The Lack of Brotherhood in Magic

Guest Article written by Kris Whip

My name is Kris Whip, I go under the stage name Kris Kaos, I live near Glasgow in Scotland and I am a regular visitor to Roy Waltons magic shop. I took my first steps in magic at age five when my dad taught me to do a false over hand shuffle and a few simple card tricks, but I quickly retired when my brother recieved a Paul Daniels magic set and hid the instructions from me, it would into my late teenage years before I would perform magic again, now I am a ten year veteran who performs card magic, mentalism and escapology. My all time favourite effect is Out of This World and i have several original versions that I am looking into publishing.

The Lack of Brotherhood in Magic

I recently read a comment by a fellow magician which read “I have worked in comedy and music but the most supportive people are magicians”. I feel that the statement is simply not true, being a regular visitor to a brick and mortor magic shop I see a serious devide, on one side is the younger generation who are just starting out in magic and on the other is the older generation who have been around a bit and have a good knowledge. The older generation look at the younger generation and think all they do is XCM and wouldn’t know a classic pass from a double lift, the younger generation look at the older generation and think all they do is tricks that were around when Houdini was playing with plastic kiddies handcuffs. I stand in the middle of these two groups because I am not of the younger generation but not yet of the older generation either, so I try to give advice to the younger guys and help them out and I also talk to the older guys as they have so much good knowledge. The lack of brotherhood I talk of is also visable online in magic forums and on youtube, Young magicians will post a video of themselves performing a sleight or an effect and will ask for constructive criticism, yet all they get is ridiculed and accused of exposing magic to the muggles (I know there is a lot of exposing on youtube but not all young magicains expose tricks). Professional magicians publish a new effect and a lot of magcians go “cool nice trick”, but a another group pick it apart and complain about the video or how they could have created a better trick. I find that sort of behaviour very childish and off putting, there is no excuse for this kind of behaviour not jealousy or lack of talent, these magicians who ridicule others need to remember that without new effects there is no future for magic and also the older and younger guys have to as the Beatles said Come Together, because without the older guys passing on their knowledge to the younger guys there is no magic.

DavidHirata

Kris,

I agree with you that there’s a lot of snarky behavior in
magic, especially online. But snarky
behavior seems to be the norm for online forums about anything. And there is a lot of disconnect in magic,
but it’s also possible to find some good connections, but you have to look for
them, and cultivate them.

Example: I worked in non-profit theater in San Francisco for
about ten years (as a performer, writer and administrator). One afternoon in ’95 I attended a “community
forum” for artists—there were playwrights, dancers, actors, performance artists
and at least one magician, although I was really there in my capacity as stage
manager for a local theater. A common
complaint I heard was that “there’s no real sense of community” in the performing
arts scene in San Francisco.” And I had
to look around at this roomful of artists and think, “Huh?”

The artists I knew back then who had found supportive
community were the ones who sought it out and built it themselves. Sitting back passively and expecting “the
community” to reach out and “support” them just wasn’t going to happen much, if
at all. One had to seek out like minded
people, and perhaps take the initiative and form a rehearsal group, or a writer’s
workshop, or just get together for coffee now and then. Also, those artists who received support from
other artist were often the biggest boosters of their peers—attending other
artists’ performances, plugging shows, etc.

It’s like that in magic for me. I hate the snark and BS as much as you do,
but I’m lucky enough to have found guys I can jam with and trade ideas
with. We refer gigs to each other, we
attend each other’s public shows when we can, and support each other on social
networks. I know a few magicians across
the country I stay in contact via email.
If they have a show going, I’ll repost links on my Facebook page, that
kind of thing. I’ve found where some of
the good people are, and I try to stay there.

So I guess I’m saying, don’t lose hope—the good people are
out there.

David
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kris-Whip/1037677415 Kris Whip

Hi David, I am lucky to have seen and be part of the flip side of the article and have a lot of good friends in magic and it is having the good social network in magic that I can look out and see people that don’t have that good social network and don’t cultivate friendships in the magic community.