Hi everyone Adam Wilber had recently posted a video on Instagram saying that he is leaving ellusionist and he has started his own online magic shop. How do you see the recent trend of magicians starting solo magic store.
Adam Wilber left Ellusionist
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Adam's video essentially states that he is leaving Ellusionist more or less because of their shady marketing practices and starting his own magic company that will not engage in such practices.
I see this as a very positive thing for all magicians.
I see this as a very positive thing for all magicians.
It’s really weird. I guess it all start by Chris Ramsay leaving E, and everyone is doing that. It makes it pretty difficult for us as costumers, as we have to buy different stuff from different shops, instead of one place. Considering the shipping prices for physical products, it’ll be pretty bad for us.
If you really think about it, Ramsay left to be a Vlogger, not necessarily with the intention of being an independent magic store.
Guys like Alex Pandrea, Jay Sankey, Daniel Madison, and Xavior Spade really have that sort of personality-cult-as-magic-store thing going for them. Oh and Ollie Mealing has been blowing up with his "Mealing Membership" IG thing.
While I have a different perspective on this than most on these forums (due to being on the back end of the magic industry), I think what it really comes down to is that there have been too many people putting out too many mediocre products, and there's too many YouTube reveal videos, to sustain what the magic industry was even only a few years ago.
The bulk of people buying stuff from magic stores are casual performers. Nothing wrong with that, but casual performers don't tend to have the same amount of value perception that serious performers have. So they think anything over $5 is expensive, regardless of what goes into it on the back end to create the product. Part of this is just not understanding where the value of a magic product is, and part of it is (I believe) that YouTube sets the value of magic creations at $0.
So it's harder to make good money through established stores, but putting up a web site with streaming video and/or downloads isn't very difficult. Sell everything as one's own interpretation of whatever, and build a following. Steady money, don't get called out if you 'accidentally' recreate someone else's work, etc.
What I think is interesting, if you think about it, this is kind of going back to the way magic was taught years ago - getting a mentor to teach you directly. While this is obviously not quite the same as the Master/Apprentice scenario that once existed, it's kind of the modern equivalent.
Personally I'll stick with books, but I am finding the development intriguing.
Guys like Alex Pandrea, Jay Sankey, Daniel Madison, and Xavior Spade really have that sort of personality-cult-as-magic-store thing going for them. Oh and Ollie Mealing has been blowing up with his "Mealing Membership" IG thing.
While I have a different perspective on this than most on these forums (due to being on the back end of the magic industry), I think what it really comes down to is that there have been too many people putting out too many mediocre products, and there's too many YouTube reveal videos, to sustain what the magic industry was even only a few years ago.
The bulk of people buying stuff from magic stores are casual performers. Nothing wrong with that, but casual performers don't tend to have the same amount of value perception that serious performers have. So they think anything over $5 is expensive, regardless of what goes into it on the back end to create the product. Part of this is just not understanding where the value of a magic product is, and part of it is (I believe) that YouTube sets the value of magic creations at $0.
So it's harder to make good money through established stores, but putting up a web site with streaming video and/or downloads isn't very difficult. Sell everything as one's own interpretation of whatever, and build a following. Steady money, don't get called out if you 'accidentally' recreate someone else's work, etc.
What I think is interesting, if you think about it, this is kind of going back to the way magic was taught years ago - getting a mentor to teach you directly. While this is obviously not quite the same as the Master/Apprentice scenario that once existed, it's kind of the modern equivalent.
Personally I'll stick with books, but I am finding the development intriguing.
Highly rare, but I agree with everything Christopher just said.
Take the magic shop's in Vegas. The staff are poorly showcasing hover card or whatever else it's called. Looking to nab a young kid or a parent wearing a magic or card related swag. Worse than car salesman.
I wish it was back to the mentorship days. I'd have progressed much quicker than learning a double lift from Jarek120.
It'll be interesting to see where this shift in magic companies goes..
Cheers!
Take the magic shop's in Vegas. The staff are poorly showcasing hover card or whatever else it's called. Looking to nab a young kid or a parent wearing a magic or card related swag. Worse than car salesman.
I wish it was back to the mentorship days. I'd have progressed much quicker than learning a double lift from Jarek120.
It'll be interesting to see where this shift in magic companies goes..
Cheers!
Just dropped $150 each for two books... That tells you where I think the future of magic is.
