That's a good question.
Does it hurt a magician if one of his tricks is exposed?
I would say no. I would say, from my experience, that performance is constantly a dilemma of how much material you can fit into it. There are always more tricks than you can do, and even if the audience knows how a particular trick is done, sometimes the effect is still great.
Look at Daniel Madison's Wrath. That effect kicks ass. It's not how it's done that kills, it's the whole burned card thing. Even if I knew how he did it, I'd still be amazed watching him, because he's so good. Look at Dan Buck performing Subway; I do know how that one's done, and it's still fantastic.
What's becoming clear to me is that while the magician who invented a trick isn't particularly damaged by its exposure, and neither is the expert practitioner who performs it flawlessly, the exposure does harm someone.
It harms the lazy magician.
You know the kind I mean. The magician who doesn't have his sleights flawless. The magician who relies on audience stupidity to bluff his way through the performance, because he can't fool an informed audience. The magician who can't perform the trick if you watch his hands the whole time, because he's just too clumsy.
Where it goes beyond this is that all of us, being informed, and seeing the amazing performances of the Buck brothers, and Daniel Madison, and Wayne Houchin, and Reza... you can fill in your own favorites here... have this fundamental fear that since we're not that good, we're every bit as bad as the lazy ones.
And that's why we need to go out and socialise with other magicians. I've been sitting in here watching the videos and reading the posts and thinking "man, I really suck". Then I went to my local magic club, and found myself the best card worker there. My confidence is through the roof right now. I'm hoping my Wynns are in the mail, because tomorrow morning I'm going to perform some impromptu stuff at a cafe, and I'd rather not do it with my Vipers. But if I have to, I will.
The concern and anger over exposure doesn't really come from concern about whether trick creators are credited, or whether the art itself is protected. It comes from a personal sense of inadequacy. And what we need to combat that is more videos that suck, so the average competent card manipulator can see where he really stands... instead of just thinking he's no good because he can't do what De'Vo vom Schattenreich does.
After all, no matter how many people I see doing a bad Hermann shift, I'm still impressed as hell when I see a smoothly executed one. I respect the skill, not the secret. "How did you do that" doesn't always mean "I don't know how you do that"; sometimes it means "I wish I could do that".
