I can think of one trick that I've retired due to exposure, and a couple that I would never consider performing for the same reason.
Secret Revealed
I stopped performing a trick after Criss Angel exposed it. He casually gave away the secret to the "ashes" trick (a variation by Gregory Wilson) on an episode of MindFreak.
As a result, with certain young audiences, I discovered that I could no longer perform the trick. All I had to do was pull out the prop and a couple of kids said, "I know how to do this one, I saw it on MindFreak." Exposure coming from within our ranks is a surprise, but it happened.
Damaging Demos
Because of magic stores and kiosks that reside in malls and at tourist destinations, I don’t think there's a magician out there who can perform D-Lite or Hummer Card, the levitating card trick. These tricks are publicly demonstrated and sold by the thousands and as a result, have gone the way of the "ball and vase."
Even if a layman doesn't understand their secrets, magicians can no longer perform the tricks because the initial impact is lost. Also, during inept demos, I have seen the spinning cards left dangling. Here, incompetent performance was as damaging as exposure.
Due to television scheduling, apparently, there was exposure related to week eight of "Masters of Illusion." On the show, Dale Salwak performed his superb "floating ball." And during the hour after wards, coincidentally, in the MM episode, a version of the trick was explained. In this case, because of Salwak's mastery of the prop, I'm willing to bet that he would still fry laymen who think that they are in the know.
So anyone out there stopped performing magic tricks because it was exposed and you found out from your audiences?
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