In continuing with my previous post, I can’t help but think about the magic world I was a part of, loved and still cherish. While not pretending to rise above the criticisms I’m about to lay out, my concern for capturing the imagination of an audience started with what happened in that performance art.

The effectiveness of a magician relies on one crucial component: the method.

The method, or the secret if you will, is everything. When an audience knows the method, or even think they know it, the act is ruined. A polite crowd will still come along for the ride, but the wonder of the moment is lost.

A professional, or one with an attitude of a professional, will either spend countless hours practicing until the method is invisible or spend the same number of hours on finding ways to misdirect the audience so they don’t suspect the method. The very best do both.

Early magicians will imitate the very best, or use the prescribed routines offered to them in their training books or videos. There is nothing inherently wrong with this when you’re learning as I find it akin to a budding musician playing the songs of their favourite artists. However, unlike a musician who plays cover songs and can have a fun career with it, you can’t have this in magic.

At some point, you’re going to need to bring your imagination and ingenuity into it (also a great marketing team—but that’s a whole other topic).

There was a worry that exposure videos on YouTube would bring the end to magic. Logically, if the success of a magician is dependent on the method, then the obvious conclusion is no magician can be successful thanks to the endless videos online that give away the method. However, this hasn’t been the case.

For one, careful and disciplined students of these videos can produce incredible magicians.

Next, magicians have learned to keep their best routines away from video sharing sites.

And finally, the average person doesn’t spend their entire evenings searching for these methods.

What I’m seeing right now is something similar that’s happening in education. There is a widening gap between the incredible magicians who are performing magic at levels that are unbelievably creative and original (very small percentage), those who are doing a decent job imitating them (a slightly larger percentage than above) and the rest who I lump into the categories of competent and horribly amateur.

I am not above reproach here. By the end of my tenure as a magician. I was in the competent category, at best, but always aiming for the top. The ambition was always to be an original.

I’m not seeing that anymore.

Just like the generative AI flood, magic seems to be aiming for that second tier. Let somebody else be original and the rest will imitate.

And just like students who use these tools in a poor and obvious way, the imitators will do the same, which is where the death of magic comes in. Nothing ruins magic like an act done poorly. And having to put in a great effort to make it look good is lost on so many.

Hence, a handful among a deep pool that rise to the top.

It’s just not enough.

That’s why I was so enamoured with Nate Staniforth’s work. He understood that magic was dying.

But maybe I’m wrong.

Actually, I hope I’m wrong.

I hope I’m only seeing a small slice of a much wider world and missing a bigger picture.

The thing is… I might be completely off base and the reality is much worse.

(Continued next post)