When we learn something by ourself, we respect it a lot more and develop a sense of pride in doing what we do. There's nothing wrong with it at all.
The problem is that we also develop a bit of a superiority complex. Sometimes we want to attract attention to ourselves in different ways, wanting to telegraph to others on a subtle level that we too, can do 'it' (in our case, often the 'it' is magic).
These tactics range from commenting on magician's videos, even if not the secret then how 'what they did was really flawless, though we know how it was done'' or ''the DL was really clean'' or ''I can't do a pass that well!".
This issue was addressed by the You Tuber known as PigCake too. But I want to add on it.
Sometimes when we meet a magician in real life or online, we often end up judging them. And we do so on arbitrary factors.
Say, we ask them who their favourite magicians are, and they don't even know huge names in magic like Dai Vernon or Max Malini, or maybe they learn from You Tube (a sensitive topic, but I don't want to get into it particularly. I had to touch on it because it matters too), or maybe they spell ''sleights'' wrong, or maybe they have been in magic for a significantly lesser time than us. Maybe they don't know the name of the colour change they do, maybe they don't know the origin of a sleight, or call things by wrong names.
If all the above is true, the magician you're talking to is ignorant. They also aren't really a magician to idolise, and won't make for a fulfilling conversation on magic.
But that doesn't mean they aren't good magicians.
Not knowing the names of people or sleights doesn't necessarily mean they perform the sleights terribly, or that their magic is weak. Again, they haven't yet discovered the true joys of learning magic, yes, but they aren't inferior.
I just put it out there, as a soft reminder, mostly for me but also for others, since it's natural to attach a bit of pride with what we teach ourselves. We must remember to be humble. Many books and magicians discuss how to remain grounded and humble before non-magicians and those who don't know how to perform magic, but rarely does the discussion of how we behave with fellow magicians comes up.
Please reply if you have any strong thoughts about this!
Cheers!
The problem is that we also develop a bit of a superiority complex. Sometimes we want to attract attention to ourselves in different ways, wanting to telegraph to others on a subtle level that we too, can do 'it' (in our case, often the 'it' is magic).
These tactics range from commenting on magician's videos, even if not the secret then how 'what they did was really flawless, though we know how it was done'' or ''the DL was really clean'' or ''I can't do a pass that well!".
This issue was addressed by the You Tuber known as PigCake too. But I want to add on it.
Sometimes when we meet a magician in real life or online, we often end up judging them. And we do so on arbitrary factors.
Say, we ask them who their favourite magicians are, and they don't even know huge names in magic like Dai Vernon or Max Malini, or maybe they learn from You Tube (a sensitive topic, but I don't want to get into it particularly. I had to touch on it because it matters too), or maybe they spell ''sleights'' wrong, or maybe they have been in magic for a significantly lesser time than us. Maybe they don't know the name of the colour change they do, maybe they don't know the origin of a sleight, or call things by wrong names.
If all the above is true, the magician you're talking to is ignorant. They also aren't really a magician to idolise, and won't make for a fulfilling conversation on magic.
But that doesn't mean they aren't good magicians.
Not knowing the names of people or sleights doesn't necessarily mean they perform the sleights terribly, or that their magic is weak. Again, they haven't yet discovered the true joys of learning magic, yes, but they aren't inferior.
I just put it out there, as a soft reminder, mostly for me but also for others, since it's natural to attach a bit of pride with what we teach ourselves. We must remember to be humble. Many books and magicians discuss how to remain grounded and humble before non-magicians and those who don't know how to perform magic, but rarely does the discussion of how we behave with fellow magicians comes up.
Please reply if you have any strong thoughts about this!
Cheers!
