DECEMBER 2015: ON TV MAGIC, ETHICS IN MAGIC AND CHAMBER MUSIC

“The XXIst century TV magician is an actor playing the part of a magician, who pretends that the guy he’s asking to freely select a card is not another actor playing the part of a spectator”

Well I guess everyone can interpret Houdin the way they want…

Don’t get me wrong, I do like some magicians who occasionally perform on TV. Maybe it is just that magic is not compatible, maybe not with today’s television. It would be perfectly OK if that was the case. The vast majority of wonderful things don’t fit this format. I am not suitable for TV either 😉

I think Chamber Music is as great today as it was three hundred years ago. But maybe if a TV program on Chamber Music did need musicians performing in underwear, a MC telling jokes and a DJ to create “atmosphere” in order to be successful, it wouldn’about Chamber Music anymore.

Is it good for magic to have successful TV shows, no matter what and how it’s done? Is it always good to create a lot of magic enthusiasts regardless of what they think magic is?

I really don’t know.

Are there ethics in magic? Is it wrong to use some methods? It is wrong to use someone else’s act?

Maybe these questions are not the right ones, I think it all depends. On what? On the reasons that drive you to perform magic. If your goal is just to make as much money as possible with magic or to show off your awesomeness in front of people, the range of things you can do to achieve that are wide.

It could also happen that you don’t have the slightest idea of why you perform magic (I’ve been there). Then you can see it the other way round. What would you NOT be willing to do in order to achieve an impossible looking effect?

Maybe the answers will tell you something about why you do magic.

Thanks for reading!

Pipo