The Value of a Secret...

"The value of a secret is that it's a secret." - Tyler Erickson (from his forthcoming book, "Tyler Talks Tautologies")

The more I look at exposure on Youtube and television and at magicians ripping off other magicians (either on purpose or accidentally), the more I come to a rather disturbing conclusion: We, as magicians, need to stop trusting each other so much. It's a strange phenomenon that magicians, who rely on secrets during a show, tend to keep so few of them from other magicians outside of the show.

Before my views on secrecy were relatively straightforward; namely, keep the secrets away from the people I'm performing for. Now, after my recent trip to Minnesota, there are different levels of secrecy that I've found myself observing all of a sudden, to the point that, I'm becoming someone I would have previously considered paranoid.

On that trip, I was able to observe some routines of Tyler's that, point blank, I just can't talk about, except in almost useless generalities. Two in particular, a card routine and a coin routine.

The card routine is not demanding technically, it's something that anybody can do, is pretty much a self-worker, can be done with a borrowed deck, is a spin-off of a modern classic in magic while employing a novel presentational approach, and leaves the spectator with the impression that the magician did nothing. That last one is important -- first, imagine the most convincing Oil And Water sequence out there, and then imagine that a spectator believes that they just did that sequence to themselves. A big difference, and this routine is like that, but for its own plot instead of Oil And Water. The novel presentational approach is important as well, since the tradition of this card plot currently suffers from it being presented in a generally ubiquitous fashion.

The situation with the coin routine is slightly different. It's a bit more technically demanding, and for the most part, it's really already "out there" -- if you made a list of 30 DVDs devoted specifically to coins, you'd likely end up buying a DVD that has a routine quite similar to Tyler's on it. I still can't talk about it here, or openly amongst magicians, but truth be told, if you know enough coin magic, you probably already know 75% of his routine, and after watching it you could probably figure out the other 25%.

If there is a commonality to both routines, it's this -- if other magicians had them in their repertoire, they'd be falling all over themselves to publish them. Tyler doesn't even want anybody talking about them, which is why I left the names of the plots in question out.

That's a new thing for me to have to go along with, as I'm normally an open person, and there are even more levels of secrecy I've got to operate by. Obviously a great deal of what I learned went up on the olde blogge, but not all of it, yet. Some things I learned on the trip I can pass along, but on a limited level. There are also some things that I can't talk about on the blog, but that I can talk about with trusted magicians on a one-on-one basis... which makes things complicated. I'm currently a member of an informal group of magicians who meet up on a weekly basis, and I'm in a position where I can't talk about everything I've learned with the group. This goes very much against the atmosphere of open discussion that I was a part of prior to the trip.

I also learned right before I left that there are still plenty of things that Tyler kept deliberately hidden from me. On my last day there, I asked him about how many things he had work on that I didn't know about and that I could probably get good use out of, and he estimated about a hundred. Keep in mind that at one point I was able to see him rattle off about a dozen passes and a half-dozen coin moves that aren't "out there" -- in other words, despite being given a look into a whole lot of good work that is being kept secret from the general magic community, there's still more that I've yet to see, if he decides to even share it at all.

Contrast this to the current state of affairs in the magic community, when it comes to keeping things secret. The term "underground" has taken on a ridiculous usage. If somebody is truly underground, you don't know about them, period. Lately, though, the term has gained a commercial edge to it, in much the same way "alternative" did with music starting in the late 80s. It's now about exclusivity, having access to the good stuff, stuff that's not "out there"... but that one might be able to get at, either at a price or by cozying up to the right people. For the most part, it's used by magicians in a pathetic attempt to claim legitimacy, and sadly, we're all suckers for it, specifically because of the perceived values of secrets.

There's another take on this as well... magicians who've published work in the past that is now out of print, and they brag about it. Somebody over at the Magic Cafe will say that they're researching interesting phases for a specific routine, and somebody will announce that Book X has great work on it, before immediately following up with the bad news that Book X is now unavailable, with an almost nya-nya-ni-poo-poo tone. How does that help anybody? There's a great idea out there that's perfect for what you're looking for, but it's totally unavailable. Cue Alec Baldwin as he browbeats a bunch of salesmen. "These are the Glengarry Leads, and to you, they're gold. And you... can't have them."

