Citing the origin or history of magic tricks and techniques.

[Redsavina]

I am new to magic, and have purchased some tricks, gimmicks, and DVDs recently. One DVD that came with a product made you think the tricks and techniques were original. I was familiar with the gimmick, as my dad had this gimmick when I was a kid, but this DVD made you think the techniques and methods presented were their own unique creations.

Well, I started watching another video that was produced many years prior, and they were teaching the exact same moves and concepts. It's like the developer watched the earlier DVD, copied many of the moves exactly, then added their own style.

In my academic world of professional writing, that would be called Plagiarism. Not only am I expected to cite something that was previously published, I am also required to cite ideas and concepts which have previously been published.

What are the cultural expectations within the world of magic when it comes to crediting sources for tricks, techniques, or methods?

Also, how do you prevent from spending $35 per DVD and ending up with 80% content that you already own in other videos?

 

[RealityOne]

What are the cultural expectations within the world of magic when it comes to crediting sources for tricks, techniques, or methods?

Magicians should provide credit for sources for tricks, techniques and methods that the publish in books or videos. The crediting should be provided regardless of whether the magician relied on those sources. That means doing your research before releasing something.

One problem is today's so-called creators is that they don't have the knowledge base to know the origins of a trick, technique or method. Many times it was something somone showed them, something they saw on Youtube or something they independently re-created. None of those are really good excuses.

There is a great website here: http://www.conjuringarchive.com that is a great research tool for the history of effects. You also can find a lot of information on the Magic Cafe and Genii forums as well as on Magipedia. Altough those websites are great, you still need to be able to find the books or DVDs to determine if a handling is different. Some of the books are out of print or difficult to find. Fortunately, a lot of older books are being made available as pdfs from lybrary.com and the Conjuring Arts Research Center. There are public magic libraries such as at the Magic Castle or Conjuring Arts Research Center and many smaller private libraries of collectors.

Also, how do you prevent from spending $35 per DVD and ending up with 80% content that you already own in other videos?

Buy books instead of DVDs and videos. Most books are published by companies that know their stuff and they usually provide more accurate crediting. Also, books have a wide breath of material (about 10 times as much on a DVD), so you are more likely to find more interesting material.

Also, there are a lot of reviews on various websites. I tend to find that the Magic Cafe and Genii forums have very honest reviews. Reading the reviews is helpful.