Disrespect

[DannyT]

Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone here ever had gotten disrespect from being a magician. I'm not just talking about hecklers while your performing magic or magician vs magician. Just someone acting rude/belittling you for being a magician.

Let me explain:

I remember 3 years ago when my second cousin had a party for some celebration I can't remember too well. I wasn't big into performing yet, and they hired a magician for the kids which I thought was cool. I missed half the show because I arrived late, but from what I saw the guy was decent. I started chatting with him after the show when he was asking the guests what tricks they enjoyed the most and just socializing.

After awhile of magic talk, he asked if I had a job or anything and I said no.
He gave me his card to call him to get a job with moving/carrying equipment and just getting close to a show to see what it takes to perform in front of kids. I thought it would be good for me to shadow him to see what goes into a kids show really, cause I really had no idea. He was actually a close friend of the family, so it was all good.

Now I was pretty excited about this, because well, it was a start. I'd be paid $25 a show for 45 minutes to an hour. Not bad considering I wasn't doing much- Just being payed to learn and carry equipment from the car to the house and set everything up.
Next day at school I was excited to tell my friends about this and they were saying how it was awesome and that I should definitely contact the guy. Most of my friends are very supportive of me for being a magician.
One girl though who I thought was my friend got into a fight with me about something irrelevant, and her last lines were, "at least I'm not a magicians lovely assistant", and walked away.
I was left speechless. . .

To this day, that still bothers me.
I don't understand how people can knock someone else's job/career.

So my question is, Has anyone else had a time where you were just disrespected for being a magician and to this day it just eats at you?
I'm just curious.

 

[CaseyRudd]

The disrespect and ridicule has continued for me for 2 years. I walked into my homeroom today and my Spanish teacher asked what i did for the summer. Some kid who has been ridiculing me about magic and has a lot of people on his side and said:

"magic! hahahahaha"

and everyone started laughing at me and joining him on the laugh. I've gotten picked on all last 2 years and now for the first day of school im still getting picked on. It made me feel like sh*t and replied back:

"First day and you're already starting? Wow dude...." and I had my seat. Still makes me feel like crap everytime someone makes fun of me for doing what I love....

-Casey

 

[WilliamMckeehan]

I have never had anything but positive comments EVER... inless i mess up a trick .. which i have haha.


but no matter who you are or what you do... people will say somthing negative at one point or another. A good example is once i wanted to be a "professional" gamer... u know play a PC game at tournaments for money. But i got so much crap about it that i did not even try too much. I played in one local tournament and got 4th place and have not been on the scene sense. people can have a way of crushing your dreams... don't let them!

 

[Nikki]

Last week I got together with a bunch of magicians and we all met up at the syracuse mall, about 10 of us. We were in the elevator there and there were 2 other prissy looking girls in there with us. The guys were talking about magic and such..and one of the girls started mocking them. Im not sure if they noticed...she said it a little quiet..but I was right next to her so I heard it. I gave her the death stare, then she turned to her friend and said "ok I better shut up because I dont want to get into any fights". It didnt bother the other guys they didnt care..but it did bother me a little...I hate people like that.


Also, as far as school goes...most people have seen me perform, before they did some used to make fun of it...once they saw me, they all shut up. Sure theres still the "popular" girl group who makes fun of it...I refuse to show them anything or come in contact with them. Usually at that point I just ignore it. Those girls are so insecure about everything about them, and thats why they do it. I usually just laugh at them.


Theres always gonna be the haters, I always try not to let them get to me, though sometimes it can be annoying.

 

[dbmagic4]

sometimes, I am disrespected by bigtime Christians, because they think that any type of magic is a sin, so they try and tell me that im a horrible person for doing magic and I'm gonna burn in the fires of hell and all that BS. I try and tell them that its nothing bad, but those hardcore christians are soooo hard headed.

 

[dbmagic4]

The disrespect and ridicule has continued for me for 2 years. I walked into my homeroom today and my Spanish teacher asked what i did for the summer. Some kid who has been ridiculing me about magic and has a lot of people on his side and said:

"magic! hahahahaha"

and everyone started laughing at me and joining him on the laugh. I've gotten picked on all last 2 years and now for the first day of school im still getting picked on. It made me feel like sh*t and replied back:

"First day and you're already starting? Wow dude...." and I had my seat. Still makes me feel like crap everytime someone makes fun of me for doing what I love....

-Casey

dude, dont worry man. I got the same ridicule when I got back into magic. And I still do every once in a while, but don't let t get to you, they are just jealous of your skillz *two thumbs up*

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Another advantage of being an adult, not many people bother with petty behavior like that. I've never gotten made fun of for magic, most people just say, "Oh! That's cool. Do you do parties and stuff?" Or they ask me how Blaine and Angel do their stuff.

