User:Tigerpaw62289

Hi, I'm Nick.

What Brings me Here?

I have come to Wikipedia many times to find information. I am not a magician, but I am familiar with a range of magic effects and slights. I was surprised to learn that magic exposure has been going on here.

I don't really have a problem with that. I am a pretty moderate person about everything, so I can definitely see both sides of this magic exposure issue. Whether the articles stay or go in the end, they should at least be improved, and I feel like I have the background and ability to do that. The magic articles I have seen so far have been rather bare, focusing more on how an effect is done than anything else.

I re-wrote the article on the Floating Match on Card effect. I have also made considerable edits on the articles on the Balducci levitation and the King levitation. I have also created a seperate article on the Sooperman levitation.

Quotes from Hiding the Elephant

Hiding the Elephant(2003) is a book written by magician Jim Steinmeyer. In it I found (among other things) some passages that give one magician's perspective on magic secrets.

Understanding Magicians

My experience tells me that the story of magicians can only be understood when you understand their art. And the secrets are only impressive when you understand the people responsible, the theatrics, and the history surrounding them.

The Publishing of Magic Secrets

Actually, there’s a long, important tradition of magic being recorded and published. As my good friend Jay Marshall, the man behind the counter at the magic shop, has said for many years, “If you want to keep something a secret, publish it.” Once in print, information is often filed, forgotten, or dismissed. Publishing a secret takes away its cachet and causes it to be overlooked.

The Art of Magic

Magicians guard an empty safe.

In fact, there are few secrets that they possess that are beyond the capacity of a high-school science class, little technology more complex than a rubber band, a square of mirrored glass, or a length of thread. When an audience learns how it’s done, they quickly dismiss the art: “Is that all it is?”

Magicians understand the careful interactions of secret and performance and have learned to appreciate the art for these subtleties. But casual observers, eager to diagnose the gimmick or solve the deception, focus on the uninteresting part and are quickly disappointed, the same way one can always turn to the final pages of a mystery novel.

The success of a magician lies in making a human connection to the magic, the precise focus that creates a fully realized illusion in the minds of the audience. The simple explanation is that seldom do the crude gimmicks in a magic show–those mirrors, threads, or rubber bands–deceive people. The audience is taken by the hand and led to deceive themselves.