Magic/Magicians

Are you a fan or do you think it's naff?

I quite enjoy the urban magic with quick shows (under 5 mins) - more for the personal reactions of the "victims".  The leotards and flashbag stage stuff is naff as fuck.

It's quite cool making shiz disappear but most magicians's appear a bit odd.  Suspect its the amount of practice they need to put in to make it look plausible

 

Cf. clowns

Some can be brilliant (close-up magic takes skill), some absolutely dire (think Mr Chuckles). 
 

Worst experience I had with one was one who claimed to be a mentalist (not like LMNT) at a conference in Budapest.  I had to go up on stage and have the useless cunt guess a number I had written down.  Which he then failed to do.  The nadir was him announcing my number and me saying "no, that's not it".  At which point he paled and stammered, "errr... are you sure?".  Then tried to regain ground.  Everyone was pissing themselves and the act cut it short.

Secret magic lover here :)

I think it started with Paul Daniels and Debs, then I moved on to the masked magician when I was a teenager. Love a bit of Dynamo and I went to see David Copperfield in Vegas which was amazing. 
 

 

It's an art form with a long and amazing history.  If you get into it, it's fascinating to see how techniques and effects have evolved over the years, and to wonder at the skill of the best practitioners  The problem is that a lot of performance is shop-bought gimmicks and naffness.

Case in point is the greatest card man in the world - Juan Tamariz.  He's a god amongst fellow magicians, but personally I find his persona grating even as I admire his technique and theory.  I suspect much of the public would feel the same.

I used to like Penn and Teller - I thought their “blast off” rocket thing was great. A sawing the person into parts type thing they did which they then repeated using a see through set of boxes and stage so you could see the little guy scrambling around like some mad ferret to stick his arms and legs out at the right places. 

Less enamoured at watching stuff as I have got jaded with age and so just less awe. “Yeah, you put lots of time into a trick that makes it look like something disappeared it we both know it didn’t. Yeah.”

Just realised I didn't give my views. I love Magic and even the basic stuff is impressive imo

Would love to go to a live show but that will obvs have to wait for a while