Commercial conundrum
26,September 2024
"Is it commercial?" - The customer asks.
"This effect is sooo commercial!" - The ad copy says.
"Magic can't get any more commercial than this!" - The guy in the trailer exclaims!
Let me say up front, I hate being a party pooper, but I guess it's sometimes hard to avoid.
So, where has all of this commercial magic taken us?
Let's pause for a moment to think.
I ask again, where has all of this so called commercial magic taken us.
Or should I say, where can one experience this commercial magic?
In the big arenas? The theaters?
No.
The magicians performing in those venues don't really care for the so called commercial value.
Even if you scream from the top of your lungs, "IT'S COMMMEEERCIIIAAAL!"
So, where has it taken us?
Well...
Heaven's forbid if you try to show your peers a routine with any artistic meaning.
"They don't care about what you want to say, they just want to be entertained."
Sure. That's why you end up trying to lure in people passing by to a booth on a trade show floor.
Where we pride ourselves on the ability to include the clients keywords into our "patter".
"That's what gets you gigs man!"
There's a video on Youtube of a very well known mentalist (amongst the magic community) performing an Ambitious card routine on a trade show floor while reciting the virtues of an anti-virus software.
Let me warn you. You don't want to look it up.
Please don't look it up.
I beg you.
That's where commercial magic has taken us.
I leave you with a thought/question.
Why is it that 80% of magician end up performing the Ambitious Card and Dr. Daley's Last Trick from table to table at weddings etc. every single gig.
Is that the pinnacle of what card magic has to offer for the muggles?
If so, we might as well put card magic out of it's misery.
If not, why the hell we don't show our audiences all that beautiful magic that we magicians enjoy so much?
- Max Arcanie