The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

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Magic Newswire
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The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Magic Newswire » September 24th, 2009, 3:36 pm

Yep.. Breaking the Magician's Code has been sold into three new markets including the UK, The Middle East & Norway. READ MORE

Mats Kjellstrom
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Mats Kjellstrom » September 25th, 2009, 3:17 am

In europe this show is VERY popular. In sweden over 45 % is watching NOW. Is magic dead?

Paulie
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Paulie » September 25th, 2009, 4:30 am

Mats, certainly not dead! Good news is that there is still a faint pulse. Bad news is that the convulsions are increasing in regularity. If you exhibit one of the following symptoms please contact your local FISM representative:

-Brief blackout followed by period of confusion.
-Drooling or frothing at the mouth.
-Eye movements.
-Grunting and snorting.
-Loss of bladder or bowel control.
-Sudden falling.
-Teeth clenching.
-Temporary halt in breathing.
-Uncontrollable muscle spasms with twitching and jerking limbs
-Unusual behavior like sudden anger, sudden laughter, or picking at one's clothing.

Paulie.

Ray Eden
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Ray Eden » September 25th, 2009, 4:51 am

The Masked Magician series didn't kill magic in the U.S. of A., and it won't kill magic in Europe either. However, it may force magicians to step up their game a bit.

I'm reminded of a quote I once heard from Jim Sisti (paraphrased): "Don't use a picture of a rabbit on your business card unless you a use a rabbit in your act. And if you do use a rabbit in your act... get a new act!" In some ways, I feel that the Masked Magician forced more than a few "magicians" to get rid of a few "rabbits". I'm not supporting exposure, but I do think that magic needs to continually progress. It may even be so that magic did step to a new level after those programs first aired. At the least, close-up magic - re-termed "street magic" came to the forefront of the magic scene.

The Masked Magician aired in Finland several years ago, and it is my opinion that the public moaning made by "magicians" about the programs caused more problems than the programs themselves. Chief among them, the moaning created even a stronger public interest in watching them because the "magicians" were pissed off about the "exposure". I remember one Finnish "magician" moaning that he now had to change his WHOLE ACT because of the series! Good grief!!!! If his statement was really true, than the Masked Magician did us a great service, indeed.

I'm still a firm believer that making magic does not lie in the method, but the artistry of the performer. Case in point... I know the method for the Linking Rings, but when I see a magical performer who is extremely adept with the rings, who offers a polished, choreographed handling of the rings, the method no longer matters. It's the artistry! In fact... knowing the method may even enhance my admiration of the handling!

Magic, today, mostly happens on the silver screen. It has always interested me that one of the most "exciting" parts about a DVD is the extras where the secrets of how the film was made are exposed: trick photography, CGI, etc. Yet we still lay our money down to see the next movie that used the same methods to create it. Why? Because method has nothing to do with it. Its the story, the action, the special effects or the final kiss that closes the film that we are paying to see. Magicians basically created the movie industry and modern magicians would do well to take note of what our predecessors created.

In Summary: No Mats, magic is not dead. It's alive! It's alive! It's alive! :-)

Note: I've used quotation marks around the word "magicians" throughout because most of the people I'm talking about only do a couple shows a year and do not make their living from magic. Professional magicians seem to know how to go along with the flow, make the necessary changes and keep the magic alive.

Tom Bennett
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Tom Bennett » September 25th, 2009, 5:38 am

If you don't use tricks everybody else does it's very unlikely that these will be exposed on TV.
Tom
Check out my magic blog www.escamoteur.de

David Alexander
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby David Alexander » September 25th, 2009, 9:01 am

I've always thought that the main damage Valentino/Masked Magician did was to cheapen magic by pushing the idea that if you have "the box" you are a magician...that magic is about the props and not the personality of the performer interacting with an audience to produce entertainment.

And about the idea that Valentino was "exposing magic to make magicians come up with new material," he exposed Docc Hilford's signed card on sword which is relatively new, only three years old. Then again, Valentino is a weasel, so why should we not expect him to be a liar as well as a jerk.

In the early part of the 20th Century a certain magic dealer provided information to the advertising agency that resulted in the infamous Camel Cigarette exposure in national advertising. Magicians were outraged and their outrage further provided publicity. Blackstone Sr put a blow up of the ad exposing the double-girl method of Sawing in the lobby of his theaters and presented the Buzz Saw illusion that mystified the audience as there was obviously no box and no second girl.

