Tom Moore wrote:if we chose the most commonly used mantra of "its TV magic/camera trick if it can't be done live for a real audience" then several things we often call "camera tricks" aren't actually camera tricks.
That mantra/accusation enables too much leeway to sidestep the initial issue, which is the authenticity of the TV magic in the first place. Magicians like Angel and Yif can (sometimes) respond to that accusation by performing the trick live. However, as we can clearly see with the example of Yif's baguette trick, the two versions are not equal. The Happy Camp version is far inferior to the cafe video version. But even that is not the real issue. The cafe video used post-production CGI, period. It should be judged on it's own merit, not compared to some alternate version performed at a different place and time.
Whether or not Copperfield or Angel perform versions of the TV effects live is not the issue. The TV versions of those effects should stand on their own. After all, it was Yif's cafe video that was shown on the Ellen show, not the Happy Camp version.