STOP BLOODY SHOWING MAGIC IN YOUR SCHOOL!

This applies only to ANYONE who are ALWAYS doing TRICKS for ANYONE who walks past them in class. AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE, DON'T PERFORM FOR YOUR CLASSMATES like magic is your life. Get a real life. Please.

Don't kill the art.

Screw up one sleight, and your whole school bloody knows how the trick is done. And yet, you are just doing tricks. Not bloody effects, or routines or sets. Don't call a 'routine that includes ACR and 2CM and CMH and CTP 'effects' or 'illusions' if they are tricks. Performing magic 'impromptu' in the school canteen during lunch is just that. Showing a trick when someone asks you to is just that. These tricks are for amateurs. Don't bloody call it 'street magic'.

A good magician is always 'prepared'. But are you 'prepared' to say NO when someone asks you to 'show a trick?'

Your classmates are NOT stupid. Laymen are NOT idiots. When you review a trick with a fellow magician, don't ever say, "Can you see this from a layman's perspective?"
So don't 'teach' your entire school how a sleight is done. Do you even know what I'm talking about? By performing the SAME tricks (yes, tricks) over and over and over again, for 'different' groups. if you have a different repertoire for 270 school days, you're exempted..

Hell, if you're not good enough, don't perform in school. Go find some 'stupid' laymen on the street and let them PRETEND to be fooled while PRETENDING to be entertained.

Two years from now, most of Singapore will forget about magic. If you persist in your childish performing patterns, then most likely YOU will forget about magic too. But please DO anyway, we have more than enough 'magicians' who can't entertain a single member of any audience.

Why does this sound personal?

Because it IS.

My magic IS personal, to me, and to my audience. I take a PERSONAL stand against people who destroy MY art.

Time to start THINKING about your 'magic', ladies and gentlemen.

STOP DOING TRICKS AND PUZZLES.

Stop satisfying your ego.

sheesh.

thanks for reading.


This article is in the competition. Follow-up with 'VOTE' if you want me to get that dang book.

A bit harsh and I'm sure a lot of people will still continue to do it in school. But I agree, so I VOTE.

Thanks MagicDow. Yeah, it's harsh. But no one would care anyway. Not many out there are thinking hard enough. So be it.

I feel that 95% of 'magicians' locally do not give the respect that magic deserves. That's all, really. If you don't have respect for your art, don't perform it. And this is why laymen always feel pissed about magicians and being fooled.

Magic here in Singapore is geared for a child's mind.

Not children magic, because God knows people will misinterpret that statement, but stupid magic. Magic that doesn't make sense. Magic that does not entertain. Magic that was bought for $25, taught by an expert in a shop that everyone in the country goes to. Magic that goes like this:

"Choose a card, any card."

"You had a free choice right? You can choose any card in the deck, and I didn't do anything to influence your choice right?"

"Look, if I put your card back into the deck like THIS - it rises to the TOP!"

"I'll do that again - SLOWLY. That's your card right? Free choice of card right? It goes into the deck again. I push it back in. Do you see me holding any b****s? No right? Am I doing anything funny? No? Free choice right?"

"Without doing ANYTHING, your card jumps back to the top!"

"Once more..."

"Free choice right?"

Oh yeah. This reply is in the competition. Please follow-up with Vote if you still, after all the nonsense that you BELIEVE I have written, feel that I deserve that book about magic theory.

Come on, 19 views and only one vote? Not even an "I give my VOTE because it's about magic theory!" ?

Dang

Rare to find Farid firing away. Something happened?

1 Vote from me!

(but i think performance in sch is ok provided no exposure, no over-performing and no "show-off"/amateurist attitude towards the art)

harsh, but i definitely agree with many of the points.

many "magicians" just do not understand that magic is not just abt fooling ur audience and "tricking" them. its a harmony of various theatrical factors which must exist as a whole.


(finally, it seems that there are an increasing number of articles for the competition being towards non-laymen, even though laymen are the target audience for this article-writing competition.)

anyway, i will still vote for good articles. this is only my 2nd vote.
(just like magic, keep ur votes exclusive, no point voting for every1)

magic will never be the same. many have abused the art, more will follow. we can do nothing but blame the sources. or can we?

Nothing happened Aloy. Had a tiring day physically, so in order for my still active mind to tire out, I decided to type out my true feelings about the topic. i.e. performing in school.

