The one thing you always hear from a professional magician is you never tell your audience, or anyone for that matter, how a trick works. Once they know the secret, the mystery and fun is gone. It's kind of like finding out that there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny. But does the rule of never telling how a trick is done still hold water like it used to?
It kind of depends who you ask. Many of the old time magicians will cling to that belief no matter what the argument is against it. They've been doing magic for a long time and as far as they are concerned, to tell how a trick is done is nothing short of treason and anyone doing such should be shot at dawn.
But then there are those who belong to the new school. These are people who feel that it's not only okay to tell another person how a trick is done by to actually charge them for the honor. If you go online you'll find a number of sites that do exactly that. They reveal tricks, usually on a rotating basis and even have what they call a magic exchange. This is where people are allowed access to the site if and only if, they submit a certain number of tricks to the site's collection. The tricks have to be certified to work. In other words, they will take your tricks, try them out and then, if they work, they are added to the site and you are granted membership. Some sites have additional restrictions that the tricks you submit must not already be in the database. This can be quite a hard restriction to get by as there are only so many tricks in the magic world.
Then there are some sites that you pay a membership fee to become a part of. It may be a one time fee or a monthly membership. Once you become a member of a site like this, you gain access to their entire magic database. Any trick that you want to know how it's done, all you have to do is just look it up. New tricks are usually added on a regular basis by the site itself. Some accept member's submissions but for the most part, they are in charge of what gets posted.
Most people feel that these online magic exchanges are okay because you are sharing your tricks with fellow magicians, which is the one exception to the rule. But how does one know when a new member is a magician or just a curiosity seeker? For that matter, should it even matter? Isn't magic something that should be shared by everyone?
The argument as to whether or not magician secrets should be shared will no doubt go on for as long as people are still entertained by the art of magic itself, regardless of whether or not the thrill of that entertainment is in not knowing, or in ultimately figuring out the unknown.
Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Magic
