And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

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Dustin Stinett
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And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Dustin Stinett » March 14th, 2010, 10:43 pm

The Academy of Magical Arts (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are:

Close-Up Magician of the Year

Jon Armstrong
Doc Eason
Andrew Goldenhersh
Paul Green
David Regal

Parlour Magician of the Year

Chris Capehart
Andrew Goldenhersh
Paul Green
Handsome Jack (John Lovick)
Rob Zabrecky

Stage Magician of the Year

Mike Caveney
Dana Daniels / Richard Allen
Pop Haydn
Jeff Hobson
Tina Lee (Mystina)

Lecturer of the Year

Jon Armstrong
Doc Eason
Paul Gertner
Losander
Fielding West

The Genii Forum wishes all the nominees good luck.

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 15th, 2010, 12:08 am

Well, almost all of them.
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Dustin Stinett » March 15th, 2010, 2:16 am

Well, I personally wish them all good luck, but many of them limited success. ;)

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Alan Bursky » March 15th, 2010, 6:06 am

I want names.

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby mai-ling » March 15th, 2010, 10:42 am

why are they usually the same people nominated every year?
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby John Lovick » March 15th, 2010, 12:25 pm

I know who Richard means.

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 15th, 2010, 1:28 pm

I wish you the best of luck, John.
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Mark W. Nelson » March 22nd, 2010, 6:45 pm

I've been tracking the Awards at the AMA for about 17 years now, mai-ling. A few years ago, the BOD tried to create a panel of experts known as the Blue Ribbon Committee to provide a field of about 25 magicians in each category instead of sending a nomination ballot to the entire magician membership. This created a wide and more qualified pool of candidates, it was felt, but still the same nominees kept appearing. After two years the Blue Ribbon Committee was disbanded, but by this time the Board decided to send nomination ballots to the entire membership, including Associate Members. The end result is the nominations are heavily weighted to local performers who regularly appear at the Magic Castle or have a presence there even when they are not performing.

This year we added a new element, by having all of the nominated performers' portraits and a link to their website on the Magic Castle website, so that members could sit down with their ballots and try to remember by face and routine who performed what, and where. Hopefully this encouraged more participation.

There are those who suggest a weighted nomination ballot might solve the familiar nominee problem, but I don't think that is the answer. The truth is, a magician seen regularly at the Magic Castle, sessioning with other members or just plain being visible, is more memorable to the members than the finest close-up artist from Japan, who appears for only seven days -- unless they move to L.A. and settle down.

If anyone has some suggestions, I'll be happy to suggest them to the Board of Trustees at our next meeting.
Last edited by Mark W. Nelson on March 22nd, 2010, 6:46 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason: correct spelling
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby MagicBilly » March 22nd, 2010, 11:55 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong Mark...

The intention of the Blue Ribbon Committee, of which I was a member, was designed to limit nominations, not voting, to a select few (25 or so) members who regularly visited the Castle and had seen the actual performance/lecture that year.

How reasonably could the entire membership, then magician and now includes associates, nominate Lecturer of the Year when only 50 or so magician members (the capacity of the Parlour) regularly saw the Sunday lectures. Further, given the number of non-resident members, how could a member honestly nominate a performer they had not seen perform that year, maybe in previous years but not during the nomination year under review.

It idea was great in concept and possibly poorly executed. IMHO, I believe the committee in part was eliminated as those members who were excluded weren't all too happy given the fact that historically they nominated performers regardless.

Just my .02 - more fodder to chew upon.
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Francesca Moffet » March 23rd, 2010, 3:08 pm

Best of luck to all the nominees.
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Brad Henderson » March 23rd, 2010, 4:01 pm

The notion of a nomination committee makes sense (though the choice of name implied an elitist elements which is both off putting and not necessarily accurate.) For a committee system to work, the members of that committee must make a commitment to see each of the acts which work the castle, otherwise we have the same problem that local/friendly acts will always come to mind more readily.

Are their 5 qualified Castle members who would be willing to attend EVERY thursday or friday night and see each of the acts?

What about installing a camera in each room that records the thursday or friday shows and those are then viewed by the committee? Of course, it won't be a great 'tape' but a smart committee should be able to judge a great performer from them.

the tapes should be made late in the week and the committee should view multiple shows. Even if it is a "bad audience" or there are odd, unexpected problems - that's part of being a performer. A smart committee would be able to evaluate a magician not only on "their act" but how they deal with these situations.

Thoughts?

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Terry » March 23rd, 2010, 5:18 pm

Brad Henderson wrote:Are their 5 qualified Castle


You mean there? Where is the Genii Editor when you need him?

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Brad Henderson » March 23rd, 2010, 5:47 pm

After a weekend of no sleep and great magic, I feel lucky to have even been able to have formulated a thought.

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby mai-ling » March 23rd, 2010, 7:16 pm

So basically from what I'm getting its not
a real Academy of Magic Awards its more
of an Academy of magicians who primarily
perform at the Magic Castle.

Nothing about contribution or performance
of magicians world wide.

That's why I see the same names over and over again.

That's not exciting to me at all now.
Nor a reason to watch a telecast of it either.
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby erdnasephile » March 23rd, 2010, 8:02 pm

Brad Henderson wrote:The notion of a nomination committee makes sense (though the choice of name implied an elitist elements which is both off putting and not necessarily accurate.) For a committee system to work, the members of that committee must make a commitment to see each of the acts which work the castle, otherwise we have the same problem that local/friendly acts will always come to mind more readily.

Are their 5 qualified Castle members who would be willing to attend EVERY thursday or friday night and see each of the acts?

