THE CHALLENGE of READING MAGIC INSTRUCTIONS

Have you ever purchased a magic effect and ran into the challenges of trying to figure out what the heck to do? It's right up there with trying to figure out what exactly the blue palm palm connected to the red palm palm on the short string which is connected to the yellow palm palm on the long string that is connected to the green palm palm is used for. WHEW!

How about his? You finally get your magic trick in the mail and it literally is in another language. OH! and how about this.... The directions that you received for your magic effect is blurred out, a section cut off or it looks like it's a 340 generation copy. Just a few weeks ago I had to get the help of Tim Felix- Owner of www.midwestmagic.net just to understand the working of the Siberian Chain Escape.

Thanks Tim for all your help! He's a real pro.


I can finally rest my eyes trying to comprehend the effect. I give a lot of credit to the old timers in magic. They didn't really have much tvs back then. DVDs, VCRs, Betta Tapes, youtube, maybe cassette tapes if they were luck. 

They had hardcore paper instructions and by some miracle they figured it out. And if they didn't they would write actual letters to friends or invite them over to help.

In a lot of instances magic instructions were made to be hard to comprehend for a reason.
They were made that way so it wouldn't be easy for someone that wanted to just learn secrets of a magic trick and not work for it. So they made the directions very vague.

Usually you would have to find a magician higher up to help you. And only then would that magician help you if he thought you were serious about learning the art.

Where will magic be in 50, 100, 500 years from now? Will it exist? Will our planet be like "Mad Max?" will our technology be destroyed and we no longer have youtube video on magic, websites....?

What will happen? does anyone have a back-up plan for preserving the magic?  Maybe a time capsule filled with Tarbell Books wouldn't be a bad idea. Will the future know who David Copperfield is? or will technology be so far advanced to the point that magicians will be laughed at? They might think something like "Magicians would make a feather float?" why?



So the next time you have trouble understanding directions. Maybe they weren't meant to be understood. Maybe the directions itself has the power to pick and choose who will comprehend it and who won't.

Imaginator