It had to happen, and finally did. At a gig a couple of weeks ago, I approached a table and started into my presentation of Crazy Man's Handcuffs, and when I brought out the elastic bands a guy said:

"Hey, I've seen this on the internet...elastic handcuffs or soemthing right?"

First off, grr. This really was the last nail in the coffin for me as far as posting any of MY performance videos online goes.

Second off, I didn't have it too bad. The fella was nice and not interested in giving me a hard time, so that was a big relief. My response was simply to say, "well now you have a chance to see it live!". Seemed to be the thing to say. Plus, I always finish with the vanish of one of the bands, and you don't see that a lot on youtube, so I was confident on being able to give 'em a bigger, better effect Quickly followed it with one of my original card routines so I knew it wouldn't happen again.

For me, the problem with all the kiddies putting up footage of some half baked attempt at a great effect is not that someone might discover the secret - because we all know that good presentation, misdirection and solid technique can work to fool someone even if they know the secret (first time I saw one of David Regal's DVDs he fooled me badly with stuff I know just because his timing and misdirection were so very good). The problem is that people may start to recategorise you as some guy who learned a bunch of tricks by watching youtube! I get the question at least once at every gig "where/how did you learn to do that?", so I know it's something that specs think about.

Anyhow, anyone else care to share their experiences of being youtubed at a gig? How did you deal with the situation?

Cheers,
David

It has just become a fact of life - not really anything you can do about it.

Have you ever copied a CD that someone else owned - another use of tecnology that hurts? But again, what can be done about it?

I did a vanishing silk with the ol' TT and when I was starting a guy said "hey are you going to use one of those fake thumbs?" and I said "Of course!"
At the end of the bit, he said " I thought you were going to use one of those fake thumbs, but that was really good!" Go figure.

Hey Dave...I haven't been "Youtubed" yet...but I have recently been "Night at the Museum-ed". I was doing a rainbow streamer effect for some young kids, and they started whispering, and one said "we know how that is done...we saw it in a movie".

I said, I saw that movie, real magicians don't do it that way...I'll show you what I mean. I did some change over moves with the T.T. during my regular routine which I don't normally do, and at the appropriate time wiggled my thumbs. I got a great reaction...I believe I used their knowledge against them to make the routine even more entertaining.

Unfortunately, we have to deal with exposure...its been going on a long time. But with modern technology, its being exposed quicker and more often.

I'm not looking forward to getting "Youtubed"...as I'm sure its just a matter of time. Hopefully I'll be prepared.

Rich B.

I recently was playing a school and as I began my (ken brooke's) multiplying bottles routine, I noticed a bit of chatter and a lot of bright eyes -- more than normal.

I found out after the show that the school had promoted my show by sending around the youtube video of my performance of this trick in their weekly e-newsletter.

It was awesome of them to do that, but the crowd reaction was very different because of it. It wasn't bad - in fact maybe a little more reaction than normal - just very different!

It's nice to see both sides of the coin on this issue. A positive scenario arriving from this phenomena is that we as performers will start choosing above average effects and coming up with unique presentations a lot more. Instead of living in a cookie cutter world where so many ( I myself have been guilty of this) are lacking in individuality.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

well... okay but do you really want to meet the father?

I went to visit a friend at a senior citizen center. They were having a "monthly" meeting, he asked me to do a few tricks for the nice folks. There were about 12 people, so I said why not.

As I started a guy whips out a video camera and points it at me.

"Oh, please sir, this is very informal and I don't feel comfortable". Don't worry, I only use it to record our meetings, he said.

Next thing you know, there I am on YouTube. I'm not thrilled but what you gonna do?!

If necessity is the mother, I should imagine that perseverance is the father.

No. Frank Zappa was the Mother of Invention.

Justin. If you find your own performance on YouTube, you can ask them to remove it. If they won't, call the Senior Citizen Center and explain to them that you are going to sue them for violation of your intellectual property, if they don't have it removed immediately.

It's a hard angle to take on this, but they do not have the right to put your show on YouTube.

I actually think LAZY is the father of invention.

No. Frank Zappa was leader of "The Mothers of Invention"!

Cheers!

Actually Frank Zappa and the mothers of invention. this is like my 4th zappa post on the Café.

We encourage filming at all our events-end up on you tube-great for us

The amount of re bookings we get because of shows being filmed & played etc-adds another 40 shows a year-mainly corporate!!

Many really interesting things to see and also learn on there.Exposing greats isn`t a good thing they have did for them.

Justin,
I couldn't find your clip from the senior citizen center on YouTube.

But I did find someone with your same name. I have a feeling that this Justin Style did not perform at the senior citizen center.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzi17bps7v4

~John

Hi John,


OMG, that dude has more talent in his feet than I have in my hands!

I see it's still up there. It's the second one under my name.

I am not proud but here it is if you want to take a peek, laugh, critique or just make fun of in general...lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiU3q8vISIk

Should I ask the person to remove it? I mean, I look fat, I flashed, dropped a card and overall just wish it was not up there.


Hey Jaz, Thanks for the info.

Justin,

For being put 'on the spot' you really did entertain quite nicely!

Take care buddy,

Logan

Thank you, I appreciate that. it was a hot humid day in NJ.