Type 1- Magicians who know everything about magic but can’t—or by choice, don’t—perform magic.
They are the so-called magic’s armchair experts. They possess an enviable encyclopedic knowledge about the conjuring art. They know the biographies of past and present magicians. Blessed with excellent memory, they can trace the origins of tricks all the way back to Adam and Eve.
Who invented what tricks or props, when and where? No sweat. They will rattle off the credits for your enlightenment.
You will often meet this type on online forums dispensing knowledge, wisdom, and theories on performing. Yes, theories. They have warehouses of them but little to show for flight time they have logged performing before a live audience.
Type 2- Magicians who are entertaining but perform tenuous magic. They make people laugh with their funny antics, gags, bits of business, and comical sketches. You will roll in the aisle watching them, but in the end you are left with a hollow feeling that unavoidably raises the question: but where’s the magic?
The packs-flat-plays-big crowd mostly comprises this category. While I agree packs-flat magic lessens the hassle of travelling from one gig to another (I too, have a bagful of packs-flat magic), many of these tricks lack the wallop needed to blow audiences away.
For this matter, like all grand things in this world, they should be used in moderation. Otherwise, if one performs more gags and comedy than magic, then he might as well change career paths, from being a magician doing little magic to being a full-time comedian.
Type 3- Magicians who amaze but neglect entertaining the audience. Many beginning magicians think that because they have shiny props and big illusion boxes, they can be great. Not necessarily. In fact, sometimes, the big props weigh them down like millstones around their neck. Beautiful props often lull inexperienced performers into believing that the boxes are so cleverly constructed they can blow people away all by themselves.
This mentality wears the audience down when watching magicians who depend on their props to create magic. The props may amaze people but they don’t automatically entertain audiences without the magician’s personality and talent to entertain getting into play.
Type 4- Magicians who entertain and at the same time amaze audiences. These are our ideal magicians. These are the type we must all aspire to become. No matter what they do or not do, whatever props they use, big, medium or large, whether they perform with elegance, poise, and panache, or whether they do silly, comical routines, their magic not only drops jaws but also thoroughly entertains audiences.
A difficult aspiration to meet but not impossible to the magician willing to work hard to achieve greatness in the art.
Dream on!
Stay magical - Kurt M. Larson
Parmenides Hall of Philosphy
Do You Recognize These Four Types of Magicians?
I’m sure we can all find more types of magician than the ones I list below. But I’m lazy today to wear my thinking cap, so I’ll just give you the bare minimum of four.
Why I write with authority about these four types of magician?
Because, except for the fourth type, I belonged at one time or another to the three types. They’ve taught me good lessons in performing.
A MESSAGE FROM DENNY HANEY
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is a figure of speech commonly used in the United States that refers to a person or group holding an unquestioned belief, argument, or philosophy without critical examination. It could also refer to knowingly going along with a doomed or dangerous idea because of peer pressure. The phrase typically carries a negative connotation when applied to an individual or group. The phrase derives from the November 1978 Jonestown deaths, where members of the Peoples Temple, who were followers of the Reverend Jim Jones committed suicide by drinking a mixture of a powdered soft drink flavoring agent laced with cyanide. Although the powder used in the incident included Flavor Aid, it was commonly referred to as Kool-Aid due to its status as a genericized trademark.
PLEASE TAKE YOUR TIME TO READ THE ABOIVE STATEMENT AGAIN!
"THE MAGIC KOOL-AID"
Are you drinking it? Are you falling for it? Most of us are drinking the Magic Kool-Aid and can't seem to control ourselves. It's all because of technology and our belief that if it's a "new technology," then it MUST be better.
I love Andy Rooney's statements from the show 60 minutes. Here are three statements that are funny but so true:
1-As an old reporter, we have a few secrets, and the first thing is we try the phone book.
