Brushwood vs The Mashed Magician

[magicnewswire]

Many of you will know that Brian has been on the MagicNewswire.com podcast several times. Most recently he joined me on "This Week in Magic" to discuss the fact that there are many people in the magic community that think that he's as guilty of exposure as the Masked Magician.

In our show, Brian expressed his opinion that he was really teaching and generating a respect for and interest in magic with his show.

Many magicians think that because he's making it so easy to get secrets, that his fans will think that magic, and the secrets of the art, are being devalued and will not be respected by you.

What do you think?

You can find our chat with Brian here:
http://mnw.squarespace.com/magicnewsfeed/2009/11/30/this-week-in-magic-episode-2.html

You can find the discussion accusing Brian of exposure here:
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=341211&forum=30&52

[mooy]

I have read the thread and am not going to jump in to it. Anything more will just put fuel to the fire. What do you think?

But here I can say that I like free information as much as I like open source software. It feels good. Too bad magicians have the code(or what they call it). Without that this would not be a problem.

I like the newswire podcast by the way.

/Robin

[magicnewswire]

Thanks Mooy!

My opinion is that what Brian is doing is good for magic. I do not think that he's doing anything but introducing people to some great material. The few magic effects that he's taught on the show are things that he got permission from the creator to use on the show. That's not exposure in any way, shape or form. Everything about the Masked Magician show was malicious in its intent. From the effects to the voice over, it was all bad. Brian is doing nothing but stimulating people's interest in magic.

Sadly, when you enter that conversation with the magicians that are fueling the conversation, they are not willing to listen or offer constructive feedback.

[guytheninja]

Many of you will know that Brian has been on the MagicNewswire.com podcast several times. Most recently he joined me on "This Week in Magic" to discuss the fact that there are many people in the magic community that think that he's as guilty of exposure as the Masked Magician.


First of all, I liked "This Week In Magic", episode 2. The podcast seems interesting, I might listen to it.

I don't think Scam School is exposure. Let me give an example:

Say someone pirated a movie before it was released to theaters, and they created a 3 minute video that hit the highlights of the movie. Obviously this spoiler video included footage from the movie and some voice over from the pirate. On the same day, the 3 minute movie trailer was released, and this 3 minute spoiler video was released on the internet. Now what was the difference between the two?

Both obviously include footage from the movie, both include voice-overs. However, the trailer has more -- it has music along with other things.

The difference is the intent. The trailer entices people to watch the movie --- it whets the appetite for the experience. The spoiler movie ruins the experience. Intent is everything.

Before Scam School, I had no interest in magic. I figured it was performed by weirdo's in top hats ---> Now, after being enlightened, I've found that magic is performed by weirdo's with blond spikey hair. :D :D

Brian goes just far enough to teach but not ruin it for magic. I don't want to know how all magicians do their stuff, because it really would take away from both the audience and the magicians (in the same way that reading spoilers ruins the experience of watching the actual movie).

[magicnewswire]

Glad you enjoyed the podcast. If you are at all interested in magic, it can be very interesting.

I appreciate your post and couldn't agree more.

[mooy]

The few magic effects that he's taught on the show are things that he got permission from the creator to use on the show. That's not exposure in any way, shape or form.

The problem is not upsetting the creator. ScamSchool and "youtube" is upsetting the some of the magic community because they think i breaks the The Magician's Oath ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magician%27s_code#Secrecy) "As a magician I promise never to reveal the secret of any illusion to a non-magician, unless that one swears to uphold the Magician's Oath in turn."

But in the same sentence is the solution. Lets all swear the Magicans Oath. It will be a solution to the problem or gasoline on the fire.

What are the odds of gasoline on fire do you think?

[rt2rt]

But in the same sentence is the solution. Lets all swear the Magicans Oath. It will be a solution to the problem or gasoline on the fire.

What are the odds of gasoline on fire do you think?

I think depends on if you're talking about gasoline the liquid, or gasoline the fumes ;)
One is definitely more volatile than the other:D

Now I agree that what is Brian is doing is good for magic...well, good for non-magicians like me, for instance. Scam School is immensely entertaining, just as watching him perform without revealing the secret is equally entertaining.
And I've learned a lot, if only to amuse myself, friends and family...but have no inclination to make this my secondary profession, nor even serious hobby... or even really scamming folks out of hard earned cash, like Brian does all the frickin' time ;):rolleyes:

But I don't believe the general public is spending their time seeking out this information, even though they probably know it's available on the web, somewhere...
Sure they'll say "How did you Do that!!?" at the time...
but they don't care enough to seek, even though they may have been amazed and freaked out at the time...it doesn't impact their lives enough to find out if it's worth the secret...they only care for the moment that they were in ATM, in fact, amazed, dazzled and confused (I love it when that happens)

Being a non-magician, I also appreciate the fact Brian is also teaching how not to be a victim of a 'scam' as he calls it...
By showing how you can be scammed, you can avoid being scammed...

but that goes full circle, because how can you know if you don't have a clue about the methods?...
wink, nudge

More to the point I never reveal the trick to people I show it to ...unless...I screw up!
Then I tell all, how it should look and how it was done, give credit where credit is due...luckily those are far and few between...
Hell, they know it's a trick...but not everyone knows it's scam.

The personallity presenting the effect determines the effect perceived.

Just made that last up ...
I did the trick that fooled Einstein twice tonight...on total strangers...my first time, other than family...Nervous insde, cool outside...knowing it would... so I'm entitled to a drink or threee, and Brian gets a free Guiness,
thanks you very much!

[tekniqe]

I'm a performing magician (nothing large scale), but I've done parties and stuff. I can say that if a magician is angry that Brian is busting wide his trade secrets, he's probably not a great magician. Not to knock Brian or anything, I love him (<3), but what he shows aren't the most difficult card tricks. Instead, he's showing something which, and I think most magicians would agree with me, is more difficult. That is, how to use them to interact with people and getting others involved. If I had to choose to improve my people skills (which I would say are already developed pretty well) or my card sleights, I would choose the people skills any day of the week. In my opinion, it goes farther and carries more weight than the technical know how. Way too many magicians are great at sleights, but lack in their patter or the ability to make connections. This is especially true of "Youtube" magicians. Not to say that you can't learn off youtube, but just remember to practice talking to people.

[ozherbie]

I've been a fan of magic for many many years and I'd have to say Brian is the most entertaining magician I've seen since David Blaine. When I pay to go to a show or take the time to watch something on television I'm doing so to be entertained. Brian accomplishes that, which means that he's worth my time.

Yes, Brian does give away how the tricks are performed but tricks is all they are. I've seen parts of his actual shows and he's much more secretive about those performances and the "tricks" involved there. I put tricks in quotes because at their most basic level the things he does during a live performance are as simple as some of the stuff shown on Scam School but Brian, and any good magician, elevates those simple "tricks" into something far greater with the performance they put on.

The thing that some people on the other forum seem to be forgetting is that the actual tricks are only a small part of what magic is. The performance of the trick is where the real "magic of the trick" comes from. Any trick should be practiced until it can be done in your sleep and after that is accomplished the performance can be crafted around the trick. If Brian is revealing a trick and that's ruining someones entire magic "performance" then I'd be willing to bet the "performer" was relying on the trick to sell the performance when they should be relying on the performance to sell the trick.

I know there's going to be people that disagree with me about this but as someone that's been watching and participating in Magic for almost 30 years I'm kinda set in my ways so it's going to take a rather convincing counter-argument to change my mind.

[magicnewswire]

Oh yeah! There's a whole "Let's bash Brian" thread on this topic at the Magic Cafe. They've taken to referring to the show as Scum School.

You'll find two threads actually.

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=344383&forum=15&39

&

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=341211&forum=30&65


It all started after Brian was a guest on our roundtable podcast.

[rikallen]

Oh yeah! There's a whole "Let's bash Brian" thread on this topic at the Magic Cafe. They've taken to referring to the show as Scum School.

You'll find two threads actually.


I can honestly say as a former member of the Cafe (under a different username) that a lot of the members there wouldn't have watched any one episode of this before bashing Shwood. A lot of members there are helpful, a lot of them ride bandwagons...

As an amateur magician (hoping to be pro one day) I can clearly say that nothing Brian does will ever effect my magic. I could perform an effect using the same methods he does to many of the members of the Scam School audience and still fool the hell out of them.
How?
I practice and perform using similar tools, but on a completely different level. The key card principle is one of the most known amongst magicians, but it's also one of the easiest ways to fool a magician. If you take the time to dress up any of the effects in a different presentation then it will look different, and won't register in your brain as being the same. It's kind of surprising how little one needs to know to be better than a lot of performing magicians (no offense to those who are talented, but there are some dreadful professionals...most of which give the rest of us magicians a bad name...)

Brian hasn't done any harm to magic, if anything he's helped a few people gain interest in the field. Revealing something that has already been revealed 100s of times in every beginners magic book (key card, number principles, or even games like nim) isn't hurting magicians.

And as for the magicians oath, it's two-fold. You're not supposed to reveal secrets to non-magicians, but in my opinion the real secrets of magic are hidden so deep in real magic books that Brian wouldn't have time in an episode to really reveal any of them. One method to do one trick that you can impress your friends or even get free drinks with-sure, but make you a full blown magician or even ruin magic for you because you know the methods? Couldn't possibly.