Written by Mark Schaefer -Magician , Creator and Magic Company Owner
I wrote this because I believe our industry needs a real conversation about public advertising, exposure, and protecting the art we all love.
An Open Letter to the Magic Community
Magic has always been different.
It is one of the last true art forms built on secrecy, trust, wonder, and shared responsibility. At its best, magic is not about fooling people. It is about creating a moment where someone feels something real: surprise, joy, disbelief, laughter, mystery, and wonder.
That feeling matters.
And the secret matters too.
Not because the secret itself is the art, but because the secret protects the experience. Once the method is casually exposed, the moment changes forever. The audience no longer gets to feel the impossible in the same way. The performer loses something. The creator loses something. And the art itself loses something.
I say this as a magician, as a creator, and as the owner of a well-respected magic company myself, so of course I have strong feelings on this. I understand the pressures of building products, selling products, supporting customers, and trying to grow a business in a very competitive space. I also understand that marketing is harder than ever.
But I believe we have to draw a line between marketing magic and exposing magic.
For generations, there was a natural barrier around magic. You went to a magic shop. You saw a demonstration. Maybe you saw it once. If you were serious, you bought the effect, studied it, practiced it, and earned the right to perform it. That system was not perfect, but it did something important: it protected the mystery.
Today, that barrier is disappearing.
We now live in a world where magic trailers, Kickstarter campaigns, Meta ads, Instagram ads, TikTok videos, and sponsored posts are being pushed far beyond the magic community. Many of these ads do not simply show the effect. They show the prop. They show the handling. Some reveal the exact method within the first few seconds.
And this is not only happening with small creators or unknown sellers. It is happening across the industry.
This letter is not an attack on any one company. It is not about one dealer, one creator, one distributor, or one product. Many people and companies are participating in this new reality, and I believe most are not doing it with bad intent. They are trying to market. They are trying to survive. They are trying to sell in a noisy world.
I understand that.
But I also believe we need to stop and ask ourselves a harder question:
At what cost?
When one of the largest magic companies in the business runs a public ad that exposes the product or method, it does not only affect that company. It affects every magician who bought that product. It affects the creator who spent years developing it. It affects the performer who planned to use it professionally. It affects the audience member who may now see the secret before they ever see the magic.
And despite what some may say, these ads are not only being shown to magicians.
Many of us have had the experience of a non-magician saying, “Oh, I saw that on Instagram,” or “Can’t you just buy that on that magic site?” These are not people searching for magic secrets. These are ordinary people being served exposure through algorithms, sponsored content, and social platforms that do not know or care about the traditions of our art.
That should concern all of us.
We are living in a time when artificial intelligence, deepfakes, filters, and digital manipulation are making people question almost everything they see. So much of what surrounds us now can be created, altered, enhanced, or faked in seconds.
That makes live magic more important than ever.
Because magic, when experienced in real life, happens with people and for people. It is shared in the room. It creates a human moment. The audience may not know how it happened, but they know they felt it. They know they were there. They know something impossible seemed to happen right in front of them.
In a world where so much feels artificial, magic offers something deeply human.
It gives people a real, in-person experience of wonder. It creates a memory. It reminds them that mystery still exists.
But if we continue exposing our own methods in public advertising, we are helping destroy one of the few real experiences of wonder people still have.
As magicians, mentalists, creators, dealers, distributors, and magic companies, we have always understood that secrecy is part of the responsibility. We may disagree about methods, pricing, quality, originality, style, or business models, but we should be able to agree on this:
Magic should not be casually exposed to the public in the name of sales.
Of course the world has changed. Brick-and-mortar magic shops are no longer the only way people discover magic. Online shops are essential. Trailers are necessary. Demonstrations matter. But there is a difference between making information available to people who are intentionally seeking magic and pushing methods into the feeds of people who never asked to see them.
That difference matters.
If someone wants to learn magic, they can find it. They can go to magic websites. They can join magic communities. They can buy books, downloads, lectures, and products. But the secrets of our art should not be forced into the public stream just because an ad platform makes it easy to target broadly and sell quickly.
We need to do better.
We need to control what we can control.
We need to ask creators, dealers, distributors, and magic companies to be more thoughtful about what they show publicly. We need to ask them to stop running public-facing ads that reveal props, methods, gimmicks, or secret workings. We need to ask them to protect not only their own products, but also the performers who buy them and the audiences who deserve to experience them as magic.
This is also about respecting the customer.
When a magician spends their hard-earned money on a product, they are not only buying a physical item or a download. They are buying the ability to create a moment. They are investing in a secret, a tool, a routine, and an experience they hope to share with others. When that same method is later pushed in a public ad to non-magicians, that investment is damaged.
That is not fair to the performer.
It is not fair to the creator.
It is not fair to the audience.
At Audience Wonderland, we take this responsibility seriously. We do not run public social media ad campaigns exposing our products. We do not casually push methods into public feeds. In fact, we are moving toward password-protecting our website because we believe protecting the mystery matters more than chasing every possible sale.
That is not a statement of superiority. It is a statement of responsibility.
And I hope more of us will consider doing the same.
If you are a magician, mentalist, creator, or someone who simply cares about this art, I ask you to do three things.
1. Share this message with other magicians.
2. Share your thoughts respectfully with the dealers, creators, and companies you buy from. Let them know that you value secrecy. Let them know that public advertising that exposes methods, gimmicks, props, or secret workings hurts the art, the creators, the performers, and the customers.
3. And finally, vote with your wallet.
Support the companies, creators, and dealers who protect magic. Support those who market responsibly. Support those who understand that a sale should never come at the expense of exposing the very mystery their customers are paying to preserve.
And if a company continues to publicly advertise magic in a way that exposes methods to non-magicians, then we as a community have the right to choose not to reward that behavior.
Not out of anger.
Not out of division.
But out of responsibility.
Because our choices matter.
What we share matters.
Where we spend our money matters.
The companies we support help shape the future of this art.
This letter is not meant to shame anyone. It is meant to start a conversation. A needed one.
Magic is worth protecting.
The mystery is worth protecting.
The audience’s wonder is worth protecting.
And if we do not protect it, we cannot expect anyone else to.
We can grow the art without exposing it.
We can sell magic without cheapening it.
We can adapt to modern platforms without abandoning the responsibility that has always come with being a magician.
The world needs more wonder, not less.
Let’s not be the ones who take it away.