Quotation of Andy Rooney
2-Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
Quotation of Andy Rooney
3-Computers may save time but they sure waste a lot of paper. About 98 percent of everything printed out by a computer is garbage that no one ever reads.
Yes, I am approaching seventy years of age. I've been doing magic for sixty years and 35 years of that were spent on the road touring the world with my own show. Before you call me an "old fart" who doesn't like change, you should take my history into consideration.
TRUST ME...I KNOW MAGIC. I KNOW HOW TO LEARN IT AND ALSO HOW TO PERFORM IT.
When I retired from full time performing, I opened a magic shop with a definite goal in mind. I wanted to pass on my experiences, my knowledge, and my service to magicians who really want to learn to perform magic the correct way. Aware of the knowledge that owning a magic shop is NOT a lucrative business, a client once asked me..."Then what is your goal?" My answer was simple.
I told him "When I die, I want to leave behind a large number of accomplished performers who will continue this performing art. When magicians in the future talk about the Denny and Lee Magic Studio, I want them to talk about it with the same respect as we older magicians now talk about the Ken Brooke Magic Place in London."
That was the legacy I wanted to leave behind. Has it worked? It has worked for many who are now out there actually performing magic for a living and doing quite well. That makes me feel worthwhile.
Do I like change? I embrace change as long as it makes things BETTER. The Denny and Lee Magic Studio was one of the FIRST to make use of the internet and a website to introduce magicians to our services. I had very little competition at the time.
As the years have progressed, I have seen the internet grow. There are "virtual reality" internet magic shops everywhere. Anyone can sell magic tricks.
I have talked to many savy internet marketers and they have all told me the little secrets of selling on the internet.
I soon realized that "marketing" is many times just another word for "trickery." Therefore, the subject of this commentary, "Drinking the Magic Kool-Aid."
As new technology is invented, the "marketing (or trickery)" has grown. It has reached a point where newly interested magic fans are being led down the path of confusion. They are being led by internet shops operated by other inexperienced magic fans. The magic consumer is now constantly searching for "The Holy Grail" in magic. Through discounts and the selling of pirated magic from China, the consumer thinks they are really getting a deal.
I have a saying about the Holy Grail:
"EVERYTIME I THOUGHT I WAS BUYING THE HOLY GRAIL, I SEEM TO HAVE ENDED UP WITH NOTHING BUT A PLASTIC CUP."
Technology is advancing at a rapid rate. Just think about this scenario......
Somewhere out there is a very knowledgeable computer person who is inventing a new thing for your computers to do. It may be a new app or something that your Smartphone can do. Once this is invented, it goes to the marketing department. Here is the job of the marketing department:
"THEY MUST NOW CONVINCE THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THEY NEED THIS."
Yes, that is marketing BUT remember Andy Rooney's statement:
"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done."
THE WORLD OF "TEMPORARY" INFORMATION.
The onslaught of instant downloads, e-books, instant messages, Facebook and Twitter are all TEMPORARY. One day in the not so distant future, you will try to locate that file that you paid for and you will find it no longer exists. We have become complacent with the material that we are paying for. We place it somewhere saying "I'll get to that when I have time." Think of all the downloads and e-books that you have bought. Can you remember them? Can you find them? Can you play them? Have you learned them or did you really read that E-book that you downloaded? Remember, as technology marches on and changes, so does the ability to play them back as well as store them. Want proof? How much info do you have on floppy disc? How about VHS videos, 8 track music, reel to reel tapes or cassettes, Laser Disc, etc. The list goes on and on.
One day, all of this will go away. You will lose it, misplace it, or not have the ability to see it or read it anymore. Files will get corrupted. You will lose your Smartphone on the bus or leave it in some hotel somewhere. The ones who will retain the knowledge and always have it at their fingertips will be those who have a library of BOOKS.
As I said, "I embrace change as long as it makes thing BETTER." With all of this new technology, I still have found NOTHING that is better than a real printed book.
