Buying magic now, vs. then.
Posted: March 2nd, 2017, 7:01 pm
I ran across this older post (2005) by Eugene Burger http://www.magicbeard.com/presentations-essays/the-sad-death-of-the-magic-shop.php and it raised both nostalgia and a question in my mind.
The link above discusses how magic was sold, and more importantly, how magic training was transferred, in the 1950's. That was a bit before my time having been born in the early 60's. I was more of a late 60's/early 70's magic kid, but I still got to experience a variety of magic stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in Seattle, 'back in the day'.
What strikes me, as I now look around the Intertubes for the online equivalents of magic stores, is how nowadays there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of DVD 'tricks'. It's sort of like buying a magic book one page at a time. At the same time it makes seeing non-DVD 'tricks' extremely difficult.
Along with this it seems that the vendors of quality props/tricks are more and more delivering directly, from their websites, when you can find them.
And finally it seems like printed books, properly edited and illustrated, seem to be less popular. Somewhat interesting since such books are typically from a single magician with a plethora of material, rather than an anthology from different magicians. Have magicians of this type decreased, or are they just vending their materials differently?
My question, then, has the quality magic described by Burger in his essay above gone, or has it just gone underground?
The link above discusses how magic was sold, and more importantly, how magic training was transferred, in the 1950's. That was a bit before my time having been born in the early 60's. I was more of a late 60's/early 70's magic kid, but I still got to experience a variety of magic stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in Seattle, 'back in the day'.
What strikes me, as I now look around the Intertubes for the online equivalents of magic stores, is how nowadays there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of DVD 'tricks'. It's sort of like buying a magic book one page at a time. At the same time it makes seeing non-DVD 'tricks' extremely difficult.
Along with this it seems that the vendors of quality props/tricks are more and more delivering directly, from their websites, when you can find them.
And finally it seems like printed books, properly edited and illustrated, seem to be less popular. Somewhat interesting since such books are typically from a single magician with a plethora of material, rather than an anthology from different magicians. Have magicians of this type decreased, or are they just vending their materials differently?
My question, then, has the quality magic described by Burger in his essay above gone, or has it just gone underground?