The Brotherhood
The
Brotherhood by Mike Rogers
Magicians
seem to be obsessed with criticism. I don't
mean having it or receiving it; I mean giving
it. I mean FREELY giving it as if the world
of magic would discontinue rotating if complaints
were not flung far and wide, fast and free.
Most recently we are seeing this barrage of
criticism directed at the many magic TV specials
of the past couple years. No show is immune.
Both the one man special and the shows having
several different performers can expect to be
verbally stoned in Letters to Editors, Columns,
and extensively on-line.
I'm reminded
of a column I did on the GMN a few months ago
relating to ethics in magic and the respect
one performer shows , or does not show, for
another. I alluded to the fact that in Europe
you will seldom hear one entertainer take a
poke at another, even if they are fierce competitors.
This is especially true among the professional
entertainers. Of course here in the US, in magic,
all magicians are professional entertainers.
Don't they all have business cards, brochures,
and photos proving such? There are no amateurs!
Many
of those in magic will say I'm making too big
a deal out of this. They will justify their
negative comments by stating that the forum
is, for the most part, a private forum not intended
to be seen by the masses. Be that as it may
an on- line post going to several hundred others,
or a letter to the editor going to three or
four thousand readers, can hardly be called
private correspondence.
I'm not
saying all the negative desultory annotations
are not deserved, for they may well be. I do
not watch magic specials on TV, nor do I attend
many magic conventions, so I'm personally in
no position to comment in either direction regarding
the quality or entertainment value of a certain
program. I do, however, read the on-line posts
as well as the magic magazines and I'm fascinated
at the willingness of magicians to light into
fellow magicians with such vengeance. It brings
to mind a clichÇ...You know, something about
fruit not properly sweetened. When push comes
to shove the true evaluation of a performance
will be judged by those paying to see same.
McDonald's doesn't ask Burger King to evaluate
their product. They leave that to their customers.
Which brings
me to this: The late Ernie Heldman hosted a weekly
TV show called Parade of Magic from 1947 until
the late 1950s. My friend, the late Gene DeVoe,
used to delight in telling this story. It seems
the local magicians found great pleasure in gathering
around a TV each week to knock, poke, criticize,
and generally make fun of Heldman's performance
and show. On one such occasion Gene DeVoe asked
the assembled group, "Hey, what's Ernie doing
tonight?" The reply being quite simple, "He's
working." To that Gene's reply was, "And what
are we doing?"
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