Second Impressions
by Kenton Knepper

Recently a friend from the U.K. sent me a link to a video of political satire. Stay with me – this involves magic and mentalism performance, as you will see. This video satire was getting rave reviews and it had already been viewed over nine hundred times when I first looked at it.

But the satire sounded familiar. An audience was laughing, yet the video was that of a kid performing in his bedroom.

Then I made the little bit of effort to read the fine print. It turns out the kid was lip-synching to some other bit of audio. There was a link to the original work below the video. I was thinking this all sounded like an older video impersonation from a television show in the States called “Saturday Night Live.”

I decided to check on the original source. Sure enough. The kid was merely lip-synching to someone else’s funny bit. The child was impersonating someone impersonating someone.

Here’s the interesting part. The original work has had less than one hundred viewings. The impersonated version is now nearing one thousand viewings.

I’d love to say this is not a metaphor for works within magic and mentalism, but it most assuredly is a worthy comparison. I’d love to say that critics are more like me who work a very little to find the story behind the story and see the real for the impression. I’d love to say critics endorse the originals rather than giving their accolades away to copies while bashing or ignoring the original. I’d love to say that, but quite the opposite is true too often. I’d love to tell you that originality makes all the difference in real performances, and that impressions of an impression pales in public favor to the original. But I cannot in good conscious say that is the case, when I look around and see so many impressions of other people’s original works in performance.

I still believe that a performer or artist ought to hold on to his or her own unique vision, and stay with it until their audience finds them. But if you are looking to be popular with a sheep-like populace that must be led, maybe imitation is the sincerest form of success.

If that upsets you, you may be an artist. If you grasp that this is the key you have been waiting for to become successful, then you are likely a shrewder performer bound for some notoriety.

Artists give a damn. They care about what they do. They care about what suggestions they hurl into the public psyche. Artists are about making statements. They may not be overt leaders or masters, but they change how things are perceived. They make lousy sheep. They also may make lousy money.

Impersonators impersonate others who are successful, and care more about success than anything else. They make statements if they think that will impress the sheep. They say things that matter, if that means more money or popularity for them. They will happily borrow from the greatest artists, past and present, without crediting any artist. It is more important to make money than to make a real difference.

The Public sends around accolades and emails to endorse the impersonators, so naturally the impersonators feel quite justified. The originators may or may not get much credit, save a small footnote or some bit of ignored fine print.

No artist is a saint and no impersonator entirely without merit. Each makes their own contributions and takes away their own versions of success. Impersonators sleep well at night, because they can afford to do so. Artists may sleep uneasily, knowing that the success of others comes at their failure to exploit their own creations and themselves. The impersonators get the credit and accolades for the creation they took from the artist now ignored. They and their Public believe they deserve that. To them, it’s “only fair.”

It is in this "Twilight Zone" of an existence that we currently find ourselves.

The only way this world will snap out of such a bizarre trance is if you refuse to be hypnotized by impersonators.

Go back and read old magic catalogs from the 1900s. 1980 seems so ancient to the current trends that what was popular then is now being called something else and is named after someone in present times. The present person has made a name for himself and his supposed creation, although he originally bought it for five dollars in a magic store when he was ten years old.

But the sheep today don’t know that, only he and a few pros do.

And even the pros are too busy giving up accolades to such an impersonator because they fear the frightening face in the smoke and the loud roaring false soundtrack, rather than addressing the pale faker behind the curtain.

I’m not perfect, nor are my friends, and we all miss credits or appropriate accolades to artists from time to time. I’m not talking about that. The last paragraph was a reference to "The Wizard of Oz" for instance, should you have missed it. My concern is the overwhelming popularity of false impersonators that alarms me. Such should not be a trend to sure success. We ought not play our part of blind adoration without checking some facts first, at the very least. We may need to think about how art and original creation is or is not involved in self-proclaimed artistic performances.

Why do I think such things matter? Because I’m not fond of playing with sheep, or being one.

If you are not either, let’s break away from the herd mentality and let others know when they are being led to the slaughter only to feed the already fat impersonators of our arts in various forms.

Better yet, just refuse to be an impersonator, and work at being an original artist who happens also to be quite successful. That’ll change the way the herd moves across our magical landscape.

If not, we had better all head for the hills.

Kenton