magic tricks

[Don]

Yesterday I saw TV some special that reveals the secret behind magic tricks, and it says it's like violating Magician's Code. But why is it such a big deal? It'd be like telling someone some spoilers to a movie, except in a movie it is conceiveable that it turns out in a way the normal people won't expect. On the other hand if you see a guy trapped underwater doing a magic trick you can be 99.99% sure he'll escape instead of drown. I realize some people prefer to not know such things but then those guys can just ignore the spoilers, so to speak. I doubt anyone really believes those magicians possess the ability to teleport through shackles, psychic powers, or invisibility, so it's not like someone is telling you God really doesn't exist here. We all (I'd hope) know that it's just some kind of trick, and to me I'd rather know how it was done. I suppose it is possible if I know this I can say "See this guy is just doing that and that!" and spoil it for you, but even if I don't know how it's done I can still say: "This is all fake it's just a trick!", and presumably even if you enjoyed magic, you're not really going to think it's real.

[Flip]

Its just one of the unwritten the rules of the profession. Every group has similar stuff, like stealing a comedians joke is super bad taste, too.

[SineSwiper]

Nobody expects magicians to not do what they say they do, and nobody except magic to be real. The trick itself is not the mystery as much as HOW the trick is done. People's first reaction is "How did he do that?" Once the trick is explained, the magic is lost and the trick cannot be performed again.

Magic is simply science that is unexplained. It has been that way for millennia.

[Don]

If knowing the trick would diminish your enjoyment of the trick then you don't have to look it up. It'd be like not looking up the spoilers before a movie you're going to see if you cared about that kind of stuff.

[SineSwiper]

I think we've talked about this and stuff relating to spoilers before. I seem to remember that your POV of spoilers was kinda screwy, since you felt that there was no difference between knowing what going to happen and not knowing.

And most of the good/current magic tricks don't have anything that you can look up. I remember somebody paying $1mil just to know how to do David Blaine's flying stunt several years ago.

[Shrinweck]

I think the magicians code meant more several decades before you could create an image on a half inch thick screen of a sun exploding as an interstellar craft hits hyperspace and escapes just in time. But, yeah, also who gives a shit about a magic trick the second they know how it's done?

[Julius Seeker]

As far as not knowing the trick: The temptation will be there to read up on it, and I would say it is much stronger than the temptation to view spoilers in a movie - simply because when watching a movie, it's done - spoilers no longer matter. Although with a magic trick, after viewing the trick, the mystery remains. The mystery will always remain until it is revealed. The mystery is also strengthened in knowing that the method of how it is done is also not available.

By the way, this topic reminds me of a fairly good movie called The Prestige. I do, very much, recommend it if you haven't already seen it.

[SineSwiper]

Funny, you took both of your points between movie and magic and merged it into one. Although, the mystery is revealed in the end, but the whole movie is ABOUT the mystery, and how it can drive people.