Visions, The Online Journal of the Art of Magic

OK, here’s one that really gets under my skin…

To become a magician, I practiced long and hard. I compiled a library of books, magazines, videos and effects. I waded through all this material, gleaning the stuff that works best for me and plays strongest. (It literally took years to put some acts together that were worth getting a fee and years after that in performance before I started charging a fee.) I have thousands—tens of thousands, maybe—of dollars invested in my magical education.

So maybe you will understand why I take umbrage with the ever-growing mob who feels that they are somehow owed all that material absolutely free and without having to make any effort beyond simply asking for it!

“I’m young!” “I’m poor!” “I don’t have time to shop around.” “I don’t want to have to get the whole book—just explain the best routines from it to me.” “Why can’t you just dub that video and photocopy that manuscript for me?” “Just because you had to put all that time, effort and money into magic doesn’t mean I should have to!”

Guess what? I was young and broke when I started magic. So I saved up my pennies and I bought a book and some cards. I went to the library. I was going to school, I was on sports teams, I sang in the choir and I had a paper route, so I didn’t have a lot of extra time, either.

There seems to be—no, scratch that—there IS, in a very large part of the magic community, the expectation that more experienced magicians should just give away all their favorite effects to anybody who asks, particularly if that person happens to be a youngster. I just don’t buy that, in large part because what costs us nothing is rarely of any value to us.

Think of a youngster who wants to play the piano. His parents search out a good teacher. Guess what? They have to pay for lessons, the kid has to invest time and effort to learn to play well, and it is highly unlikely that the teacher will give the student her piano! Perhaps down the road, after years of commitment and dedication, the teacher will buy a piano as a gift to a particularly gifted student with whom she has built a close bond. But it certainly isn’t expected, and especially before the teacher knows anything about the student.

I have even had people tell me that magicians who create material should not sell their effects or books or videos, but rather they should just give them away—complete with the props! How arrogant, thoughtless, unreasonable and just plain stupid! Even my sponge ball routine, which is relatively inexpensive to put together, still costs me about $12.50 at wholesale prices (for sponge balls, purse frame, a special gimmick and the printed instructions). So I’m just supposed to give away $12.50 to every single person who happens to think they might like to learn my routine? Ludicrous!

Listen, I have no problem, not at all, with giving a dedicated student tips and advice and finesses that I have learned through the fires of performing experience. I have given free lessons to folks who have proven that they are sincerely committed to learning magic. But that is a far cry from teaching anyone who asks the method to any trick they want to know! (Even if you set aside the ethical issues of teaching marketed or privately distributed routines by other creators.) I don’t owe anything to someone who simply expresses a passing interest in the “secrets” of “the good stuff.” I owe the creators whose material I perform. I owe the people who took the time to mentor me out of the goodness of their heart after I proved to them that I wanted to learn and that I loved and respected the art. I owe the giants who have come before that elevated the art to new levels and poured their blood, sweat and tears into making it better. Those are the people I owe.

So, to those who ask, “Why should I have to invest all that time, energy and money, just because you did?” I respond, “Why should I give you for free what cost me all that time, energy and money?”