I was dismayed to see Will Farrel openly expose the secret to the linking rings tonight on The Late Show with Jay Leno, in particular because I was already frustrated with the amount of knowledge my audiences had regarding the secret. Maybe he figured most people knew how they worked anyway.

Rings for sale! Cheap!

If you do a good routine, it doesn't matter.
Check out Chris Capehart's routine.

Besides, that is not the entire "exposure".

The other secret throws them for a loop.
Almost worse if they know the first part.

Didn't Vernon supposedly after such an exposure walk out one night and say there was a rumor about rings like this holding a key ring up for the audience to see then tossed it offstage saying "but this is how it is really done and then performed his "Symphony of the Rings.""

It is probably apocryphal but none the less it is an attitude that can win out.

I remember reading that one too but I'm not sure if it was Dai Vernon. It was one of the greats who did it though.

Chris

I've stopped worrying about exposures. Frankly, the only folks who remember them are magicians.

I did the rings a few years back and a guy came up to me later and told me he bought a set of linking rings a few years back at a magic shop. But they had a split in them and obviously didn't work like mine.

Other times I've been working restaurants and people have said things like "Wow! They sure didn't show how to do your stuff on TV!" (In fact, they had.)

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I like exposures. I'm just saying they don't affect my paycheck. To be honest, if ALL I have is a secret, then I don't have a lot of job security.

I once was working in the park just for fun for some friends and doing my usal
linking rings routine ;D
but I made a big mistake or something close to that
a crowd started to build and after it reached about 25 till 30 people looking at my rings
a very unnice person came by and interrupted me ;D he tried to blame me by telling
the people how it is done but I really "kicked his ass" ;D not in a physical way
that would cause pain but in a mental form
I did a speacial unlink a learned form one of my magic friends down here in vienna
it looks something like having 2 linked rings in one hand and then swinging one ring up and having it fly into the air ;D
when the ring came down I directly linked it to the other one and handet it out
to him and asked him to redo my trick or something similar
he tried hard but couldn't do it since that is a faked relink and he had 2 linked
spectator rings
it blew his mind and he looked kind of funney and asked me what had happened to his linking rings ;D
just told him that he may had bougt some crap with a manifecturing mistake or a
cheap tourist version

Was really amuseing afterwards and the people around liked it but I really was
in a horrible situation

hope that does not happen again

Greets

Good point Erik. I'm brazilian, and the only exposure on tv here was passed with MR.M, but on USA, for example, FOX show the "street magic revealed", and you can see how many people still use the effects, that they showed, like "Be honest what is it" and others...

But I STILL DISAPPOINTED WHEN THIS THINGS HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!

So the only thing we need to do is just change the method a little....

All the best,

:bikes: Mesquita

...it is will farral after all!

I talked to one of Leno's staff writers (a friend and into magic) and he said they were SHOCKED and not happy at all. They didn't know he was going to do it.

Unfortunately there is nothing we can do OTHER THAN BOYCOTT Ferrell's shows--which I am doing.

I never cared much for him and now I DESPISE the JERK.

To clarify, I still think it is an idiotic thing to do.
He should, as an entertainer, know better.

What bothers me about this stuff is just the utter disregard for the art of magic and magicians for a cheap laugh. It's not so much about laymen finding out secrets. If someone came on the Tonight Show and did a legitimate ring routine anyone that was intrested could discover the secret in 5 minutes in a local library or on the net.

To me the question is just why? Why do it Will? He's a funny guy, I don't know how seriously Will Farrell takes his comedy. Some people take comedy very seriously and elevate it to an art form. Just like some magicians do with magic. So why take the tools of their art and mock them? That what gets me. Why not just leave it alone and stick to your own art form?

that's what gets me, the "why".

Vandy, I think you hit the nail on the head. The secrets are so easy to get that (to quote you: "anyone that was intrested could discover the secret in 5 minutes in a local library or on the net") so no one figures exposing something that easy to find could be that be a big thing (unless, of course, you are a magician).

Also, to many of the general public, magic is no more than a joke (and a bad one at that) in much the same way a bad standup comic, lounge singer, used car salesman, or televangelist is. WE know magic is more than that, but we also know too many examples that really do the joke justice.

I realize this is a bitter indictment of our craft, but it is often how it is perceived in the real world. And any communication professional will tell you that, know matter how much we wish it to be otherwise, the public's perception is reality for them.

The best we can do is not to live down to the stereotype.

Erik,

Your right. But the difference in lampooning a used car salesman or lounge singer is that with those guys, what you see is what you get. In magic there are secrets even simple ones that a decent performer would usually respect. You could certainly lampoon a magician without exposing his tools. Why is that necessary?

I'll say this; if magic and magicians are such a joke in the public eye then it dosen't say much for Will Farrells creativity. How funny or smart do you need to be to create "comedy" out of what is already considered a joke by the general public? It could be done, but to be done really well would take more work and thought than Will Farrell apparently puts in to HIS comedy.

Make fun of magicians, but at least have the decency as a performer to not expose for the sake of exposure. That's the feeling I got from this bit. It wasn't overly funny or creative. But Will made sure to get that exposure in there, that was the whole bit. This bothers me much more than the stuff that's been done on "Arrested Development" for example.

Vandy

I suppose boycotting Farrell doesn't mean I could go to a Bewitched matinee and watch Nicole Kidman with one eye closed.

I think the most dignified response is to ignore him and all of his movies. Drawing attention to the incident will only give him the publicity that he's seeking. Will Ferrell always seems lame and pathetic, to me. A trained chimp could do what he does.

I'm not very concerned about exposure, because my routine disproves the method, as do many other routines.

Just wondering, but in what context did this happen???

Did they have a clip where there was a magician doing the rings?

did he actually bring the rings out?

Was there a magician on that did the rings and then Will explained the effects later in the show?

Just wondering.

Euangelion, I'm not going to boycott the man's films. I won't go see him perform magic because he, like Pennn and Teller are not the types of magicians that I will support. But I'm not going to deprive myself of a fun little movie that brings back a ton of childhood memories because of one man's ethics.

Besides, he's already punished himself. I couldn't think of any greater punishment than having my colleagues shun me because I'm unethical.

And, ironically, THAT'S evidently what HE thinks of magicians. Keep in mind that this particular trained chimp has made more this year than many of us will make in a lifetime. However, I don't think a million of him stand any chance of doing Hamlet.

And before our self-righteous-power-to-the-people boycott frenzy takes us away to relive that 1960's protest moment we never really participated in, ask yourself how a boycott by a handfull of magicians is going to amount to anything more than a purely symbolic gesture that lacks even the numbers to be symbolic?

Wait! I know, we could all "link" arms and have a "50 Magician March!

Oh, wait...make that 37...birthday parties this weekend you know. But I'm sure they'll get the message!

Remember, a symbolic protest without numbers and $3.00 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks...if you aren't boycotting them too.

The best response is simply to ignore it and let it vanish into obscurity. The more WE call attention to it (and don't kid yourself, with maybe one or two exceptions, we (magicians) are the only ones doing it) the more it will give people a reason to remember it.

That being said, I'm not going to his movies. Not out of any sense of outrage, I just never cared for what I've seen him do.

Oh, and Starbucks coffee is over roasted.

:spoon:

And it wasn't even funny. The audience wasn't rolling in the isles or anything. He got nothing out of it.

Farrell is not funny