Magicians say Houdini exhibit will damage trade

Arts & Entertainment Forum

March 25 - A small museum in Harry Houdini's boyhood hometown, Appleton, revealed plans to unveil the tricks of the magician's signature stunt.

Then some angry magicians say this will jeopardize their livelihood.The Outagamie County Historical Society planned a display of Houdini's signature "Metamorphosis" act, in which a magician is handcuffed inside a sack in a trunk.He then frees himself and switches places with an assistant standing by the trunk.

The museum would let visitors climb inside the trunk and see how it works.But magicians argue that their code of ethics prohibits revealing such secrets to the public.They protested with calls, e-mail and a Web site encouraging people to boycott the museum. One collector of Houdini memorabilia took back artifacts he had loaned the museum.The museum says it was just trying to modernize its Houdini exhibit by adding interactive features.

-Associated Press

Or maybe they could just create their own tricks, rather than using ones already used before

Personally, I love the shows like "Magician's Secrets Revealed" where they show you how it all works, some of it is really fascinateing, the lengths they go to to put on a good show.

Everyone knows there's no "magic" so who cares if we know exactly how it works? I don't care.

Some things I don't mind if they're secret, but there's always ways to find out how they do it (online )

schmiggens, not everyone knows there's no real magic... and I'm not only talking about kids!

Gaboman - Try finding online how David Copperfield flys

David Copperfield flies like anyone else in theatre flies - cables. The only difference is that David doesn't actually use any cables.

There is an entire world community, and an indusctry, or magic. This industry depends on the art being kept secret, especailly the classics of magic. If everyone knew how everything was done, there would be no MAGIC in it, and the industry would not have a point.

Indeed, it is against the Magicians' Code of Ethics to reveal the workings of an illusion, except to another magician. So the exibit violates this code, and puts our livlihood at risk.

Indubitably! Why else would I start a Magic and Illusion forum?

But it's similar to bakers revealing recipes, sure, if the baker themselves thinks up the recipe and makes the stuff themselves, they're entitled to keep the recipe a secret or among a close circle of friends.

When it comes to magic, you have every tom-dick-and-harry doing the same tricks, using tools they've bought from online resources or in magic stores, it's expected these secrets are revealed. Relating this back to baking: it either challenges the baker to try hard to keep the recipe a secret or pushes them to find a new recipe.

If someone can work that recipe out by taste - then they didn't try hard enough in the first place. Like if another magician can look at a trick and automatically work out what's been done, they've obviously either seen it before or the "magic" is poor.

my take

That is actually a really good analogy Gaboman

wisely put and yea, Blaine uses cables...as i put it "All people can fly for a short distance, then we fall."

True, true... if you can figure out a recipe by tasting it, GREAT - you figured out the recipe. But it is damaging to the baker to then go exploiting his recipe for your own gain. This is not to say that if you figured out the recipe, you shouldn't sell the product in your own bakery - that's fine and well. But to tell everyone in the world the recipe... that is just wrong.

Same's with magic. If a magician invents an illusion, he is entitled to keep it a secret among his "circle of friends" - magicians, worldwide, constitude a circle of friends - LITERALLY. We have "rings" of the International BROTHERHOOD of Magicians, who teach and learn magic so they can use it to AMAZE audiences. We're not talking about the gimmicks you can but at any old website - I'm talking about the classic illusions, like Houdini's Metamorphosis.

Magic isn't about entertainment, y'all (although entertainment is necessary). MAGIC is about AMAZING AUDIENCES.

When I practice, for hours, in front of a mirror, it's not so I can look at myself, eyes wide, and say "WOW! HOW THE HELL DID I DO THAT?" - It's so that AUDIENCES will look at me, eyes wide, and say "WOW! HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?"

If magic continues to be revealed, there will be no amazement, and magic will be void - It's not about a trick, its about the magic being destroyed.