You are not an artist!

Offensive, aggressive, angry, and quite possibly ego-centric. I'm sure if I tried harder I could fill a few more lines with other epithets.

However crass your post I think you may have a knernal of legitement information here.

To be an artist you must first have a voice, then a medium, and finally origionallity. You seem to speak out about the legions of Criss Angel or David Blaine wanna-be's out there. I think it is important to note that every one has to start somewhere. It is easier to imitate in the beginning than it is to flat our create. As playing an instrament you learn to play other peoples works before you learn to create your own. It just depends how far down the path you really want to take it.

This truely is what seperates the professionals from the amatures. The amatures will eventually realize that it takes a hell of a lot of work, blood, and sweat to make something of themself. They may decide it isn't worth it. The professional is the same exact thing, except for one little diffrence. The professional takes that one step more when all others say not to. The professional doesn't quit.

I agree with your point that there isn't anything wrong with magic as a hobby. It's a valuable tool that I don't regret having. It has opened many a door for me and I would recomend that everyone know at least one card trick.
You did bring up a few good points. I'll give you merit for that. I just can't say I approve of your tact, or lack there of.

William Draven.
Illusionist

Miss me, sunshines?

I'm guessing you clicked on this thread either because of my name attached to it, the title, or both. If you were here for the title, you might want to nip out for a quick drink before going any further. Alcohol isn't going to stop you from getting angry with me, but it will make your responses a lot funnier.

Now then, chances are that if you are a magician or mentalist, you are not an artist. Chances are that if you are here, you are not an artist.

Why, I hear you ask? Because you have nothing to say. Because you are pretending to be something that you are not.

"There's nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you're trying to be twenty-five."
-Joe Gillis, Sunset Boulevard

There's no shame in being a hobbyist magician who does some cool tricks at a party for friends. Doing something for the sake of fun is perfectly fine. But that does not entitle you to call yourself an artist any more than someone drawing badly proportioned animu stick figures on DeviantArt.

But then, that's the nature of the internet, isn't it? No quality control. Any half-wit with a standard case of teen angst can run out into the streets of cyber space and declare themselves a messiah. And since no one of any consequence has any interest in humoring their delusions, they band together into a community of whooping throwbacks to build up their own egos enough to foist their so-called talents on each other and later innocent by-standers.

Amidst all this self-congratulatory revelry, the word artist becomes an honorific on par with Emperor of All That Is Rad. But once again, since there is no quality control on the internet, entire communities convince themselves that such a title need not be actually earned. The definition of artist is rendered as vague and inclusive as possible so that any schmuck can call himself one. The grand irony of course is that in making art so meaningless, calling yourself an artist becomes akin to calling yourself a hominid. It's nothing special anymore because you have gone out of your way to remove any and all barriers between artists and everyone else so that you can selfishly claim the title for yourself.

How did I come to this conclusion? Because I used to be one of the self-important MySpace kids who acted in a manner I just described.

So to restate my point, you are not an artist just because you do card tricks and flourishes. Your god-awful presentation of Stigmata does not make you dark and complex, it makes you a wanker who does another card trick. You don't bend people's realities, you talk them into submission (or stare them into submission if you're one of the types too busy ripping off David Blaine and Daniel Madison to bother having an original thought in your head).

You are not an artist. You are a chimp wearing a diaper or a bear on a motorcycle, a spectacle that gets a reaction out of people from sheer absurdity.

Now... prove me wrong.
 
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I am sorry guys - but your audience isn't really educated enough on magic to be judges, moreoever, they are not exposed enough to live magic to know that a guy that is doing stuff that is his own work, versus doing an Invisible deck or copying the presentation and effects off his favourite DVD.

So, as much as we can "leave it up to those that watch" - I would be more comfortable leaving it up to my peers.

Indeed. Unfortunately, too, the guy with the overloaded pockets-of-packet-tricks will likely be booked solid because most hiring audiences simply know no difference.

I am thinking of a local guy who so many people at my own gigs ask me about...the guy works and works a lot, which means a lot of locals have seen him somewhere. After seeing him work, it became obvious he took the "quickest way to knowing lots of tricks" route. He's good at what he does, but I doubt even he'd argue for himself as an artist.

Hell, I won't even argue that for myself.

Pj
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
Offensive, aggressive, angry, and quite possibly ego-centric. I'm sure if I tried harder I could fill a few more lines with other epithets.

You could... you could. But that brings up the question of whether or not you should.

I think it is important to note that every one has to start somewhere. It is easier to imitate in the beginning than it is to flat our create.

I never denied that. But it still entitles no one to call themselves an artist.

I would suggest the problem with entitlement to a name, what some have argued for, is that it has no value. No worth. No meaning. And humans don't value that which they have not worked to earn.
 
You could... you could. But that brings up the question of whether or not you should.
Probably not since it appears the boss man around here has given you a "get out of jail free" card and I'm not one to argue someones judgement.

You have some valid points. As I said. I give you credit for that, and for the most part I don't feel your post applies to me anyways.

Cheers.
 
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