Hi,

I am Ugesh Sarcar, India's first and ultimate street magician and I have a street magic show for over 4 years on a national television. Enough about me...

I was approached today by a national channel to host a show that will reveal the secrets behind the tricks that magicians do... They want me as I am a celebrity... I bluntly refused them and told them that it is not ethical to do something like this... I am an established name and revealing secrets would not affect me but I would not want to be responsible for screwing up the struggling and upcoming magicians in the country.

My question is, is there a way to sue the channel if they would do something like this? This in not in an individual interest but to protect the community of magicians...

Thank you in advance for all the inputs...

Warm regards,

Ugesh Sarcar

I applaud your integrity and your decision to turn them down; however, unless the laws in India are very different from those here in the US I'm afraid you have no legal way to stop them from finding someone who will be willing to sell his soul for the money. Efforts to stop Herb Becker from selling his book of secrets or stop Valentino, the Masked Magician, from exposing methods on TV were unsuccessful. The good news is that Herb Becker didn't sell many copies of his book and Valetino's TV exposes were quickly gone and largely forgotten -- except by irate magicians who keep bringing them up.

Hi Dick,

Thank you for the insight... Incidentally, in India Valentino's TV series is not yet forgotten... "AXN", the channel, keeps repeating the season over and over again every time my new special goes on air... The funny thing is that I don't even do the tricks from the series and if do, then I give it a twist to further psyche the hawk eyed spectator who thinks he know how it is done... as magicians we have several methods to one trick ;-)

The thing is that they just want quick bucks and TRPs for their channel... Not understanding that they are ruining the lives of thousands of performers and their lives... Not everyone here in India is smart enough to change their list of designated tricks on the fly... Plus, due to lack of formal training in this art and with very little understanding on the psychology of the art it is literally impossible for them to do something creative...

This by far has been one of the contributing factors for India to duplicate and produce extremely low quality products without giving any credit to the inventor. I am working hard on this front to bring India's name back into the international market for good reasons...

Sorry, went off topic...

Coming back to the show... How would you or anyone from a legal background suggest I go about trying to find out if there is a law that can be helpful to the community of magicians... Or should we create one (being pretty influential in the country and with our past records, this could be a possibility ;-))

Thanks again...

Hi Everyone,

This is just to let you know that I have already initiated a movement in India to resolve the above issue and others...

Please go to my facebook profile to get more info. http://www.facebook.com/ugesh

All suggestions are welcome...

Thanks,

U S

Ugesh, welcome to the Café and thanks for taking a stand.

It seems as though magicians are not getting the legal protection that say musicians get because we are largely the ones turning on ourselves.

Perhaps the answer is to have each effect that is sold come with a contract perhibiting sharing the sercrets. However, if someone comes up with a solution to an effect on his on I doubt anything can be done about that.

There is nothing legally you can do to stop someone from revealing secrets, plain and simple. They are in their legal rights to do it. We don't like it, but that's the way the law is.

Selling a trick with a contract prohibiting the buyer from sharing the trick also cannot be legally binding. I've heard of one dealer lying about obtaining trade secret protection and PA copyrights for a trick and routine he was selling. I challenged him on it, and I was almost banned for exposing the truth. I've looked into this extensively, and researched it with my (inlaw) cousin who is a lawyer.

Don't worry too much about the exposure. I'd be conserned for the dealers who are cleverly sitting around and coming up with deceitful ways to take your money away from you. To me, that's more damaging than any t.v. magic exposure, and does a lot more harm to our art.

Most of the stuff being sold isn't original anyways. Most tricks today are routines using known methods. You don't actually buy the secret, you buy the routine. You could have the routine choegraphed, but all someone would have to do is change the routine a little bit. You can have the script copyrighted, but all someone has to do is change the script a little bit.

Some of the best advice I've heard about exposure is to not be consumed with it. If you are a working professional, then the only thing that matters is staying fresh and entertaining your audience. Most people that I talk with don't feel threatned by exposure. They are working professionals.

Lets finger out the greedy, deceitful business mean and practices within our own industry.

@Wes65- I agree with you... I am working on a solution to bring as many magicians as possible and try and share some ethics and respect for the art... It's a far-fetched dream and I don't know if this will ever be a reality in my life time but never the less, I am initiating one... We never know the outcome of this movement.

@Gospel Dan- This is very insightful. I am trying to cut down and banish dealers/manufacturers who in India would buy a magical apparatus that might be worth say $100 and duplicate it with the cheapest quality of materials and sell it for as less as $1 or 50 cents. This is ridiculous and in the bargain there is no credit given to the creator. I understand that we all make mistakes in our lives and are contributing to this in some manner directly or indirectly but the point is if we make a conscious effort in not buying from these by spreading the message, we might not be able to completely stop them but run them out of business due to lack of sales...

All I am trying to do is to take advantage of my popularity and contribute it to the society... I am also doing something revolutionary in the field of education and it can be googled.

I am overwhelmed with the response I have generated here, even non-magicians are willing to volunteer for the cause... Hats off to all who care!!!

From your words it sounds like you are very respectful of the art of magic. I believe that I too respect the art of magic. I think we can also agree that not all exposure is bad exposure. I too have morals and ethics that specifically pertain to the art of magic. I hold true to them because I believe in them whole heartedly. We may not all share the exact ethics or morals, but I would believe that most, if not all of us are ethical and moral from our own standards.

When is it right for someone to reveal secrets? And, Who has a right to reveal secrets?

Or,

What kind of exposure builds up the art of magic, and what kind of exposure tears down the art of magic?

Who does not have a right to reveal secrets. Who is on first base. When is in the outfield (Left field, I think) and I Don't Know is playing third.

*jeep! and God Bless!
--Grandpa

Why does this thread sound so similar to this one: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......orum=177

I thought that this had been resolved by now....or is there an outbreak of deceit going on in India...

Mmmm.... I don't see any similarity between the thread posted, unless, you would want me to stop this discussion.

There is no outbreak of any deceit in India...........................................

Two different persons, with the same problem?

One clears it up the other continues?

Any reason why one shouldn't wonder about all of this?

Ugesh, yes he has the right to reveal, period!

The fact of the matter is that by far most of the money made in magic is made be selling secrets, hopefully ones own. However this still puts it out there.

I would dispute your "fact" and am surprised you didn't start the sentence with "actually".