|
|
Go to page [Previous] 1~2~3 [Next] | ||||||||||
Slim King Eternal Order Orlando 18012 Posts |
LIBS LOVE THE HUFF AND THE INDEPENDENTS AND CONSERVATIVES GO THERE TO SEE WHAT THE LIBS ARE UP TO....
THE MAN THE SKEPTICS REFUSE TO TEST FOR ONE MILLION DOLLARS.. The Worlds Foremost Authority on Houdini's Life after Death.....
|
|||||||||
duanebarry Special user 883 Posts |
Maybe Slim could put his psychic abilities to good use and find his lost caps lock key...
|
|||||||||
mastermindreader 1949 - 2017 Seattle, WA 12586 Posts |
We can live without divisive political commentary here. My point about the HuffPo's rating was that it shows that the article about the dealer selling the coin bender was seen by a VERY large audience.
|
|||||||||
Michael_MacDonald 1964 - 2016 Washington 2034 Posts |
Bob,
I can see how this could frustrate you, but to be honest any pro worth his salt can take an over exposed routine and breathe new life into it and make it something more. something that those in the know would never connect to it. I do agree that skill and mind based routines that require little in the way of props are far stronger and harder to expose. thank you for the post though as it brought back fond childhood memories. Best Michael |
|||||||||
mastermindreader 1949 - 2017 Seattle, WA 12586 Posts |
Sure- any pro worth his salt could do exactly that. But if you rely on skill and psychology in the first place, rather than store bought gimmicks, you don't have to worry about mass exposure in the first place.
Good thoughts, Bob |
|||||||||
Michael_MacDonald 1964 - 2016 Washington 2034 Posts |
ABSOLUTELY!
you are correct as always lol. |
|||||||||
Tony Iacoviello Eternal Order 13151 Posts |
Sorry, Bob and Michael, I don't see it that way. When the outcome is a coin bends, regardless of the presentation, some people will recall the article. Ah, Huff mentioned that bending coins was a magic-store trick you can buy for $$. So all he did was a trick he bought.
You're not overcoming a specific poor performance (and inferior method), you're attempting to overcome a general concept: The bending coin is a trick available for $$ at X-Magic shop. Tony |
|||||||||
mastermindreader 1949 - 2017 Seattle, WA 12586 Posts |
Tony-
EVERTHING we do has been exposed at one time or another. (Did you know you could buy swami gimmicks in the toy section on Amazon, for example?) Many of us, though, have devised performance strategies that directly mention widely viewed exposures and cite them as examples of what "magicians" sometimes do to replicate what we do. We then proceed to "prove," through direct statements and logical disconnects, that what we are doing is something completely different than the "trick" they heard about. And that approach generally succeeds in overcoming the "general concept" you refer to. IMO, of course. Good thoughts, Bob |
|||||||||
Bill Cushman Inner circle Florida 2876 Posts |
That's exactly what I was just thinking, Bob. The reporter could have walked out of Tannens, found you in a biker club down the street and within minutes you'd have her believing while Tannens sells magic tricks, you bend coins with the power of your mind.
Another factor. Sure it is worse that many people are going to read an online artcle that equates coin bending with magic (heaven forbid!) than a smaller number just using common sense to figure it out. But those same readers are in the midst of information overload and data not central to their life isn't going to stick around very long. Between that fact and performers like Bob as I wrote in my first paragraph, I'm confident our secrets are as safe as they have ever been. |
|||||||||
mastermindreader 1949 - 2017 Seattle, WA 12586 Posts |
Thanks, Bill, but she wouldn't have found me in a biker bar down the street. I only work class joints these days.
|
|||||||||
Slim King Eternal Order Orlando 18012 Posts |
Quote: It's the result of EXPOSURE !!!! To a spilled glass of Rum....On 2013-03-06 16:20, duanebarry wrote:
THE MAN THE SKEPTICS REFUSE TO TEST FOR ONE MILLION DOLLARS.. The Worlds Foremost Authority on Houdini's Life after Death.....
|
|||||||||
gabelson Inner circle conscientious observer 2137 Posts |
What's new? Bob's right as usual.
I did a drawing dupe- ODDS- to a skeptical guy yesterday. Enjoying it, he asked me to repeat it, not limiting him to any certain amount of "things". So I did repeat it, using Andrew Gerard's intellectual yet visually playful routine with business cards- and SO different in method. Now he was fascinated, but amusingly, far more upset (you know how hot and bothered skeptics get when their strident beliefs are threatened, and they start buying in to that in which they never before believed). So I actually suggested doing it AGAIN. Why? Because I was hoping for the moment. I had a duplicate s#*&k of c*#@s using Looch's new presentation, which again, could NOT be more different in routining and modus operandi. Three DD's, yet three COMPLETELY different routines in every possible way. Every time I did the DD, it canceled out another theory of his, until he said, "I don't know, dude, you're making a believer out of me." -Now that has nothing to do with my competency- Most if not all of you have had these exact moments. It is what mentalism does to people. So thanks to quite varied methodology, and really, most importantly, incredibly strong routining from three of the best- (Osterlind, Gerard and Looch), the mentalist gets to create "moments". People remember "moments". So go ahead and bend the ****ing coin. That should be the LEAST of your worries. Find a way to entertain, create a 'moment', and your spectator will SAVE the coin forever, whether you used a space-age bender to do the work real-time, or used a hydrolic press a week earlier. As the late Johnny Carson said, "Just keep it interesting." And of course, Johnny was the most interesting of all. |
|||||||||
duanebarry Special user 883 Posts |
This is pretty mild.
