So, what is the state of entertainment today? What, precisely, is considered award-winning humor? In all honesty, these are mind numbing questions and I know that in answering these questions, I’m going to step on more than a few toes.

Consider “Family Guy.” Low brow humor with a possible chuckle here and there. Personally, I don’t watch the show because I’ve learned all that I need to from the commercials that constantly push the program. In one spot, the main character, an overweight man, has his shirt off and is squeezing his “man-boob” up to his mouth so that he can lick his own nipple. This is a show that is one of the most popular on the television.

The late Chris Farley, considered to be a comedy genius, was at his most humorous when he had his shirt off and flopped around so that everyone could laugh at his rolls of fat slapping back and forth, up and down, in a most disgusting fashion. This is genius? This is humor? This is entertainment at its best?

“Idiocracy” was released several years ago. The movie, which was as low brow as it could possibly be, certainly made some valuable points about where we are going as a society. If you are unfamiliar with the movie, basically it explains how people are having babies with multiple partners and stocking the United States with low intelligence children who grow up and continue to have many children all with low intelligence. As the trend continues, the country becomes a society of morons and idiots where average intelligence is considered genius level. At one spot in the movie, it made a point that I couldn’t agree with more:

In a movie theater the audience sat and laughed and guffawed at nothing more that two and a half hours of a bare human butt on the screen. That was the entire movie, nothing but the unclothed man standing with his rear end on the screen and that is what was considered great humor in this movie.

To my way of thinking, considering what I see of entertainment today, that is exactly where we are heading as the human race. When I see sneak previews of movies where humor is seeing a woman peeing in a sink (I’m not making that up), I can only believe that, ultimately, two and a half hours of a bare ass on the screen will sell and be considered comedy genius and will hold the audience enthralled. While I can’t speak for anyone other than myself, the state of entertainment today disgusts me beyond explanation.

The examples above aren’t even a scratch in the surface of the moronic crap that sells in the United States. I could write an entire book on talent bereft entertainers and the low brow rubbish that is constantly force fed down our throats. What I find even more disturbing is that the public is eating it up as if it were worth their hard earned dollars. Don’t believe it? Listen to Miley Cyrus sing and then tell me if she is actually talented. She’s not, but she’s the hottest ticket going today. I have listened to her sing - she is quite often off key. Nevertheless, I can’t walk through any store without finding Miley Cyrus products everywhere. Notebooks, drinking glasses, back packs - the list goes on and on. There she is making a highly lucrative living without any real talent to sell.

Take the ignorance and garbage that we are being fed by the entertainment industry and tell me, honestly, that you don’t think that we are in a downward spiral where entertainment is concerned. It seems that every other show on the television is a “reality show” where we get to watch the very worst in humanity for our entertainment.

The magic industry even put out a reality show of its own early last year. This show was greeted with (about) a 50-50 reception by other magicians. Still, if we are to remain as a viable form of entertainment today, then certainly we have to change with the times. Going by history, it can easily be seen that magic has not set the stage for popular entertainment, but rather has evolved and morphed into what the public wanted during any given period of time.

David Blaine and Criss Angel are proof that by using the popular standard of entertainment magic can be a viable form of entertainment - something that sells commercially.

Where does that leave the rest of us?

Fortunately, there is still a part of the population that wants intelligent and lucid entertainment, rather than just fast paced stimulus made to assault the senses. There are still viable venues that performers can, and do, make a living off of. Opera, ballet and stage plays are popular today and hopefully always will be.

One way to stand apart from the competition is to offer a point of view with your magic. Say something, make a stand, give your audience more than a coin disappearing or a card jumping to the top of the deck. You don’t need a cheesy story line to make a point, but you do have to work for it because it doesn’t just happen.

I’ve found that people appreciate this approach to magic. Compare this to the more lucrative form of entertainment: The Stand Up Comedian. Generally, comedians have something to say in their routines. They point out people’s stupidity in a humorous way and even when you can see yourself in their cross hairs, you still have to laugh. They make political statements and, oftentimes, even when you disagree you still have to laugh. These comedians are giving something more to their audience than simple, mindless entertainment.

Don’t get me wrong. Certainly there is a time and place for simple, mindless entertainment. There is a time and a place for everything under the sun. That doesn’t change the fact that if we are to be practicable then we have to offer something that is worthy of our customer’s hard earned cash. People get enough of the mindless sort of entertainment from their television, why should they get more of the same from us? Why shouldn’t they have an expectation of a higher form of entertainment from a magician? Maybe it’s because we, as magician, don’t think so highly of our entertainment or possibly it is because we have come to believe that we are third rate, anyway.

Why not spend a little time to actually examine your own magic and what it is, exactly, that you portray to your spectators? How do they view you? Do they see a guy (or girl) who is doing a bunch of little tricks or do they see a man (or woman) who is taking them into a world where the impossible is possible? If you treat your magic as a bunch of tricks, then you will be perceived as the equivalent of a party favor but if you treat your magic with respect and give it depth (and a point), then your spectators will perceive you as an artist or in the very least an artisan deserving of respect.

As magicians, we have agreed to continue the venerable and honorable tradition of bringing to the public a world of miracles in a world bereft of anything other than cold, hard facts. We have the ability to lift the spirit of the down trodden but it seems that all we want to do is present little, useless puzzles to our spectators. We have a skill that few possess and yet we treat it as trivial. Why in the world should we think that we can command any respect when we don’t even respect ourselves?

In my next article I will try to bring this and the two previous articles together in some kind of lucid conclusion. Until then, thank you for reading and take care.

Mike