Dear Jerxy Week - Day 1: YouTube
/I have a big backlog of questions in my email. So this week I’m going to burn through one each day, now through Friday.
Are there any youtube reviewers or other magic channels that you follow? —KB
Short answer: Nope.
Longer answer: I don’t subscribe to any magic channels. The magic channels that are made for laypeople are completely unwatchable to me. David Blaine turned the camera on the audience and it was revolutionary. But now so much of it is just obviously fake reactions. Like, look at this dipshit who has coached people to react to a trick that they can’t see from where they’re sitting.
Magic is already fake. Watching people fake reaction to fake tricks makes zero sense to me as a form of entertainment.
As far as the youtube channels that are geared towards other magicians, I don’t have any that I regularly watch, but I’ll check some out from time to time.
I find most of the magic review shows kind of useless. I don’t get the sense that many of them have actually tried the products they’re reviewing. They don’t seem to have many insights that come from performing the trick.
The reviewers who are more deferential to the magic companies seem to get more products to review. So it incentivizes reviewers to be positive. I don’t mind positive reviews. I have a monthly newsletter that is only positive reviews. But the reviews in that newsletter come from digging through new and old releases and trying things out and seeing what people are responding to. Not from a quid pro quo with the magic company.
A review channel with live performances has the potential to be the most useful, but I don’t think it helps when you’re performing for the same one or two people each time. First, it burns them out on magic. Second, they learn their “role” is to be the astonished person. So it can be difficult to tell if they’re genuinely very fooled or if that’s just what they think is being asked of them.
Ideally a review show would have live performances performed for random people. Of course, that would be a ton of work, which is why nobody (that I know of ) does it that often.
So yeah, I’m not a huge magic review consumer. If I want someone else’s opinion, I'll usually look for some sort of consensus on the Magic Cafe.
Here are some channels I check out now and again:
Lloyd Barnes - Lloyd is a super creative guy and a master at creating gimmicks that produce amazing looking effects. I feel he’s in a bit of a difficult spot because I believe he has a real love for the art, and I think he’d also love to have a really big social-media following. I’m not sure those things go together. To get a following on social media you usually have to expose tricks (even if you don’t, people will do so in the comments). Is there anyone who has built a big following just performing tricks? I don’t really know.
I think Lloyd does his best to walk the line. Yes, he “exposes” a lot of tricks on his channel, but from what I’ve seen, it’s mainly tricks he’s created himself. And often they're tricks that were almost designed to be exposed. They might require a set-up that would be difficult to get into in an actual performance, or a gimmick that wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny in the real world.
I enjoy checking out his site from time to time to see the work of someone who is creative in a way that I’m not at all.
Craig Petty - If there’s a trick you’re interested in and you want to see a performance of the trick other than the official demo, Craig’s youtube is a good resource for that. Craig reviews a few tricks a week and almost always demos the trick (or his son does). Whether you agree with Craig’s take on a trick or not, getting an un-cut performance that’s not officially sanctioned by the people putting out the trick is valuable. So searching his archive for a trick your considering is a good way of getting another perspective on it.
Murphy’s Magic - To keep up with the mainstream new releases.
They also post an effect on Saturday for free although I haven’t taken a deep dive into them yet. The control I mention in the last post is great. Lloyd Barnes’ effect from this weekend where he turns sugar into instant coffee is fun too.
Unbiased Magic Reviews - I don’t really have similar taste to this guy, and our performance styles and personalities could not be any more different. But he puts more thought into his reviews than most and he digs deeper into more obscure resources. So even though we’re not necessarily on the same wavelength, I still enjoy hearing his thoughts and will check out his channel from time to time.
Carl Irwin - I recently came across Carl’s channel after featuring a couple of his magic offering’s in the newsletter this past year as well as reviewing his $TNR effect earlier this year. I’ve only watched 8 or 10 of his videos so far. They’re not the type of thing you’re going to binge. Carl has a number of longer-form videos on effects and techniques that are of interest to him. He’s not chasing viewers and trying to do what’s popular. I think that’s probably what I enjoy most about his videos. Watching someone discuss their areas of interest is soothing to me. Watching people discuss what they think other people want to hear about turns me off. His philosophy doesn’t exactly overlap with mine regarding everything in magic. He’s more focused on traditional performing situations. But I don’t mind that. I probably prefer it. I like hearing about the paths people are on with their magic regardless of if it has anything to do with what I’m writing about. As long as they’ve given it some thought and they’re just not thirstily following some trend.
There you have it. If you know of any other worthwhile youtube channels, especially any niche ones with a unique approach to things, let me know.