I think part of this comes down to the age groups. I'm noticing a distinct pattern of, "This girl/group/clique in school ... " Once you get out of school you realize those people don't matter. Once you clear 25, the majority of people just don't say anything if they think you're ridiculous, they don't want trouble and it won't help their reputations any at that point in life. There's always the occasional d-bag, but mostly people would rather just ignore you if you're 'weird'. That's not to say they're not talking crap about you behind your back, but you'll probably not hear it much.

Another thing to keep in mind, for the OP, is that what people say when they are upset is not representative of rational mindsets. People lash out when they're mad, so they'll make stuff that normally isn't 'wrong' to them be something they can make fun of you for. What I ask is, if you think magic is awesome in and of itself, then what does someone else's opinion of it matter? If someone said to me, "At least I'm not a magician!" I would immediately think, "Because you're not as awesome as me." Sure, I might be an arrogant bastard, but I enjoy what I do and I do what I enjoy. I don't care what most people think about me, because most people aren't strong enough to stand out from the crowd and do what they love.

 

[JButterfield]

High schoolers are pack animals - they're afraid of anything outside the norm, and attack. Just like dumb, frightened animals. (This is of course speaking only to a certain section of high school scum, and we all know who that is. There are still plenty of decent kids in high school.)

Tough it out until you get out of high school. Sadly, that's the best advice I have.

 

[saborfang17]

I don't get much disrespect from most people, except for that annoying line about having cards around.. "Why do you always have cards?" "You're addicted to cards.." etc. etc.

But there is one friend of mine who becomes a total ***hole when it comes to magic and flourishing. He tried to take CK's sybil (he learned it off of youtube) and tried to fool me by saying he made it up. I showed him the year TOOC was first published, he still says he thought of the exact same thing. And he rubs in pretty much anything he can do better than me in my face, and he's always telling my spectators how I do a move if they like it.. So pretty much a move-stealing dickhead who exposes whatever I do when he feels I'm doing a good job. Other than that, he's a good guy (That's kind of weird, but he is.)

 

[dbmagic4]

I don't get much disrespect from most people, except for that annoying line about having cards around.. "Why do you always have cards?" "You're addicted to cards.." etc. etc.

But there is one friend of mine who becomes a total ***hole when it comes to magic and flourishing. He tried to take CK's sybil (he learned it off of youtube) and tried to fool me by saying he made it up. I showed him the year TOOC was first published, he still says he thought of the exact same thing. And he rubs in pretty much anything he can do better than me in my face, and he's always telling my spectators how I do a move if they like it.. So pretty much a move-stealing dickhead who exposes whatever I do when he feels I'm doing a good job. Other than that, he's a good guy (That's kind of weird, but he is.)

wow, im glad you can tolerate that. I would kick his behind if one of my "friends" did that to me. plus, all of the people at my school who will actually try to be magicians, which isnt very many anyways, will always just do youtube tuts, and do the same thing your friend does to you, in a way. One time, a kid tried messing with me during class when we werent doing anything. He was telling everyone that he was better than me at magic and all this crap. So I started naming off a bunch of great magicians from the past and present, like Vernon, Tamariz, Danny Garcia, Wayne Houchin, Blackstone, Paul Harris. He says "who the hell are those clowns?". I said "and thats why you're a poser", and the bell rang and I left. He pestered me a lot less, then one day some girl he liked went up to him in the same class and says "can you do that?" after I did The Muscle Pass. He said no and she laughed. Needless to say, he doesnt do it anymore. I know, I sound really mean, but heck, I cant stand the kid. He wasnt doing magic for the right reasons, he just did it for the "popularity".

 

[DannyT]

Another thing to keep in mind, for the OP, is that what people say when they are upset is not representative of rational mindsets. People lash out when they're mad, so they'll make stuff that normally isn't 'wrong' to them be something they can make fun of you for. What I ask is, if you think magic is awesome in and of itself, then what does someone else's opinion of it matter? If someone said to me, "At least I'm not a magician!" I would immediately think, "Because you're not as awesome as me." Sure, I might be an arrogant bastard, but I enjoy what I do and I do what I enjoy. I don't care what most people think about me, because most people aren't strong enough to stand out from the crowd and do what they love.

I know it was a lash out, but just the fact that it was one of my friends that said it made me realize that this is what she really thinks about me. It was kind of like a stab in the back.
If one of my friends said this to me, what do other people say?
Like I said, it still eats at me.