Someone was selling Joe Dunningers method for reading minds so Joe deliberately exposed his own method in Science and Technology magazine destroying sales of the manuscript. Joe continued to present his one-man method in vaudeville theaters as a headliner despite the exposure in a national magazine going on the greater success first on radio and later, television.

Childrens magic sets have contained Linking Rings and Cups and Balls for decades and yet, properly handled these effects remain both mysterious and entertaining to modern audiences.

Complaining to the press only adds fuel to the fire as there is nothing that can be done to stop it.

Paulie
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Paulie » September 25th, 2009, 9:06 am

Tom Bennett wrote:If you don't use tricks everybody else does it's very unlikely that these will be exposed on TV.
Tom


Hi Tom, with due respect I beg to differ.

We as 'knowledgeable' magicians can easily differentiate between the cookie cutter tricks and the more esoteric tricks and we appreciate them for that. I'm not sure that a layman has that level of acumen. (An extreme example, I've heard them say "Oh, Ive seen that one" and I had only removed a deck of cards fom my pocket! - the philistines).

It ceases to be magic once a person understands, or THINKS he understands the trick.

It does not matter to him if he is correct in his assumtions or not - he generalises and has a method, whether correct or incorrect he has succeeded. He BELIEVES it to be so and the MAGIC dies.

The connotations with Erdnase "Effects of suspicion" are obvious.

By forcing these exposes, en masse, down the collective layman's throat by the PASSIVE medium of TV, he will consciously and/or subconsciously assimilate various methods and principles whether he wants to or not.

If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, then extensive-but-incomplete knowledge is a constant torment.

Paulie.

Jonathan Townsend
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Jonathan Townsend » September 25th, 2009, 9:16 am

I wonder how much MP charges to do voice-overs - as a trick done with him narrating a false explanation ending with a "well at least that's what I saw from here" might be a killer "backstage" type bit.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

KirkG
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby KirkG » September 25th, 2009, 10:48 pm

Originally he just exposed old tricks and methods. Recent programs are exposing current items as well.

He does a disservice to magic by the tone of MP's voice overs. It makes it very smarmy and sleezy.

Most cup and ball routines, done "professionally" don't resemble the directions supplied with the Adam's Cups. So there is no real exposure there. A "real" magician routine looks very much more magical than those "plastic toys".

The MM shows current tricks with current presentations and I am surprised more hasn't been done to dissuade this practice.

David Alexander
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby David Alexander » September 26th, 2009, 9:26 am

Kirk wrote:The MM shows current tricks with current presentations and I am surprised more hasn't been done to dissuade this practice.


What do you suggest we do?

KirkG
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby KirkG » September 26th, 2009, 4:17 pm

Upon the advice of council, I must remain mute.

Jonathan Townsend
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Jonathan Townsend » September 26th, 2009, 6:59 pm

Kirk wrote:Upon the advice of council, I must remain mute.


IMHO the word is dumb. Not backtracking the means through which these exposures occur is...

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BlueEyed Videot
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby BlueEyed Videot » September 27th, 2009, 2:27 am

That the effects are exposed by some greedy production company doesn't really bother me much. What bothers me about the exposure is the contemptible way they go about doing it; they're disrespecting magicians and magic in general. To them, we're all just a bunch of sneaky, low-life b.a.s.t.a.r.d.s who are out to make a fast buck by cheating audiences--which is really what THEY'RE doing in their exposures.

What I wish is that the I.B.M./S.A.M. or perhaps Jim Steinmeyer or Max Maven or any of our most capable could put together a film to counter these cheap shots. Not a magic show, per se, but a documentary of how HARD it is to become a magician. Perhaps follow someone as they prepare for a competition. Show what all goes in to learning an act. Couldn't a story like this be entertaining and informative to boot?

Terrence
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Terrence » September 27th, 2009, 8:03 am

That's been done by Celebracadabra.

Jim Maloney
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Re: The Masked Magician Spreads like a Virus

Postby Jim Maloney » October 2nd, 2009, 2:28 pm

Jonathan Townsend wrote:I wonder how much MP charges to do voice-overs


In an amusing twist, he's currently appearing on Grey's Anatomy. Character's name? Larry Jennings.

-Jim
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