When "Good" Tricks Go Bad
Sunday June 25, 2006
Sounds to me like the “David Copperfield of China” isn’t doing a great job of covering his tracks, unlike his American namesake. This article talks about how magician Wang Qimo caused a 30m plane to teleport from one location to another in the middle of the sea. Unfortunately for Qimo, media reports said that many audience members recognized a plane as a giant inflatable, and many had seen parts of a second “plane” sticking out from behind a curtain before it’s production.
Comments
It seems odd and wrong that the Chinese media would report on how a magician did a trick. A magic show is hardly the proper venue for investigative journalism. Since he’s known as the David Copperfield of China, the magician obviously makes no bones about being an entertainer (in other words, he isn’t passing himself off as a genuine miracle-worker), and the audience was there to be entertained (they all know it’s a trick in the first place). So how is it appropriate to report on the magician’s methods?