A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/magician-brazil-national-celebrity-d31f547a

by bookofjoe • 1 year ago

119 60 1 year ago

wsj.com

bookofjoe2• 1 year ago

https://archive.ph/66ffV

slater• 1 year ago

Doesn't work.

bookofjoe2• 1 year ago

Try this: https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/magician-brazil-nation...

pvg• 1 year ago

Link seems not to include the story

DocTomoe• 1 year ago

Considering for some years now, Penn & Teller's whole act is basically exactly what this guy did, I'd chalk his shunning down to him trying to protect his identity (yes, in the last episode, he dud reveal himself, I know... but I suspect that was not entirely voluntary.)

ninininino• 1 year ago

I wonder if the difference is the magician themselves revealing their trick vs others guessing as to how it's done?

metalliqaz• 1 year ago

I've seen P&T's show in Vegas a few times, and I've seen many of their TV appearances. They do explain how illusions work, but they don't spoil other magicians tricks. They will do an old classic, show it from the "other side", and then while you aren't paying attention they pull off something new, giving no explanation for that one.

jackthetab• 1 year ago

I just saw an interview with Penn wherein he stated that they have been thrown out of The Magic Castle, et. al for revealing tricks.

Given their popularity, I'm sure they've been allowed back in. :-)

empath75• 1 year ago

You should pretty much never trust magicians who "explain" how their illusions work. Sometimes they genuinely do explain it, but often, it's still another trick. Derren Brown does this a lot.

sbuttgereit• 1 year ago

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here to your point about sharing other's work. Some (many?) sell their tricks. So assuming that you've spent time developing a new trick and some portion of your living depends not just on presentation, but also selling the trick or training.... I could see some getting upset.

Otherwise, I don't think the issue is spoiling it for audiences as the craft and presentation style count as much or more than the trick itself.

bigbuppo2• 1 year ago

P&T's whole deal is revealing the low-hanging fruit in frutherance of the greater trick. There are some circles that shun them for revealing things, but they're still respected by those same groups, and are well-liked all around. Why? Penn and Teller respect the artform. Valentino just went around being a dick about it, with complete contempt for the craft. That's the difference.

Seriously... his deal is magicians lie? You mean it's all an act? What a revelation. At no time in the last few thousand years has anybody in the history of the world ever figured that out. Nope, none at all.

belril• 1 year ago

To take this a step further, P&T's reveals often highlight and celebrate the complexity of pulling off a given trick. Sure, you understand how the cups and balls can be done after watching them do it, but good luck trying to replicate the smoothness of their performance. They actually make a point of celebrating the complexity of the method, even if it's revealed.

ahazred8ta• 1 year ago

Critics have been spoiling tricks for thousands of years. (Bel and the Dragon is in the Bible)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_and_the_Dragon#Bel

coliveira• 1 year ago

I always thought the line that they being "blacklisted" by other magicians was some piece of advertising for the show. I don't think that makes much difference in the modern world.

atum472• 1 year ago

We still, to this day, say: "explain that, Mr. M" when something is not right.

"I lend you 10 bucks yesterday for you to buy lunch, today I see you are wearing a new shirt. Explain that Mr. M"

atum472• 1 year ago

Explain that Mr. M was the catch phrase the host would say after Mr. M perform the trick (illusion Michael) and before he showed how it was done.

giancarlostoro• 1 year ago

They're called illusions Michael... A trick is...

emiliobumachar• 1 year ago

Hum, I remember it as "What about now, Mr M?" ("E agora, Mr. M?")

scop2• 1 year ago

I loved his shows when I was a kid. I was pretty into magic (e.g. going to the local shop and buying tricks) and this show was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. I get that it broke many rules, but I think it was well timed. If it had been earlier I think it would have been a true rule-breaking, “we’re exposing secrets cuz we just don’t care” type of thing. But in the 90s/00s it was a moment in which a new generation of TV kids. Whenever I would watch magic on TV I thought it was pretty lame because, after all, how do you know it was just special effects BS? This guy revealed that even though it was on TV it was still an execution of skill/engineering/performance. Super fascinating. Thanks Val!

lurkshark• 1 year ago

This was exactly my experience as well. It’s kind of funny now with the internet having endless information on illusions to think folks were so miffed by his show. But also — and this might just be my personal bias as someone who always loved the showmanship and execution — it baffles me that anyone would skip seeing a magic show because they saw an explanation (not even nearly THE explanation) of how it’s done. Like I assume most people besides the Falun Gong don’t think David Copperfield is a legitimate wizard.

whstl• 1 year ago

I have zero patience for watching the tricks by themselves.