I've had ENOUGH of CRAP 'magicians' who think they are doing 'magic' when all they do are tricks.

On a brighter note,

These 'magi' forced me to learn and THINK about my magic, and do effects which are above standard 'supposedly laymen-foolers'.

So yeah, those crap magicians get a piece of my undying gratitude.

You know who you are.

im very glad farid said all these. i had the same sentiments but wouldnt go to such an extent to voice them.(i prefer to be indirect)

bravo!!

think abt it, the title probably does attract the target grp huh?

(whoever's offended, just take it as a joke)

haha wow that's an interesting article.

Vote.

Farid, I don't agree on not performing for people in my school, nor performing in the streets. I get some of my gigs that way, and great opportunities arise that way. Most magic sucks, that I agree. If you have to reject a performance, let it be for exclusivity. Let it add value to your performance.

Regarding not performing, if you don't go out and perform to people, then why do you practise? How do you gain experience? Nobody starts with immediate gigs, and nobody will hire someone they know nothing about. Nobody can perform for their family for the rest of their life. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Ken Weber said "The amateur performs different tricks to the same audience. The professional performs the same tricks to a different audience."

Hone your art and be the best in what you do.
We should never be a jack of all trades and masters of none.

The sad fact that Farid has mentioned is that, yes, MANY magicians lack good presentational skill. But there's no better way to improve your presentation than to perform and learn from what you do.

Farid's complaint probably rests in the fact that most magicians are just too cocky and egotistical to want to improve and keep learning. Plus, there are too many of these new 'wannabe' magicians popping up. Remember the articles on SMC in the papers? Indeed. We saw many new lurkers. But I don't agree that Singapore will "forget" magic in a few years. If you love your art, then do something about it. Especially if you think it'll fade away.

At the same time, this article definitely is some food for thought.

VOTE.

Regarding Gordie,
I'm sick of your useless banter and the way you love provoking flourishers. If you think your 'joke' was funny, I'd give my opinion. You are not funny. And no flourisher will take that as a joke. Please be a little more matured. I am no mood to start a debate on this thread with you either. It's for Farid's article. If you take offence to this, take it as a joke. Have a great day.

Huron

It's true really. Some people take magic as a way to satisfy their egos and in the process kill the art. I do share the same sentiments as you but it's not as personal to me as it is to you

vote

Yo Huron, thanks for the reply. I appreciate it a lot.

My response is this. I agree with all that you say. But my point is, the first few lines of my article says who I'm talking about.

"This applies only to ANYONE who are ALWAYS doing TRICKS for ANYONE who walks past them in class. AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE, DON'T PERFORM FOR YOUR CLASSMATES like magic is your life. Get a real life. Please."

This is NOT my personal attack against anyone in particular. This is MY personal attack against ALL those who fall in the above category, PLUS those who don't give their magic serious thought.

What's that? I'm being a hard-ass, you say?

What 'serious thought' am I bloody harping about?

"Magic is just my hobby what...", I hear you WHINE.

LISTEN UP BUB.

Even a stamp collector seriously thinks about his hobby. Otherwise, he'll have around 50 of the same stamps, and his most expensive stamp will have a coffee stain. There is respect for the ART of stamp-collecting.

Someone who paints as a hobby does not draw crap without thinking.
RESPECT for painting.

Someone who bloody READS as a hobby does not read any crap that comes his way. It's either Grisham or Clancy, J K Rowling or Christie. RESPECT for knowledge found in books.

BUT how many 'magicians' just perform without structuring patter, no practice, and thinking how the routine would entertain?

Ahhh... isn't this the field of 'impromptu' magic? Bullcrap.

In magic, impromptu is planned. You just don't know WHEN you're performing, but you sure as hell know WHAT to do, WHAT to say and HOW to do it. Can someone who DOES not know HOW to do the linking rings perform it 'impromptu' for the first time?

And to both Gordie and Huron, I did not call this article Flourish for nothing. Everyone knows I don't flourish. I have my reasons. If you flourish, you have yours. Who's to say I'm better than you?

