Can anyone give me some details as to what all the comments are referring when they say things like "Brushwood scandal" ??? I'm missing something here!

I think he's the guy who revealed the Invisible Deck. There's a thread in the "Secret Sessions" topic on it.

WHAT?! I didn't hear this!!

...that said, I guess it's not THAT bad if I didn't hear about it. But still...I really hate exposure.

This low life has exposed the R & S to public on YouTube

Teller (of Penn and Teller) said "Brian Brushwood just kills me. He's funny, dangerous, and brilliantly original. He's going to be really famous, very soon."

Oh dear

Must be past your bedtime by now Jamie?

You know, a lot of the "top guys" have exposed magic. It's pretty frustrating, but I suppose it won't kill us in the long run. But it certainly irks me. I just feel it's a lack of respect for the art and for your peers. You try to become famous by selling out and it just effects everything you do. It really is a shame.

I can't sleep because I'm still excited about how brilliant this year's Blackpool Magic Convention was. A world record breaking attendance (3,400) with the most FISM winners to appear at a convention ever. All the reviews are very positive. No other convention comes close.

What's the R&S?

Ren and Stimpy?

Not that I am trying to start a fight, but how is Brian running a show where he reveals puzzles and very common knowledge/public domain magic principles any different than somebody pitching and selling Invisible decks on a busy street corner or tourist magic kiosk. They are all doing it to make money, and I think most people that do magic professionally like to make money doing it. Otherwise you are really just a hobbyist. I like Brian's show, and a couple weeks ago when he exposed ID it did bother me. Then I got to thinking about it, and really it isn't that much different than the people pitching it and selling it to anybody who has the cash in hand. Really the only difference is the fact that it is a bigger audience. Brian is getting paid to do a show. He does the show to make money. The people pitching are out there to sell magic secrets with a significant markup and to make money. Not that much of a difference in my eyes. Whether it is ID, Svengali, whirling card on IT, TT, D'lites, or pen through bill, there are certain effects that get "***d out" for the public eyes to see if they have enough curiosity and cash in hand. Do I like it? Not really, but who knows, maybe these pitch artists and even Brian Brushwood will inspire some people to get a more serious interest in the art of magic.

People pitch Invisible Decks on street corners?



DD

DD,

Busy malls, board walks, street corners. Does it really matter? The point is people are selling magic secrets for money.

Well, the difference is making a cash outlay or getting it for free. If 50,000 people view this, 49,900 are not going to buy it and use it, but they will spoil it for me if they see me doing it. Guaranteed. If you walk into a magic shop and ask for an ID demonstration, they will show it to you. But you will not learn the secret until you spend the money for it.

Theoretically, if you pay for it you are not going to give up the secret. Now that he spilled the secret, how many of the viewers of this video are going to actually buy the stuff to make it? Not many. I wouldn't do it, and I actually use an ID pretty often. It's one of my favorite effects- it always amazes them! But, of course, I buy them already made. It's not worth the trouble for me to make it when I can buy it for $10. It's simply got to be the best $10 that I ever spent on magic. Well, the best $100 that I ever spent- I've bought quite a few of them.

This was one of the first things that I ever bought, but it took me quite a while to actually start using it. I could not get it to work correctly at first, so it went into the junk pile and I forgot about it. Once I figured out how to make it work perfectly every time, it became a staple of my repertoire. And it always will be, Brian Brushwood or not!

Here is when you, who do not think it is a big deal, find out it is. When you go out and perform it and they say "oh yea I know how that is done I saw it on the internet" and if you do not think that will happen you are kidding yourself. It happened with the TT and sinful, Ashes on palm, and the 21 card trick. And the TT was BEFORE internet searching.

JM

As I stated, I am not trying to start a fight with anyone, just push the conversation forward a bit. I do see it as harmful, as I also see people selling IT, TTs, etc. to tourists in Vegas harmful. I guess my point was in my mind there isn't much difference between Brushwood and the pitch person. They are both selling secrets for money essentially on stuff that is not theirs to give away. I can see how some argue the pitch person isn't giving anything away but I guess I am thinking he isn't having to pay a creator for the rights to sell the ID either. ID is interesting because I don't consider it to be in the public domain yet it isn't as if someone owns the rights to it either.

I believe back a little while ago on Scam School Daniel Garcia taught a force. I am thinking it was a Hindu Force if memory serves me correctly. That I didn't like either. I don't want laymen to know I can make them choose a card. That is the kind of stuff that bothers me even more.

Pen through bill used to be a great effect. Now it is in a lot of children's magic kits. So much for that great effect. Where does it end?

Bushwood may or may not be a "low life." I'm not sufficiently familiar with him to make that call. I think every magician has to decide for himself, on a case-by-case basis, how egregious a given instance of exposure is. It happens all the time -- more today than ever -- and sometimes it's quite innocuous and entertaining, as in a Penn & Teller show.

I also think certain very old methods need to be superseded or redressed so that it won't matter to the serious magician if a spectator is familiar with them. You'll either be using a different method, or you'll have altered your handling of an old method to such a degree that it appears you couldn't be using it; either way, the spectator who knows the old method will end up believing you couldn't have used that method. Ultimately, he's more amazed than anyone else, because he thought he knew how you did it, and you either proved him wrong or appeared to prove him wrong.

When an effect can be bought in a drug store or gift shop and accomplished by a lay person with minimal practice, I don't worry too much if it's exposed. That's not an effect I'm interested in performing anyway -- not in its original, unaltered form, at least. Maybe some of the newer, more fiddly methods that we dismiss as "magic for magicians" should be reclassified as "magic for magicians and overly knowledgeable spectators."

Good doctors and lawyers have to continually update their knowledge to keep up with new concepts and changing times. Should a good magician -- amateur or pro -- be any less serious about updating his skills and knowledge so he can better do his job?

I don't see how exposing the workings of the ID on Youtube or TV is the same as selling a magic trick on a stall. What Brian Bushwood did is blatant exposure and that is not good for magic.

Lets stop posting about this idiot Brushwood & start praying he sets himself alight with his fire eating.

Here's my thoughts on this. The method of selling the secret makes all the difference. The pitchman is selling to an INDIVIDUAL. However, Brushwood exposed ID not to individuals, but the masses who didn't pay for the effect. Not only did it reach more people (and create more exposure), but those people didn't have to invest anything into the effect and are thus less inclined to understand the inherent nature of the secret of magic.

Whether we like it or not, the ID is certainly in public domain as no one is able to claim rights to this effect. I'm not debating here what is and what isn't public domain right now. The point is that the secret belongs to "all" the magicians and not just one.

SO in that sense it's not respectful of our art, our fellow performers, and our audience to reveal a secret that is not solely ours to share. If someone wants to reveal a trick they created that is exclusive to them, then that's one thing. But naturally that doesn't typically happen! It's guys who have NO RIGHT to a trick who feel they can ruin it for everyone else for the sake of "challenging people to create better magic." Are you serious?! Why don't YOU create the better magic rather than to reveal secrets that other people have worked hard to create and protect? It's because these exposers are LAZY and want to take an easy way to fame (I'm thinking more masked magician than Brushwood as I have yet to see Brushwood perform anything.).

And that is my primary issue with the exposure of guys like the masked magician (and in this case, Brushwood).

Now that I've been around the block a few times, I don't really think it will hurt magic in the long run. We just have to keep adapting. I'm not saying it doesn't hurt magic though...it does. But exposure won't KILL magic.