So much of magic is showmanship as opposed to ‘tricks’. Sometimes I see a magician putting balls into one end of a tube and see he is unobtrusively using his other hand to put them in his pocket and but he’s got the audience looking at the other end of the tube and I think he’s doing pretty good.
Sleight of hand is a very impressive skill. When you see close magic (which I think is even more bewildering than magic on stages), you know they aren't bending the laws of physics or tapping into another realm. That isn't what makes it interesting and captivating though. It is the fact that it looks indistinguishable to if they were performing "real" magic.
Reminds of that idea - Feynman perhaps, I cant remember - that theres two reasons why an organization might give a prize to an individual. One is to afford the individual the prestige of being associated with the organization, the other is for affird the organization the prestige of being associated with the individual. Sort of like your uncle Bob creating a prize for enterpreneurship and giving it to Jeff Bezos.
Having been a sleight of hand close-up magician for most of my life (and even made my living performing for several years a very long time ago), you'll be happy to know that in the past decade close-up magic has become orders of magnitude more popular than it ever was - thanks to YouTube and video streaming. The perception stage magic is more popular is simply because performing for large live audiences is the main way to build a sustainable business able to support the high costs of big props, assistants, travel, advertising, etc which that style of magic requires.
There are only a few hundred magicians consistently making a full-time living performing stage magic and only a couple dozen consistently making a really good living. Whereas there are hundreds of thousands of hobbyists who've discovered learning and performing magic can be really fun.
> There are only a few hundred magicians consistently making a full-time living performing stage magic and only a couple dozen consistently making a really good living.
It's my (possibly wrong) perception that this has become more difficult for magicians recently--possibly this is a US-centric thing. For a while, it seemed like there were almost no stage magicians other than Penn and Teller left.
Big stage magic shows tend to come and go because it's hard to sustain multi-year runs but Las Vegas has a few long running shows in addition to P&T: David Copperfield (good), Mac King (great), Chris Angel (meh). Piff the Magic Dragon is a more recent show but is hilarious and looks likely to play for years to come. Shin Lim has had a close-up magic show at the Venetian for a few years now and is also great. Plus, there's almost always a few other magicians doing short runs in Vegas at any given time. Just do a search when you're planning to be there.
Elsewhere, Derek DelGaudio's one man, non-traditional magic show In & Of Itself was sold out in New York for over two years and was released as a movie (which is fantastic and on streaming now). However, most large metro areas have live magic shows fairly often, they're just smaller shows in nightclubs, bars, dinner theaters, etc and don't have the budget to advertise. Do a search and you'll probably find something coming up. There's a shocking amount of really good magic happening lately driven by some incredible innovation from new magical inventors (people who create new methods and effects but usually don't perform themselves). And it's global.
If you ever get a chance to visit The Magic Castle don't ever pass it up. They have a specific close magic room with maybe 20 seats over the card table. You will notice some members of the audience are the magicians who were performing in front you on the stage shows earlier in the evening, equally impressed as you are with the performance in the close room.
So much of magic is showmanship as opposed to ‘tricks’. Sometimes I see a magician putting balls into one end of a tube and see he is unobtrusively using his other hand to put them in his pocket and but he’s got the audience looking at the other end of the tube and I think he’s doing pretty good.
Sleight of hand is a very impressive skill. When you see close magic (which I think is even more bewildering than magic on stages), you know they aren't bending the laws of physics or tapping into another realm. That isn't what makes it interesting and captivating though. It is the fact that it looks indistinguishable to if they were performing "real" magic.
Some of the best tricks are surprisingly simple, but the show around them makes them seem impossible. Can't separate the show from the trick.
Sometimes I see a magician putting balls...
Don't we all
Reminds of that idea - Feynman perhaps, I cant remember - that theres two reasons why an organization might give a prize to an individual. One is to afford the individual the prestige of being associated with the organization, the other is for affird the organization the prestige of being associated with the individual. Sort of like your uncle Bob creating a prize for enterpreneurship and giving it to Jeff Bezos.
P&T should say We dont want it now.
Who's better than P&T?
I think it depends on what you're looking for. I like them a lot but I'm not a "big show" kinda magic person.
The folks doing more simple up close magic, to me that stuff is amazing, but not super popular. I'm sure P&T can do that too.
> but not super popular.
Having been a sleight of hand close-up magician for most of my life (and even made my living performing for several years a very long time ago), you'll be happy to know that in the past decade close-up magic has become orders of magnitude more popular than it ever was - thanks to YouTube and video streaming. The perception stage magic is more popular is simply because performing for large live audiences is the main way to build a sustainable business able to support the high costs of big props, assistants, travel, advertising, etc which that style of magic requires.
There are only a few hundred magicians consistently making a full-time living performing stage magic and only a couple dozen consistently making a really good living. Whereas there are hundreds of thousands of hobbyists who've discovered learning and performing magic can be really fun.
> There are only a few hundred magicians consistently making a full-time living performing stage magic and only a couple dozen consistently making a really good living.
It's my (possibly wrong) perception that this has become more difficult for magicians recently--possibly this is a US-centric thing. For a while, it seemed like there were almost no stage magicians other than Penn and Teller left.
Big stage magic shows tend to come and go because it's hard to sustain multi-year runs but Las Vegas has a few long running shows in addition to P&T: David Copperfield (good), Mac King (great), Chris Angel (meh). Piff the Magic Dragon is a more recent show but is hilarious and looks likely to play for years to come. Shin Lim has had a close-up magic show at the Venetian for a few years now and is also great. Plus, there's almost always a few other magicians doing short runs in Vegas at any given time. Just do a search when you're planning to be there.
Elsewhere, Derek DelGaudio's one man, non-traditional magic show In & Of Itself was sold out in New York for over two years and was released as a movie (which is fantastic and on streaming now). However, most large metro areas have live magic shows fairly often, they're just smaller shows in nightclubs, bars, dinner theaters, etc and don't have the budget to advertise. Do a search and you'll probably find something coming up. There's a shocking amount of really good magic happening lately driven by some incredible innovation from new magical inventors (people who create new methods and effects but usually don't perform themselves). And it's global.
If you ever get a chance to visit The Magic Castle don't ever pass it up. They have a specific close magic room with maybe 20 seats over the card table. You will notice some members of the audience are the magicians who were performing in front you on the stage shows earlier in the evening, equally impressed as you are with the performance in the close room.
Will do!
Uh, yeah. They sure can.
Watching Teller do the cups and balls trick with transparent cups is mesmerizing.
I guess the Magic Circle is finally losing relevance, huh?