Why Magicians Perform The Same Tricks
Why Do I Keep Seeing Magicians Perform the Same Magic Tricks?
If you were to see two different magic shows you will see some of the same tricks in both shows. Were you to watch five different magic shows you will definitely see some of the same tricks multiple times. Then you would ask yourself the obvious question, why do magicians perform the same magic tricks in their shows?
To understand the answer we must first look at how magicians learn magic.
Magic is a secret art and the real secrets of magic are hard to find.
The short answer is, they all learn magic and buy magic from the exact same place: the internet.
Traditionally, someone aspiring to become a magician would approach a professional magician and show a sincere interest and passion in the art of magic. The professional would examine the aspiring conjuror’s talent and decide if they wanted to spend time mentoring and teaching them magic. The student would shadow the professional, help behind the scenes and learn the art of magic as well as the business of magic over many years.
This is how magic worked up until the end of the nineteenth century. In the late 1800s and early 1900s magic became very popular and more and more books started to be published by professional magicians containing some of their real secrets. Of course, this was not as good as having them as your personal teacher but some of the books really were designed to try to emulate that experience. These books covered how a magician should dress, how they should talk and present themselves, how to perform magic tricks, how to put together a show, and how to get booked as a magician. Over the years there have been tens of thousands of books published on magic. That’s millions of pages of magic published with probably tens of thousands of magic tricks in those pages. Readers usually couldn’t see the routines except in their imaginations which drove creativity and uniqueness in their performances and styles.
As magic became more accessible there were various magic clubs, associations, and shops that sprung up around the world. These were places were aspiring magicians, amateurs, and professionals could get together to share and sell secrets and ideas with each other. This community allowed individuals to publish and market their own material and literature to the community without needing a big publisher behind them and much was written on the art of magic during this time.
In the decades to follow magicians started selling magic courses and magic kits on television and soon you could buy magic lessons on VHS tapes and DVDs. Soon most people were only learning magic from video and would consciously or unconsciously pick up habits from the performers they were learning from on video. The cost of video production and distribution combined with the competitiveness of the industry led to higher productions quality being expected by customers which translated into various companies creating monopolies over the industry of magic instructional videos. Eventually less projects would get funded and promoted meaning that the magicians who depended on these resources for learning magic had less variety to choose from. These companies being in competition would wait to see what was successful and try to duplicate success with similar magic tricks.
Magicians were soon all learning the same magic from a few sources.
Then came Youtube which continued the trend that these monopolies began. Except instead of filming DVDs and selling them magicians started just teaching magic secrets and routines online over Youtube for free. They didn’t need to sell magic because they could make money from ad revenue. The more people who watched the video, the more money they made. Magicians would look at what was trending and popular on Youtube and try to duplicate videos that had many views. Teaching magic properly was too burdensome for the platform and didn’t fit well into the algorithm. Youtube favors short content so a magician couldn’t spend an hour teaching a technique properly, they had to do it in five to ten minutes. Magic on Youtube quickly spiraled from people trying to teach magic to people exposing magic with clickbait titles and thumbnails. Many of the teachers on the platform had little to no experience or real knowledge of magic but their viewers didn’t know and so it didn’t matter. The most popular videos all teach a small selection of magic tricks and techniques. The reason for this is people want their videos to rank higher based on popular keywords. The result is that most of the people who learn magic from Youtube are all learning the same magic and techniques.
Even though thousands and thousands of magic tricks have been created over hundreds of years they are like buried treasure and completely unknown to most people except true scholars of magic. Most magicians today have all learnt from the same small selection of popular books and videos so they all end up performing the same or very similar material.
Not wanting to work for their art most just put themselves into the hands of unqualified teachers who dazzled them with empty promises.
Which leads us to today and the state of magic. When you see magicians performing the same magic tricks, many times in the same exact way, it is because they all learnt it from the same place. The way it works is simple: they subscribe to magic channels on Youtube and are on email lists for magic companies. Every few days they will be notified about a new release. Based on how expensive it is and how many people they see performing it they will decide if it’s a commercially viable piece of magic and add it to their repertoire.
They don’t have real mentors, they never apprenticed under professional magicians, they don’t have books on magic, they don’t read about magic, they really don’t know that much about magic at all.
They call themselves magicians but are they?
They sell magic shows but do they?
Performing Something Special
When Trent Reznor heard Johnny Cash cover his song Hurt he was heartbroken. “I listened to it and it was very strange. It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend.” Trent knew that the song was no longer his… that Hurt belonged to Johnny Cash now. All of the great magicians have owned magic. For instance, when Ricky Jay would approach a piece of magic he would do it in such a way that it became his. Everyone knew from then on that that was his trick. That’s what I aspire to do with the magic that I approach. I love classical magic and have also fallen in love with more modern plots that have become instant classics. I never want to do the same magic as someone else though. One of the higher honors I have is when magicians see me perform a well-known routine and tell me that it’s the best version that they’ve ever seen and that it’s my trick now. All of the magic I perform is completely unique to me. Some of the pieces of magic haven’t been performed in hundreds of years and I literally re-engineer them from the ground up to give them new life. Other pieces come from dreams I’ve had throughout my life and my imagination.
Not All Magicians Are The Same
I never wanted to be like everyone else. Many of my inspirations had very powerful and personal styles that affected every piece of magic that they touched. Even though I didn’t know how to discover or create my own style when I was started out I knew how to work hard. I collected and read every book on the art of magic I could find and learnt as much as I could. Today I own and have read hundreds of books on magic, it’s history and it’s allied arts. I traveled the world seeking out great magicians and spent as much time as possible around them to learn what I know. I have been able to travel to dozens of countries and literally lived with some of the best magicians in the world to learn from them and work on magic together.
A Real Magician
People want to hire a magician or book a magician for an event because they want to have an unforgettable event. They want their guests to remember, cherish, and speak of your event for the rest of their lives. Many people are excited when they hear there will be a magician performing or a magic show and then become disillusioned once they experience the magician in question. They figure out how the tricks work either on first sight or with a quick Google or Youtube search. The magician performs magic that they recognize, not because the magic is iconic but because it’s common. They have seen other magicians perform and are disappointed because they want more; they want magic, they want real magic.
There are only a few real magicians left in the world today. They are a rare breed who have the knowledge, the technical ability, the natural charisma, and the professional experience to understand what you need and can do the job. They must able to look at your event, the space, the audience, and the atmosphere to discern what magic to perform and be able to perform at it a high level. Only a real magician is capable to operate in the real world and deliver results that go beyond what the client can dream possible.
