We have all heard the term before. Old School Magicians. Most people on Theory 11 will tell you that they don't respect the old school magicians because they show no respect for the younger generation of magic. However, can you really define what an old school magician is? Maybe you can, maybe you can't. I bet the definitions would vary if I asked many people on here. However, can you really call an old school magician an old school magician? Should the term even exist? I'm here to share with you my views on the old school magicians.
Many people on here will tell you that they don't like the old school magicians because they don't respect us. There are stories on here from people saying they will never go on the Magic Cafe because they won't receive respect there from anybody. I have to say that they have good reasons... We don't respect them. (I'm speaking in generalities of course.) Its rather annoying how they are so judgmental of us, but I think I know why many older magicians show no respect for the younger magicians. Whether or not we want to change traditions in magic, in our craft it is rather important that we respect the old school magicians' traditions because without them, there would be no us. I am not saying that we cannot start new traditions or change the way magicians work. I'm all for moving the art forward. I think its important we do. However, disregarding everything the old school magicians before us have done shows no respect for the art as a whole and that gives them the right to not like us. Think about it. Magicians had their way. Then communities such as Theory 11 and Ellusionist pop up and the people on them show little to no respect for the older magicians and their ways. Its not that we weren't welcome. Its that we show no respect ourselves towards the older magicians. At some points we even talked ourselves about how we did not like old school magicians. Then we just expect the old school magicians to show us respect. I think that is a little twisted.
Now I think I'll bring up some points about one of our fellow Theory 11 artists, Daniel Madison. (Please note: I respect Daniel Madison and his work. He may not have my style, but I like his work a lot. I use his flourishes more than any others. Bad Influence is also the effect I probably perform most often. So don't think here this is a hate speech against DM. I have lots of respect for him and what he does.) In his
Artist Manifesto Part 2 video, DM clearly states that he feels the magic community did not welcome him and his style. "Newcomers. Young people like us, we don't really get a chance to make our mark or to give our impression of magic or to give our views on magic because its seen as challenging traditions which most magicians don't like. I think that's something that we need to do to move forward." That's the thing though. We are moving forward. How are we not? Lets take a pair of magicians that went in the other direction with their magic... the Buck twins. They took magic and completely turned it around by being flashy, using almost no patter, and created a style that was truly their own. From what I've been seeing, the magic community as a whole could not be more welcoming. I think its the lack of RESPECT from us that causes this line of separation between us and the old school magicians. (I am not saying Daniel Madison does not respect the art of magic for what it used to be. I'm not sure what exactly was going on with DM, so please do not criticize me for criticizing DM because I'm not.) We need to learn about the old school magicians. We do need to respect them and their traditions. We can then work off that to create what we want magic to turn into. What do we want magic to turn into? Well we all have our different visions which is what makes this art so diverse and allows us to have more than 1 style. We don't need to be generic. (I'll stop where I'm at though with this because I'm getting a bit off topic with diversity.) We simply need to respect those that came before us. If we don't, what will we think of the younger generation when we get older and they create THEIR own styles? Well, we'll probably treat them the way they are treating us.
Now here is something I would like for you to define in your mind. What is an "old school magician"? Stop reading now. Only read on when you have a clear definition in your mind.
I would be willing to bet that many of us had different definitions in your mind. Many of you may had thought of a stage magician pulling a bunny out of his hat. Many of you maybe pictured a card magician using bizarre patter. I don't believe we can come up with one straight up answer. Why? Because it doesn't exist. There is no such thing as an old school magician. It is a term made up by the younger people like us. There has ALWAYS been diversity in magic. You just may not had thought about it. People have always had their own styles. Its just now though that brand new styles are coming up. People are REALLY trying to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. However, we need to learn about these different styles. We need to learn about the older magicians before us. We need to RESPECT the older magicians before us. We cannot let this separation between the "old school" and "new" magicians break us. There has always been a diversity of magic and there always will be. Its just the younger generation seems to be a bit more rebellious. We need to read books. Many people hate hearing that, but you MUST! If you don't, you won't get the real knowledge of what magic is and where it came from. It is only when the younger generation as a whole stops reading books and completely disrespects the older generation of magicians, that
magic will TRULY be dead.
-Doug