Real Secrets Becoming Real Dead Gone!

[fredreisz]

I assume other members of Real Secrets have received notice that our automatic renewals have been canceled and Real Secrets in shutting down BUT

there will be an announcement of a new project coming....so "secrets" continue.

Do you think the years were worth your money? I think it was fun. Good thinking. Many of the monthly items were rehashings in new clothes. At least the emperor had clothes. Most will end up in the back of some drawer but a few will endure in my working archive.

I have no major complaints except for the secret secrecy and lurking of leaders behind various curtains. Who walked the yellow brick road and pulled back the curtain? Perhaps now.

Let the selling on E-Bay and in Auction begin! ....Peace...Fred (Reisz)

[Richard Kaufman]

I received the same email.

I think the "new" thing is the already previewed "Everyday Wonders."

[PickaCard]

No... I am pretty sure there is another project that will be disclosed soon.

Did anyone receive the February release which was delayed? Still waiting for mine.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Any word on how their stuff is supposed to be built upon in our larger literature?

[Evan Shuster]

The February item did ship a week or so ago. I received mine in Seattle. I've enjoyed the last three years, and I'm curious about, interested in, and looking forward to the future endeavor.

[PickaCard]

I have very much enjoyed RS over the years. It is really fun to have two magic tricks, with casual props, delivered to your door every month. Some of the effects have been really amazing, others very interesting, and a few just not to my taste but still fun to play with.

I really hope their next project will follow the trick of the month formula with a prop delivered in the mail.

I love Genii in the mail every month, and the wonderful effects contained therein, but there is something unique about the kind of stuff you get from RS. (However, I will be letting my subscription lapse for Magic, and my physical copy of the Linking Ring... I just never get around to those.)

[AJM]

RS content was, in the main, tat.

[Richard Kaufman]

Please translate for us American speakers.

[Joe Mckay]

"Tat" is UK slang for rubbish.

[Ian Kendall]

There are a couple of new things in the works, that I discussed with the relevant people at Blackpool. One is not my thing, but the other looks like fun.

Cryptic enough?

[Bill Mullins]

Any word on how their stuff is supposed to be built upon in our larger literature?

They are secrets. You don't build on them.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Any word on how their stuff is supposed to be built upon in our larger literature?

They are secrets. You don't build on them.

Unfortunate for our literature. Guess they will go the way of Joe Ovette (sp) and his master move.

After the fact - it may as well be "the world wants be be deceived" with artifacts produced to suit fashion.

[PickaCard]

Real Secrets' new project was announced yesterday as The Institute of Applied Psience.

Digital product emailed as opposed to a physical one delivered to your door. It still looks interesting. I imagine there will be gimmicks that we can print ourselves.

I signed up.

[Gordon Meyer]

Hopefully not using Revizzit as they once attempted.

[Richard Kaufman]

I think if they're emailing you digital items, then it can't use a system like Revizzit.

[Ted M]

Real Secrets version 2 will be $10/month for... 2 tricks via email? Have they disclosed whether there's a gag order imposed on those?

(And how many of those are going to be further warmed-over variations of Shuffle-Bored and Miraskill?)

Just for comparison, what else does that money buy?

For less than $5/month I like getting a big, pretty magazine in the mail. Genii and MAGIC each deliver at least 2 tricks, plus a whole lot more. $10/month buys a subscription to both, plus $4 left over for a couple decks of cards:

Genii: http://geniimagazine.com/subscribe-now//
MAGIC: https://www.magicmagazine.com/x/subscribe

A $9.95/month subscription to Penguin's Tarbell: Every Trick In The Book buys two videos of Dan Harlan teaching a full chapter of tricks from The Tarbell Course In Magic with modernized presentations and updated handlings:

Tarbell: Every Trick In The Book: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/4709

What other periodically-delivered magic does $10/month buy?

[Smurf]

What other periodically-delivered magic does $10/month buy?

