An Unusual Compliment...

Hey guys,

Well, today I was given a very strange, yet cool compliment that really made me happy. It was given to me by a teacher and a few students.

The compliment was very different from the usual "nice trick!" and "Wow" I get on a daily basis. This was the type of compliment that really made me feel like all the work I've been doing with magic and illusion for the past seven years has all really paid off in a big way. I really felt proud and felt that my magic had been performed to the best of my ability when I heard this.

Well, last year a group of students wanted to do a piece on me for our school TV channel. They were a part of a class in our school called "Multi-Media" which basically films informational pieces for our school TV station and edits them and all that good stuff. Anyway, they filmed some performances, and reactions. They did some interviews with me which they worked in throughout the video and in the end it was finished, and it looked great. You can watch it in our media section HERE or you can watch it on Youtube HERE. Whatever will work better on your computer.

Anyway, the video was completed and played on the TV about four times a day for four months and I got a few gigs and some recognition out of it, which was nice. But this year I actually took "Multi-Media" as one of my classes. So the first day of that class came around and we're trying to learn some of the vocabulary and what not for the class, and our teacher kept reffering to my video as an example. But, the true compliment came at he end when she let the whole video play through and she said:

"By the way Dylan, I don't think I ever told you how impressed me, or my class, was with your video last year. I mean we couldn't catch anything. And I will admit it, we even put it in slow motion and frame by frame and we still couldn't catch you!
I mean I literally had a team of three kids sit there and disect it and we came up empty-handed. Whenever we thought we caught we were sadly mistaken. It was fantastic!"

Even one of the students who was in the class last year and taking the class again for fun told me they had no luck trying to debunk any of my tricks and in the end they were so frustrated they just gave up and saved themselve's another headache.

This just really made me feel good because the film was taken from a spectators point of view, however, the problem with the camera is that when you film you don't move the camera around as much as a person moves their eyes and the camera winds up focusing on you for most of the time. This makes doing secret moves harder than usual. The other disadvantage to having a camera witch you is that now that trick can be rewinded, slow motioned, frame by framed, and re-watched as many times as the person wants.

So when I can beat the camera at its own tricks, I just felt so great and like I really have come a lng wat from where I started out. And my teacher really just helped me realize that and I really appreciate it a lot, and its just giving me more drive to continue my magic.

Thanks everyone!
Dylan P.
 
May 10, 2010
138
0
This is very nice to hear. I especially agree with the last paragraph, where you mentioned beating the camera. I personally feel that beating the camera is an amazing feat because of the extremely high level of difficulty it is to do your sleights in such a situation. That said, a camera is best for practice because it replicates the spectator's eyes burning yoou throughout the entire trick, which generally helps you deduce certain angles that may or may not aid you, as well as judge how fast you have become at a particular sleight. Keep up the good work!
 
Nov 15, 2007
1,106
2
35
Raleigh, NC
That's an awesome compliment!

Beating a camera isn't easy, nor is it necessary as a magician to do so (thank Joe Pesci*), and having someone else tell you, without you attempting to make it fool-proof, is pretty damn impressive.

keep it up man.
 
Jul 14, 2008
936
0
Wow, this is amazing. Beating the camera is something I find it difficult because I was afraid that someone might catch me. Camera has the technology to slow down the scene or frame by frame to see my hands. Anyway, I am proud that you beat the camera and the audience came empty handed!
 
I think camera's can honestly be the most dangerous thing to a magician, but at the same time the most helpful thing as well. My reasoning is this: If a camera is placed in thehands of a spectator or a cameraman who doesn't think to move the camera around as if they were a set of eyes then it can be your downfall when played alowly or played over and over, unless you cover well.

However, if you own the camera and set it up to simulate a spectaors eyes that are burning your hands the whole trick, as mentioned above, the amera can only improve your skills and help you out while trying to improve.

So I was really happy to get that compliment when I don't even have a camera to practice in front of.

Dylan P.
 
Jul 13, 2009
424
0
Edmonton, Canada
Good misdirection, but people often look at the wrong places, for example ... you are doing lets say ... 2 card monte, people will probably slow down the part where you supposingly switched the cards at the very end, to see what you were doing, when you really weren't doing anything. But either way, Chapeau (hats off) to u !
 
Nov 20, 2007
4,410
6
Sydney, Australia
Just curious...

Since when was "beating the camera" and having an entire class of students looking for a method behind "tricks" considered "magic"?

I must have missed something about the performance of magic. I thought the experience meant more than the spectator searching for methods.
 
Apr 27, 2010
229
0
baller08.blogspot.com
Just curious...

Since when was "beating the camera" and having an entire class of students looking for a method behind "tricks" considered "magic"?

I must have missed something about the performance of magic. I thought the experience meant more than the spectator searching for methods.

I agree with you on the bigger scale, praetoritevong. That is absolutely true.

However, from a skills point of view, Dylan, you have every reason to be proud and feel good about this event. It certainly shows that hard work, practice, and performing over and over again pays off. It feels good to know you're on the right track skills-wise.
 
Just curious...

Since when was "beating the camera" and having an entire class of students looking for a method behind "tricks" considered "magic"?

I must have missed something about the performance of magic. I thought the experience meant more than the spectator searching for methods.

Well actually, I felt good beating the camera because it meant that my moves and technical work were down and well rehearsed, which made me feel like my time had been well spent. As for the performance of magic, if you watch the video you'll see the spectators truly enjoying the magic and watching a "magic performance".

However, the kids in the class, who did enjoy the experience as well, had tools at their disposal that they believed could help them unearth the secret. And as a layman I believe that when the tools are at your finger tips, you know how to use them, and they're readily available, the drive to try and uncover the method is too great.

It's just the fact that the person knows they have the tools to slow it down and watch it, therefor it's hard for them not to.

Dylan P.
 

Justin.Morris

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2007
2,793
888
Canada
www.morrismagic.ca
Hey great job Dylan!

One might be deceiving themselves if they think that spectators don't look for methods, including the astonished ones. In fact I would submit that when a spectator looks for a method and doesn't find one, that is a good thing, perhaps even magical.
 
yeah, I sort of think that it's just in the nature of a spectator to go looking for the method behind the trick, even if they do kind of believe it's real magic. I also see what you mean when you say if they don't fand the method, it can just add to the magic and impossibility, Good points.

Dylan P.
 
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