Why would anybody do this? Would a CEO walk up to a homeless man and start counting money in front of him, before pocketing all of it and walking away? Basic decency dictates that he wouldn't even think about it, let alone do it, but change CEO and money to magician and secrets, and not only do we see this, but we see it alot. Such is the power of a secret -- you gain status simply by making it known that you have some. Crap, I've been practically doing it all throughout this blog entry.

But I don't think it has to be all bad. I just think we need to stop being disingenuous about it. If a guy is underground, don't announce that he's underground and throw his name out there. Keep it to yourself. If a piece of knowledge is exclusive, let it remain exclusive. Keep it to yourself. This is primarily the reason why I was deliberately vague about Tyler's two routines I talked about above -- ordinarily, people might parade it by saying "Tyler's got inside work on Spellbound that he's killing audiences with, and he's not sharing", and usually that's used as some sort of hype-based precursor to a product release. I wanted to pass along the exclusivity not to pump him up (or myself up through association), but instead to talk about what it is that I think we should start striving for... to stop using secrecy, exclusivity and underground-ness to sell products, or build up magicians' status, or the status of those magicians' friends, and to start using secrecy et al as a means of helping ourselves out as performing magicians. To stop using those concepts as buzzwords to tell all that we're in the know, and to start embracing what they really mean, and let that bleed over into who we are when we're working for real audiences.

There's a person in Tyler's circle of friends who has card work. Delicious inside stuff. He's known amongst people who know as having access to knowledge that not a whole lot of people know about, when it comes to cards. That's fairly cryptic, but I don't know how else to phrase it. Anyways, I got to meet him while I was at the Twin Cities Magic and Costume once, and I observed something really interesting. Other magicians were hanging about, and this guy was bringing some of them one-at-a-time to the back room, to show them things individually. At one point, somebody walked in on a discussion inadvertently, and he had to clam up -- I know this because Tyler was the one being shown things at the time, and he reported back. Afterwards, Tyler alluded to some of the stuff this guy had shared with him, but he couldn't share all of it. That might not mean much to anybody except that, in a simulated gambling situation Tyler and I played out one night, where it was understood that Tyler would be cheating, he took me to the cleaners with some great stuff, before tipping a couple of powerful card cheating techniques that he'd learned from this same guy. Insanely effective stuff, and almost certainly the sort of thing that should make any card magician think twice about claiming that "nobody wants to play cards with me" mantle just because you know a false shuffle or a bottom deal.

In any case, getting back to it. This guy has shared some stuff with Tyler. But, presumably, not everything, so that really hidden stuff would be a secret at level 1. Then there's stuff that he can pass on to Tyler but that Tyler can't even mention to anybody else (level 2). Then there's stuff that he can allude to but not go into detail about (level 3). Then there's stuff he can pass along to shmucks like me, but that I'm expected to keep hidden from others (level 4). Then there's stuff that I can allude to but not go into detail about (level 5). And then... well, let's say that by the time we're talking about the number of levels of secrecy between this guy and somebody he'd be playing against in a money game, we're well into the double digits... and we've not even considered the fact that this guy might not even be the most "inside" card guy out there. Who knows who's kept secrets from him? Or who's kept secrets from the guy who's kept secrets from him?

Tyler once described the way that this guy would pass along a secret, as an illustrative example. He'd baffle everybody in the room (knowledgable card men included) with a really impossible-seeming card trick, and assuming you were "in" with him, and he wouldn't laugh you off if you asked how it was done, if you did ask, he'd look around to see who else was paying attention, and then he'd take you to the back room, and he'd lean in close, just in case there were spy devices planted around that could pick up his voice, and he'd whisper, "It uses a key card..."

That was the point -- it didn't matter how mundane the method might be, by keeping it a secret, by treating it with that sort of reverence, he bestowed it with power. Rather than using the cleverness of the technique as a means to gain prestige amongst his peers, rather than even announcing to the group that it was a devilish secret, he would clam right up about it. It was as though he were a rich man, and the room were full of robbers, and rather than stating that his vast wealth was hidden behind a state-of-the-art vault, he wouldn't even talk about his wealth.

