This is in addition to the post a couple days ago.

I’m a big RFID fan. When Texas Instruments first made their RFID evaluation kits available years ago, I was worse than any of the geeks standing (in the wrong line) to see Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of George Lucas the Sith. Except, of course, I knew which line to get in: the just charge it to my Visa card line.

So, it’s not that I have any problems with technology. Far from it.

But, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s good to be mindful of what the public is exposed to. To normal people (ie. those folks who are not magicians) an explanation may as well be the explanation, regardless of how far off the mark they may well be. (And they usually are.) This was the primary point that sucked any semblance of “excuse” for what a certain failed Vegas performer did for a certain network years ago in those exposure shows: it doesn’t matter how wrong the explanation is, when a person feels he just has to know how a trick was done, any plausable explanation will do.

Properly constructed performance pieces erase possible paths without irritating spectators because they candy coat the NFW-response in something called great routining. That tends to take some of the sting out.

(I refer you now to anything Juan Tamiriz has written, uttered, mimed, thought, or wrote in the snow.)

The reference I made to the e-ink technology is just one of many examples of how technology is doing really magical things. Based on the number of trade magazines I get each month, I believe I am personally responsible for several square yards of rain forest nudity. Today’s batch of magazines included a technology-driven publication dedicated to the latest Star Wars-type technology and gadgetry. It just — once again — reminded me that, to the degree these advances in technology personally impact the lives of our spectators is the degree to which we need to plan for technology to become part of the silent dialog between magical performer and spectator.

It’s a reminder that the method is not the thing. (Insert your favorite expletive here.)

For audiences, the method was never the thing. But magicians instantly demonstrate OCD behavior as soon as something new hits the magic market. I don’t necessarily have anything against magicians buying the latest doodad to hit the market; ours is largely a hobbyist-driven market. But it does tend to feed the false belief that our side of the fence in any way resembles our audiences’ side of the fence; that they care about the same things (largely) we care about. They don’t. And the sooner we (as a magic community) embrace that truth, the sooner this herd can head toward entertaining with magic rather than demonstrating magic.

Yes, I know, “That’s nice John. Now, please join the rest of us back here in The Real World…” But it was a nice thought, wasn’t it?