Post
by Big Wallaby » Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:50 am
Kwahati... If you like performing magic, then you need a "Control Deck". If you're interested, let me know. I can send you right where you need to go.
In magic shops, everything would seem overpriced, but again, that's because of the secret. To put the Origami together yourself would cost somewhere in the range of $3,000... or less if you're cheap... but to know the secret, that is where the other $22,000 comes in.
The neat thing about stage illusion is that it's very difficult to catch. I know how Criss Angel does most of his stuff, I know for a fact that I can do everything Copperfield can do, given the money to buy the equipment necessary... yes, even Flying as he did so many years ago. The thing that I can't touch with Copperfield is the way in which he engages the audience, and that is where my respect for him lies. Technically, I am probably as good a magician as him... but he performs illusion like no one else out there. I just find it sad that he's sorta going the same way as Criss Angel and David Blaine in that he is making it a spiritual thing, despite the fact it's not, but mechanical. But no one can touch Copperfield's love of his audience. A few years ago, he was out performing something like 700 shows a year, got deathly sick and continued playing, because he would not have disappointed his fans. It took doctors and heavy sedatives to convince him to take a break, and even with that he cancelled as few shows as possible. Now, you know he didn't do the shows because he needs the money, but for his audience. I drove the flight attendants on a flight he had been on one night, and it turns out that his humanity is that he has a fear of flying. However, before he knocked himself out on the plane, they said he was the nicest celebrity they've ever flown with. You could have mistaken him for a laid-back version of a Japanese businessman.
The second best magician, in my book, is Lance Burton. He's another one who is first concerned with engaging and enjoying the audience, with the illusions themselves second.
In case you can't tell, I have a certain thing that is important to me when it comes to magic. In my head, I probably hold anywhere between 1.5 and 10 million dollars in magic secrets, which for an illusionist is not much, when it comes right down to it. But all those secrets do nothing for me now, because they in no way help me to entertain my audience. I take that back... when I am waiting for a bus to show up in front of a line, I usually pull something out of my pocket and make it disappear/reappear/redisappear and so on for kids of all ages. But my stage illusion history means little to me, except in that it helps me to understand the magic I protect where I am now.
My opinions are mine and mine only. If my opinions are the opinion of others who happen to share whatever my crazy views may be, then fine, but it's not because I represent them in having my opinions. Got it?