I already talked awhile back about how a few of my friends saw the show, then called me up exclaiming that they knew how all my "magic secrets" were done now. Ironically, I did not do anything that the masked magician was showing at the time, and neither were most other magicians. I continued to blow them away, and simply told them that the masked magician was only creating "his own" theories on how he thought magic was performed.

This is another case of magicians thinking that the masked magician was doing more damage than he actually did. Oddly enough I was also watching all his shows last night on my old tapes, and I actually enjoyed them. I asked those same friends the other week which effects he exposed, and how they were done. They barely remembered the masked magician let alone the tricks he exposed. Magicians have a tendency to remember something that interests them, (magic) but laymen forget quickly because there is little interest in magic and it's secrets.

Even if they express interest, it is very brief. The fact that people keep making threads about this, and keep bringing it up repeatedly, only makes the situation worse and draws more attention to what many magicians seem to want people to forget. So you are kind of defeating the purpose. Magicians just love bitching about something, and the masked magician gave them something to Edited about...for a very long time. I still do not believe he did much harm, in fact he promoted interest to many.

Exposure is not a good thing, but the items that the masked magician selected were not nearly as lethal as they could have been. I worked full-time as a stage magician at the time, and it had absolutely no impact on me. I told people that he did the show for rating purposes, and was actually fooling them again by making them believe he was actually showing them the real method. But in reality he was actually laughing at them in the back of his mind.

The masked magician's "exposure" is what gave him the world-wide "exposure" that he wanted. So just goes to show you that exposure can go a long way...but only in the case of magicians, not laymen.

had it not been for his special i would not have gotten into magic :S i still hate him though

I thought this guy was just a loser dressed up in a costume when I started magic. I still think the same thing. If we have negative feelings about certain "magicians", we have to ignore them and improve ourselves. I know it's so cliche. The laypeople who got the exposure probably just said "cool" for a few seconds and then went on with their lives. The people who were interested probably eventually ended up here. That's just the way it is.

was the masked magician that one dude on the fox special where the masked guy was revealing all of the street magic?
because when i saw that i was pissed off at how someone could take all the hard work magicians put into their magic and just give it away

That guy is a masked magician but not the subject of this thread. The guy we're talking about wears all black, with a black mask with white streaks on it, performs in an abandoned warehouse and reveals stage illusions.

I thought it was the same guy who did that. The one with the red mask.....what a loser.

That's one of the most intelligent things I've ever heard. Seriously, that's a brilliant comparison. I really don't know where I stand here. I agree completely with the first law of magic, and if you look under the general magic discussion forum, you'll find a topic titled " possible tragedy" but I also can agree with the amazing matt. He DID force new material. Think of it this way:

Criss Angel. That name alone raises two feelings typically. Either A- The greates magician who ever lived. or, B- A fake who deserved nothing. Okay, I've made it known I tend to side with A, but that's beside the point. Take sawing a woman if half for example. If Mr. mask would'nt have exposed this to the public very vividly, it might STILL be performed. I can appreciate the classics, but wow. That's old. It's been done. The point is, Criss took himself, uncovered, and "sawed himself in half." (Yes I know David Copperfield did something very similar.) The big picture here is that Mr. mask inspired people while he commited a huge "crime".

Please do not take this the wrong way no matter what your beliefs are because I assure you I am not racist.

Dr. Martin Luther Kink Jr. This name, as well as Criss Angel (though in completely different fields) raise two reactions. A- A great man who inspired a nation. or B- A terrible influince who......(and we'll stop there because I'm sure you get the picture.) I side with A. Now at the time, he was believed to be commiting a "crime" because although America alloted for free speech, slaves where an exception (and there was no excuse for the exception either.) It did'nt even have to be a slave. An African-American speaking their heart was not taken seriously by hardly anyone at the time.

The point of my entire post here is that there are two sides to every argument, and neither one is really "right" This is what many religions teach including mine. (Christianity) Take the good with the bad. Meaning, expure came with new material. In order for good ( magic ) to exist, there must be evil ( those who expose ) otherwise, how would people learn magic? Take your favorite magician on penguin for example. You like their effects right? You perform them right? How? You had to purchase the secret. Therefore, those of you who say Mr. Mask was pure evil, are saying that magic itself is pure evil, and therefore you are calling your favorite magician pure evil. I'm not saying Mr. Mask was pure good, he was good, yet bad. Again we go back to the old saying....."Take the good with the bad." Or if you prefer the more in depth, "In order for good to exist, there must be evil."

Sorry for the terribly long post. For those of you who read the whole thing, I thank you and hope I have helped your opinion.

-drumbum.

I don't think that exposure on T.V. is a problem. Now don't missinterperet that and take it to say that I think it's ethical. I would never be caught dead simply telling people how a trick works because I can make more money that way, that's kind of greedy. However I think that an ocassional Penn and Teller, or masked magician is probably a good thing. It does, as he said, make magicians come up with new effects, but what you guys are saying is a problem is that it destroys the old effects. However, if you think about it, it doesn't
It's like in acting with ad libs. When you see a good play chances are there is a lot of ad libbing going on,(add-libbing is when the actors throw in lines that were not originally written in the play) It may be a little unsettling to a rookie and cause slight discomfort, but it keeps you on your feet and eventually makes for a better show. You have to be really allert and on top of your game to be able to come up with another add-lib that the audience will approve of. It may be a little more difficult to have to change your show, but not by much.
Just because he told the secret of the trick doesn't mean it ruined the trick for good. All you realy have to do is switch up your routine a little bit(eg.): add new lines or throw in a new twist that is unfamilliar to the audience just to throw them off. Besides if your a good magician you shoudn't need the little "na-na-na-na-na I know something you don't know", your show should still be enertaining to those that know the trick
I think the analogy of changing a musicians instrument is a little off. It's not so much changing the instrument as changing the song/style of music. It's more like making him(the performer, in this case the musician) throw in a few more notes. The instrument , which is missdirection is still the same as it was before. We just have to pick some different "songs" for a while, till the audience forgets some of the old ones.
As far as I've seen the only thing that Valintino did was spark an interest in a new generation of magicians. I , like Lawboy, had my first real sparks of interest from watching the masked magician.

I can agree with you. Just look at Gregory Wilsons Card Stunts dvd (those of you who have it.) Now even though you may know the trick, his performance is still great entertainment. The offbeat, slightly crazy person that he portrays is fun to watch whether you know the trick or not. Make it your performance. Don't take a dvd out of the box, watch it, and say "Okay, THAT is how I need to perform it to get reactions." If you copy the technique of the teacher, you're no better than them. Get your own routine. Make it something memorable. Take Two Card Monte for example. David Blaine does the deal where he "steals" their card by hitting it, while Oz just basically tells them to turn the card over or "Did you feel that?" Just be unique and it does'nt matter if the trick has been exposed or not.

sadly the rate of innovation is much slower than the rate of exposure.

and on the "same old ones", you can always let time do the work and create a variation of it to the point that its unfamiliar.