I'm dissapointed that Panic has been performed so poorly, available to the world to see, but again I'm not sure anything can be done.
This thread, for example, probably is prompting people to check out Panic on youtube because if they didn't know about it before, they will want to check it out, further exposing the trick.
I'm not sure if any probable solution exists -- it was not as if they were trying to reveal it, but rather they probably didn't practice enough, or are very poor magicians -- and it's not like poor or lazy magicians can be banished or exiled.
Cheers,
JTM
I have actually found that a FEW of the individuals who post sub par performances ARE actually open to you if you manage to talk to them.
That is, don't just come out berating them about how stupid it is and how the are exposing things, but rather calmly explain that they may want to keep working on their performance and technique. The suggest that in the mean time, they way want to take down the video as it is not a true showcase of what they are capable of, and also runs the risk of exposing the method.
I found such a performance of one of my effects up at metacafe. Although at first the kid called me an idiot and making claims like I couldn't possibly know how the effect was done (especially ironic considered the blatant exposure in the video.)
I manage to get through to him once he was convinced that I was in fact the creator of the effecta nd the person he bought it from. After this he appologized for his attitude, and took the video down and asked for some tips on improving his performance.
The weird thing was that at first he was up in my face and adiment that there was no exposure etc, which made it seem like he thought highly of his performance, but wafter he had apologized , he went on to say how he is new and he did not think he was that good just yet and has trouble performing without exposure just yet.
I found this a very odd dynamic in his own thinking and it makes me wonder what the many other kids posting similar videos are thinking.
I believe that they are too caught up in the anonymity the net has provided and this masks the obvious fact that a video is in no way helped by that anonymity as the performance is the same as when you would be in person. Just because they don't know you when you post, doesn't mean they don't see you in a video.