What about installing a camera in each room that records the thursday or friday shows and those are then viewed by the committee? Of course, it won't be a great 'tape' but a smart committee should be able to judge a great performer from them.

the tapes should be made late in the week and the committee should view multiple shows. Even if it is a "bad audience" or there are odd, unexpected problems - that's part of being a performer. A smart committee would be able to evaluate a magician not only on "their act" but how they deal with these situations.

Thoughts?



I think this is a great idea.

To take this a step further--I decline to take part in the vote because I just don't think it's fair to vote if I haven't seen all of the nominees in question. (I'm not able to see everyone because of my location).

Therefore, I wonder if it might be possible to post on-line video of the nominated acts on the members only Castle site to potentially help achieve a more informed electorate.

(I seem to remember that at one time the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences used to provide it's voting members with copies of the movies nominated for Best Picture.)

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby MagicBilly » March 23rd, 2010, 8:29 pm

mai-ling,

IMO, you are essentially correct. The terminology is misleading as these are awards given by the Academy of Magical Arts for acts performed at the Magic Castle. It is kinda synonymous with baseball's World Series in that not all countries participate. There are though fellowship, lifetime awards and the like, but as these awards apply to acts performed at the Magic Castle, I suspect you get the point.

To try and answer followup posts, the idea of posting videos of each performers acts...well that horse has been beaten to death on the Castle Forums and discussed at length with the Board of Trustees. Essentially, most performers don't want to post their performance video, given that some magicians choose to steal acts and call them their own - see other Genii forum posts.

fwiw
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby mai-ling » March 23rd, 2010, 8:59 pm

is there a real academy of magic?
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Dustin Stinett » March 23rd, 2010, 9:26 pm

Mai-Ling,

Your question is something of a non sequitur. What is a real academy of magic?

The Academy exists, and is therefore real, because it does.

Not everyone in the film industry is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just as not every magician is a member of the Academy of Magical Arts. (How and why the Academy exists is not the point here, so lets refrain from that discussion.)

And MagicBilly is mistaken about the various Fellowships and other Board-determined awards (such as Magician of the Year). Neither having performed at the Castle nor being a member of the Academy are requisites for being named a recipient of one of those.

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Silly Walter » March 23rd, 2010, 9:37 pm

Brad Henderson wrote:After a weekend of no sleep and great magic, I feel lucky to have even been able to have formulated a thought.


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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Dustin Stinett » March 23rd, 2010, 10:16 pm

Look (not too far) and ye shall find a thread about Magic-Con elsewhere. This is not the place to start another.

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby erdnasephile » March 23rd, 2010, 10:30 pm

MagicBilly wrote:Essentially, most performers don't want to post their performance video, given that some magicians choose to steal acts and call them their own. . .


Sad, but I guess not surprising.

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby MagicBilly » March 23rd, 2010, 10:46 pm

Clearly my error in putting too many commas too close to all those periods.

Score another for Dustin. Those eligible for fellowships, Magician of the Year, et al don't necessarily perform during the nomination year.

b
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby mai-ling » March 23rd, 2010, 10:46 pm

I didn't write my statement well.

Is there a Academy much like the AMPAS or NARAS that doesn't
restrict people in magic to only perform at the magic
castle?
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby MagicBilly » March 23rd, 2010, 11:03 pm

Hi mai-ling,

The Academy of Magical Arts is the organization and the Magic Castle is their clubhouse. Anyone can become a member though magician members must pass the audition process.

One does not have to be a member to perform at the Castle. The awards in question are given out by the Academy to those who performed during the year and as Dustin points out those given by the Board of Trustees for Fellowship, Magician of the Year, etc..

I believe one reason many non-local or international magicians don't/haven't performed there is travel and lodging costs. I know Max was and now Jack is looking for ways to subsidize these costs - they've come a long way in implementing this and continue to find ways to get far-away magicians to perform or give talks at the Castle.
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby mai-ling » March 23rd, 2010, 11:25 pm

ok...i think i understand.

yeah i know that one of the reasons my parent's declined
an invitation to perform at the castle was the travel
expense. what was offered didn't cover it.
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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Brad Henderson » March 23rd, 2010, 11:29 pm

MagicBilly wrote:mai-ling,


To try and answer followup posts, the idea of posting videos of each performers acts...well that horse has been beaten to death on the Castle Forums and discussed at length with the Board of Trustees. Essentially, most performers don't want to post their performance video, given that some magicians choose to steal acts and call them their own - see other Genii forum posts.

fwiw


Videos should NOT be posted or distributed in any way. However, it is reasonable to suggest that if someone wishes to be considered for an award, they should allow their act to be videoed for the exclusive use of the nominating committee.

If they don't care about the award, it's no problem.

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Re: And the Academy (Magic Castle) Award Nominees Are...

Postby Mark W. Nelson » March 30th, 2010, 9:20 pm

Some great thoughts here which I will bring to the attention of the Board of Trustees (if they have not already read them here).

Dustin and Billy have it pretty much nailed. The Academy of Magical Arts presents its Fellowships to magicians who have contributed to the art of magic in various categories. We give our Lifetime Achievement Fellowship, Masters Fellowship, Performing Fellowships (for Stage and Close-Up), Creative Fellowship, Literary Fellowship and Special Fellowship, plus Magician of the Year, every year. Those awards are frequently given to magicians from other parts of the world.

The four awards voted on by the Members of the AMA are for performances in the Magic Castle showrooms that year, and except for the Lecturer, they are voted on by the entire membership. They are more like "People's Choice" awards, given at magic conventions.

Since the creation of the Board of Trustees about 5 years ago, we have taken the Awards very seriously, and debate goes on for about three months on the recipients every year.

We are always interested in suggestions for our Fellowship Awards, and I try to maintain an ongoing list of suggestions, so feel free to pitch in.

Best,
Best,



Mark


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