Watching the explanations on the other hand is fun.

To me it's like watching a trailer vs watching the full film.

scop2• 1 year ago

Exactly. It is just like professional wrestling. It’s not a matter of thinking it’s real, magic is all about being so damn entertained that you don’t care whether it’s real.

pearlsontheroad• 1 year ago

"Firms hire elderly office boys to wait in line at banks and notaries, exploiting federal rules giving priority to anyone over 60."

Retirement Plan Z (if everything else fails): Work as a messenger in Brazil. They're hiring.

gtirloni• 1 year ago

Banks are pretty much empty these days. Everything is computer.

CobrastanJorji• 1 year ago

Pick notary.

elros• 1 year ago

It's been decades and instantly in my head I could hear Cid Moreira's voice. I'm sure I'm not the only one :-) Watching that on Sundays, with my father, as a child. Good memories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hed40Muo50

dkga• 1 year ago

Same!

felipellrocha• 1 year ago

How did I know this was going to be about Mr M?

tumsfestival• 1 year ago

Come on, how many pariah international magicians are there who are famous around these parts?

silisili• 1 year ago

I remember watching his show in my younger years. I always assumed/thought that 'all magicians hate him' was just to sell the show more, like surely we all know magic isn't real anyways? Apparently that's not the case, it seems.

mrandish7• 1 year ago

As a former professional magician and lifelong magic enthusiast, no serious magicians hate this guy. On the contrary, his show was great because it drove interest in magic which is good for working performers. The "Magicians HATE him" shtick was just marketing hype to promote the TV show.

Of course there are probably a couple of clueless amateur magicians somewhere out there who will spout about this guy but it's not how the vast majority of us feel. Anyone who studies and understands magic on a serious level already knows they can take the exact same techniques you saw exposed on that show and fool you silly with them the next day.

I know this is true because I've seen a top notch magician like legendary Spanish card worker Dani DaOrtiz perform for a roomful of very experienced professional magicians at a magic conference and completely blow their minds. The best part is that he used a technique that every person in that room already knew! In fact, the majority of those pro magicians have studied and performed it themselves for years - and were still fooled. A layperson seeing a 60 second drive-by expose on a TV show of a single implementation of one of thousands of techniques has zero impact on a good magician.

irjustin• 1 year ago

I think out of the "serious magicians" there's also the general "fraud" style. Who were in fact truly angry.

Make a space shuttle disappear[0], or hide an elephant. The TV show revealed all those to be fake and were in fact - paid audiences. My little brain trusted that they weren't paid and wanted to know so bad how the space shuttle disappeared.

Overall the TV and the internet helped push magic to exactly where it is today. Amazing, talented folks who even when you know how it's done, it's so good - it's magic.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lxX3rqhZtw

_fqqr• 1 year ago

What I thought would be an interesting article about his life in Brazil ended up being… nothing.

Mentioning him as a “hero” in Brazil is quite an overstatement but whatever, but then the article goes on to bash and generalize Brazilians and paint him as a “rare” honest person that’s been lauded for it? I’d guess no one I know even know he lives in Brazil.

As a Brazilian, it has always been about a cool show that showed you cool new things, so he’s well known just like tons of other celebrities that grow beyond the US, and that’s it.

jwitthuhn• 1 year ago

For anyone who never saw his show, it is (all?) now available on this youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@MagicSecretsRevealed/videos

wblackfield• 1 year ago

Olha o Mr. M!!! Hahaha (in Brazilian Portuguese just for fun) =B

d0100• 1 year ago

Weird narrative of Mister M being famous because Brazilians "loathe deception more than anyone"

He got famous because everyone loves magic, and even more when you explain magic tricks

But most importantly, and what the author fails to mentions, it was because at that point in time anything on TV got famous, because TV was the only visual media we had that was "free"

lee-rhapsody• 1 year ago

"Maybe this will finally get me on the cover of Poof..."

felineflock• 1 year ago

No paywall: https://archive.ph/Xi1bJ

rmellow• 1 year ago

I remember his show was abruptly interrupted as he was detained by the Federal Police for working in Brazil without the appropriate visa.

https://www.folhadelondrina.com.br/geral/pf-multa-e-da-oito-...

A Blacklisted American Magician Became a Hero in Brazil

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