Magicians buy all sorts of things. Props, books, DVDs, videos, etc. Although they don't mean to be "collectors," they end up one day having a large amount of magic that in many cases have increased in value over the years. In their declining years, most of them will begin to sell off their items or perhaps give them to some young beginner to help them progress.
Guess what? E-books, instant downloads, and other electronic media are not sold or transferred. What physical object do you now have to sell or give away? NOTHING. Sure, you have spent a lot of money BUT you really have nothing physical to show for it.
Personally, I am very proud of my library, memorabilia, and magic props that I have collected over the years. I am proud of my magazine collections and the fact that many of them are complete files. I can always find them, touch them, read them, and enjoy them at any time I wish. I don't have to turn on electronic equipment, upload items, or sit in front of a computer screen just to learn a card trick! I don't have to "upgrade" my books to 2.0 or 8.9 or whatever. The only thing I have had to do in my later years was to upgrade my eyes so I can read my books. It's called GLASSES!"
THE NEWEST THING!
Now comes the onslaught of the "Live Lecture on the Internet." Everyone is jumping on this one!
Now you can watch your favorite magician give a lecture by staring into your computer screen. Some are actually even watching these live lectures on their Smartphones! We had to actually cancel a recent workshop where a lecturer was giving way $200 worth of free products at the workshop. We had to cancel due to "lack of interest." I guess they all figured they could see his lecture on the internet or will see it in the near future. All those who are doing these online lectures will soon see a drop in attendance when they lecture live. It could eventually destroy their ability to draw a crowd. They are no longer "special."
It's strange that magic is a personally interactive form of entertainment and yet everything is leading us to become "non social." We are being locked away in our rooms and interacting ONLY to a screen. Magicians are performing ONLY for the camera. YouTube is the perfect example of this. You can do a trick for a camera but have trouble performing the trick live for real people.
Performing for the single camera lens allows us to control our angles and not even have to patter as we present the trick. Just put some hip-hop music behind it and perform it silently. This way our magic can look great on YouTube but sucks in real life. Again, the trickery of marketing.
Along with the ability to sit at home and create DVDs or instant downloads comes the ability for "Those who cannot perform to sell magic to others who cannot perform."
THE "CUP STACKERS"
Do you remember the "cup stackers?" This was all the rage years ago on YouTube. Young people would record themselves stacking and unstacking plastic cups in a burst of speed.
I now call some of these YouTube magicians the "magic cup stackers." Their hands are moving a mile a minute flinging and flipping cards with the attitude of "Hey, look at me!"
We had a young magician come into the shop a week or so ago. He had never been here before and was totally lost as he looked around. He said he had been into magic for a few years now but the only thing he really liked was cards. One of the guys sitting at the table asked if he would do a card trick for him.
He said "sure." He then came over and said here's my pass, here's my false shuffle, here's my false cut, etc, etc. He actually did the "moves" fairly well BUT he could not actually do a "trick." He really didn't understand the difference. He really didn't grasp the fact that what he was showing were secret moves that are NOT supposed to be seen by an audience. There are supposed toe be the secret hidden techniques that create a magical effect. Again it was the "Hey, look at me" mentality created by the YouTube generation.
Some of the greatest card tricks ever are done without even touching the deck. Just take a look at "Stop" or "Lazy Man's Card Trick." Both of these effects can be found in Harry Lorayne's Close Up Card Magic book. This was Harry's first book and I still consider it to be the best one he ever wrote. Then again, that's an "old" book so the younger magicians ignore it for the most part.
SO IF THE TECHNOLOGY IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE, WHY IS IT AVAILABLE AND WHO DOES IT BENEFIT?
It only takes a simple, logical thought to figure this one out. Instant downloads, e-books, and streaming videos allow dealers to make money without having to invest in stock or keep anything on their shelves. It's the ideal profit making product. No investment and 100% profit. Naturally they are going to promote this as "the new and best way to learn magic." They are taking advantage of the constant desire to push buttons and get something instantly.
