magic cafe indicts magic magazines

[Robert McDaniel]

I think there are two sides to this story. Perhaps both parties need to get a life.

Robert

[Todd Lassen]

"Todd, for the record I found the cafe's censorship of your posts (and of posts wishing to discuss your products) to be wrong."

Brad, you censored the fact that I (and my knocked off product) even existed in your review. Stating that the issue was raised by Kranzo at the time, furthers the evidence.

With you being the reviewer, that I guess got a free 3CM from Schooltool....if you had heard the product was a ripoff, wouldn't it be up to you to investigate? (Or you heard I wasn't giving away free product for reviews? Ha.) Anyway, it certainly wasn't Kranzo's responsibility to present any evidence to you for anything. As a reveiwer, the ball would be in your court to follow up on this. And guess what? No one from Magic magazine asked me anything about anything and you were full on board with all the censorship of Lassen with the rest of them.

I went to Stan after the fact. We have a mutual friend. Stan told me that he would check it out and get back to me. He never did. Imagine that. Never heard from him. So I called him again months later. His reply at that time was that he had spoken to those involved and had decided to leave things as they had been presented.

So ended me ever spending a dime on a Magic magazine.

[Jamie D. Grant]

As the reviewer on the Cafe, I have to say that I have never had a problem. That said, I've also taken the easy way out; I never write a negative word. If something's no good, I simply don't review it. It seems to have served me well:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view ... um=175&104

My 2 cents.

Also, in an effort to encourage disussion on reviews, I started the following thread here:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view ... orum=109&6

Before I go, let me say that I enjoy the Genii Forums as well! (Always end on a positive note...)

[Brad Henderson]

Todd, if you have evidence contrary to the lineage of ideas as presented in the review, please feel free to post it in the appropriate forum - or you can post my picture on your blog again and call me names.

Best,

Brad

[Henley]

...the cafe having a section for gospel magicians called "The Good News", and they didn't have a section for atheists called "The Real News".

I love that.

[Todd Lassen]

I'm sure you've heard the story a dozen times Henderson. Yet you continue to pretend to know nothing, even though you state that Kranzo expressed concerns at the time of the review.

The same canned response from you each time. Of course there is all the evidence in the world contrary to lineage of impugnity indictments blah blah.

The evidence is...Schooltool never even knew what the gaff was. When Troy Hooser lectured on Triple Threat for the very first time at the Magic Castle, Schooltool asked to examine the gaff and Troy allowed him. Not 2 days later, an email was forwarded to me with Schooltool stating that he now was making "Triple Threat" with permission from Paul Wilson. He even called it "Triple Threat". He stated he was busy making 12 of them and would bring them to a convention in Vegas in the immediate future. Crappy as they were, he managed to sell alot of these because of his aggressive advertising in the magic magazines and biased bogus reviews by Brad Henderson combined with censorship of all Lassen stuff on Magic Cafe and elsewhere.

Eventually many of the guys who origianlly bought 3CM would come to me to buy the better gaff, saying they wished they would have known about it BEFORE they bought 3CM. That is partially thanks to you Brad. And it cost both Troy and I alot of sales. We had just released Triple Threat only weeks before Schooltool and Dill knocked it off and began rampantly advertising.

I should mention Troy and I wanted to credit Paul Wilson for the "concept" of magnetizing the 3 coin nests that I was already making, and we called Paul for his blessing before it was released. I played with different designs for years before it was ever made public. All those designs were solely mine.

After the release of the knockoff, I spoke to Paul on the phone one day, and he told me that Dean Dill was pressuring him for his permission to make the gaff and I guess Paul told him that anyone could make it. Obviously they had read the credits in the Triple Threat notes and then said, well hell, we know Paul, we'll call him and ask HIM if we can make the Triple Threats.

If you think that is right, you are a dink. And pretending to not know anything about my original gaff or mention in your review is rotten and false.

[Brad Henderson]

Todd,

As every exchange with you following any interaction has been met with name calling, raving, being sent pictures of myself in emails from you and immediately following that occasion an email bomb on my account, you can understand my reluctance in ever contacting you personally. Why should I jeopardize my personal well being knowing what I will inevitably face?.

Further, given the ranting and name calling, I hope you can see how to some that may portray you in the light of a less than credible source. It's unfortunate, but the way we choose to express ourselves impacts the perceived validity of those expressions.

Hence my decision to look into the facts of the matter independant of your counsel.


Nevertheless, I stand by the lineage as presented in the review. To clarify your post, however you should know that Kranzo approached me after the review was printed. No mention of 'pressure' from any party was ever communicated. When I spoke with wilson there was, likewise, no mention of pressure. Perhaps you can ask him to come here and cooborate your statement?

I appreciate you taking the time to offer your take on the matter. As you have never offered any contrary evidence to the lineage of ideas as reported, it seems that you are really upset that I did not mention that you also made the gimmick. That was a decision I made, not for political reasons - but pragmatic ones. As I could not compare your product to his, and as I was offering a positive review of his, I did not want mention of your product to suggest that yours was inferior - which I could not or would not do. (You can ask Kranzo about this as I sent this line of reasoning to him in an email at that time.)I decided that while I felt it ok to reference a better product not submitted for review in a review of a lesser, it would be unfair to reference a worse one not submitted in the review of a better. I do not think your product is worse. I have not seen it. My concern was that it might be implied and thought that would be unfair. Had I know all you wanted was a mention that you also made the gimmick, I would have included it. If I ask Stan to allow me to make a correction letting people know that you also make a magnetic triple nesting shell, will that quash this?

As to the lineage, you had your chance to offer a different history of that years ago. You didn't. That was your choice. I am sorry that window of opportunity closed.

Brad

[Richard Kaufman]

I think we're done with this now that both sides have had their say.