I must second the remarks of mvmagic. His choice of costuming is just not right. He is trying to pull of what DC has been doing for some time now. Wearing the blue shirt with black pants, which I personally don't really care for, but it works for DC, not Brandon. I am not the smallest guy in the world so I dress appropriately for my size. When you are a bit on the rotund size you should never tuck in your shirt as it shows your midsection off in a very unflattering way. If he wore a jacket it would look just so much better, or even a vest. His routines scream imitation, but only to us, as I am sure he is not working for magicians he does not have to worry about what most people think. Most regular audiences either don't know or just don't care, they only wish to be entertained. I think he is a kid with too much money who is just going down the wrong path. Hopefully he will read these posts and sell the knock offs and use the money to buy authorized versions. Not only will he be more respected within the community(if he cares), but the good versions look 10 times better than any knock off piece of s**t. Sorry for that but unfortunately that is the way they look.

WOW! What a thief! Can someone stop this? Please stop hurting our art! FXXK!

BTW Jack his gypsy thread routine is not his (not a shock) its actually Alexanders routine word for word with the presentation.

Oh really? I didn't know that. Did Alexander include the Jesus Christ message as well?

I will agree with mvmagic that the costume is nothing particularly special or anything. But I also don't think he looks bad in it.

--Jack

Yes Alexander did include the Jesus Christ message as well, its word for word minus 1 or 2 words. That message sticks in your head after you watch it. I was sitting down with my daughter and commenting how Brandon is taking so much from Copperfield and then when he sat down to do the thread we laughed and said what if he did Alexanders routine...and you should have seen our mouths drop when he started talking and repeating what we seen Alexander do a few years ago in Tahoe!!!

You know, that would be an interesting character to create, a magicial office clerk.

Uh, that would take someone who can, ya know, create?

Take care

Jason

Imitation is the highest form of flatery.
Besides...he's trying to appeal to the lay audience...which is who pays his bills. Not other magicians. Let him be.

-Travis

SORRY TRAVIS!!!! That is a NO NO you have then completely missed it all!!! It starts with the rip of anothers performance, most people agree that some way shape or form we have all done this but he continues with unauthorized illusions, its not about his show which a lot of people have turned it into but rather time for him to take a step in responsibility. Everyone grows and I hope that he does the same, before he changes his show I would hope that he would first replace the knockoff and obtain an authorized version, if not he is hurting us as a whole, hurting those that help us take our shows and illusions to the next level the designers. I highly respect designers Steinmeyer, Summers, Parker and everyone else. I would hope that you would also. Unless we can get a grip on this then our art will suffer in the long run. So Travis we cant let it be, rather I can not.

Lusion,

I respect your opinion, and even see a few of your points of view...but it happens, it's going to happen. It happens in almost every field out there (e.g., Coke, Pepsi, generic colas. Toyota Matrix vs. Pontiac Vibe, etc...). One person sees what another has done successfully (who also got their ideas from someone else, and so on) and they want to imitate that. Not only that, but they see it, admire it. Haven't you ever tried to re-create something that you admired?
I'm not saying that he should stay where he is, but yes, rather move on...but for the time being, if he is successful at it and the lay people like him, why bother him? Lay people don't know who created what effect...nor do they care. They just want to be entertained. If we're all so worried about knock-offs, then why don't we patent the dang things? Until then, we have nothing to complain about.
Thanks for your time and response.

-Travis

Well Origami is patented now what is to be said?

If it is truly and legitimately patented...then you're right. He need not be using a knock-off. Now go get 'em tiger.

-Travis

LOL

As for this act, he actually has the nerve to have a snapshot of him standing with Copperfield on his website.

He does not dress well for a man performing on stage, his clothes do not make a positive statement about him or his performance.
He frankly looks like he works in the mailroom of a real-estate agency.

Now… is some guy who had a few art classes paints copy after copy of a famous Picasso, even forging the signature, and sells them at street fairs….

Is this man an artist?

Yet this is exactly what many of our brother and sister “magicians” do!

If you’re walking through the streets of Florence Italy and you pick up one of those little deformed plaster copies of Michelangelo’s “David” are you now a collector of fine art?

Yet, this is practically what you’re getting when you buy a cheaply turned out rip-off illusion.

Do you want to be a Magician or a Xerox-of-a-Xerox-of-a-Xerox-copy-of-a “magician”.

An audience knows…
Yes, they want to be entertained,
but I highly doubt the true entertainment value,
watching some guy in Wal-Mart slacks pushing clunky boxes around the stage,
parroting lines he’s taped off television specials without permission.

The way our laws are currently written, there is a Catch-22 and it is almost impossible to truly protect our magic.

More attention has been focused upon Intellectual Property protections, however to apply those protections many companies hire huge law firms and spend untold thousands of dollars, something most performers and magical inventors just do not have the time or funds to do.

Magically,
Walt

On the subject of knock offs, there are plans being sold on ebay at the moment for Interlude illusion. I have complained to ebay about knock offs of various illusions and plans over the years...but no one seems to care. The problem is that these plans do not even help you build a decent model...which can only be bad for the business.

Scott

This has been discussed before. You can look up the patent for Origami by going to the USPTO website and doing a search on Steinmeyer. It's not easy to find. There is a patent, as well as one for improvements.


Posted: Dec 4, 2006 1:47am
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I want to also point out that there is a regular poster here who keeps "improving" the various Steinmeyer illusions, such as Origami and Interlude. What he doesn't realize is that some of his "improvements" are not new at all, nor are they necessarily improvements over what is actually being done. Criss Angel featured an "open Interlude" in his stage show for some time. It's a lot better than what this fellow is trying to peddle. And if anyone thinks that Steinmeyer hasn't considered every possible positioning method for an assistant, he is in for a shock. All I can say is that if you want to do Jim's illusions, bite the bullet and pay for them. This is a business where you get what you pay for.