Reel Magic Magazine

[Bibliophage]

I received the same email. By my reading, these are templates for props which we can customize and print out, and if I'm not mistaken, I think the new project is 100% mentalism and mind reading. I have discussed this two other RS Members (am I kicked out now?) and they are particularly happy that they can make all the future props fit their specific (non U.S.) geographic locations.

I sent them an email before subscribing asking about Revizzit (I liked the Carney seminar using it) and they told me this will be a special kind of PDF publication that will work on Mac and PC's, can be read and stored on smartphones and tablets, and the props have the programming built-in to make it possible to change and customize many of the design elements while preserving the typefaces and other features of each layout.

I'm in.

[Brad Henderson]

ten dollars a month for ideas that people worked on developing and took the time to write up and format in a manner that allows us to use them - outrageous. These things should be no more than .88 cents and even then they should come with a free piece of candy.

If we let people get paid for the work they are willing to share it's only going to encourage them to keep charging us.

We need more people like Ted M taking a stand. If we don't push creators to sell their work at bottom of the barrel prices then how will we ever get access to the material that brings us joy and diversion?

more and cheaper please. more and cheaper.

that's what we need.

more and cheaper.

[Ted M]

Brad, feel free to send them $50/month for those tricks, since it sounds like you feel they deserve it.

Go ahead. I'll applaud you.

I'll support other creators.

PS: I hope you like Shuffle-Bored.

[Brad Henderson]

so Ted, which mind reading university did you get your degree in that allows you to know what they are offering so that you can comment beyond cost per unit?

so the issue isn't 'quality' of content, as per your previous post, but cost per unit - and any magician who thinks that we need to look at our education from a '$5 is too much to pay for a trick' paradigm clearly knows nothing, let alone the value of a good trick or What it means to 'support' a creator.

[Bibliophage]

Ted,

Was a subscriber from the start. Managed to see every extra, Revizzit bonus and all of the material that came in the envelopes. There were 36 items promised and well over 72 items delivered. One of those 36 items was a specially printed object that could slip into any standard deck of playing cards which allowed a novel presentation and fooling variant handling for the Aronson Shuffle Bored effect. A later bonus item offered an intelligent, fooling and practical way to do something powerful with Shuffle Bored which had never been possible before. That's two new versions of a modern classic out of 72 + items by my count.

What I got from my Membership was two finished, performable pieces of magic, every month, on or before the first of the month (What other magazine or publication besides the New York Times has had that kind of performance record?) and then an entire month to learn them and try them out. Months later they often shared new insights which made me go back and reexamine an earlier idea that I already thought I understood completely.

The lesson they taught me was that the REAL SECRETS of magic are not those which I do not know, they are things of which I was once aware but had learned to overlook.

[Ted M]

What I got from my Membership was two finished, performable pieces of magic, every month, on or before the first of the month (What other magazine or publication besides the New York Times has had that kind of performance record?) and then an entire month to learn them and try them out.

As written above:

- Genii
- MAGIC
- Penguin's Tarbell series

These each deliver much more than Real Secrets in terms of variety, quality, quantity, and raw material that can be discussed by the community and built upon by others.

Months later they often shared new insights which made me go back and reexamine an earlier idea that I already thought I understood completely.

I frequently enjoy this same experience of new insights and reexaminations thanks to discussions between magicians, in person or via online forums. It needn't issue only from a single, top-down, centralized source as in the Real Secrets gag-order model.

I found the Real Secrets tricks to be:

- Far overhyped (originally advertised as "never-before-seen miracles!");
- Underwhelming in impact -- generally "er, that's interesting" on the wow scale;
- Disappointing in variety -- they're mostly counting tricks;
- Carelessly written;
- Negligently credited;
- Plagued by errors and misspellings on the physical props.

[PickaCard]

As contradicting as it seems, I agree for the most part with the two previous posts.

Still liked RS overall.

