Not your usual exposure story/rant

[descartes]

This thread actually has a small probability of becoming controversial, but I think the guys at T11 are a reasonable group, so here goes.

Anyway, this is not a thread complaining about exposure. This is certainly not a thread aimed at starting a witch hunt, even though I will name one person in the thread. This is a different kind of story.

Does anyone here know about the expertvillage magic videos? I'm not providing any links, but if you go to youtube and search for them, you will find a number of videos that explain some basic and some not so basic magic secrets. There are also some gaffs which are explained in detail. Technically, these videos are exposing magic (even though a lot of these are secrets you could find in a public library).

One of the guys demonstrating these techniques is Wayne Phelps. Does the name ring a bell to anyone here?

Recently Wayne Phelps was featured on Roland Henning's blog as a Weekly Magic Failure. Roland is a German magician who has this blog where he nominates magic failures regularly. He mainly nominates people who either expose magic gratuitously to laymen or perform so poorly that they give magic a bad name.

Before I go any further, check out this blog post where Roland angrily rips into Wayne Phelps for his involvement in the expertvillage videos.

http://weeklymagicfailure.blogspot.com/2010/05/wayne-phelps.html

Were you surprised to learn that Wayne Phelps was none other than William Draven? I know I was. But fear not, because Roland posted this the very next day.

http://weeklymagicfailure.blogspot.com/2010/05/did-you-know-i-sure-didnt.html

If you have read this far and read both the blog posts (and I hope you did), you can see that this story has a somewhat happy ending.

So is there really a lesson for the rest of us in this episode? I think there are a couple of things.

1) Even if some magicians think exposure is a cardinal sin, a person who repents and learns from his mistake deserves a second chance.
2) Be very careful about putting videos on sites like youtube. You often don't have control over who sees the videos. Exposure on youtube is definitely worse than exposure in print (say in a magazine or newspaper).

In this episode, both William Draven and Roland Henning acted in a classy way that is commendable. Draven was ready to admit his mistakes and accept responsibility for them in his email to Roland. Roland was also gracious enough to apologize for jumping the gun on this one. It is also nice that he is looking for constructive solutions instead of merely demonizing Draven for his earlier mistake. I think that is something positive to take away from this.

 

[Austin Fields]

*sigh* this horse again.

This is a very old story, and Mr. Draven has been called out time and time again. At some point, people need to just bury a hatchet, but if you insist.

Will has apologized several times before this blog post was released, and he does it yet again in his E-mail.

What you've done here is posted something that I hope will be deleted, because you'll have a lot of people who skip over most of the text (largely because of their illiteracy, and a bit of impatience) and this has about a 50/50 shot of going down hill, or people reading it and saying "meh".

If you force him into a position to apologize again for a mistake which anyone (that will claim moral high ground in this thread) could have easily made, then you have wronged a man who has paid his dues. Someone who has crossed into a career that many of us wouldn't dare risk.

The post made about him in the original blog post was absolutely unprofessional, and uncalled for. I understand the frustration, but please handle yourself professionally, and don't personally attack someone with random ignorant anger.

A lesson that can also be learned is that everyone in any profession has their ups and downs, I respect William as a magician, a person and above all a friend. He is someone who has struggled to do what he loves, and I hope he gets a real shot at making it to where he wants to go.

This is old news, don't force Mr. Draven to carry around a chip on his shoulder, and help him get rid of this. Let it go.

 

[Haunter]

Yeah nothing to see here really. I'm sure we could all paste our own personal diatribes on exposure here but the point is moot. Personally, I'm not even sure he'd need to apologize in the first place but since he has done so, countless times now, I think its high time we let sleeping dogs lie.

I'd afford Mr. Draven no less respect then I would any other member here.

 

[William Draven]

oh yes... I know this subject well. It is a painful one for me.

thank you for handeling this so delicatly.

 

[Mr.MadMan]

oh yes... I know this subject well. It is a painful one for me.

thank you for handeling this so delicatly.

Draven i think i speak for a number of people here that we are backing you up on this.
I for one can say positively that if you need help on this journey im here to help!

M.

 

[Cedric Taylor]

oh yes... I know this subject well. It is a painful one for me.

thank you for handeling this so delicatly.

I say we crucify DRAVEN!!!!!!

haha.....no just kidding dude. Hows things going by the ways???


Hey to the original poster, most people didn't read the whole thing. you were talking about repenting...so kudos to u for using Draven as an example.....

 

[descartes]

oh yes... I know this subject well. It is a painful one for me.

thank you for handeling this so delicatly.

Draven, I sympathize with you. I'm not out to get you here. If you check the comments on the second blog post, I'm one of the people defending you (there is one guy who still wants to crucify you).

Anyway, if this is old news, you can all comfortably ignore this, but it was something I didn't know and maybe lots of others don't. I thought the way it played out was interesting.

At least this should teach people not to jump the gun on such issues and to investigate something/someone carefully before you demonize them.

 

[Luis Vega]

I wasn`t aware of this..

anyway, we all make mistakes, in magic and life in general...I have made mistakes too..the kind of mistakes that it will get me burned in the magic community...and I know many of us has made things that we are not proud of....

he is sorry and he learned his lesson...so what do you say if we move on?

btw...William I`m with you man!!!

 

[Cedric Taylor]

Draven, I sympathize with you. I'm not out to get you here. If you check the comments on the second blog post, I'm one of the people defending you (there is one guy who still wants to crucify you).

Anyway, if this is old news, you can all comfortably ignore this, but it was something I didn't know and maybe lots of others don't. I thought the way it played out was interesting.

At least this should teach people not to jump the gun on such issues and to investigate something/someone carefully before you demonize them.

it was a joke...i don't wanna crucify him...

 

[descartes]

it was a joke...i don't wanna crucify him...

I understand that. I was talking about the guy who commented on Roland's blog. The guy who calls himself trickster.

 

[Cedric Taylor]

I understand that. I was talking about the guy who commented on Roland's blog. The guy who calls himself trickster.

gotcha sorry buddy....

 

[William Draven]

Yeah the guy calling himself "Trickster" is an Australia based magician whose like 40 years old or something like that and real name is Brandon Croft. I believe his personal website is http://stardockmagic.com/about/ but I'm not 100% sure on that. Name and location matches the profile on the WMFB though. After face booking him I think I've removed his venom glands. Anyone that would pose for this picture http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?pid=5393321&id=529035498 really can't afford to be such a strong critique of anothers person.

Well now that the cats out of the bag. Now you know.

What strikes me odd is that the Aussies, generally, aren't so rabid. Never have I ever experienced an Aussie that didn't have a natural "no worries" attitude with regard to others. I suppose there's always that one in the crowd though.

Listen, we live and we learn. And then we move on. When I was first starting out here on this forum, and shortly after I had posted my first essay or two I was asked a question about how I could speak with such authority on the subjects that I do. To which I answered because I've made a lot of mistakes.

I'm not down playing that either. That wasn't a comment made from modesty. It's the truth.

Every single one of you out there whose nipping at the bit to get your self filmed and out there on the net need to SERIOUSLY think about how your image portrays your character, as well as what kind of quality your video is, and the message it sends. I don't want to see anyone make the mistakes that I have.

 

[praetoritevong]

What strikes me odd is that the Aussies, generally, aren't so rabid. Never have I ever experienced an Aussie that didn't have a natural "no worries" attitude with regard to others. I suppose there's always that one in the crowd though.

Sorry, bud!