My Thoughts on CelebraCadabra

Jan 13, 2008
57
0
New York, USA
Something that has been on my mind for a few months now was VH1's new reality show CelebraCadabra. When I first heard about it, I immediately thought of Mindfreak and Phenomenon, two recent TV magic disasters. As the show got closer and closer to being aired, a lot of information was released to the magic community. Companies (ie. ellusionist) insured us that this show will help magic. They informed us that top notch magicians like Jeff Mcbride and Max Maven will be part of it. They wouldn't let anything bad happen right?

Well, three episodes have aired so far and I have been nothing but disappointed. What is Celebracadabra? It's a show that has the potential to downgrade the art of magic in the public's eye. It is taking a sacred artform and morphing it into a cheezy competition where VH1 viewers can see how celebrities "learn tricks" and perform them on the street the next day. We are seeing so called "magicians" learning "tricks" to beat the other magicians. We are seeing people mess up, argue over, and destroy the artform that we all love. Laymen are supposed to see good magic. They're not supposed to view people learning it. That's not what magic is meant for. Yes there's no "exposure" in Celebracadabra. But lets think about this for a second.
MAGIC IS BEING EXPOSED. Magic is a touchy artform. It's not like ballroom dancing where a reality show can broadcast dancers learning the art and there be no harm involved. The "art" in magic is taken away when laypeople see things like Celebracadabra. Frequently in the show, we see the coaches bringing in new tricks for the celebrities to do. This small one-minute segment can do a lot of harm for laymen. From this scene, magic isn't astonishing, its not amazing, its not even freakin magical. It's a small prop, or secret, that the celebrity learns one day and performs the next.

Then to top it off, we get to see ridiculous advertisments from our all time favorite online magic sensation telling viewers that they can easily learn secrets to tricks and perform them an hour later "for only $**.**" Is this really helping the art of magic?
You don't have to agree with me here but all I'm asking is for you to keep an open mind. Just because all these "big names" are saying great things about this show doesn't necessarily mean its right.

Thanks for reading and helping to keep magic alive,
Alex
 
Sep 1, 2007
168
0
California
I truly hate advertised magic. It's been a real hard blow, Brad...way to go helping the destruction of our art form. Even though I am still an amateur and am nowhere near having my voice count... I think we should all voice out our opinions about what is happening to OUR art form. We shouldn't really be sitting here and realizing/ complaining about what's going on; we should be initiating some movement against it all. I'm just getting my opinion out. I don't know if it means anything to anyone else how magic is being treated by laymen and the global society...but it just pisses me off. Hope we can do something about it and create a safe and prosperious future for magic...
 

AllanLuu

Banned
Aug 31, 2007
545
1
32
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
This is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

Your response is the stupidest I have read.

And the only person who would care about internet magic would be people he need youtube to teach them because they can't fork over the cash. Celebracadabra is doing more harm then good, sure, not every person is watching it but there will be alot of people who will watch it, go over to ellusionist, buy something, perform it the next minute and make us look bad.

Every bad performance online is making the art of magic look like some cheap novelty that you can learn at your local corner store. I mean common, you come over here, name your username after David Copperfield and have the nerve of saying that Alex's posts is one of the dumbest you have "heard", Alex is absolutely right and you should be ashamed that you don't feel the same way.
 
Dec 5, 2007
269
0
New York City
I truly hate advertised magic. It's been a real hard blow, Brad...way to go helping the destruction of our art form. Even though I am still an amateur and am nowhere near having my voice count... I think we should all voice out our opinions about what is happening to OUR art form. We shouldn't really be sitting here and realizing/ complaining about what's going on; we should be initiating some movement against it all. I'm just getting my opinion out. I don't know if it means anything to anyone else how magic is being treated by laymen and the global society...but it just pisses me off. Hope we can do something about it and create a safe and prosperious future for magic...

there is a way of saving magic if we all the magicians who respect and want to help our art go out everyday and perform we would make a difference we would change the way people see magic. Think about it magic is not going to die and you know why because we are the next generation and apparently we do care about the art.


and the E stuff wow like nobody saw it coming, we all know that E is more interested on the money than the art so i wasn't surprised when i Saw the commercial.
 
