Fair enough. Even without being prominent, a well reasoned, legitimate letter to YouTube will successfully get infringing material removed.

However, too often people have fantasies of striking litigation riches, and are deluded into preposterous, multi-year crusades to vindicate dubious and trivial gestures of originality. here and on similar boards, there are a few people absolutely obsessed with crediting and attribution that would make the Yale law journal look slapdash. by contrast, you suggest a very sensible and measured approach.

Is it just me, or are we actually ripping on a 10 year old boy for being enthusiastic about magic and perhaps making a mistake?

If this was a much older boy, perhaps even a teenager, then I might better understand the uprise. This video shows a little boy passionate about magic who wants to share and doesn't have an outlet. His intentions were nothing but pure, despite being seen as wrong from us. Is this exposure of sorts going to reveal your Zarrow Shuffle? If so, I don't think the kid is the problem...

J

Exactly, Jay. 40 year old guys complaining on a magic message board about 10 year old Youtubers is probably the dweebiest, Gob Bluth-iest thing imaginable.

Gob had talent! I'm still waiting for the fire thing to be released...

Bill Hallahan nailed it really.

On a side note. Not a single person has mentioned proficiency...

If exposure is the issue, being done by very poorly is your biggest beef, you've missed the train my friends.
I'd argue that this poorly done exposure enhances my magic, increases awareness and creates a lay audience who feel they know how it all works, and therefore they can't be fooled. Since my push through shuffle looks nothing like the educated one being taught on youtube my audience assumes I am not doing one.

It is possible to embrace this sort of thing...

J

I love youtube.
So much magic is released today because it looks good at a certain camera angle; or is launched with a video that really doesn't give an idea of the effect on the audience.
But, if you wait a month, sure enough someone posts a video of their performance; which is likely to show you how bad the effect really is; show you how brilliant it really is; or show you a reasonable effect, which you might be able to tailor to your own style.
So I find youtube really helpful.

But 10 year olds exposing secrets doesn't bother me. I've not once had someone say to me "I saw the explanation of that on youtube".

My opinion regarding exposing magic in youtube is that most of the kids don't really know what they are doing. They expose brilliant effects but at the same time making them like a crap.

I've had moments in the past where this subject bothered me. But, after much thought, I asked myself: "What is it that I am afraid of?"

Truth is, I alone cannot steer magic's future, nor can anyone else. The art of magic has been around long before I was born and will remain long after I've shuffled off. Life is simply too short.

In the end, I feel that what matters most is that, both me and my audiences are having fun in the experience.

To be honest, the only diference that is made to magicians are that when you perform to someone, some show off guy might just reveal ur trick and say that he saw it how in the youtube
and maybe some hobbyist who just got into magic could save a few buck, that's all.

I got the oz's triumph DVD too! it is simply amazing, such a great triumph collection!!
and don't forget his lovely assistant!

IMO, more serious students of magic should start designing performances specifically for YT. Even a simple card trick can be adapted to better suit the medium.

The size of audience you can get on YT is amazing, and I think magicians often forget this. One viral video could literally make your career.

Marty

But he/she can not get spectators' reactions.
Without knowing reactions, one can not make his/her career.

Hideo Kato

I am sure that some of you remember the Fox TV Masked Magician (Valentino) back in the 90s. You will also remember the hue and cry for his head and Fox's. (I DO want Fox's head but not because of Valentino )

The point is that illusionists were not suddenly out of business. Burton, Copperfield, S&R, and others still packed 'em in all over the world.

I HATE exposure but, look at it from another perspective: a poorly exposed method makes our job a LOT easier if OUR chops are sharp. Roger Kelly alluded to this earlier in this thread when he stated that his act is mainstream and commercial and he has never encountered anyone saying that she/he knew how something was done because they saw it on YouTube. The same has been true for me and I would wager it is the same for virtually all magicians here who perform.

Barry Fernelius was right in that people ultimately aren't going to expend the energy to research moves on YouTube. Most of The Café is open to anyone who wants to look. These folks can Google any d****d thing they want but really what WOULD happen is that these folk would be hopelessly confused. Furthermore, they might even go to the Castle and see Barry perform and REALLY be blown away in part because they would be confident that they "know how it's all done." Barry would have them for lunch!

Yes, it IS a drag that unqualified people are "teaching" magic, but, it isn't going to stop and it isn't going to harm magic. I remember not too long ago when Chicago Opener was all over YouTube. Some magicians went bananas and cut the effect from their acts. I kept doing it - and I did it as Al Leech taught it - and it did and DOES blow audiences away.

YouTube is an EXCELLENT resource to watch excellent magicians do their thing and in that respect we all can learn. After completing this post I could go to YouTube and watch Cardini, Slydini, Lorayne, Turner, Kent Gunn, Shoot Ogawa, Daniel Garcia, etc. etc. etc. and have a BLAST watching these excellent magicians FURTHER the art through impeccable performance.

