honestly i dont like the way magic is sort of pop culture nowadays...Dont get me wrong its great that more people want to get into magic, but a couple years ago, getting into magic was either you buy some books or you make the effects up yourself. I find this way is at least creative. Reading a book = skill, thought, imagination and creativity. Making up effects= extreme creativity. I find what makes magic fun is that its chalenging.
Nowadays as soon as someone wants to get into magic they go to the first point of reference they can go to...the internet. where they are taught tricks by kids who have never really learnt a sleight in their life. If you see the "teacher" peform the trick badly, than you will be content peforming it badly too, therefore removing the challenge
quik short story, the other day a guy who saw me peform magic told me he was interested in learning magic, so i told him it was great and i recomended him a book and where he could buy it. The next day the guy told me he found something better, he learnt alot of "cool" tricks from youtube. He showed me what he learnt and the guy did not practice he was absolutely terrible at it, so i told him in the most polite way i possibly could, to go home and practice, because peforming badly is a disrespect to magic.
The next day I ask him how his magic is going and he tells me he found that he gets more popularity just telling people how the tricks are done than by doing them.
ladies and gentlemen here is my conclusion, magic is pop culture, this guy wanted to be "cool", and that was his reason to do magic, it realy angers me when people do things just to be cool, especially if it involves an art such as magic. So in one word YES magic is too easy to pick up on.
sorry i wrote so much I got carried away, i beleive that we should steer beggining magicians away from the youtube path and try to show them to respect the art before they begin learning effects.