The trick preparation begins in the article teaser, but the words "was bent in half" will only be read by those who click through to the full article. It doesn't even hang at the end of a paragraph. It's not dwelt on; there's no extended marveling at it. The next sentence is simply "Fine; now I was impressed," and then the article jumps to a new subject. The coin effect is easily forgotten. The principle behind a coin vanish is revealed and will be far more memorable for the reader. The reader may remember the celebrity-interest nugget that JJ Abrams is a customer at some old magic shop in NYC. But the bent quarter trick? No, it's raised again in a low-key way at the end during coin class, but the reporter departs before it is discussed. The reporter ends the article by downplaying the appeal of secrets: "Ferst explains that he will reveal the secret only after this reporter has left their company. Once you learn the secret behind a trick, you can’t unlearn it, he explains. Besides, he notes, most people don’t actually want to know a magician’s secrets." With the secret not a strong focus and not revealed in the article, the written account of the effect fades away too. Not a big deal. Heck, magicians overlook and forget great stuff in print all the time. All the time. |
|||||||||
mastermindreader 1949 - 2017 Seattle, WA 12586 Posts |
My point has nothing to do with the exposure of the "secret," though. It's the fact that metal bending is now relegated to the category of "magic tricks." That's a far drop from how it was perceived in the past. That's what I mean by trivialization.
Good thoughts, Bob |
|||||||||
duanebarry Special user 883 Posts |
I understand. My point is that from the reader's perspective, if the effect description didn't have a lot of impact, and it wasn't reinforced by an explanation, then the effect itself is very easily forgotten.
|
|||||||||
duanebarry Special user 883 Posts |
Compare the storytelling of that coin effect to this excerpt from the great 1993 New Yorker article on Ricky Jay:
Deborah Baron, a screenwriter in Los Angeles, where Jay lives, once invited him to a New Year’s Eve dinner party at her home. About a dozen other people attended. Well past midnight, everyone gathered around a coffee table as Jay, at Baron’s request, did closeup card magic. When he had performed several dazzling illusions and seemed ready to retire, a guest named Mort said, “Come on, Ricky. Why don’t you do something truly amazing?” Baron recalls that at that moment “the look in Ricky’s eyes was, like, ‘Mort—you have just ****ed with the wrong person.’ ” Jay told Mort to name a card, any card. Mort said, “The three of hearts.” After shuffling, Jay gripped the deck in the palm of his right hand and sprung it, cascading all fifty-two cards so that they travelled the length of the table and pelted an open wine bottle. “O.K., Mort, what was your card again?” “The three of hearts.” “Look inside the bottle.” Mort discovered, curled inside the neck, the three of hearts. The party broke up immediately. Buildup. Challenge. Personalized conflict. 20 years later I could easily find this article because I still remembered Mort's name. Extended, dramatic revelation, where the reader knows the destination but not the route to get there. It seems impossible, and finally it does happen. That whole excerpt is clearly about a card location from start to finish. The coin effect isn't nearly so clear. It's about... marking a coin, warmth, a heartbeat, and also something that bent. As written, those things all muddle together and are easily forgotten. Minor, minor damage. |
|||||||||
Tony Iacoviello Eternal Order 13151 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-03-07 10:44, mastermindreader wrote: Bob: That was pretty much the point I was making as well. |
|||||||||
mastermindreader 1949 - 2017 Seattle, WA 12586 Posts |
Tony-
I know. I both agreed and disagreed with your point. On the one had, trivialization has relegated many classics of mentalism to "magic tricks." On the other hand, though, I believe it is possible to overcome that. |
|||||||||
Joshua J Inner circle 1014 Posts |
Out of interest are spoon bending/metal bending parties still held in the US? Not something I see very often on the UK psychic circuit anymore, which in the UK I would put down to it being trivialised. It would largely be seen as a magic trick over here. Please note I'm not saying successful/creative mentalists can't present it as genuine phenomena, but I reckon UK audiences would be jaded aagainst seeing metal bending as such.
|
|||||||||
parmenion Inner circle Switzerland/Zürich 3988 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-03-07 13:44, Joshua J wrote: I completly disagree...
“I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.”
<BR>Oscar Wilde experimentaliste <br> <BR>Artist pickpocket Professional <BR> <BR>Looking for the best book test in French? send me a PM! |
|||||||||
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Penny for your thoughts » » The Trivialization Continues (0 Likes) | ||||||||||
Go to page [Previous] 1~2~3 [Next] |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.04 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |