Hey people of the interwebs Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.
As I type this post I am chilling out in the sun listening to some music and enjoying the few days of sun we get a year in Scotland.
As many of you will know I spend a lot (probably too much) of my spare time online chatting magic with fellow magicians. In today’s post I thought I would discuss and rant about the pros and cons of the internet in magic.
First let’s start with the pros.
Pros
1. Using the internet you can get feedback on what you’re currently working on. This is one of the ways I improve on trick I will make an unlisted YouTube video and send it to magician friends who live all over the world and get feedback. Another way I will get advice is by jamming and sessioning with other magicians on Skype and various magic video chat rooms. I have found that using these tools they will help you improve in both your technical and performance ability. Also using these tools you can also get feedback from those who you respect in magic. Another thing is you can record effects you think are original and send them to friends who may know where they are published. This happened to me not to long ago with a handling of a mystery card I came up with and it turns out it was a Stephen Tucker trick. Excellent trick check it out.
2. The internet also gives people who don’t have a local magic shop a place to purchase products. I am lucky enough to have a magic store nearby ( Tam Sheperd’s run by the famous Roy Walton) but I do order most of my magic online due to the fact I don`t have the chance to go to the city as often as I would like. I feel magic stores like Alakazam, Theory11 etc give people who live, where there is no magic community a place to buy all the latest magic products. So these stores can be a great thing.
3. Using the internet you can meet magicians who you probably won’t have met if the internet hadn’t been invented. I have met some of the most amazing magicians you will ever see online and I have become great friends with them. I hope one day we can all meet up and have a session sometime in the near future.
4. One of the main advantages of the internet is that you can find reviews of tricks that you are considering purchasing. Places like The Magic Network , theory11, The Blue Crown and loads more online forums offer a section where there members can submit reviews and from these you can work out if this product is worth the money (this could also be a bad thing for those who release really rubbish products). Also in case you don’t know my blog has a reviews section. Click the reviews section above for a list of products I have reviewed.
5. Internet downloads are currently one of biggest trends in magic and these can be a good thing. These downloads as I said can be a good thing because you can watch the trailer of a trick, think the trick is for you, pay for it and then watch it. This can all happen in less than 5 minutes whereas years ago people would have need to go to the magic shop, watch someone demo the trick, purchase it, come all the way home then watch/read it and this would take probably a good few hours or even a full day and even then the store may not have the product you are looking for in stock.
I know there are probably a million more reasons why the internet is a good tool for magic but these are the ones I felt that matter most. Now on to the cons. Before we start I admit this section of the post will more than likely turn out to be me just ranting on and on but I have to get my point across.
Cons
1. The internet makes it easier for people to illegally obtain magic that they haven’t paid for. The reason this is really bad is because people make a living from selling these products and by illegally obtaining these products you are basically stealing food out of these creators and their families mouths. You wouldn`t go up to their dealers stand at a convention and steal one of their products from under their nose so WHY THE HELL would you do it over the internet. These products you illegally obtain you may never use or perform but you are still taking away from these people. I hope that any of my readers of this blog post who illegally download magic DVDS/books will stop.
2. As I said above I use YouTube a lot for feedback but a lot of magicians have never performed for real people and only ever showed magic to a webcam. I have nothing against these people they may not be confident enough or magic could be a guilty pleasure they have or something else. The thing that annoys me most about people like this is when they act like they know everything about magic. Sure they may know about technical ability and such like but when they talk about how to interact with people or even anything performance related they have no say because they have never experienced performing for a crowd of people (drunk people are the worst) and when they do their views on both magic and performing will change a lot. I know mine did.
3. This brings me on to my next point and it is that people can easily be misled into believing that people know what they’re talking about when I reality they have no clue. I have been on a few well known magic forums where the moderators of these forums have not had a clue what they’re talking about and the people who do know what they’re talking about end up arguing with these moderators and eventually end up getting banned when they are right and the moderators are wrong. I like to call these people “TROLLS WITH POWER” and that is the main reason I try to stay away from a certain magic forum you all should know what one.
4. One of the things I really dislike about magic online is that magic producers can print “limited edition” playing cards and sell them for a load of money. I know this is there business and this could be a good thing but when they over hype them for months and then kids come up to you at conventions/ magic club meetings and say “have you seen these card” and that’s all they care about and these cards are just an advert for a magic company (D+D do this a lot) all I will say is what I told a friend of mine “THERE JUST CARDS WHO GIVES A DAM”. I will be honest I do own custom cards but I will never try and sell them on EBay for 10 times the price like most kids now days do.
5. One of the worst things about the internet is the amount of people who expose tricks on YouTube. Yeah these are a good place to start out but these people probably fall into the category of the people I have listed above and most of these people (usually kids) handle and perform the trick really bad and if you’re learning from people like that you are more likely to follow the trend.
Now I thought I would add some extra pros or cons I got from some friends.
Bonus pro
As my good friend Edward Boswell said the biggest pro of the internet is that you get to see how good/bad other people are. This is a great thing in my mind.
Bonus con of magic on the internet
When I asked my good friend Aaron Smith a magician from right here in Scotland what the pros and cons of magic and the internet were he said “The Magic Café need I say more?”
A bonus con of technology and magic
This one came from Dain Miller and he said tricks with devices such as the iPhone can make the trick less impressive because the audience know that there is some kind of technology involved.
One of the biggest pros of the internet is that the internet gives youngsters and some older people a place to start in magic. Overall I think that the internet is a great tool if you use it appropriately and I encourage people to use it to their advantage.
Well that’s it from me I hope enjoyed it, be sure to share with your friends on all the social networks you use. If you want to discuss this topic further with me be sure to contact me on any of the ways listed below.
Would like to thank everyone who helped me out with this post. Can`t list everyone but thanks for helping out.
Thanks
Steven Blair :)
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