My friend Adam from the UK really nailed it when he said that magic will push on no matter what and he is SO right!

The rumors of magic's demise due to YouTube are GREATLY exaggerated.

Ahimsa,
Vlad

I think that some of the untalented, unknowledgeable, people on YouTube, or whatever it's called, are certainly not helping magic but, in the long run, quelle difference? As long as too many laymen don't watch them, it really doesn't much matter. On the other hand, if a layman sees a terrrible rendition of an effect, then sees you, or someone good, doing it, they may just be more impressed. Possible?

I've told, written, this story before, but: Dr. Stanley Jaks was a friend. He did a mentalism/mind reading act. One of the things he used a lot was a na*l w****r. Well, I'm going back quite a few decades now - Look or Life Magazine had a 3- or 4-page spread exposing the na*l w****r. Stanley called me, crying, to say "goodby," he was going to kill himself! I'm not making this up - he was that upset over the exposure. He said things like, "My life is over; I'll never be able to work again," etc.

I said something like, "Stanley, okay, but don't kill yourself yet. Do you have a show booked for the near future?" He said that he did. I said, "Before you kill yourself, why don't you do that show - nothing to lose, right? You're going to kill yourself anyway. Then, call me after you do that appearance to say good bye."

He called me four or five days later - happy as a lark. He said he did that appearance as I had advised, and the audience LOVED him - he used the na*l w****r as he always had, and it MADE NO DIFFERENCE. He decided not to kill himself!

I wish poor old Maurice Fogel had called Harry when he was exposed in the People Newspaper by Arthur Helliwell. Maurice went to pieces after that and Alan Alan told me he was a "broken man". He even took to standing in Piccidally Circus (or so I heard) with a sandwich board (I don't know what they call them in America) saying "Helliwell is unfair to Fogel". I think it nearly destroyed his career and he was very upset over it.

I would have just laughed my head off, taken a couple of weeks off and come back when the fuss died down.

James Munton formed a thing called Abratube where he only featured the best magic you tube videos. It was very good indeed. I don't know if he still operates it. I think he got fed up with it.

Sandwich boards.

Thank you for the explanation. I was a trifle confused because Canadians call them "A-boards"

Both YouTube and The Magic Café were important factors in revitalizing my sleeping interest in magic. Most of my old books were just cheep crap, and I was unable to really appreciate the few good ones I had.

By means of YouTube I could for the first time in my life witness some exellent magicians, the big masters and some new stars. Of course I had to learn some names to find them, but that is not different from other interests. There are also lots of bad music on the radio and loads of bad films on TV. You must learn how to find the good stuff and leave the crap. It takes some time.

It has been very entertaining and inspiring to study the styles and presentations of different masters like Jennings, Lennart Green, Tommy Wonder, Ascanio, Tamariz, Valerino, Eugene Burger, Michael Vincent etc. I have a great collection of YouTube videos. And YouTube has often been my inspiration before purchasing an expensive book or DVD.

I hate exposing of magic secrets - except when I am searching for ideas myself. I can assure you: If you take som time to look through the posts at The Magic Cafée you will discover lots and lots of exposure.
Just by reading through threads about something that was completely neew to me, I have learned lots of secrets. Example: I had no idea about memdecks before I discoverede this principle at the Café, and I could go on and on.

I guess it can be boiled down to the conclusion: If you are interested, you can find exposure of magic on the YouTube - and at your local library - and at The Magic Café and many other places. But if you are really interested shouldn't it then be possible to learn some of the secrets?

"I feel the biggest problem is financial really.
Its' affecting people who have made the products/effects/ideas being exposed."

such as?

fortunately the 50-post threshold for the secret buffet, or whatever the clever eating establishment-themed title is, coupled with the judicious use of asterisks form an impregnable barrier, here, to secrets being discovered and the financial ruin you so meticulously detail

Hideo Kato said:



Yes, Hideo this is true. Maybe I wasn't clear enough; I was suggesting that YT could give someone who is already a good live performer the exposure (in a good way) to make it big. This has already happened to many singers and musicians.

I will admit that it is a different type of performance, that is why I think you need to design your effects differently (or film live performances). But where else could you get an audience of millions?

Marco Tempest is the best example of a magician that is using YT to his advantage, rather than just complaining about the negative aspects of the technology. Here's his latest video, which illustrates my point well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvXqXcVF5S8

Marty

Good example. The problem is incompetence, irrespective of medium. The same deluded impulse that leads to an atrocious "tutorial" on YouYube explains the times I've been trapped, in person, listening to some old fart lament that the era when everyone read books has passed and then watching the same guy give a performance as atrocious as anything on YouTube, followed by his own point-by-point, cliche-bloated assessment of his compliance with Fitzkee's rules for an "entertainer."