2013-07 Dennis' Deliberations

Amateur magicians go for finger-flicking, painted boxes, pre-packaged clone routines ( Banana-Bandana, Collector’s Workshop, etc.), the latest trendy effect they saw on You-Tube or TV. Few realize that great magic exists in the mind and the performer creates the enchantment with their attitude and personality. They don’t do magic; they ARE magic. Consider Mac King’s Cards Across, Paul Daniel’s Chop Cup, Jeff Hobson’s Egg Bag. These are effects that almost all magicians have on their back shelf but cannot put across.
If a person cannot go out and do 10 minutes without a prop and entertain with a story, humor and impression, they have no business working with props. Props come after you have learned how to entertain!

The age when “spectacle” could carry a no-name magician is long past. I think it is over for most circuses due to the ante being raised by the Circus-So-Lame franchise. You are never going to outspend them in glitz and spectacle and when you do anything you will be compared. With the rise of video games, movies with computer generated effects and modern TV production, no magicians will be able to sell only spectacle.
After Doug Henning’s abdication of TV specials, David Copperfield was at the top of televised magic in the 1980s, releasing a new special every year (except 1982), complete with a Vanishing Statue of Liberty, Jet Airplane ,The Bermuda Triangle, Imploding buildings and so on. Since 1995, Copperfield has only released one televised special. It's not just Copperfield. Aside from a couple of specials, bizarrists Penn & Teller moved from magic and into Atheism/Scepticism with the show Bulls**t! (concluded in 2010), they have tried Discovery with a show called Tell A Lie, and had a contest show , Fool Us, which ran until last year in the UK. Street magician-turned-television star Criss Angel had his hit show, Mindfreak, cancelled in 2010.
So what happened to magic shows, specials and series on television? I offer a couple of theories.
Maybe we're too cynical to enjoy magic on TV any more. Magic shows require a suspension of disbelief which many viewers, particularly older viewers, can't do. Today , if anyone is interested in seeing a magic show on TV , they will watch the trick TV and spend all their energy skeptically wondering how it works, rather than just sitting back and enjoying the show.
On a cruise ship and in a theme park you have a captive audience. After you have stuffed yourself and lost your last dime in the casino, the alternative is to stand on the promenade deck and watch the fish.
Most viewers consider that knowledge is power. When a magician does a trick, we may feel like magician is using that knowledge on us, belittling us and making us feel stupid and we don't like that. Recall Mitch Pileggi’s tone of narration voice on the Masked Magician expose series? “It’s simple but he knows the secret and makes you feel like an idiot”
Now, you can Google the trick and watch it explained on You Tube.Lastly, magic has a reputation problem. Think about a stage magic-illusion show. You are probably imagining fans blowing hair, fog machines, too much feather plumage and rhinestones, leather morticians coats or straps and nail studs, cheezy synthesizer music and lots of mugging and posturing for dramatic emphasis. You might even be thinking about guys with arrested development; grown men who play with boxes and girls as if they are toys.
One trend that I am hearing about is the revival of the “Home Show”. A Magician is hired to do a parlor sized show in a home for a small gathering. Usually the clients are upscale in the socio-economic level. As the American economy continues with a bifurcation of wealth, the parlor show may be the next source of steady income.

Dennis Phillips