that, and to be honest it seems like a non-sequitur. Maybe it's because the products aren't meant to be magician foolers that they cut out the sensitive parts. I do not buy the idea that it's somehow dishonest. I still don't get why you're trying to justify they're...

Okay, so then you would agree that the point of scripting and rehearsal is to make it look spontaneous and natural? And while I do agree that ad-lib is an essential skill, I see magicians who don't rehearse and have no structure whatsoever, and they're all terrible.

It occurs to me that the kind of people who have to talent to pull off a challenge like this are in the minority. The rest of the people who use the battle system prefer not to leave their comfort zone of doing clipshift battles and pretending anyone gives a rat's ass about that.

Not inspiring confidence.

Not to split hairs, but I'm of the school of thought that the appeal of horror movies is in catharsis for that which we repress. The analogy doesn't scan for me on anything more than a superficial level is what I'm saying. Also, for me a really good horror movie has comparatively few Boo...

Actually, I think you have the answer. You're just looking too close to see it. What I would do, were I you, is go to Google, the libraries, and Amazon. Do real research into the history of gambling cheats and con men. Make yourself a local expert on the subject. Do study the moves (Sal...

That assumes however that not wanting to show very sensitive moments in an effect is dishonest, which is a rather cynical and pessimistic assumption. Yes, unscrupulous individuals can use flashy editing to hide poor quality, but why do we have to assume that everyone is like that? It...

You say that because you don't have the answer. That's why you keep giving me these thoroughly unoriginal responses. My answer? The ouvre of my work harkens to the collective unconscious. More and more, my magic is slowly assimilating and expressing shared experience, reflections of the...

Good. Now take some time and consider what you have and want to offer. Consider what strength you have that can separate you from every John Doe magician out there that would appeal to a target audience. Ask yourself what they're going to get out of it.