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If you are like me – and I know I am – you no doubt have grown tired of the constant media coverage of magic and magicians.
It seems no tabloid is complete without the obligatory ‘Magic Scandal’ replete with embarrassing snap-shots showing this or the other with him or her while they were here or there.
We won’t get into the exploitive semi-nude photos some of the European and UK rags publish on their inside pages to boost circulation of their readership and any red-blooded reader.
The reason we see the latest scandals in 36 point type emblazoned across papers and mags is because next to sex, Magic sells. Actually anything next to sex sells but editors believe Magic sells papers even if there is no sexual connotation.
An article in the recent edition of Editor and Publisher – a very legitimate review of print journalism – had no less than three articles documenting how print publications rely upon Magic stories as a crutch. One quote is instructive. In “Will the Old Saw Still Cut the Mustard?” William Hardice recalls his first editor at the now-defunct Chicago Daily News telling him, “Son, one day you’ll be a City Editor like me. You’ll have two hours to deadline and a gaping, sucking hole on the front page. Your stomach will turn, the sweating will start, and then you’ll drop to your knees to pray for a school bus crash, a sex scandal, or a magic war.”
Mr. Holdice, former City or Metro Editor at several of the nation’s top papers confirms the prophesy. ‘A good magic dispute or ‘war’ fills the hole and sucks in the readers.’
The practice of exploiting every magician faux-pas or personality dispute is tried-and-true. As Chicago First Baseman and Rifleman Star Chuck Connors famously noted, ‘you dance with the horse you rode in on.’
I can’t be surprised by the flood of reporters filling the lobbies of every convention hotel looking for a story or candid shot of one our stars messing up a pass, or fudging a false shuffle. How many more times must we see the grainy, telephoto shots of Guy Tussle losing his pinky break during an otherwise outstanding Ambitious Card Routine?
We are often betrayed by those we consider our own. Every newspaper of merit or cable channel has their designated talking magic ‘authority’ to give ‘insight’ into the latest magic news.
In my humble but elitist opinion I doubt any working magician would consider these men and women to be expert or their insights meaningful. Recall the press onslaught at last year’s convention. MSNBC’s ‘expert’ Tony Spain actually opined ‘most modern levitations today use rare earth magnets rather than extensive rigging. That’s why David Copperfield will not permit anyone wearing metal or carrying a compass to sit in the first three rows of his show.’
Forget that Mr. Spain has just exposed one of the best effects in Magic and rendered useless years of research and development necessary to devise Mr. Copperfield’s Flying illusion, he is just plain wrong. I spoke with Mr. Copperfield’s advance woman and learned the ‘no metal or compass rule’ has always been in effect and theaters less room…
Continue reading Magic Media Onslaught – Two Sides of a Flipper-Half
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