The reason I bring this up is that I think it's high time we as magicians started really embracing this concept of multiple levels of secrecy. As far as concepts go it's hardly new -- there are methods for tricks that are renowned as being known only by a select few (such as the Hooker Card Rise), and there are magicians who are renowned for having eschewed the company of other magicians who are too "open" (such as... well, no sense naming names here). But there's a difference between knowing about this sort of creed and really following it. I know how tough it can be, to want to share things with the guys at the magic club or the Magic Cafe or whatnot, if only to establish your own credibility. I also know how it can doubly tough when you try to set up an exclusive group -- either in more out-of-the-way magic forums or amongst groups of guys who believe themselves to be too good for the magic clubs. Trust me, I get it, and when you're with those guys, there's a tiny rush that comes from knowing that good work is being shared. And the more you've done it, the more natural it feels to keep doing it. I know from experience. On the train ride home from Minnesota I finally found the missing piece that I needed for a Triumph presentation I was working on. The two major factors that separate it from almost every other Triumph out there is that (a) it can be done with multiple selections, and (b) the face-up-face-down shuffling has a motivation that is both presentationally novel and revelatory of character in ways that most presentations of the trick can't touch. It's not a perfect trick, but already it's far better to me than the old "Drunk guy at the bar" bit. One other thing, contrary to most advice about card tricks, I can proudly announce the name of the trick to these guys, and if they go looking for explanations elsewhere, they won't find it. If they do happen to come upon a tutorial for the basic Triumph shuffle I'm using, they won't find it with multiple selections.

So, here I was with a newfound treasure of my own. First thing I did when I got back into town? I shared it with two guys. Stupid, stupid...

In any case, I just wanted to make it clear that I know this isn't easy. Fortunately, I've also got some other stuff that I can sit on that will keep me unique within this particular market. Unfortunately, Tyler knows about all of it, so the secrets aren't really secret. I mean, he might not say anything about them (he did joke about including one idea I had in his lecture notes), but they're not secrets. I'm still far away from my own ideal, which is annoying because all it takes is one measly trick to get there.

And how far can we take this secrecy? Well, one of the things that I really wanted to do during all that blogging in Minnesota was to put up a video of Tyler doing some card work, just to establish his credibility in an observable way to those who've not yet seen him work. Basically, so that people can see that in my writing, it's not just a question of me being overly impressed by somebody who can do a move or two that I can't. Getting him to agree to the video proved to be like pulling teeth, and in the end, I wasn't able to get it done. One interesting thing that came out of that badgering was Tyler's phrase about how, if he "flashed his tits" to the magic world, then his perceived value would immediately decrease.

I found that funny, because it brought to mind Denise Milani. If you don't know who this girl is, do yourself a favour and try a google image search on the name. She's quite a stunner. I first saw photos of her when she was a Sports By Brooks girl (they were advertising on Fark.com, a funny website), and soon after that she left the SBB crew to establish herself as a glamour model, posing in suggestive and alluring ways, and her success is now such that you can find her now having photos and videos advertised on the same gallery as regular porn stars... and yet she's not yet gone nude. She's not yet "flashed her tits". At first, it was a bit confusing to see her flanked on either side by rather lewd and unabashed women going all out to please the viewer, and there she is along with them, smiling coyly and holding back. I never would have thought that this extremely old school way of modelling could hold up in an environment that thrives on instant gratification. And you just know that every single time a link shows up pointing towards a new photo session of her, people will keep going back, wondering if this will be the time that she finally whips them out. Such is the power of that which is known to be withheld.

I guess I wrote all that to write this. Here's a challenge for 2009...

Develop as many pieces of good magic as you can, that you don't tell anybody about. Don't put videos of them up on Youtube, don't publish them anywhere, don't even describe them to other magicians. Perform the heck out of them for non-magicians, certainly, but as far as everybody else is concerned, they don't exist. Keep a tally of how many you've got. On the eve of 2010 I'll put up a callback to this particular blog post, and then you can write in if you like. Keep in mind that every trick you develop that fits this category must be good. So good, in fact, that it'll hurt you to keep it a secret. But if there's a bright side to all that pain, it'll be this... for every such trick that you sit on, that's a trick that people won't be able to find exposure videos of, that people won't be able to see other magicians do, and that will establish you as separate and distinct from other magicians in your market, if not around the world. After you blow away somebody with the trick, you'll be able to say with complete confidence that you're the only person in the world who can do it. Oh sure, it might rely on sleights that other magicians already know, but they still won't be able to do your trick. You might even want to think twice about sharing the number.

So, there you go. An open challenge to readers of the olde blogge.

Here's hoping I can make good on it myself...