But the title of this article means more than what it normally means. Think about it. Look up a dic.

hmmm...quite true.... i've seen quite a lot of guys in my school doing magic to all their friends and stop after a while... many secrets are revealed this way cause

1. These people dun take it seriously, thus they dun really practise and the secret will be revealed.

2. effect being revealed dun mean a sh*t to them, cause they'll say, " I not professional also..."

also, what happens when spectators learn about the secret? you don't expect them to just 'forget' about it... they WILL remember cause they are not suffering from amnesia, and maybe someday they'll just reveal it to another person in some sort of random conversation. So please people who are starting to learn magic... dun go around performing for your friends and calssmates... instead, perform to your adult relatives (grandmother, old people) cause they certainly will not give a damn to the secret being revealed...

this article is kinda harsh, but quite true. I'l give my VOTE to it...

Let's tone it down 1 notch in here can we? :)

Constructive discussions and communications, not negative critisim with no assistance. B)

And SERIOUSLY. Don't even ATTEMPT to TRY to start another flourisher/magician fire please, coz i will personally pee on it to put it out. B)

SMC loves magicians.
And SMC loves flourishers.
They are not the same thing.
But we verily welcome people who do both or either one of them.

We hope to see more magicians respecting flourishers.

And we hope to see more flourishers respecting magicians.

And we will all love each other, and set our sights on PROPELLING THE ART FORWARD, rather than focusing on the splinter in thy brethen's eye.

ok? B)

Reading is not my hobby but you mentioned Christie for Agatha Christie? She's like the best author in the world :wub:

THat's it... I have no choice but to VOTE!

*Edit* - I guess I should say something about this article. I stopped performing magic for my friends a long time ago because seriously, all of your friends know that you can't do magic, only tricks. It doesn't matter if your patter is very beautiful because the fact is, your friends are not stupid. They know that you are fooling them somehow. Friends, especially guys, got their ego and they don't like to be fooled.

Of course there are exceptions. If you know your friends will appreciate your magic, then give them the gift of amazement. This is quite rare though.

Intereting article, but IMOa lil bit harsh. but its bloody darn true. u got my VOTE .

i assure u that i have no intentions whatsoever to start or participate in another debate. all of my views on this issue have been fully presented previously, and there is no point repeating my beliefs.

so far, i have seen only 1) non-criticisms and 2) useful criticisms. nothing more.

and yes, i can take jokes. :) some jokes here and there will make this forum more lively wouldnt it?

and trust me, i will generally not even consider using harsh tones agasint others, nor use personal attacks and degratory terms on anyone. i am at peace with myself, and most definitely do not have a great sense of insecurity. :unsure: haha

just wondering, there is something vague here... who is this "SMC" and "we" being referred to?

WE would just like to know.. :P

1 point of disagreement. 1stly, we shouldnt be out to "fool" them. a magician should always try and entertain with magic and not allow the audience to feel "fooled". being fooled is always associated with being stupid, and that is exactly what they will feel they are, and hence not like ur "tricks". no one will believe u can do magic, but they should not believe u are "tricking" them.

but generally well said. guys usually would try to "find it all out", but its our jobs as magicians to prevent the "magic is a puzzle" attitude within the audience. and yes, if i do see anyone who appreciates magic, i will entertain them.

regarding your point on "your friends are not stupid", this is very true for me. cos all who are not stupid are my friends. :)

er, but the title of this is "Flourish, nothing to do with the above word"?

and i do believe that there are such thing as "better reasons". and that is mainly determined by its degree of convincibility. many many factors will affect how convincing something is. every1 has a right to judge, and all these are for us to attain "The Truth".

"The Truth" is not subject to subjectivity, and "The Truth" is what we seek. Therefore, we should not always just say "u think what u want, i think what u want". im frankly quite sick of this. in order to achieve our quest to find out "The Truth", we should let opinions clash. let's not escape the fact that opinions will and do clash, nor attempt in anyway to stop this inevitable process.

hey Farid I agree with you about performing magic in school. Up till now, my friends don't know I'm a magician. However, your article will not get a vote from me due to several reasons:

1. This article is way too harsh and hints at vulgarities
2. This article is suppose to be for the general public
3. If the general public reads this article, they would probably think that there's a conflict in SMC.

There, you have my comments. Peace.

"The Truth" may exist for a mathematical problem, but there is no "The Truth" in art. There cannot be an absolute, in art, it's the very essence of it.
However, having said that, it doesn't mean because it's art is a free for all where everything goes. There are certain experiences that we can all learn from, and there are technical skills where we can all train in. There's a "soul" that should be obeyed.