[Travis]

I never joined 'Real Secrets', though I have performed the sales receipt effect and the 'City Walk' trick that were included in a past issue of 'Genii'. The 2nd was for my girlfriend, and she loved it. Very fun real-world thing to do for someone. I'd even arranged to do it long-distance, via an instructional video I made to explain and even have her and a friend perform the Curry Swindle Switch on themselves.

Now, where is one to find this new venture? A Google search of the new name given in a previous post revealed nothing.

[Richard Kaufman]

Travis, I think the offer for the new venture was only mailed to existing Real Secrets subscribers.

I know that they are reading this thread, so perhaps they'll post the offer for the new venture here.

[Travis]

Thanks, Richard!

And how do I learn now (having not subscribed previously) of these wonderful variants of Shuffle-Bored noted above by Bibliophage?
Anyone? Anyone?

[Jonathan Townsend]

Bill pointed out the RS material is one-way from them to you - rather than designed to build up material over time as is the way in our journals and books.

Without even a clearing/vetting process it just seemed too much risk (keeping other people's secrets) with too little return (still way too much fuss to get custom props printed) in developing my own work to be a match for my interests. What if six months later I get an idea for how to use the props and a year later want to share that with the community? Just frustration for me.

Happy for any and all who enjoy the process as offered. Have fun. Still fussing over how to make something that passes as a business card yet handles properly here...

[Bill Marquardt]

I would suggest that anyone interested in RS look into the agreement posted on their web site. Among other things, members must agree to NEVER reveal anything about the items they receive, including even the number of items. Yes, the terms specifically say members cannot do this after membership is terminated. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on your point of view.

There are posts within this thread which violate the terms of the agreement.

[erdnasephile]

And how do I learn now (having not subscribed previously) of these wonderful variants of Shuffle-Bored noted above by Bibliophage?
Anyone? Anyone?

Keep your eye on ebay--I'm fairly certain that RS material will begin to show up soon.

[Bill Mullins]

And how do I learn now (having not subscribed previously) of these wonderful variants of Shuffle-Bored noted above by Bibliophage?
Anyone? Anyone?

http://www.realsecrets.org/contact

[Richard Kaufman]

They've posted the new project here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46196

[Ted M]

I would suggest that anyone interested in RS look into the agreement posted on their web site. Among other things, members must agree to NEVER reveal anything about the items they receive, including even the number of items. Yes, the terms specifically say members cannot do this after membership is terminated. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on your point of view.

There are posts within this thread which violate the terms of the agreement.

People agreed to different terms depending on when they joined, as Real Secrets silently changed that text a lot over the last three years. Here are the archived Terms to which the original members agreed:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120228052 ... ership-usa

In all cases, the sole penalty for a member violating the Terms was for Real Secrets to discontinue their membership. Real Secrets has now discontinued everyone's membership, whether they violated terms or not.

They have completed their obligation to you, and you have completed your obligation to them.

[Brad Henderson]

what a small minded, mercenary approach you have to our art, Ted.

[Bill Marquardt]

People agreed to different terms depending on when they joined, as Real Secrets silently changed that text a lot over the last three years.

I am aware of this, perhaps even more than most. I was kicked out almost three years ago for not complying with a rule that was not posted until weeks after I joined. According to the rules posted now, former members cannot discuss the items or even the number of items they received. They can only voice opinions about the service and quality. Agreeing to those terms was a requisite for membership, and could be considered a contract, although I cannot speak to the legality of the terms or conditions.

On the one hand, I respect their attempt to maintain real secrets (in the literal sense,) but I had problems with the way they handled their business and their refusal to admit a mistake.

I believe the quality of what they delivered was worth the small price, but if I had only a $180.00 dollars to spend on magic, I would opt for a decent set of books or a couple of quality props instead of a subscription to RS. Just my opinion, and I was actually privy to the first few issues because of an error on their part.

Good luck to them, but I will not be a part of anything they produce.

[PickaCard]

Just received their last issue.

Wow!