I'm starting to think that 'magic as a commodity' is not something that can really ever be 'huge'. We may have witnessed the peak of this with the internet pushing so much material and so many gaffs and sub-par tricks.
I remember when I first got into magic around 15 years ago that whilst there was a lot of the cheap, tacky stuff you can pick up at a local shop that's effectively a toy (nothing wrong with these, mind you, it's how most kids start) the really good stuff - professional equipment - still cost hundreds of dollars.
There's only so many sleights and sequences you can string together and sell as a download, there are only so many routines you can make slight changes to and repackage them. As the regulars here always say, books are where it's at. I got more from Ortiz' Strong Magic than any other book since Card College and it doesn't even contain any tricks.
Physical products like cards and utility tools will live on but you can only sell so many. I've never seen a single magician here professional or otherwise raving about all the great gaffs or tricks they've bought, mostly people use a couple of simple tools and stick the gaffs and trinkets in the desk drawer for the rest of their lives.
There's value in books. Maybe it's not cool, but I think online marketplaces are starting to realise that good, sellable products are thin on the ground.
Almost all of the non-book items on my magic wishlist are now discontinued or out-of-stock utility products from over a decade ago - bounce/no bounce balls, peek wallets, super sharpies. I'm realising that there have been very few useful, innovative products in a long time.
Invest in books. Books books books.
I remember when I first got into magic around 15 years ago that whilst there was a lot of the cheap, tacky stuff you can pick up at a local shop that's effectively a toy (nothing wrong with these, mind you, it's how most kids start) the really good stuff - professional equipment - still cost hundreds of dollars.
There's only so many sleights and sequences you can string together and sell as a download, there are only so many routines you can make slight changes to and repackage them. As the regulars here always say, books are where it's at. I got more from Ortiz' Strong Magic than any other book since Card College and it doesn't even contain any tricks.
Physical products like cards and utility tools will live on but you can only sell so many. I've never seen a single magician here professional or otherwise raving about all the great gaffs or tricks they've bought, mostly people use a couple of simple tools and stick the gaffs and trinkets in the desk drawer for the rest of their lives.
There's value in books. Maybe it's not cool, but I think online marketplaces are starting to realise that good, sellable products are thin on the ground.
Almost all of the non-book items on my magic wishlist are now discontinued or out-of-stock utility products from over a decade ago - bounce/no bounce balls, peek wallets, super sharpies. I'm realising that there have been very few useful, innovative products in a long time.
Invest in books. Books books books.
Sorry but I said nothing of the sort!! Please don’t go around saying that I’ve said anything at all negative about Ellusionist. Nowhere in that video did I say a single negative thing about Ellusionist, their marketing or the way they run things.
I am no longer with Ellusionist yet I still have nothing but love and respect for them. Telling people that I left because of some made up reason is just wrong and out of line.
Ellusionist is a great company who’s employees work damn hard to bring you solid, quality magic. I have no idea how you took that video as me leaving E because of shady practices of any kind. That’s simply not true and ignores the multiple times I said how much gratitude I have for E and Brad.
I appreciate you taking concern with my brand and magic but please do not go around putting false words in my mouth, especially about a company that has given me so much over the years.
Thanks
-Adam
Did Adam take the video down? Only thing I can find is the Big News Coming Soon photo.
How do you figure that? I thought it was the misguided people posting the reveal videos on YouTube.
I think it's pretty well agreed that the first exposure to learning magic most people get these days is YouTube.
Those tutorials are not only monetarily free, they also require basically no effort to get to. The most one has to do is search "/trick name/ REVEALED". But on top of that, as I've previously talked about, tutorial videos are put into the suggested video list even if someone isn't looking for reveals.
No money, no effort - no investment.
So the first experience someone will have when wanting to learn magic is that secrets are free. The value of the product is nothing, because people don't give away things that are valuable for no reason.
Compared to free, most prices feel very expensive.
It's very difficult to make money as a creator - so be sure to support your favorites by buying their products, or they may be forced to stop putting them out entirely.
Oh I get it now you mean the “misguided YouTubers” and not the platform itself.
Thanks for clearing things up. Did you take down the video? or was it a story?? I'm not seeing anything...
Can you share the link to the video? I looked for it on his instagram account but couldn't find it. Not sure if he deleted it.
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