I'm not saying that we should all keep mum for fear of offending others. I am saying we shouldn't provoke for the sake of provoking. That opinions shouldn't crash for the sake of making a noise.
But we should always take the least offensive approach to putting something across clearly. Where effective communication takes a higher priority to proving someone wrong.

"The Truth" is, to have in-your-face arguments is very time and energy exhausting. And while we can argue that this is for the "greater good", we have to consider at what expense?
If all movie directors do is talk about what they don't like about each other' and engage in ivory tower arguements about what is the best cinematography, or what makes a good movie script, then film would never have advanced thus far as an art form.

Is magic so advanced that we should sit back in our ivory towers? Erm....not yet.
Even if we have it absolutely spot on, we would only have it in our own castle in the air.

Anyways, this is off topic enough. I am planning to write something about this but I need to have a free-er time. But let this line of discussion end here. :)

Cheers :)

Thanks for the comments Blackwing. I am aware of the first two points you made, but did not realise the possibility of the third. Though I agree with it, I hope that the article is pertinent enough to some of us in here, and as a result those affected lot would start to do something about it.

And Aloy - alamak brudder! You go write essay in my entry pulak.

"Endorsement" brudder.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

what do you mean we shouldn't be out to "fool" them? You're just playing with the english language.

The fact is that magic is the art of fooling people. Name me one magic effect where the audience doesn't get fooled? How do you make the audience not feel fooled when you have just fooled them with your magic?

Please enlighten me Mr. Gordie because it's something that I'm honestly not capable of. Sure the audience gets entertained by my magic, but ultimately they were fooled and they loved the fact that I could fool them. That's the whole purpose of magic.

Anyway I love this article by Farid.

i am playing with the english language. and that is because that is where all our implied connotative meanings come in. the word "fool" is always used in a degratory way in english. surely u dont want your audience to feel that u fooled (meaning as from dictionary: deceived) them, and make them feel like fools, or that u are playing the fool with them, making a fool of them with fool-proof magic.

when u are out to deceive people, they are out to ensure that u do not deceive them. and this is when the magician presents his magic with a challenge attitude. (refer to Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz on this subject - if u even bother abt magic theory)

the essense in magic is presenting the impossible for the ENJOYMENT of all. think abt it, there is supposedly no explanation for magic. but because we do not present what we do as real magic, we should not have the audience to even think about explanations so as to duplicate what real magic would seem like.

and if people do not consider the explanations and it seems that there is no explanation, how can there possibly be any fooling?

it may seem, from the performer's point of view, that technically, we are fooling the audience. but that, as i said, is not the essense of magic. magic is not the art of fooling others, it is the art of the impossible. the focus is on "isnt this amazing?" instead of "haha, u dont know how i did this."

but it is a given that any apparent impossibility will pose an implicit challenge to an audience to find a natural explanation. all these will happen in the subconcious mind. The audience should have to accept in the end that there is no apparent explanation, instead of "i do not know what the explanation is".

almost all magic effects can be not about fooling the audience. but it has to depend on the performer's attitude and presentation. in ur case, there is probably no magic effect that is not about fooling others. its a "mightier than thou" attitude (that is getting increasingly common).

as pambudi has wonderfully stated during his lecture at the AMN sale, no one would say, "hey, lets watch a magic show cos i want to be fooled!". no one likes to be fooled because it is an insult.

i seriously doubt any audience can be truly entertained if magic is presented as trickery and deceit.

im glad u loved this article. farid did state 1 good point:

"STOP DOING TRICKS AND PUZZLES."

it's late, and I'm tired.

but Farid's article (and the follow ups) definitely deserve lots of credit, so VOTE.

look, can we stop talking bout all this for a sec? sheesh man. We should just wait for Aloy to start his topic about this ' argument '. In the meantime, go sharpen your parangs and machetes, I'm ready for a war.

nah, we should just bring out all the points we have now. (cos i wont feel like posting anything on cold topics) in fact, this topic should be split into 2 to faciliate discussion and contribution of ideas.

Right. Anything, Aloy isn't here so lets argue now. I still disagree with your opinion on not allowing your audience believe that you are doing magic.

im still waiting for ZzaG to take his fair turn...

and let's keep our discussions on "real magic" to the topic u created.

Simply, when you're out to show you can do something, you just plain s*ck (and it's not "sick").

It's all entertainment folks, make your audience happy, they've paid (or taken their time) to see you.

