Shocking experience !!!

[Guest]

BAD THINGS!

This cristmas weekend in sweden a big TV channel showed a program in prime time called "Street Magic Revelead" made by FOX TV, 1999.

This was a horrible experience, they explained many great effect.
How can american magicians aloud this kind of exposure?

Some of the effects revealed;

Arm Twisting Illusion (I will never do this effect again)
Cigarett trough coin (I will never do this effect again)
Nail writer Gimmick (I will never do this effect again)
Floating Body effect
3 Card Monte Effect (I will never do this effect again)

plus many more great effects...

This TV program was one hour too long!
Whats the point with this kind of exposures? Money?
What can we do against this kind of programs?

[Guest]

The point was ratings...and yes, to make money.

However, it's not the end of the world as we know it. Case in point...the show originally aired in 1999 and today, we still have magicians in this country plying their craft.

What can we do about these programs? Nothing...if you raise a ruckus, you're giving the program more of a platform than it deserves.

Yes, it's disappointing; no, it's not a catastrophe.

Cheers,
Steve

[Brian Marks]

I said it then and Ill say it now. Nobody remembers the show if they saw it. Most people didn't buy the tape becaue they didn't see the show to begin with.

They exposed a double lift. I haven't stopped using it. I did the arm twisting trick at a show the next day after the tv show aired. I havent met a layperson who knows what a nail writer is yet. There is one way to stop anyone who has seen the show, do the tricks better than the tv show. If I remeber correctly the guy was pretty bad.

[Richard Kaufman]

The amount of exposure going on today pales in comparison to the early part of the 20th century when many acts not only performed back-palming, but then proceeded to expose it as well. There were often exposures in newspapers and magazines. It was very common.
What is unique about exposure today is the number of people who witness a TV broadcast: many millions more than ever saw an exposure in a theater or read something in a newspaper or magazine.
Even so, after a little time passes, it doesn't seem to leave much knowledge in people's noggins. They're not really interested, so they forget.

[Guest]

Let's face it...every layperson knows about card palming, dealing the second card from the top...or the bottom of the deck, they even know about those cards that has one end which is more narrow than the other end. They even know about throwing things in your sleeve...but ya know what? They never know when you are doing it!!! Don't let a little exposure ruin your day!

Mike

[sleightly]

They either don't know it or are too polite to point out the fact...

Actually, I believe it has more to do with the immediacy of the performance. The more involved the audience are with the performance experience (intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and others), the less focused they will be on trying to dope it out...

Later, when their perceptions are not being manipulated, they may try to apply what they know to what you did, but by then is should be too late!

As to exposure as per Richard's thoughts, most performers of the day (particularly manipulators, see Selbit) considered this education. The more people understood the technique, the more they would appreciate the aesthetics of the performance and marvel at the performer's great skill... (see page 53 publicity piece in Servais Le Roy--Monarch of Mystery by Mike Caveney)...

Andrew

[Guest]

I don't get too worked up over exposure. Lay people in general don't really care and those that do bother to watch these kind of shows will most likely either

a. forget what happened because methods mean nothing to someone that has no real experience performing magic.

b. take up magic and learn the methods anyway.

Granted I only perform close up magic so this philosophy may differ for those that perform more elaborate illusions.

[Brian Marks]

Originally posted by Mike Gallo:
Let's face it...every layperson knows about card palming, dealing the second card from the top...or the bottom of the deck, they even know about those cards that has one end which is more narrow than the other end. They even know about throwing things in your sleeve...but ya know what? They never know when you are doing it!!! Don't let a little exposure ruin your day!

Mike

Several times I had a deck taken from to check if I was using a stripper deck. I have people, mostly women(thankfully), feel my sleeves up. Several times people bring up the expoure shows but never remembered anything specific or could relate it to what I showed them.

[Pete McCabe]

When Robert Shapiro, one of O.J. Simpson's "dream team" lawyers, was talking about the trial, he said something like this:

"Not only did we play the race card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck."

No one asked him what it meant. Tricky deals and palming are all firmly lodged in our society's collective unconscious. These and other "exposed" techniques will stay in the unconscious unless you do something to bring them up to the surface.

Still I sometimes think that there's a little extra impact from tricks that can not be explained by commonly known sleights -- for example, the card to ring box. The ability to secretly fold card is of no relevance to a card cheat, and hence completely outside the layman's reality.

[David Alexander]

A long time ago when Dunninger was getting extremely good money in vaudeville, an enterprising individual was selling his act. The story goes that he'd taken a stenographer into the theater to take down Joe's patter.

Dunninger wasn't happy, but he knew how to stop it. He conspired with the editors of Science and Mechanics to expose his act...without his name attached, of course.

Well, the sales of Dunninger's act dried up because of the "exposure" and Joe continued to perform it. When questioned about it, he supposedly asked the questioner what he thought of the article in the same issue about the five-tube super hetrodyne radio circuit?

The answer was that the guy hadn't read the article because he wasn't interested in the subject.

Precisely my point, answered Dunninger.

[mrgoat]

Originally posted by Kjellstrom:
BAD THINGS!

This cristmas weekend in sweden a big TV channel showed a program in prime time called "Street Magic Revelead" made by FOX TV, 1999.

This was a horrible experience...
Some of the effects revealed;

Arm Twisting Illusion (I will never do this effect again)
Cigarett trough coin (I will never do this effect again)
Nail writer Gimmick (I will never do this effect again)
Floating Body effect
3 Card Monte Effect (I will never do this effect again)

Whats the point with this kind of exposures? Money?
What can we do against this kind of programs?

The programme is 4 years old. Magicians all over the world still perform all the tricks that were exposed.

This proves, beyond any shadow of a doubt imho, that such Fox 'exposure' shows do not harm us in any real way at all.

[Dale Shrimpton]

As other have said,this is an old programe.
If you take a look at the programe, ask your self this. How many of the methods shown are exactly as you perform the effects?
and then ask yourself wether you use exactly the same presentation as the masked one.
if the answer to question one is all, thats not a problem, However my second question is the important one, because the layman will only connect a live magical effect to that on television if you perform it in the same,Slipshod manner he did.
So, dont change what you do. If your that worried, just change the way you do it!.
Regards..
Dale

[Dale Shrimpton]

This proves, beyond any shadow of a doubt imho, that such Fox 'exposure' shows do not harm us in any real way at all.

No Harm at all, as most Dealers would agree.
How many cig thru coins or, Ravens do you suppose that programe persuaded people to buy?

[Guest]

Originally posted by Mike Gallo:
Let's face it...every layperson knows about card palming, dealing the second card from the top...or the bottom of the deck,
Mike

Gambling Expose' makes me agree with the plaming and base-dealing statements, but not second dealing. Either way, point taken.

And they don't know what to look for on any of them.

-Garrett