Quake3World

Saw this article on BBC News about a guy called Marco Tempest who combines classic illusionist tricks with technology to create magical illusions. There's a video on the BBC site here that shows some things he does, which is pretty neat. His website can be found here: http://marcotempest.com/

I especially like how he's in favor of what he calls "open sorcery". Sharing his tools and ideas with other people so people can collaborate and create new things. That is the open source idea and he's applying it to a world that's shrouded in mystery by nature. Illusionists traditionally aren't very keen on sharing their ideas.

He must have not heard about The Magic Circle. Amateurs...

Eraser wrote:Illusionists traditionally aren't very keen on sharing their ideas.

For good reason. Once the secret is revealed, the mystery is gone and what's the point of watching?

Appreciation of skill?

Nope.

Transient wrote:

Eraser wrote:Illusionists traditionally aren't very keen on sharing their ideas.

For good reason. Once the secret is revealed, the mystery is gone and what's the point of watching?

Dunno. I find illusionist shows extremely boring to watch. "Wow, he made the girl disappear. Again".
Illusionists flying up in the air or making people (dis)appear doesn't impress me because I know there's a trick involved. I do find shows where they explain the intricacies behind the acts to be fascinating, because there are quite some clever tricks involved and often quite impressive skills and finger dexterity.

Penn & Teller are masters at that. They explain the trick, show you how it's done (often times slowly so you can see the trick play out), then they still manage to pull something out of their hat, so to speak.