Nice article farid, taking out the not-so-taboo out of the water. Vote.

(let's not quote each other anymore, it makes our posts too long)

Reply to Gordie:

You got my point totally wrong. I was talking about performing for friends. Friends know you can't do magic. They know you can't do the impossible. They know that you are doing magic tricks on them (especially after the recent magic exposure on television). This is of course unless they are ignorant and if they are, they wouldn't enjoy your performance anyway.

That is one point I mentioned which I believe you don't agree with me. If you really can make your friends believe you can do real magic, then I will truly respect you. By friends, I meant those whom you joke around with everyday.

Another point of mine is that magic fools people. You said that "magic is not the art of fooling others, it is the art of the impossible."

I say "if it's impossible, then how did you do it?". There has to be some way the effect you did was achieved. So doesn't that make magic an art of fooling people? Think about it!

Even if you managed to mesmerise them with your magic and they were very entertained and very amazed, did you know that for that moment, you just tricked them into thinking you did real magic?

Yeah and after that, 2 things might happen:
They will either think you are gifted and can do real magic. (like what most people think of david blaine)
Or they will rationalise everything and say that you tricked them somehow.

Notice that either way, the audience got fooled.

Sincerely,
ZzaG

There seems to be a lot of issues with the word 'fooled'. This is not important, nor will it ever be of importance if you stop giving it the weight it does not deserve.

Pambudi said in his lecture, "no one would say, "hey, lets watch a magic show cos i want to be fooled!""
I believe many have started to take this statement at face value. Though I know there is some truth in this statement, I am still not convinced that most of us are actually thinking about it.

Are we sure that NO one wants to watch a magic show to be fooled? Is it such an impossibility that a layman likes to be fooled? Is being fooled necessarily a bad thing?

Gordie said that 'no one likes to be fooled be becaused it is an insult'. Does this apply to everyone? And again I ask, is being fooled a bad thing?

Zzag said, "Even if you managed to mesmerise them with your magic and they were very entertained and very amazed, did you know that for that moment, you just tricked them into thinking you did real magic?"
I still ask the same question - is this a bad thing? Or is it a good thing that you tricked your audience, or is it something you shouldn't bother about - because ALL you do is entertain?

How about this: Is fooling an important part of your magic? Do you need to fool to entertain? Do you need to REDUCE that fooling to entertain? Do you just want to fool and not entertain at all?

It is not enough to say, "Oh, everyone's philosophy is different. Let him do it his way, and I mine"? Should there be some standard on how much you can fool a person before he loses that entertainment feeling?

Obviously no one would say,''Let's watch a magic show because I want to be fooled tonight!", but then why DO people still watch magic?

Simply to be entertained?
Then why not watch a movie, or theatre, or porn?
Does the the magic audience know in one way or another, they WILL be fooled, but they are entertained anyway?

If you put a coin in your fist and it DOES NOT vanish, no one will be fooled. But no one is entertained either. Obviously because there was NO magic. Nothing happened. When Pam does one of his crazy book tests, are you entertained that you were fooled? Do you go home thinking, "That bloody magician, he so clever, he think he can trick me is it, with his so-called mental powers of mind reading and bloody psychokinesis?"

I urge you to think about this. THINK about what makes our art worthwhile and significant for US to perform, than just something which fools, or doesn't fool, or entertains or doesn't entertain.

Just what ARE we doing really?

i am doing magic because it seems to make the impossible possible. and when people experience this fantasy story, are mesmerised, i feel extremely satisfied. magic is like a fantasy story, it doesnt truly exist, but while the story is still going on, u enter into that world. magic can fool if either the magician or the audience has a challenge/puzzle attitude. but if u are going to fool the audience, the audience will never enter into that fantasy story, but rather view it from afar, with a strong sense of scepticism.

(this is a reply to zZaG too)

I don't know how that is a reply to my post because everything you said seems to be irrelevant to what I said but it is good that you're showing your audience that you are able to do the impossible.

To Kryptikalism:
Yes, the issues I was talking about are not very important in helping us perform since I was just talking about Human Behaviours. It is however important in helping us choose when and to whom to perform.

Conclusion: Magic fools people PERIOD.

we understand the term "fool" differently. if u want to be so technical about it, so be it. anyway, u have made up your mind on what u want to believe already.

i resign voluntarily from this discussion.

10 votes