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@ 𝕊é𝕚𝕞í 𝕄𝕒𝕔 𝕊í𝕠𝕞ó𝕟
2025-06-11 08:11:25
My point, to be very precise, wasn't that Penn and Teller aren't talented or incapable of putting on an entertaining show, it's simply this:
That they are responsible for a damaging paradigm shift in popular culture as it pertains to magic:
From "Hey, want to see something weird?"
to
"This is a game. I, the magician, am attempting to fool you, embarrass you even, and it's your job to stop me by exposing what I am doing. If you fail, everyone will see what a fool you are, and I, the trickster will have hoodwinked you with my superior wile and intellect."
If you are in any doubt about Penn and Teller's contribution to this paradigm shift, they host one of the most successful television programmes involving magic, and it's called "Fool Us", and prior television projects centred around "exposing" how other effects are achieved.
Trying to figure out how an effect is done is immensely pleasurable, and indeed,
there is nothing wrong with wondering how an effect works, indeed that's a perfectly natural reaction to seeing something that doesn't make sense to you cognitively, but prior to this paradigm shift that I'm describing, this curiosity didn't take the form of a stand-off between magician and layman.
That idea was introduced.
Shin Lim is an excellent magician it has to be said, really in a league of his own.