I did a show last night, and came across something which I think is already quite prominent in the USA but is bound to become a bigger problem in Australia.
It was a private home, adult birthday party, where I was performing essentially a one hour close up show for a group of thirty adults and a handful of kids. I'd slipped a popular new effect into the act and, once I performed it, a man turned to a 12 year old boy on my right and said "Is that the one you've got?"
Now in the past that kind of reaction would have occurred if you chose to perform Dynamic Coins or maybe a Svengali Deck in your act, because these were the tricks magic shops would sell kids, saving the "latest and greatest" for their more serious customers.
However most kids with a passing interest in magic buy from the internet, not just from Ellusionist, but from any of the other webstores that market themselves heavily to teenage boys. These stores also cater to the serious and "cool" magicians with the latest "street magic" sensations. But when kids go onto the sites, there is no distinction between beginner and advanced level tricks, they just look at a video of the effect and press ADD TO CART.
I'm sure that the 12 year old was unable to perform the trick I did last night, but he owned it and knew the secret. He'd probably shown his family and they probably knew the secret too. The fact that I did the same trick, as a paid professional performer didn't elevate him, it lowered my status.
As much as I like the tricks that Ellusionist release, as much as I enjoy performing the "latest and greatest", I have to resign myself to the fact that anything that's selling on certain webstores is likely to be owned by some members of my audience.
It's back to the boooks for me!
