.:I'll Be Talking About Magic There From Now On...:.
So without further ado, go ahead and check it out, if you will, although there's no new content for now if you've seen my stuff before...
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The Wrestler
I still haven't commented about the recent fiasco I encountered with another couple of performers, or the controversial rant by Justin Miller. For now, as the resident magician/mentalist who just happens to be an ethicist (It's what I'm specializing in for my Masters.), I think I'd like to address an ethical issue that has been bugging me a while about a certain friend of mine, who is an excellent friend, but as a professional, leaves a lot to be desired.
.:Let The Public Judge:.
Imagine if you are doing really well in your job. Let's say you're a professional wrestler who's really getting over with the crowd, and slowly getting a push.
Imagine if you have a good friend who's also a professional wrestler, and his success is comparable to you.
Let's say your in-ring ability is so-so. But as a heel, you more than make up for it with your promos. You can get on the mic and rally the crowd against you and draw massive heat from them. It doesn't matter how mediocre your match is, people want to see them kick your @$$. They pay to see that, week in and week out.
Let's say your friend is a technical genius. He's like Chris Benoit minus the roid rage, but that also means a broom has more personality on the mic than he does. The crowds don't seem to appreciate him, despite the fact that he's the darling of the internet wrestling community. If you had a real, honest-to-goodness match, your friend would pummel you in two minutes flat.
So this friend of yours gets a few other boys in the back along with you, and he suggest you guys form a stable to really dominate the promotion. Let's say you band together to form the nWo. He tells you guys, "wouldn't we get over with the crowd a lot better if we went there as a group? Everyone's going to benefit from this, that's for sure!"
It sounds like a good idea on paper. You have your friend, the excellence of execution. You're the mouthpiece of the group. You have a couple of sneaky managers to help you out in your matches, and a third wrestler who's an exciting spotmonkey but possessing little ability to tell a story in or out of the ring outside of his spots. It sounds good, because everyone seems to be covering for each other, and everyone stands to benefit.
But next thing you know, whenever title matches are being granted, it's only your friend who's involved, and he always takes one of your managers to help him out.
In short, only two people are getting over at this point. You cut a promo that makes everyone rally behind your nWo, but who gets the title matches? Your friend. Everyone else is left to the wayside, and your friend is all set to finally break out because he's been getting over thanks to your stable, since he can only go so far alone. For our purposes, let's call your friend "Kurt".
Yet here you are, still getting your own matches and your own support, but come match time, who's at your corner? Nobody. Your stablemates are nowhere to be found, but you're expected to be at their corner to draw heat on your group when it's "Kurt's" match. Any single title match you get through your stable, is always for the European Title. Why the Hades would you even want that when you're clearly at least Intercontinental Title material already, and more likely than not, World Heavyweight Title-worthy?
And now, the Royal Rumble is coming. Your stable is expected to win it, but on the eve of the event, "Kurt" all but tells you that you should go and take a dive for him to get the main event at Wrestlemania.
What's wrong with this picture?
.:The Problem With This Picture...:.
Is that clearly, a certain unfairness is happening. Instead of being helped by your stable, you are actually being held back because while "Kurt" and his manager are getting over as a duo, you and the rest of the nWo appear little more than supporting characters to him, despite the fact that it's you the crowd clearly wants with the belt around your waist.
Whenever he main events a PPV, who gets the bigger payday? He does.
Whenever he gets a title shot, who gets the TV exposure? He does.
Whenever you develop a cool new finisher, who gets to use it on TV? He does.
Whenever you get a tag match, who plays the "partner in peril"? You do.
So who gets the hot tag? He does.
He gets all the opportunities to grandstand, all the opportunities to get himself over, and you don't get anything but chump change and wins against jobbers in return for helping him out. It's ridiculous, and you really should wake up and smell the coffee.
Why the Hades are you putting up with it? Is it because Kurt is your friend?
In professional wrestling, or professional magic for that matter, when it comes to a clash of personalities, you have to realize, there are no friends.
This travesty has gone on for long enough. It's time to take a stand. No more of this being meek as a lamb and taking injustice all for the sake of friendship.
.:Let The Public Judge:.
Imagine if you are doing really well in your job. Let's say you're a professional wrestler who's really getting over with the crowd, and slowly getting a push.
Imagine if you have a good friend who's also a professional wrestler, and his success is comparable to you.
Let's say your in-ring ability is so-so. But as a heel, you more than make up for it with your promos. You can get on the mic and rally the crowd against you and draw massive heat from them. It doesn't matter how mediocre your match is, people want to see them kick your @$$. They pay to see that, week in and week out.
Let's say your friend is a technical genius. He's like Chris Benoit minus the roid rage, but that also means a broom has more personality on the mic than he does. The crowds don't seem to appreciate him, despite the fact that he's the darling of the internet wrestling community. If you had a real, honest-to-goodness match, your friend would pummel you in two minutes flat.
So this friend of yours gets a few other boys in the back along with you, and he suggest you guys form a stable to really dominate the promotion. Let's say you band together to form the nWo. He tells you guys, "wouldn't we get over with the crowd a lot better if we went there as a group? Everyone's going to benefit from this, that's for sure!"
It sounds like a good idea on paper. You have your friend, the excellence of execution. You're the mouthpiece of the group. You have a couple of sneaky managers to help you out in your matches, and a third wrestler who's an exciting spotmonkey but possessing little ability to tell a story in or out of the ring outside of his spots. It sounds good, because everyone seems to be covering for each other, and everyone stands to benefit.
