3 ms·

The Honor System (2012)

33 points by nkurz 7y ago

sbierwagen 7y ago
Teller won the lawsuit in 2014: https://www.courthousenews.com/teller-gets-545000-in-magic-fight/ https://www.courthousenews.com/teller-gets-545000-in-magic-f...
- teddyh 7y ago
  > U.S. District Judge James […] Mahan found Dogge to be “exceptionally difficult and unresponsive, necessitating numerous motions and responses” to force his cooperation. Yeah, don’t annoy the judge.
joshuaissac 7y ago
After reading the article and searching for Gerard Bakardy on Google, I found his version of the story: http://www.myfreedomofspeech.be/site2014/Welcome.html http://www.myfreedomofspeech.be/site2014/Welcome.html (note: the website is mostly made of images of text, so it may not display well on a small screen).
- ineedasername 7y ago
  Well, their accounts don't seem to match up. However, Teller doesn't appear to have a very litigious history. Bakardy also says Teller was suing because he didn't like that Bakardy's trick was better, which does not at all seem to be the reason for the lawsuit. The Bakardy version of the story has a strong veneer of fudging & tilting the facts, which is rather off putting to me, though I concede that doesn't mean his account is not accurate.
MBlume 7y ago
The linked article appears to posit that Gerard Bakardy might be an invention of Teller's? That's a pretty extraordinary claim. Has anything since borne it out?
- lonelappde 7y ago
  Dogge/Bakardy lost the suit. Suing a fake person is very much not Teller's style, who has nothing to gain from such a boring stunt.
empath75 7y ago
Magic happens in the minds of the audience and the method is the least interesting part. Shin Lin sells a video where he explains how to do his most famous act and some of the methods are so crude that I think many people would be surprised they hadn’t figured it out and some of them might feel cheated. But it’s hands down the most beautiful card magic act I’ve ever seen. The real magic is in how he tells a story wordlessly, syncing it with music like a dance. You aren’t spending time trying to unravel how it happened because you’re so enchanted by the story. Teller’s best tricks are the same way, and the fact that they often tell you more or less how the trick is done without ruining it confirms how unimportant the method is to the performance. All of which is to say that I think teller was right to sue and I’m glad he won. These days, finding out how to do 90% of the most popular magic tricks is a google search away, but it’s still very hard to perform magic well.
- lonelappde 7y ago
  Penn and Teller usually tell how a trick is done and then (or simultaneously) do it differently.

33 points by nkurz 7y ago

Teller won the lawsuit in 2014: https://www.courthousenews.com/teller-gets-545000-in-magic-fight/ https://www.courthousenews.com/teller-gets-545000-in-magic-f...

teddyh 7y ago
> U.S. District Judge James […] Mahan found Dogge to be “exceptionally difficult and unresponsive, necessitating numerous motions and responses” to force his cooperation. Yeah, don’t annoy the judge.

joshuaissac 7y ago

After reading the article and searching for Gerard Bakardy on Google, I found his version of the story: http://www.myfreedomofspeech.be/site2014/Welcome.html http://www.myfreedomofspeech.be/site2014/Welcome.html (note: the website is mostly made of images of text, so it may not display well on a small screen).

ineedasername 7y ago
Well, their accounts don't seem to match up. However, Teller doesn't appear to have a very litigious history. Bakardy also says Teller was suing because he didn't like that Bakardy's trick was better, which does not at all seem to be the reason for the lawsuit. The Bakardy version of the story has a strong veneer of fudging & tilting the facts, which is rather off putting to me, though I concede that doesn't mean his account is not accurate.

MBlume 7y ago

The linked article appears to posit that Gerard Bakardy might be an invention of Teller's? That's a pretty extraordinary claim. Has anything since borne it out?

lonelappde 7y ago
Dogge/Bakardy lost the suit. Suing a fake person is very much not Teller's style, who has nothing to gain from such a boring stunt.

empath75 7y ago

Magic happens in the minds of the audience and the method is the least interesting part. Shin Lin sells a video where he explains how to do his most famous act and some of the methods are so crude that I think many people would be surprised they hadn’t figured it out and some of them might feel cheated. But it’s hands down the most beautiful card magic act I’ve ever seen. The real magic is in how he tells a story wordlessly, syncing it with music like a dance. You aren’t spending time trying to unravel how it happened because you’re so enchanted by the story. Teller’s best tricks are the same way, and the fact that they often tell you more or less how the trick is done without ruining it confirms how unimportant the method is to the performance. All of which is to say that I think teller was right to sue and I’m glad he won. These days, finding out how to do 90% of the most popular magic tricks is a google search away, but it’s still very hard to perform magic well.

lonelappde 7y ago
Penn and Teller usually tell how a trick is done and then (or simultaneously) do it differently.