Blaine Avoids Copperfield? We’re Insecure?Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

The report in the gossip portion of MSNBC is always interesting to read if only to learn how and why celebrity couples we don?t know broke up. But we were startled, down-right startled, to read that Tobey Maguire (?Spiderman?) will not sit near Joaquin Phoenix (?Ladder 49?) in the VIP room at the hot New York caf?, Lotus. Similarly, the owner of this chi-chi joint says David Blaine will not eat in the same VIP room as David Copperfield.

You can read the article here.

This was troubling news. While we have never met Mr. Maguire and don?t even know if Joaquin Phoenix is a man or a woman, we do know Mr. Copperfield and Mr. Blaine. It is significant that Mr. Copperfield apparently has no trouble eating with the likes of Mr. Blaine. Rather the man who was willing to not eat with the whole world watching for 44 days, refuses to be in the same room as our era?s television magic star.

We attempted to contact both Mr. Copperfield and Mr. Blaine for comment but were unable to get through.

Rodney King once said, ?Can?t we all just get along?? A truer question has not been poised. Can?t we? Can?t we drop our own egos long enough to be seen with our competition?

We?re not famous so we don?t have the problem of remembering with whom we should be seen or not seen. But, on our own little, insignificant scale, we have ego-related problems. When we hang with the guys at magic conventions, we want to hang with the cool crowd. We don?t mind having to…

You can read the article here.

We attempted to contact both Mr. Copperfield and Mr. Blaine for comment but were unable to get through.

Rodney King once said, ?Can?t we all just get along?? A truer question has not been poised. Can?t we? Can?t we drop our own egos long enough to be seen with our competition?

Unfortunately, at most conventions, the inside crowd is rarely outside. They stick to their kind and, while they won?t have us forced out of the same caf?, they usually don?t ask us over to dine.

The reasonable and non-paranoid rationale for this stand-off behavior would be that they do not know us and have no idea we want to be invited to the big-people table. They just see one more geeky, gawking magician-groupie staring at them as they try to blow their soup cool.

We, on the other hand, know it really is because they don?t like us. They don?t know us but that is because they don?t want to know us. Sure, they?d like us to buy their DVDs, their lecture notes, their newest tricks, but they don?t want to know us. We are the faceless consumer crowd and they would like us to stay that way.

There is ample reason to believe this cynical explanation for the inside group?s cliques. None of those reasons come from the insiders. Unfortunately for the paranoid personality that lives in our psyche, we have found no real evidence the majority of Magic?s stars seek to avoid their fans. On the contrary, we have found even the most famous of the stars are almost too approachable. We have found they act like normal people. Some are shy while others seem to enjoy the lime-light. Some drop names but no more than other convention-goers.

Dang it. We are forced to consider the possibility that our bias against the stars in our magic community is unfounded. This thought could cause us to believe our paranoia is truly a manifestation of our own fragile ego and rampant insecurity. We?d rather not think we?re messed up in the head. We would much rather believe the stars are jerks, we are pure, and we?ve been wronged.

That was why we found some hope in the MSNBC article. If Mr. Blaine refuses to eat in the same VIP room as Mr. Copperfield, this could mean there exists the ego-based elitism that our diseased mind contends must exist. See, there are jerks in our business. Mr. Blaine is a snooty, elitist snob who refuses to eat in the same room with one of the men who made his television career possible.

Unfortunately, our hopes that our sick psyche could be vindicated were dashed upon the rocks of reality. We heard from a fellow magician that this story is bunk and, in fact, the two great magicians have been seen eating together on several occasions.

Unlike the dastardly world of competitive figure skating where competitors will take out their foes with a single swing of a tire iron, we work within a profession that encourages each other. Perhaps that is because no matter how big a star a magician becomes (such as Johnny Carson), he or she is still a magician. Unlike figure skating, singing, dancing, or competitive pie-eating, you cannot learn magic alone. You learn some tricks from books or DVDs but you must eventually come into contact with fellow magicians. Our organic structure means we learn and grow by performing for and watching other magicians. We depend on other magicians for help and enjoy watching magic at all of its levels of competence.

That child-like joy does not leave easily. Fortunately for the betterment of our profession and to the detriment of our own psychological well-being, no matter how big a magician gets, he or she remains a magician.