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I see some interesting thoughts here. I agree that pretending to have magic powers is not a good way to perform. That being said, I think the concept of doing t

I see some interesting thoughts here. I agree that pretending to have magic powers is not a good way to perform. That being said, I think the concept of doing tricks so powerful that audience has no explanation other than believing in magic is completely orthogonal to an idea that you are supposed to brag about having paranormal abilities. I think the art of magic is ought to be performed live. There some guys who got it right on the TV, for instance Copperfield. The problem with YouTube on the other hand, is that you can replay the video anytime, so this kills misdirection entirely. The way I get around this issue in my promotional materials is that I basically only show people’s reactions to my effects, so that people see what they buy. Entertainment, not tricks to figure out. On a side note, I love how Derren Brown performs. He says up front, he has no psychic powers but provides some basic pseudoscience explanation to his audience which is a trick on its own!

dkersten 8y ago
Yes! I completely agree. > Entertainment, not tricks to figure out. Exactly. I personally really enjoy figuring out how they work and, for example, I’ve learned how Shin Lim does (parts of) most of his routines (partly through watching them over and over and partly by buying his “52 shades of red” routine instructional — I learned so much from it, even if I’ll never perform his routine!), but it doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of watching him perform, because he is a great showman and has incredible skill. I still enjoy watching him perform 52 shades and in some way even enjoy it more knowing how it’s done. Having said that, I do also enjoy the mystery too, so I don’t try to learn everything either.
eridius 8y ago
Probably my favorite trick, in terms of not lying to the audience, is a trick Teller does (The Red Ball) which Penn introduces simply as "Now, here's a trick that's done with a piece of thread". And AFAIK that's the truth, and the trick is spectacular because of the things Teller is able to do with just an invisible piece of thread. I only skimmed this article about it but it matches up with what I recall reading before: https://lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/nov/20/man-ball-hoop-bench-and-alleged-thread-teller/#/0 https://lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/nov/20/man-ball-hoop-be...

dkersten 8y ago

Yes! I completely agree. > Entertainment, not tricks to figure out. Exactly. I personally really enjoy figuring out how they work and, for example, I’ve learned how Shin Lim does (parts of) most of his routines (partly through watching them over and over and partly by buying his “52 shades of red” routine instructional — I learned so much from it, even if I’ll never perform his routine!), but it doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of watching him perform, because he is a great showman and has incredible skill. I still enjoy watching him perform 52 shades and in some way even enjoy it more knowing how it’s done. Having said that, I do also enjoy the mystery too, so I don’t try to learn everything either.

eridius 8y ago

Probably my favorite trick, in terms of not lying to the audience, is a trick Teller does (The Red Ball) which Penn introduces simply as "Now, here's a trick that's done with a piece of thread". And AFAIK that's the truth, and the trick is spectacular because of the things Teller is able to do with just an invisible piece of thread. I only skimmed this article about it but it matches up with what I recall reading before: https://lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/nov/20/man-ball-hoop-bench-and-alleged-thread-teller/#/0 https://lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/nov/20/man-ball-hoop-be...