For magic to get current again, i think we as magicians have to get real. Just ditch the cheesy magic persona and get real to connect with people again.
As an example when the magicians walked on stage on letterman, they were not there but their rehearsed fake magic persona was there and how are you going to connect with something thats not real?
Just watch some old sitcoms and tv series, everything is fake and far from todays reality and then watch some new series and you will see that it is much closer to our reality where we easily can connect with the characters.
Same thing happened to music and i think it need to happend to magic aswell.
In a article in Rolling Stone about the 100 greatest singers of our time Bono wrote this about Bob Dylan :
"He changed popular singing. And we have been living in a world shaped by Dylan's singing ever since. Almost no one sings like Elvis Presley anymore. Hundreds try to sing like Dylan. When Sam Cooke played Dylan for the young Bobby Womack, Womack said he didn't understand it. Cooke explained that from now on, it's not going to be about how pretty the voice is. It's going to be about believing that the voice is telling the truth"
I think magic needs less fake and flash and more reality and substance. A good magician in the future is not going to be about how fast your fingers are or how skilled your with a deck of cards, but how well you can connect with your audience.
As an example when the magicians walked on stage on letterman, they were not there but their rehearsed fake magic persona was there and how are you going to connect with something thats not real?
Just watch some old sitcoms and tv series, everything is fake and far from todays reality and then watch some new series and you will see that it is much closer to our reality where we easily can connect with the characters.
Same thing happened to music and i think it need to happend to magic aswell.
In a article in Rolling Stone about the 100 greatest singers of our time Bono wrote this about Bob Dylan :
"He changed popular singing. And we have been living in a world shaped by Dylan's singing ever since. Almost no one sings like Elvis Presley anymore. Hundreds try to sing like Dylan. When Sam Cooke played Dylan for the young Bobby Womack, Womack said he didn't understand it. Cooke explained that from now on, it's not going to be about how pretty the voice is. It's going to be about believing that the voice is telling the truth"
I think magic needs less fake and flash and more reality and substance. A good magician in the future is not going to be about how fast your fingers are or how skilled your with a deck of cards, but how well you can connect with your audience.