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A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

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Re: A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

#41

Post by irjustin »

mrandish wrote: post #35
silisili wrote: post #32

I remember watching his show in my younger years. I always assumed/thought that 'all magicians hate him' was just to sell the show more, like surely we all know magic isn't real anyways? Apparently that's not the case, it seems.

As a former professional magician and lifelong magic enthusiast, no serious magicians hate this guy. On the contrary, his show was great because it drove interest in magic which is good for working performers. The "Magicians HATE him" shtick was just marketing hype to promote the TV show. Of course there are probably a couple of clueless amateur magicians somewhere out there who will spout about this guy but it's not…

I think out of the "serious magicians" there's also the general "fraud" style. Who were in fact truly angry.

Make a space shuttle disappear[0], or hide an elephant. The TV show revealed all those to be fake and were in fact - paid audiences. My little brain trusted that they weren't paid and wanted to know so bad how the space shuttle disappeared.

Overall the TV and the internet helped push magic to exactly where it is today. Amazing, talented folks who even when you know how it's done, it's so good - it's magic.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lxX3rqhZtw

Re: A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

#42

Post by whstl »

lurkshark wrote: post #30
scop wrote: post #20

I loved his shows when I was a kid. I was pretty into magic (e.g. going to the local shop and buying tricks) and this show was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. I get that it broke many rules, but I think it was well timed. If it had been earlier I think it would have been a true rule-breaking, “we’re exposing secrets cuz we just don’t care” type of thing. But in the 90s/00s it was a moment in which a new gene…

This was exactly my experience as well. It’s kind of funny now with the internet having endless information on illusions to think folks were so miffed by his show. But also — and this might just be my personal bias as someone who always loved the showmanship and execution — it baffles me that anyone would skip seeing a magic show because they saw an explanation (not even nearly THE explanation) of how it’s done. Like…

I have zero patience for watching the tricks by themselves.

Watching the explanations on the other hand is fun.

To me it's like watching a trailer vs watching the full film.

Re: A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

#43

Post by johannes1234321 »

irjustin wrote: post #41
mrandish wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a former professional magician and lifelong magic enthusiast, no serious magicians hate this guy. On the contrary, his show was great because it drove interest in magic which is good for working performers. The "Magicians HATE him" shtick was just marketing hype to promote the TV show. Of course there are probably a couple of clueless amateur magicians somewhere out there who will spout about this guy but it's not…

I think out of the "serious magicians" there's also the general "fraud" style. Who were in fact truly angry. Make a space shuttle disappear[0], or hide an elephant. The TV show revealed all those to be fake and were in fact - paid audiences. My little brain trusted that they weren't paid and wanted to know so bad how the space shuttle disappeared. Overall the TV and the internet helped push magic to exactly where it…

Yeah, I think there is the category of illusionists where it's just disappointing and sad if you learn the truth (oh camera angle and stage moved and thus the statue isn't to be seen anymore) and the category of masters of sleight of hand etc. where you really appreciate the masterfulness and even when you know how the effect was done are more stunned by the precision in the work.

Re: A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

#44

Post by jrochkind1 »

irjustin wrote: post #41
mrandish wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a former professional magician and lifelong magic enthusiast, no serious magicians hate this guy. On the contrary, his show was great because it drove interest in magic which is good for working performers. The "Magicians HATE him" shtick was just marketing hype to promote the TV show. Of course there are probably a couple of clueless amateur magicians somewhere out there who will spout about this guy but it's not…

I think out of the "serious magicians" there's also the general "fraud" style. Who were in fact truly angry. Make a space shuttle disappear[0], or hide an elephant. The TV show revealed all those to be fake and were in fact - paid audiences. My little brain trusted that they weren't paid and wanted to know so bad how the space shuttle disappeared. Overall the TV and the internet helped push magic to exactly where it…

I hadn't heard of that one, but reminds me of David Copperfield 1983 disappearing the Statue of Liberty, which I'm pretty sure was a "real" audience? But is also pretty boring.

Re: A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

#45

Post by criddell »

empath75 wrote: post #17
metalliqaz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen P&T's show in Vegas a few times, and I've seen many of their TV appearances. They do explain how illusions work, but they don't spoil other magicians tricks. They will do an old classic, show it from the "other side", and then while you aren't paying attention they pull off something new, giving no explanation for that one.

You should pretty much never trust magicians who "explain" how their illusions work. Sometimes they genuinely do explain it, but often, it's still another trick. Derren Brown does this a lot.

I used to love watching the Derren Brown specials until he did the one predicting the lottery numbers. That made me realize all of his tv shows could be camera tricks and paid actors.

Re: A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

#46

Post by d0100 »

Weird narrative of Mister M being famous because Brazilians "loathe deception more than anyone"

He got famous because everyone loves magic, and even more when you explain magic tricks

But most importantly, and what the author fails to mentions, it was because at that point in time anything on TV got famous, because TV was the only visual media we had that was "free"

Re: A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

#47

Post by emiliobumachar »

atum47 wrote: post #9
atum47 wrote: post #7

We still, to this day, say: "explain that, Mr. M" when something is not right. "I lend you 10 bucks yesterday for you to buy lunch, today I see you are wearing a new shirt. Explain that Mr. M"

Explain that Mr. M was the catch phrase the host would say after Mr. M perform the trick (illusion Michael) and before he showed how it was done.

Hum, I remember it as "What about now, Mr M?" ("E agora, Mr. M?")

Re: A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

#50

Post by philodeon »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #44
irjustin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think out of the "serious magicians" there's also the general "fraud" style. Who were in fact truly angry. Make a space shuttle disappear[0], or hide an elephant. The TV show revealed all those to be fake and were in fact - paid audiences. My little brain trusted that they weren't paid and wanted to know so bad how the space shuttle disappeared. Overall the TV and the internet helped push magic to exactly where it…

I hadn't heard of that one, but reminds me of David Copperfield 1983 disappearing the Statue of Liberty, which I'm pretty sure was a "real" audience? But is also pretty boring.

The audience was real for the Statue of Liberty. The “magic” was developing ball bearings smooth enough to allow the audience’s seating to be turned without them noticing, in order to give them the same view as the television audience.
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