That means you.
First of all, I hate magic performed exclusively for a camera. Magic is meant to be performed for a live audience and I stand by that.
Now, I understand that it is well within one's rights as a human being to post just about whatever they want on the internet, be it a bad coin trick or a bad card trick or footage of them at Thanksgiving when they were five. It was never my intention to be a youtube Nazi.
Suffice to say, I have seen a fair number of performances for Mr. Joe Internet, that is, the "performer," with his or her head outside of the frame, doing some piece of decent to nausea-instilling magic for his or her web cam. Many of my posts and threads have been wasted on condemning such practices. It won't stop just because I think it's stupid, and to be fair (I hate being fair) sometimes it is worthwhile to be able to share ideas with fellow magicians via the inter-web. Far be it from me to be against fellow magicians showing their skills to test-audiences.
So every now and then, I do see a performance of magic for (god forbid!) real live people (and occasionally these brave performers dare to venture out into the sunlight, confident that they will not turn to stone). And here's the problem. I hesitate to use the word "perform." I hesitate a lot.
The thing is, these performances are not so much "performances" as they are "demonstrations" of magic. What I'm seeing is the pallid-skinned teenager do something along the lines of a sedated David Blaine impersonation.
I've seen artists on this site say over and over that "you should be yourself [when you perform]." Is everyone who does magic really as apathetic as they seem. It is possible (and you may have to take my word for it) to be oneself and to at the same time be an affable charismatic human being. It is possible to put some life into one performances. It is feasible to put at least a few ounces of thought into patter to change "example of card prowess" into "elegant and esoteric performance of illusion."
I suppose if one truly wishes to appear to their audience as if they've been tranquilized, then I guess that's their prerogative. To all of you who agree that this is how you want to be perceived, I urge you, carry on. Let your hands take center stage and amaze and shock some people. Don't be engaging to your audience. Let the muscle memory do the talking. Your audience will react wonderfully. They'll say, "why, what a wonderful trick I saw the other day, Uncle Abner. My card went into the middle and then it was suddenly on top! What wonderful magic it was! What's that? Who was the magician? Why, I'm not sure. But it certainly was some great magic."
In the meantime, I plan to be remembered for me.
There are some interesting and well expressed points here.
First of all, I would like to say, in defence of myself and several people I personally know - I can't record live performances, for the simple lack of a camera. Due to the position of my computer and webcam, to the computer is really the only possible angle. Nonetheless, this does not speak to your very valid argument about going out and performing, which by and large I feel is very correct.
As for your urging to be yourself... Well, firstly, I agree. But secondly, I'd like to see this develop further.
As you've noted, and as you're urging, many Theory11 artists have urged people to be themselves.
Well, that's all fine and dandy. But what does it mean to be yourself? Who are you? And more importantly, how does one be oneself? This is an issue too often neglected in favour of "Just be yourself". Whatever that means. As most of the members here are in their teenage years, myself included in the upper echelon of such a group, many I would say do not understand what it means to themselves, and they do not understand who they actually are - which is natural considering we're in adolescence. How then can you be yourself? Act naturally? That's another thing that's said a lot. Well, approaching someone and performing magic for them really isn't a natural thing we're accustomed to. The thing is, being yourself is far more difficult than we might think - few things in magic can be expressed so simply and yet be achieved paradoxically with such difficulty.
I don't really know what the answer to my question is. I've sort of managed to develop myself through my experience in acting and theatre, such that honesty to self has become easier. But that's a personal experience.
So what does be yourself actually mean? If you're a funny person, make a joke?
I would perhaps submit that to be yourself takes practice. Because really, while we all should be ourselves - not all of who we are is suitable for magic. You must come out. But who my audience sees, and the person my girlfriend knows I am, coming from years of friendship and experience, in all its nuances and subtleties, will ultimately be different.
So then, I think we return to the first part of your post - go out and perform. Hopefully, from that, I'd say, is how we practice being ourselves.