Today's society has become totally impatient. That's why TV ads are constantly jumping from one image to another. Our attention spans are so short and our patience is so limited, we can't even wait for three days to receive the next Holy Grail in magic. We have to have it NOW!
I remember one customer calling me years ago and asking for a tracking number for something that I sent to him. I told him, he would receive it by tomorrow. He still wanted the tracking number and he said "he likes to track it as it comes up his sidewalk."
Surely, there must be better things on which to spend his time.
ARE VIDEO DEMOS THE WAY TO BUY MAGIC?
Many times I send out a newsletter and if there is not a video demo of the effect, it becomes totally ignored. Please remember, that although a video demo may show you the effect, the "READING OF THE DESCRIPTION" is always the best way to decide. Also, you should buy depending on "author" rather than video demo. That's always the way I bought books. If I had two or three books by a certain author that I really liked, I would just buy whatever book he released. I never met an author who decided to write two good books, then two bad ones, then two more good ones, then three more bad ones, etc. It's the same with buying magic props or tricks. If a certain company is know for good quality magic, you should be pretty safe in buying from that company. I wrote an entire article in M-U-M a while back on "How to Buy Magic." It was mostly ignored because most magicians just go on the internet to find the cheapest one that they can buy. They usually end up with the "plastic cup" rather than the "Holy Grail."
One important thing to remember about video demos is this.......You are only going to see the video demo that looks good. If a certain effect is not reliable or practical in real life, you are NOT going to see the demos that didn't work. You are ONLY going to see the demo that made it look like a miracle. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid!
I'M A VISUAL LEARNER!
This is a phrase that many have picked up over the years and use very freely. They use it as if it is something special or different from everyone else. Remember, CAVEMEN were also visual learners. We are ALL visual learners. Of course we are visual learners but that doesn't mean that we should therefore ignore the written words.
I had one customer in my shop about a year ago and instead of saying "I'm a visual learner," he said "I'm too lazy to read a book." I couldn't argue with him there. At least he was honest.
Don't tell me you can't learn from a book. You can use all of the acronyms available to explain what sort of deficiency you have that presents you from reading a book.
Just remember, all of these deficiencies were in existence throughout history, they just didn't have an abbreviated term for it. Since it didn't have a term, humans learned to read in their own way. Some found it easy and others found it more difficult. Either way, they LEARNED TO READ and didn't have an excuse to fall back on.
There is really a lot more I can say about what is happening to magic today. It's really all part of our society for, as you know, that is also changing. People say they can't read, they can't do math, they know nothing about history, and the "dumbing down of society" is really a movement to keep the public uninformed. It shows up in all forms of businesses and hobbies. It is not getting any better.
If you go on my website (which no one seems to do anymore) you will see that I do not carry instant downloads or e-books nor do I participate in online lectures. My newsletters are rarely even read because no one has time to read lengthy emails. Even if they try, it's on their Smartphones where it is so small, it has become a chore to read. Many don't even have computers with large screens anymore. Technology.......it doesn't always make things better. But we become conditioned to it and hooked on it. We Facebook and Twitter to others so we can keep track of them and what they are doing when it really doesn't matter where they are or what they are doing. What are we accomplishing other than wasting time? Cellphones are here to stay for a while and we are now getting used to dropped calls and garbled words. We have come to accept it and have actually forgotten how clear a landline is.
Could I make easy money with no investment if I were to participate in this "scam?" Yes, I could. I just KNOW that it is NOT the way to learn magic. I may leave this earth with nothing but that's the way I came into it.
YOU HAVE A CHOICE
You are the consumer. If you continue to buy the unethical knock-offs or get caught up in this new electronic media thinking that you are really learning magic, then you are perpetuating the problem and it will continue to get worse. The worse it gets, the less you will actually learn and the less you will have in the future to show for it.. There are many virtual reality internet shops who are just waiting for you to "take that next sip of the Magic Kool-Aid." They want you to..."stay thirsty my friend."
