Okay, more rumor's floating around concerning Fox airing some exposure shows, and this time exposing Copperfield.



What have any of you heard regarding this?

I've just heard that something from Fox was in the works about this. But I'm still waiting to hear anything that is fact about this Steve.

Whether this is true or not, the following bears repeating; I posted it in the Banquet Room but perhaps it deserves a wider readership here:



"Maybe all the magic message boards and digests could just reprint all the screaming and yowling from the last time.

"Think of the time that would save:

"Those complaining wouldn’t have to write again.

"And the rest of us wouldn’t have to read the same old tired rehash over and over.

"C’mon, folks; you can’t have it both ways: TV is for making money and as long as this stuff draws an audience, it will be on the air.

"So Val exposes some tricks. Big deal. So did Vernon, so did Houdini, so did Blackstone, so did Mullica, so did Mac King.

"And the last two were on television, so don’t try the tired defence that those who got the secrets had to put out some effort (i.e., buy a video, read a book, go to a magic shop, etc.).

"If you don’t want to see this, then don’t watch.

"If you want to stop others from seeing it, well, that’s a violation of the First Amendment.

"It’s that simple."

cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com

Point of Order:



In fencing, as in many martial arts (Dorian?), we are taught to receive the energy of an attack and use it to our advantage. Use it in our response.



So it should be in this (probable) case.



Turn the opportunity to your advantage. Take the opportunity to put real, strong magic in front of the general public. One solid, very magical trick which ties in and dispells the show.



In fact, I don’t care what they do!! I’m going to market a response trick just to magicians so they can be ready. Hey FOX



Let them do my advertising. Let them create my market. I’ve got them right where I want them. "I keep my friends close...and my enemies closer."



_________________

Tom Cutts

Publisher, AM/PM...About Magic, Performing Magic



PS Steve, if you are basing your DC rumor on what I said, keep in mind what I said is pure assumption on my part. But I wouldn’t bet against it. The rest is more substantiated but the DC part just assumption.

Well said, Tom; couldn't agree more!

cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com

Tom,

Was that from Sun Tzu's Art of War?



Great thoughts



Steve

very good advice Tom

Steve,



That is from Fencing Master Arthur Lane. It is likely he read "Art of War" though he did not credit it. His statement was in direct referrence to blade work. I generalized it here.



Tom

Regarding Tom’s comments about taking advantage of the situation created by exposure shows. I have yet to do so,

but at one point after one of the exposure shows, where they talked about mirrors,

I had an idea for my platform stage act.



I thought about making up some sort of box that had mirrors very visible on the outside, while using some other principle inside... like a drawer box, tip over, sliding bottom or whatever.

Then I could make a comment about that TV show that talked about magicians and mirors, so I brought in my ’mirror box’.

I would show this gawdy, reflective box...

then fool them in a different way that clearly had nothing to do with mirrors.



I have not developed this but think it has some potential to downplay, for my audiences, any impact from these shows.

I am one of those, who performs a fair amount, and of the material I perform I do not believe I have ever had anyone figure something out because of the exposure shows.



Now if you did an apparatus effect exactly like the way it was done on a very recent show... like the rings... that could be a problem. But even then I like the direct approach... where you state that the masked magician gave away an old kids magic set trick with the rings, where the one had a hole in it. Well, let me tell you, that is not how a real magician does it... "a real magician lets the people see every ring." Then proceed to fool them.



I typically use that type of approach with the "cut deeper" force. It is a force, and may a bit peculiar to have a couple cuts.

I solve that by stating that, to make absolutely certain that I have not arranged anything with anybody, I will have a card "randomly" selected with the help of "two" different people. So even though it is a force, you are justifying it in a way that makes it not only logical but appear to be stronger than just having one person take a card from a fanned deck.



We need to be bold and confident and have a sense of humor. All these shows are essentially meaningless and do not hurt our field even if they are distasteful to us.



quack

Bold and confident are both good choices in magic.

Sounds to me like your magic mind is churning!!! That's great!!! Keep it up....

Good concept...good luck!!



Bengi

Would that be David Blade's work from his Street Magic special?

I like Magicduck’s idea of a fake mirror box; let the audience’s preconceptions lead them down the wrong path!

All you have to do is to alter something slightly and you are ahead of them.

I recall some years back when Penn and Teller exposed the hank vanish in a thumb tip on TV (by bad handling).

They had about 200 people in the audience do the trick -- after about 15 seconds of practice, it seemed.

I was at a dinner party shortly after and the guests were talking about the "fake thumb".

They "knew all about that."

Less than five minutes later I blew them away with a tip, used in a totally different way.

Once again, their preconceptions were their own worst enemy.

cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com

I haven’t heard anything, but someone mentioned to me about a show being filmed in Japan. Dunno about that as we’ve yet to see that over here.

I have a couple of dozen videos where famous magicians expose magic. Last count, there were thousands of videos which expose magic from 10-$100 dollars.



Just because I pay money for the right to see exposed magic. (McBride, Ammar, etc.)

It doesn’t make them wrong. Anyone can buy these VHS tapes and DVDs.



One thing I’ve learned over the past forty years, the secret doesn’t matter! Buy the Trick Brain by Fitzkee for $25 dollars, turn to page 310 in Chapter 33, and see the 54 secrets in which all tricks fall into one of those categories. No big deal. Illusion books are history books for the most part, nothing new, just a new twist on an old trick.



The real magic is in the way it is presented. There is no big deal in cutting a person in half, stabbing them through the middle, or floating them in the air. The REAL MAGIC is in the way it is presented, the music, the colors, the showmanship, the dancing girls, or boys, etc.



One thing is for certain, when it comes to money anything can happen. Since you can’t change the producers, don’t dwell on it. I prefer not to know the secret, it makes the wonderment so much better. I like the way Copperfield presents his stories with an air of magic to bring it to life. That’s the REAL MAGIC SECRET, the beauty of presentation.



Exposing tricks is like telling someone how to drive a car. Doing it (Presenting it.) is another matter entirely different.









_________________

Dennis Dowhy (800) 927-6671

www.Magic-Magic.com

[email]DennisDowhy@magic-magic.com[/email]

I have to agree with a lot of previous posts, I think that some of the exposure shows actually help in a way. If I show you a gimick then after a couple minutes use that gimick for a totally unrelated trick. The individuals seeing won't know that what they've just seen is the same thing. The best place to hide something is out in the open, right in front of their face.

Exposure gives people theories of how it's done. We can usually demonstrate that the theory couldn't possibly be true in our performance, with a good presentation. Those who think they know are often completely baffled. The silver lining is that it makes people interested in magic, resulting in more work for us all.

I disagree. A good magic show encourages interest in magic. Every exposure show I've seen belittles magic, and basically says, "it's just a stupid trick, and you were stupid for being fooled by it." To me, that does anything but increase interest in magic.



_________________

Andy Leviss

Check out my new book for mentalists, Ramblings and Revelations (and other products for magicians and mentalists) at:

http://www.asquaredproductions.com

I haven't heard anything of this so far as I'm in the UK...

Check out MM Does Fearson Copperfield Illusion under this same forum.

There's an old saying:

"When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade."



Joe Dunninger used to do the Linking Rings by showing the key ring to the audience. He would point out that every magic kit has this trick in it and it has been exposed countless time.



However, Dunninger would say, I wouldn't insult your intelligence by trying to use something that obvious.



And he would toss the key ring off stage and continue with the routine.



Of course, he had TWO key rings.



But he utilized the first one to defuse the exposure that he knew existed.



"Go thee and do likewise."



cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com