TV Magicians: A boost or a bane?

Aug 15, 2010
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TV magicians have done a great job of rekindling people's interest in magic as an art form and recreation. But have they gone too far?

Do you believe their use of illusions and tricks that can only be performed for a camera and implanted audiences and something they cannot themselves replicate in real world street situations is making real-world street magicians look bad?

What do you tell your audience when you are asked to perform something they saw on TV that you know can only be done for limited angles and clever editing?

Or is it just another one of those stage illusions masquerading as street magic? Where do you draw the line between magic and movie magic?
 
Jul 10, 2010
277
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30
McAllen, TX
www.wix.com
I often get really down when I see magic on T.V. The bar is just getting raised so high, us normal magicians can't compete with it. David Copperfeild flying on stage and around the audience with impossible conditions. David Blaine biting a girls tooth out and spitting it back to normal. Criss Angel doing some of the most amazing things on TV to date. I feel we just cannot compete with that type of media, celebrity, money, or anything compared to them.

EDIT: I would also like to add, this is true only if you wish to be a big celebrity or something.
 
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Jun 20, 2009
627
3
near paris
i like magic on tv when it's close up
i'm tired to see card through window with a fake crowed, lot of the times they use stooges
i prefer a simple card trick with sleight of hand than a miracle perform only for tv
 
I don't draw the line. I dance freely around, and across it. When put to such an obvious question I usually deflect it with out committing a strait answer, or I offer to show them something else, and move into a different effect all together.
 
Jul 10, 2010
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In my experience, the people I perform to like simpler effects like card magic. Tricks like subway seem to astound them more than watching effects on tv where they know the magician uses stooges.
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
If it weren't for a TV magician most of my generation would never have found magic; Mark Wilson's Alakazam and Magic Circus shows gave impetus to dozens of present day living legends and even a few who've past (like Doug Henning).

Copperfield is likewise the source for inspiring a new generation BUT his antics when it came to "Creative Editing" is what gave people like Blaine and Angel an unofficial sense of permission when it came to misrepresenting what could be done, how, when, etc. So much so that Angel is the star of one of the worse shows on the Vegas strip and the ONLY reason it is still up and with him in it, is lawyers and contractual manipulation (according to insiders)... and then there's that slight (very slight) advantage to having all the tween fans coming to spend their cash.. before catching Lance Burton down the street and seeing how real magic is done.

When we find that rising new star of magic, regardless of the genre he/she works with, their success will come via the act of doing things the way they would and CAN do Live, without an audience filled with stooges or special camera/editing controls. It will be someone that can take us back to the "basics" while manipulating our imaginations in ways that are fun, inspiring and even if they are a bit "dark" they remain a thing of "class".

Dan Sperry is a potential in my mind, for taking the helm on this front PROVIDED he surrounds himself with some old timers that can give him the kind of direction that was given to Lance decades ago and even Henning before that. Dan isn't my favorite character (as it current exists) but I see where that same entity could go IF Dan chooses to LISTEN to some older, wiser, outside voices and even going to the length of studying things like the evolution of Alice Cooper (who he reminds me a lot of), Ozzie and a few other notable Rockers of 70's fame coupled with actors like Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. Aside from this being a strong suggestion for Dan, I believe it to be one side of a formula that could allow him (above most of the acts I've seen in the past 5 years), the greatest sense of advantage when it comes to meeting the role I'm trying to convey -- that peculiar talent that's more storyteller and host, such as the yesteryear greats tended to be.
 
it's funny, because Simon Lovell just did his column on the 17th edition of Reel Magic on TV magicians and what "normal" magicians, say about it not being fair (his column it's basically a rant). He said TV magicians are good for us, because if someone sees/likes the magic they see on tv, then they will probably want to hire a magician, then to the point of people saying how they can't "duplicate" the tricks on TV he said, why would you want to do someone else's trick. He said to reply with, "Well, that's his trick, but here is one of mine", and in my honest opinion anything, simple or difficult, will be a "better" trick in the mind of the spectator because they (hopefully) experienced and felt apart of it/saw it in person.

just my 2 cents.

Brendone Caulfield
 
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