theory11 — Magic Tricks & the World's Finest Playing Cards

Your Thoughts On Using Someone Else's Trick

K

kmagic25

May 7, 2009
175
11
So heres a question that ive been wondering about others opionions to:
Say you see a video or a performance of a trick either on the internet, at a convention, or anywhere else, and being a magician you figure it out, but you really like the trick. Do you think it is ok to use the trick in your performances?
 
Technically if it their piece / effect, you probably should not perform it unless you have purchased the said effect from them or another retailer. I've seen people "steal" complete acts from watching others perform at conventions and use the same patter verbatim. That really gets people angry. At least pay for the lecture notes or talk to the magician and get his / her permission.

Do people do it? Sure....they do. But guess what? I have also seen someone perform someone else's act at a convention and the magician on stage did not know that the person they stole it from was out in the audience. Let's just say things got pretty heated out in the hallway afterwards.
 
reverhart said:
Technically if it their piece / effect, you probably should not perform it unless you have purchased the said effect from them or another retailer. I've seen people "steal" complete acts from watching others perform at conventions and use the same patter verbatim. That really gets people angry. At least pay for the lecture notes or talk to the magician and get his / her permission.

Do people do it? Sure....they do. But guess what? I have also seen someone perform someone else's act at a convention and the magician on stage did not know that the person they stole it from was out in the audience. Let's just say things got pretty heated out in the hallway afterwards.
Click to expand...

very well said.
 
what i mean though is if there trick is not published, not in a lecture. I am aiming more towards the Youtube side of things. Sorry for the confusion
 
If you see it on youtube, it's published. There is not much original material on youtube. Just because you don't know if or where it's published, it doesn't change anything. Same rules of ethics and etiquette apply.

If the person has put something on youtube that is original, it is either not that good or they haven't published because they don't want others performing it.
 
I totally see what you mean. I try to stay to my own variations of things and if theres an idea i see that catches my eye, i just try to make it my own by tweaking it and making it look as good as possible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.