This is a long one...
Magic is a small community, and you're correct many people who practice the art of magic are selfish and egotistical.
I lived in San Francisco for the first seven years of my life, and I saw a lot of street performers. Very few of them were magicians. I remember only seeing one or two. The one I remember the most did a simple effect for a child who looked about eight years of age. At the end of the effect (the details I cannot recall) the child asked, "Do you think I could do that?" The magician laughed. I didn't really think of the magician being selfish until I read your post, that's when I finally realized that that magician was a complete jerk that thought he was, "Betta than da rest."
I wasn't exposed to good magic for a very long time. The experiences with magic I had was a bad magic kit my cousin and I shared (we also shared a room) and a man in a mask that exposed magic.
When I was eight I moved to Martinez, where I discovered a place called, "California Magic & Dinner Theater," a place where you could buy magic during the day, and watch magic at night. I saw my first good magic trick there, it was a card to wallet performed by Gerry Griffin. My grandpa was a writer for the Antioch Press at the time, and he was doing a story on the small dinner theater. We got free tickets, I wasn't enthusiastic about going, but it ended up being a night that that has had a huge impact on me.
Before the show, three or four of the performing magicians walked around and displayed close-up magic while the spectators ate there dinners. Gerry Griffin approached us to show me my first good magic trick. He started by having me remove a card from ordinary pack of red-playing cards. I found them somewhat odd, I had never seen playing cards that didn't have a picture of a city or Mickey Mouse on them. I removed a card, the four of clubs. He handed me a Sharipie and asked me to write my name on it. I wrote very small in the top-left-hand corner, "DAVID." He took the card back, and placed it into the middle of the pack. He snapped, and it was back on top. He repeated this process several times, each time with the same amount of flare. I can't recall exactly what happened after that, but I remember Gerry reaching into his pocket for his wallet, he handed it to me, and inside, folded up into a small packet, was a four of clubs with a name written in the upper-left-hand corner, "DAVID." I still have the very same card locked in a box with all of my valuables. He let the moment sink in and said, "I hope you enjoy the rest of the show," and walked away.
I did, I enjoyed all three performers, Joel Paschall, Gerry Griffin, and the Great Darrel. As soon as I got home, I looked into a small book my grandma had placed in my easter basket the previous year, "Mark Wilson's Little Book of Card Tricks." I learned m first effect, "Turnover Card." In the following years I learned all of the tricks in the book and stopped by Cal Magic to purchase things once or twice. When I was ten, I discovered Internet magic. I purchased DVDs from a site called, "Ellusionist.com." That's when I became serious about my magic; I performed constantly at school, and frequented Cal Magic.
When I was thirteen, I joined both the Ellusionist and Theory11 online forums. I quickly learned that 50% of magicians thought they were the best. They never wanted to help younger magicians, and only pointed out the negatives in performance videos.
I have a theory. We spend hours upon hours practicing difficult sleights. Are fingers are extremely dexterous, much more so than the average Joe, and those who have been practicing magic for a short period of time. The reality is that we are more dedicated than 95% of people. (Assuming 5% of the population is magicians.) That's why; we know that almost no one can do the things we do. We can switch two packets invisibly, we can lift two cards and make it look like one, we can...you get the idea.
We can't let these things go to our head though; nobody wants to see an ego maniac of a magician.
I'm going to use to football players as examples, Marvin Harrison, and Terrel Owens.
Harrison and Owens are equally skilled wide receivers, they both have their injuries here and there, and faults, but they're incredibly skilled at catching a football. They are equally skilled, however, if a GM had a choice of Harrison or Owens, for the same amount of money, they would choose Harrison…because Owens is a jerk. Owens, like many magicians, thinks he's "betta than da rest." Because of his and other players like him (Chad Johnson, Pac-Man Jones etc.) football is getting a bad rep.
If magicians don't change, the same thing will happen to us. Spectators won't want to see an effect from a nice guy, because a a few years ago they saw some jerk do a magic trick for them in an egotistical way.
Jokes.
