Whatever Christopher, you have fun. You obviously didn't see me outling success and how to be succesful in your goals.
Nope. Because you outlined how to be successful in your goals, not mine.
Just contemplate this, When I go to the movies I am going to watch the story and be entertained. When I go to a musical concert I am going to get away from reality, mosh (violent dancing whatever) and get lost with like minded people. When I go see a magician, I am sitting down expecting to be entertained and possibly even fooled. I will tell you that if every single effect performed had something that connected with me and my relatively crappy life, I'd leave the show incredibly dissappointed. I was not going to see the show to hear a lecture about life, I am not going to see a preacher doing magic, I am there to see some guy wave his hand and make impossible things appear or disappear right before my eyes. People go to magic shows to be entertained, not lectured at.
Firstly, not all meaning has to come in the form of lectures. Look at the movie, The Illusionist. The part with the Count Von Taschen on stage in the robe, when he makes the reflection kill her and her 'soul' fly away. He talks briefly, saying (paraphrased) "All the great religions speak of an afterlife. Of the soul's endurance after death. What then, does it mean to die?"
That's it. That's meaning, right there. Life death, rebirth, souls, religion, the afterlife. People thinking about all of that in three sentences.
You watch Penn on stage in their show ranting in his way about the TSA regulations and how they infringe on our liberties without being all that effective, and that's not a lecture.
One can put meaning into their performance without standing up on stage like Ben Stein. I do think it's very important to be a good entertainer first. I just think that too many people stop after they get consistently good reactions and don't reach any further. So many people talk about wanting to 'further the art' but put no effort into doing so.
I can sympathize with what you are saying to an extent. I'm not a big fan of stage illusions myself, and I find good close up magic to be more captivating than stage magic in general. Also, if you don't think David Copperfield is the best and that P&T and others are better, I don't have any serious arguments to try and change your mind. There are many others like you who don't worship DC and that is fine.
For 'grand illusion', I actually do think DC is the best. But that doesn't mean I like him, or that I'm interested in his work. Stephanie Myers is the best at writing teenage fantasy "vampire' books (at the moment) and I couldn't make it through 15 pages of her horrid books. At least DC is really, really good at what he does.
P&T don't do what DC does. Even though some of the illusions are similar, they give the feeling of being a parlor show, not a grand illusion show.
Sometimes, all a magician needs to do is to just perform good, solid magic. Nothing more, nothing less. All this insistence on art and meaning can be distraction from the important things. As a magician, you need to put up an entertaining show, with tricks and effect that leave the audience mystified and puzzled. As a performer, you need to have good pacing and tempo to make sure the audience is with you at every stage of the effect.
I think magicians should always perform good, solid magic. But I also think that at least some of it should have a real, meaningful message to it.
If instead of focusing on these fundamentals, you focus on some way of injecting art and meaning into your performance and end up with a hodgepodge of a narrative, you have only yourself to blame. A performer must make sure the fundamentals are excellent and the overall show has a consistent and interesting narrative with some nice hooks to keep the audience engaged. After this, if the situation permits, he can try and infuse some other deeper meaning or maybe even some other artistic elements into the show.
I agree. The technique needs to be solid before any real meaning can be injected. Otherwise you're just a joke.
If you disagree with what I've said, that fine. Maybe you want to achieve a totally different set of goals in you magic and you feel that DC is falling woefully short. As long as your yearning for meaning and art does not get in the way of performing good magic, everything should be OK.
I feel I should explain. I don't dislike Copperfield. I have a lot of respect for him and what he's achieved, and I think he's very good at what he does. I'm just not interested in it.
P.S. Robert Houdin stopping a war with an illusion is probably never going to be repeated. Don't keep that as a benchmark for magicians.
Two illusions. A Bullet Catch and he made a wall bleed. I'm not saying that a magician should be able to stop a war these days, what I'm saying is the magic should be powerful enough to sway people's minds. A big problem I have with the modern world of magic is how much trivial crap we, as magicians, perform. I'm guilty of it too, to be honest. If someone wielded the unchecked powers of the cosmos ... why would they squander that power making little balls of sponge multiply? I know why -I- do that trick (Because it makes me money), but why would someone that has magical powers do it? This is a point that bothers me.
Out of curiosity, is there a modern day performer who does this that you would recommend, or is this an ideal that you personally hope to reach?
Derren Brown does in some of his work (His most recent special completely changed a man's life, apparently). P&T have their political message. It's mostly a personal ideal which I will, admittedly, probably never reach to the extent that I'd like, but I will continue to strive.