Opinions on the Masked Magician?

[Antonio Diavolo]

The best part of the Mask Magician was his Mask. I'm still searching for that Mask. They don't sell one like that anywhere. Anyone know where I can get one?

I guess you could make one yourself?

 

[kennethcmerrill]

Exposure is not the looming beast it's often made out to be. If exposure is hurting someone's performance, then in my opinion that person needs to work on making a better show.

This reminds me of a story I heard (I can't remember where so I can't verify it) that Penn and Teller once did a show where they revealed 3 common card magic techniques in the first half, and during the intermission they had a strolling magician in the lobby performing magic using those techniques almost exclusively. People were just as floored by the strolling magic as they would have been before seeing Penn & Teller reveal the "secrets" because they didn't understand that those secrets were being used right in front of their eyes.

This is essentially what misdirection is all about.

 

[Lord Magic]

I have mixed feelings on Val. He has said he wanted to get a new generation of kids into magic which is always a good thing, but I'm not sure his method is the best way. 99% of the tricks Val revealed are nearly impossible for his audience to perform on his own. Occasionally he'd reveal a trick that could be easily replicated but not often.

He also kinda perpetuates that idea that knowledge of the secret is very important in magic. Even though the methods are very important to us, we all know that the way the trick is presented is just as, if not more important than the secret when performing. Plus most of the secrets are pretty boring to a layperson anyway.

A lot of people make the argument that "he's only revealing old tricks and it promotes magicians to come up with new stuff" Which I also disagree with as many tricks, sleights, and methods that are still used today, have been around since the 20s.

One good thing that has come out of the Masked Magician for me personally though. On a few occasions, I've had a person I was doing a trick for say "Oh I've watched all the Masked Magician episodes. I'll be able to figure this out" before I do the trick. Of course they weren't able to because I don't regularly perform tricks that were revealed on that show but they kinda trick themselves into thinking they know how it's done before the trick so they look in all the wrong places.


Anyway, I have no idea if what I said made any sense. This post was basically just to hear what you guys have to say on the topic.

Hopefully someone understands what I'm saying here and can put their thoughts much more eloquently than I can.

Penn has some amazing views abt Valentiono btw...
Anyways, I think his method of revealing magic was bad because it as you said, laid more stress on the methods than the presentation.
Also, I should not criticise people tbh, but his persona on the show is terrible. He MAY be an amazing performer in real life, but not on the show. People will watch the show ONLY to ''know'' how some trick works, not for any other purpose, because it provides ZERO entertainment, is visually displeasing and also, his mask is really horrible.
As I said, he may be a really good guy in real life. But not on the show, no sir, on the show he is that typical heckler who snatches the cards from the magician's hands saying, "I know how that's done, let me show you."
Except this time, he is trying to snatch the views.
People get motivated to join magic or any art form for that matter, if they see that it looks cool, amazing, beautiful, or whatever quality they like. In this case, he is not helping people get into magic. Because as I said, people will go there just to see how something works, they will not go there wanting to LEARN any effect. THAT is the problem. Maybe the idea behind the show was nice, but the execution wasn't, of course making him notorious among magicians and a waste of time among laymen.

 

[CaseyRudd]

Closing this because it is an old thread and it has run its course. PM me if you have any questions. Thanks!