I like your way of thinking though. It doesn't sound arrogant to me, just confident.

I enjoy what I do and I do what I enjoy. I don't care what most people think about me, because most people aren't strong enough to stand out from the crowd and do what they love.

Words to live by,
Thanks.

Anyways, I still want to hear more stories because I'd like to think that at one point or another that all of us ran into a stuck up snob who thought they were better than us.
What did you do about it?

 

[Justin.Morris]

To be honest, High school sucks. Everyone is in a teenage popularity contest. It is so much better once you get to university and you are surrounded with people who are pursuing a higher education. The immaturity filters out.
In fact most people after high school think magic is really neat and fascinating. The ridicule will slow down and the respect will come. In fact, the people you show your craft to in university, will be the people that hire you for your bigger shows years after graduation.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

This is a bit off topic, but performing uncommon material (meaning, don't bother with the hot new releases, but instead hunt around in older releases for the gems that no one else is doing) will all but eliminate the problem of having people reveal what you do. Assuming you do it well, that is.

edit: Although people do tend to relax more and stop being overly concerned about popularity as they get a little older, humans are by nature pack animals and will always be concerned with popularity to some extent. However, once they get older people tend to be more comfortable and confident with themselves and their position in their group, whatever that group may be. Therefore they don't have to establish their position by being jerks to 'weridos' who like to do stuff like magic, or juggling, or what have you.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes, what has been said is true. Once you get out of high school (and I maintain, once you get to the mid twenties), you'll find that people are generally more willing to just enjoy a good show.

 

[dbmagic4]

This is a bit off topic, but performing uncommon material (meaning, don't bother with the hot new releases, but instead hunt around in older releases for the gems that no one else is doing) will all but eliminate the problem of having people reveal what you do. Assuming you do it well, that is.

Agreed, no one ever does that to Vernon originals they are just too damn clever

 

[Michael Kras]

I'm lucky enough that I've never experienced really any level of ridicule for being a magician... in school, as a person and a performer I'm respected, not teased. I don't know what about my situation is different, but there might be something more to it than just the fact that we do magic. It's all in how we carry ourselves and how proudly we hold our love for the art of magic.

It kind of surprises and saddens me that people are finding this type of disrespect and teasing for being involved in magic, but it's really how you carry it... I'd imagine after some instances of ridicule the performer's confidence would diminish, and it shows... and people attack the vulnerable. If magic is carried as a weak spot, it'll be attacked. I personally carry it with confidence, and my reputation and the reputation of the art of magic in general in my school is strong.

 

[William Draven]

Yep. I've gotten it a few times. Sucks.

 

[UncleMings]

I would say this is common atleast with me. What hurts most for me when its on the home front. Family and friends who dont understand why I do, what I do give me crap and to add more stuff on it my girlfriend gives me crap for practicing the art but after the reading of the riot act goes back to her hello kitty collection.

Honestly i dont care what anybody says about me being into magic. atleast I have somthing I love and would take time to be a part of. Im happy to be a part of somthing that is special. People who give me crap about it I just laugh at as they try to feed their ego on giving me crap and try to conform to what society wants.

Kind regards

mike

 

[jok3r]

High school blows, everyone there is trying to find out who they are.
Anytime someone makes fun, or ridicules someone else, its just there own insecurity.
I wouldn't worry about it, do what makes you happy and be the best you can be.
That's the only thing you can do.
Teenagers are stupid, we all think we know everything.
I suggest if you want to perform, pick you're audience carefully.

Personally, i haven't had too deal with any of this, everyone around here seems to think it's cool.
But i can still relate from other experiences.

You do what makes you happy, and everyone else can suck it.

 

[Sam_v]

Me and my friend do magic together. Since we are in the same class, we aren't getting picked on. People love to see a magic trick or two. I'm really lucky with all the people supporting me if I hear some of these stories.

This is something I always use when doing a card trick, and someone has the need to try and ruïn it.
For example : When I do a Clipshift, some people might say something ridiculous like : The card just jumped from the top !!!!

That isn't true, but they believe it is, so i go like this :
I hand them the deck of cards, and tell them to do it so I can see what they mean.

They fail obviously, resulting in the people laughing at them instead of us.

Really, give them the deck and let them try,.. Hilarious.

 

[n0va_jason]

When handing out the deck to let them try, I always recall what my friend tells me. "They may know what you did, but they will never know how you did it." I guess that gives me a sense of accomplishment, besides the fact that it's hilarious to watch them try, since sleights and magic are really skills that you own, and skills that will stay with you.