Jan 13, 2008
57
0
New York, USA
there is a way of saving magic if we all the magicians who respect and want to help our art go out everyday and perform we would make a difference we would change the way people see magic. Think about it magic is not going to die and you know why because we are the next generation and apparently we do care about the art.


and the E stuff wow like nobody saw it coming, we all know that E is more interested on the money than the art so i wasn't surprised when i Saw the commercial.
I agree that it's up to us, the next generation, to help change magic for the better.
 

AllanLuu

Banned
Aug 31, 2007
545
1
32
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I agree that it's up to us, the next generation, to help change magic for the better.

Well I hate the be the breaker of bad news, but it isn't going to happen on these online forums.. we were all thinking it I just had the guts to say it ;).

EDIT: Especially with people like copperfield 14 and dummyisdumb.... defending this kind of stuff......
 
Apr 4, 2008
177
0
Now lets be honest. How many people are going to see Celebracadabra, and go "I like this! I'm going to spend 30$ on this dvd!"
 
Something that has been on my mind for a few months now was VH1's new reality show CelebraCadabra. When I first heard about it, I immediately thought of Mindfreak and Phenomenon, two recent TV magic disasters. As the show got closer and closer to being aired, a lot of information was released to the magic community. Companies (ie. ellusionist) insured us that this show will help magic. They informed us that top notch magicians like Jeff Mcbride and Max Maven will be part of it. They wouldn't let anything bad happen right?

Well, three episodes have aired so far and I have been nothing but disappointed. What is Celebracadabra? It's a show that has the potential to downgrade the art of magic in the public's eye. It is taking a sacred artform and morphing it into a cheezy competition where VH1 viewers can see how celebrities "learn tricks" and perform them on the street the next day. We are seeing so called "magicians" learning "tricks" to beat the other magicians. We are seeing people mess up, argue over, and destroy the artform that we all love. Laymen are supposed to see good magic. They're not supposed to view people learning it. That's not what magic is meant for. Yes there's no "exposure" in Celebracadabra. But lets think about this for a second.
MAGIC IS BEING EXPOSED. Magic is a touchy artform. It's not like ballroom dancing where a reality show can broadcast dancers learning the art and there be no harm involved. The "art" in magic is taken away when laypeople see things like Celebracadabra. Frequently in the show, we see the coaches bringing in new tricks for the celebrities to do. This small one-minute segment can do a lot of harm for laymen. From this scene, magic isn't astonishing, its not amazing, its not even freakin magical. It's a small prop, or secret, that the celebrity learns one day and performs the next.

Then to top it off, we get to see ridiculous advertisments from our all time favorite online magic sensation telling viewers that they can easily learn secrets to tricks and perform them an hour later "for only $**.**" Is this really helping the art of magic?
You don't have to agree with me here but all I'm asking is for you to keep an open mind. Just because all these "big names" are saying great things about this show doesn't necessarily mean its right.

Thanks for reading and helping to keep magic alive,
Alex

Definatley agree with you. The Other thing i dislike about the show, is that the winning celebrity is getting $100,000. And as far as i can tell its not going to charity.I highly doubt the winner will need any more money then they already have.
 

AllanLuu

Banned
Aug 31, 2007
545
1
32
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
If you don't like it, don't watch it! Keep it to yourself :p

-Max

We aren't whining, we are defending our art against this unnecessary exposure to an audience who doesn't need to see the behind the scenes of magic. If you truly cared about magic and had a genuine passion for it, you would be out here defending it just like us.
 
Apr 4, 2008
177
0
We aren't whining, we are defending our art against this unnecessary exposure to an audience who doesn't need to see the behind the scenes of magic. If you truly cared about magic and had a genuine passion for it, you would be out here defending it just like us.

It's not like any of these Celebes are magicians. What they do is completely different from us. The show shows them training for about 30 seconds. Is that so bad? Please tell me what the show exposes.
 
Definatley agree with you. The Other thing i dislike about the show, is that the winning celebrity is getting $100,000. And as far as i can tell its not going to charity.I highly doubt the winner will need any more money then they already have.
That's my main problem with the show... I can't believe that these already overpaid, filthy rich celebrities are adding to their already deep pockets.

Disgusting.

Mitch
 
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