Greetings and hello! A year has passed since we were up and running here at Visions and I hope that you've all missed me as much as I have you. When last we met, I was in the middle of a multi-part series on the state of the magic industry. My intention is to finish with that series, but first I'd like to interrupt it with a diatribe on something that annoys me terribly.

Generics.

So, what are generics? These are the cosmopolites that are just too embarrassed to be called magicians. For some reason or another these men and/or women of our industry simply cannot be proud of what they are, but rather are generic entertainers who use magic in their entertaining entertainment of the audiences who are subject to their inanities.

Magicians really are an interesting bunch. For some reason, they don't like anyone to know that they are magicians. Ask anyone what they do for a living and they give a straight forward answer to the question. A waiter or waitress admits it straight away. What do you do for a living? I wait tables down at Joe's Bar and Grill. A clerk admits it straight away. What do you do for a living? I am a cashier at Billy Bob's carryout. Even the guy who washes cars at the local car wash is willing to admit what he does for a living.

Not magicians, though. Hey, what do you do for a living? I'm an entertainer.

It sickens me.

There is something even worse, though. That's the guy who isn't even a magician but does magic. He's the one who is an entertainer but isn't a comedian, isn't a singer, isn't anything else and uses magic as his form of entertainment yet still isn't a magician.

What?

I ask myself how this can possibly be. How can you do magic and not be a magician? These guys are adamant, however. They are entertainers that do magic, but they are not magicians. Are they whipping out their banjos and a-pickin' and a-grinnin'? No. Are they giving their Shakespeare soliloquies to their captivated and entertained audiences? No. Are they singing their little, pathetic, hearts out with the latest version of "Poker Face?" No.

They are doing magic, but they are not magicians. Silly, ain't it?

I'll call it silly for my own part although I think that we all know that it isn't silly, it's pitiful. Lamentable, even.
In fact, I'll even take it to a level beyond all of that. I'd like to throttle these dolts.

Dai Vernon was a magician. Robert-Houdin was a magician. Elmsley, Ramsay, Dedi, Bixby, McComb, Wonder, Marshall, Flosso…The list goes on and on and on. All the giants who have preceded us were proud to be magicians. When a magician refuses to admit that he is, in fact, a magician it only derogates and denigrates the lot of us.

If you are embarrassed to be a magician, then please, quit. Leave being a magician to the magicians in our society. If you do magic and aren't a magician then you aren't worthy of this venerable and wonderful art.

Personally, I would suggest that if you are one of these "generics" that you are the equivalent of a slug, but I don't want to insult the slugs of the world. I'm fairly certain that my disgust for this despicable cross section of our brethren would be called, "palpable."

As always, thank you for reading and take care.

Mike