ALL OF THE ABOVE IS ONLY MY PERSONAL OPINION. THIS IS NOT MEANT TO START A DEBATE SO PLEASE DON'T. I CAN ONLY OFFER WHAT I KNOW FROM MY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE. YOU ARE FREE TO DISAGREE. YOU WILL MAKE THE CHOICE.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO AS MANY MAGICIANS AS YOU CAN. ALTHOUGH I DON'T CARE TO SPEND TIME DEBATING, I DO WANT TO CREATE SOME TALK AND CONTROVERSY AND PERHAPS GET THE YOUNGER MAGICINAS TO START THINKING ALONG A BETTER PATH.
Stop drinking the magic kool aid - Denny Haney
I have to agree & also disagree with this! I have to agree, that we shouldn't buy "knock offs". I really don't have a problem, with someone making their own & using it. But, NOT BUYING IT!! But, any business must change & evolve with the times. Plain & simple!! If you don't, your business will die! If & when that happens, the problem is caused by the business & not the customer. If a customer wants to sit at home, buy & download, the greatest & latest, magical effect. Then, that's their prerogative & isn't wrong! "If you can't go the mountain, then bring the mountain, to yourself!".
CHANGE IS THE KEY!! - Kevin Kirtley
So I think a lot about playing cards. When I got into magic a little over 20 years go, in magic shops, I would see gaffed decks made up in bridge size with the Fox Lake design. You couldn't find the well made Bicycle decks with Svengali, Invisible Deck etc. I think people made their own. Times Change and magicians wanted the Bicycle Design that laymen are more comfortable with. Today, we have new funky card designs that the "kids" love and buy for over $15 a deck. I am occasionally guilty of this. I was even GIVEN a deck of opened Jerry's Nuggets by a well known close up guy. I used them for a day or so, and didn't care much for them and gave them to a kid at a convention. This was long before they went for their current price. When a new deck comes out, if I like the design, I buy a few just to collect. I can't imagine going into a paying job with some of these goofy designs. I use Richard Turner Bicycles, Tally Ho, and Aristocrats. My favorite being the Aristocrats because they handle so well, but laymen often think they look odd, even though they can examine the whole deck. And of course, they way to "impress" magic buddies at the club or convention is to whip out some odd deck from an old casino. Probably the way to really take them in is to ring in a gaff with this unusual back design. They wouldn't suspect it because they know that these days, gaffs are basically just made in Bicycle or maybe Phoenix. Of course, this is the EXACT opposite of what a layman would think.
- Dave Pepka
"And what sort of man at all does not believe in leprechauns?" The whole fun of magic is to stand in front of adults with the ridiculous claim that you have real magical powers. It is the preposterousness of it that gives it charm.
The "lie" is essential to magic because it masks the smart alec show-off trickster.
To say "It's magic!" is much more fun than to present with "I'm so clever, aren't I?"
It is this fantasy character in magic that has gone missing. Instead we get "sleight of hand experts." What is left is boring and charmless demonstrations of skill.
The magical fantasy character is a buffer for the spectator's ego. He stands between the spectator and the Trickster. Instead of "showing-off" the fantasy character points to the magic device, the magic words, or some other fantastic element. It deflects the challenge.
There is a big difference between trying to convince people magic is real, and claiming impossibilities as magic with a wink and a smile. All fantasy and literature is lying and playing and imagining.
"Hi, I'm your sleight of hand expert tonite. Would you like to thrill to my amazing skills?" just doesn't grab people. It is like saying, "How would you like to be a witness to my greatness?"
What is the gift that witnessing sleight of hand gives to the audience?
Magic is, at it's heart, playful sophistry. It is all about lying and pretending. It is play that invites the audience to fantasy and play. It is play acting for grownups.
- Pop Hadyn
