I just saw that on MSNBC's "Countdown" tonight (that started at 8:00 tonight EST), there is a story about the Houdini Museum exposing Houdini's Metamorphis effect and the protest from magicians to this exposure.

There is also a front page piece on the topic in Thursday's (3-25-04) Wall Street Journal.

Gianni

Way to go guys!!! ....Way to turn this small creature into a big monster rearing its ugly head. You would have thought that after the Fox specials, we would have learned how to deal with things like this. Even Copperfield didn't learn anything.

Oh well, one could have hoped.

Hello Kevin -

I guess I'm confused about your initial post here. This story has been recently featured in the Wall Street Journal; the Today Show; MSNBC and the BBC, yet when I mention it on a magician's internet forum (seen, I would assume, mostly by magicians) you post in response
"Way to go guys!!! ....Way to turn this small creature into a big monster rearing its ugly head."

I don't understand how passing the information to others with an interest in magic as turning this topic in a "big monster."

Cgscpa...it was not directed towards you for letting us here on the board know. It was directed towards those that give exposure more steam. Everyone has their opinions and it is my opinion that this has become bigger than it should have. I'm not sure what the perfect response and manner in which to handle this exposure is...but I think there may have been a better answer.

Kevin -

Thanks for explaining what you meant with your post. My own opinion is that a pro-active approach is needed. The "zero tolerance" approach seems to be the the most popular and vocal. I'm not sure where I stand on this except that the more information we have as to what is going on in our community the better to form our own opinions.

BTW - I will be in Carmel, IN this weekend and I see you are doing a show nearby. With some luck with my schedule, I'll be able to see your show.

If there is a strange looking BOX on the side of the road, and people rush up to check it out then others come along to shuu them away all this fuss elicts a natural human emotion of curiosity.

If the box was ignored and no one cared for it, chances are that other people wouldn't even notice.

Let's look at what happened here...

Museum decides to 'expose' Houdini illusion. Rest of the world says 'who cares' or indeed says nothing as they are not even aware that there is a museum....

Magicians get angry and approach the museum and are told that it is happening regardless... Magicians go to press, press reports it on national TV.

Museum rubs hands together over all the publicity created, more people flock to museum to see what the fuss is about...

What SHOULD have happened...

Museum decides to 'expose' Houdini illusion. Rest of the world says 'who cares' or indeed says nothing as they are not even aware that there is a museum....

Magicians get angry and approach the museum and are told that it is happening regardless...

Magicians boycott museum and borrowed artefacts are removed, everyone goes about their daily business. Magicians tell other magicians that they should boycott museum and word spreads. Museum loses revenue as it would be mainly people with an interest in magic that would go anyway....

Case closed

Kuffs

I'm not quite sure about this "zero tolerance" policy that has been mentioned a couple of times. Sure, none of us like exposure, myself incuded, but how exactly do you plan on stopping other people from passing on information. You can't. It's impossible. If anyone really wanted to know the secret to The Metamorphosis illusion, they can find it online. In fact, I know of an extremely large Russian site that exposes practically every one of David Copperfields illusions. I'm sure some of you have seen this site. It is incredibly comprehensive, and provides animations, 3D images and video footage, along with a detailed 2 or 3 page description of every step to the illusion.

The fact is that these days, information is available to everyone, and there is no way of stopping it from being passed between people. We can't stop FOX from playing Masked Magician specials, neither can we stop this museum revealing Houdini's secret. They're not breaking any laws.

If you're so worried about someone exposing another magicians techniques and methods, maybe we should all spend our time coming up with new material rather than rehashing the same old tired tricks. It's just a thought.

Oh, and before any of you start to condemn me for what I've said, you'll notice that in my first paragraph I clearly state that I am against exposure. I'm just thinking clearly and logically about the situation, as opposed to suggesting we start a vigilante group of magicians to wipe out exposure.

-- Topher

Just wondering, on a complete tangent.... Does that Russian site have anything to do with the Russian Mob that held David's stuff ransom???

Hi MacGyver,

Not that I'm aware of. It's just a few guys with a fair bit of magic knowledge who've set up a website exposing all of his stuff. I have no intention of passing the URL on to anybody, because I obviously don't agree with what is being done. I just happened to stumble across the site by chance.

-- Topher