The Genii Forum

Dear all,

The third Unreal Work is online.

This episode discusses the public's perception of magic and magicians.

You can find the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li8cZpa3588

Best,

P

"Magic is a strong enough art to support a weak performer". Michael Webber.

What a line. Have always been looking for such a succinct way to say this.

Great work Paul.

Paul,

Interesting as it is - and it is, I would much rather see interviews with the public about their perception of magicians.

Recently I took two friends to see a well known magician do a show, which was basically card magic. There were a lot of magicians in the audience who were wildly enthusiastic ( including me). Afterwards, my friends and I went for a drink and I asked them their thoughts on the show. They wondered why he only did card tricks and found the performance slow and repetitive.

When Ken Brooke still worked for Harry Stanley, Slydini (and possibly Vernon) were in London. Stanley got some magicians, including Ken and Slydini to work at a high end celebrity party. Later in the evening Ken was talking to the actor Bryan Forbes and asked what he thought of Slydini. "Which one is Slydini?", asked Forbes. Ken pointed him out. "Oh, the funny foreign guy who kept dropping things on his knee."

Walt Lees told me of judging a magic competition with a lay judge. One competitor did an excellent presentation of the rope trick Fiber Optics. Another magician did an OK version of the Victor rope trick. The magic judges voted for the Fiber Optics magician but the lay judge objected saying that he had only pretended to cut the rope but the other magician really had cut it with a scissors.

"All magic is 'Here's a quarter, now it's gone. You're a jerk. Now it's back. You're an idiot. Show's over'."
--Jerry Seinfeld

"'Do you like card tricks?'
'No, I hate card tricks,' I answered.
'Well, I'll just show you this one.'
He showed me three."
--W. Somerset Maugham

Here's an answer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11TzXCWnUao

IrishMagicNews wrote:"Magic is a strong enough art to support a weak performer". Michael Weber.
What a line. Have always been looking for such a succinct way to say this.

It's a great quote! I first read it here in this review by Ricky Jay about a not-to-be-named-book: "But magic is a powerful art that can support a weak performer."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 7644.html#
Since they work together, they might have shared this thought previously.

Jay got it from Weber

The video has been Boing Boing-ed:

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/29/how-th ... magic.html

The comments make for an interesting read...