But next thing you know, whenever title matches are being granted, it's only your friend who's involved, and he always takes one of your managers to help him out.
In short, only two people are getting over at this point. You cut a promo that makes everyone rally behind your nWo, but who gets the title matches? Your friend. Everyone else is left to the wayside, and your friend is all set to finally break out because he's been getting over thanks to your stable, since he can only go so far alone. For our purposes, let's call your friend "Kurt".
Yet here you are, still getting your own matches and your own support, but come match time, who's at your corner? Nobody. Your stablemates are nowhere to be found, but you're expected to be at their corner to draw heat on your group when it's "Kurt's" match. Any single title match you get through your stable, is always for the European Title. Why the Hades would you even want that when you're clearly at least Intercontinental Title material already, and more likely than not, World Heavyweight Title-worthy?
And now, the Royal Rumble is coming. Your stable is expected to win it, but on the eve of the event, "Kurt" all but tells you that you should go and take a dive for him to get the main event at Wrestlemania.
What's wrong with this picture?
.:The Problem With This Picture...:.
Is that clearly, a certain unfairness is happening. Instead of being helped by your stable, you are actually being held back because while "Kurt" and his manager are getting over as a duo, you and the rest of the nWo appear little more than supporting characters to him, despite the fact that it's you the crowd clearly wants with the belt around your waist.
Whenever he main events a PPV, who gets the bigger payday? He does.
Whenever he gets a title shot, who gets the TV exposure? He does.
Whenever you develop a cool new finisher, who gets to use it on TV? He does.
Whenever you get a tag match, who plays the "partner in peril"? You do.
So who gets the hot tag? He does.
He gets all the opportunities to grandstand, all the opportunities to get himself over, and you don't get anything but chump change and wins against jobbers in return for helping him out. It's ridiculous, and you really should wake up and smell the coffee.
Why the Hades are you putting up with it? Is it because Kurt is your friend?
In professional wrestling, or professional magic for that matter, when it comes to a clash of personalities, you have to realize, there are no friends.
This travesty has gone on for long enough. It's time to take a stand. No more of this being meek as a lamb and taking injustice all for the sake of friendship.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Yatta!!!
.:I Did It!:.
Before we get into what I "did", let's link you to a couple of videos to give you the general gist...
Part 1
Part 2
It's 20 minutes of your life well-worth spending. Trust me.
.:Having Said That...:.
Well, the thing is, I performed exactly that very effect for Mindstorm practice last weekend. I'm definitely happy about having finally devised a way to subliminally program the audience to pick a specific paper, a specific page, a specific piece of the page, and a specific word, all through very carefully scripted wordplay meant to lead them to no other choice but to do exactly as I have surreptitiously directed them (subconsciously) to do.
I performed the effect twice in a day, using a bunch of newspapers I asked from Sonny Minoza, since we were performing at his house. Yes, no gimmicks or anything of the sort. The effect was nearly impromptu, which meant my scripting could've used a lot more work, but it proved sufficient, and definitely floored the kids I performed it for. Considering this wasn't going to be a visual smorgasbord, the fact that the effect made 12-year old kids really stare at me with mouths agape in amazement made me feel it was definitely one of the best effects I've ever performed.
Later in the evening, I performed the effect for The Story Circle, and while the word they chose wasn't as powerful as the first one, I had some refinements during the second performance that really made them sit and take notice of what just happened. I made sure that the apparent method was going to fry laymen and most magicians alike, mainly because of how I kept on describing to them what was going on and how I was eliminating various "explanations" people could come up with to rationalize what just happened.
Given the minimal amount of props needed (A bunch of newspapers to choose from, and something to write your prediction on.), this miracle of subliminal programming is just about next to none.
So as I said, "yatta"!
Before we get into what I "did", let's link you to a couple of videos to give you the general gist...
Part 1
Part 2
It's 20 minutes of your life well-worth spending. Trust me.
.:Having Said That...:.
Well, the thing is, I performed exactly that very effect for Mindstorm practice last weekend. I'm definitely happy about having finally devised a way to subliminally program the audience to pick a specific paper, a specific page, a specific piece of the page, and a specific word, all through very carefully scripted wordplay meant to lead them to no other choice but to do exactly as I have surreptitiously directed them (subconsciously) to do.
I performed the effect twice in a day, using a bunch of newspapers I asked from Sonny Minoza, since we were performing at his house. Yes, no gimmicks or anything of the sort. The effect was nearly impromptu, which meant my scripting could've used a lot more work, but it proved sufficient, and definitely floored the kids I performed it for. Considering this wasn't going to be a visual smorgasbord, the fact that the effect made 12-year old kids really stare at me with mouths agape in amazement made me feel it was definitely one of the best effects I've ever performed.
Later in the evening, I performed the effect for The Story Circle, and while the word they chose wasn't as powerful as the first one, I had some refinements during the second performance that really made them sit and take notice of what just happened. I made sure that the apparent method was going to fry laymen and most magicians alike, mainly because of how I kept on describing to them what was going on and how I was eliminating various "explanations" people could come up with to rationalize what just happened.
Given the minimal amount of props needed (A bunch of newspapers to choose from, and something to write your prediction on.), this miracle of subliminal programming is just about next to none.
So as I said, "yatta"!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
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