Editor’s note: This isn’t about saying “fuck beginners”; rather it’s about saying “stop pretending intermediate and advanced magicians can only handle beginner talk.” So if you’re on page one of your magic journey, relax: this is about how bad we are at page ten and onward.

I’m the kind of magician that most would call “creative”. I create constantly to a fault. I rarely perform material that isn’t mine or that I haven’t put my spin on. I create heavily scripted theatrical pieces about dense subject matter, etc. For better or worse, my work is violently original. And so, naturally, when people hear of this or see my work, they ask me about creativity or the creative process. Sometimes these discussions are lovely and productive, and I’m happy to engage in them. But, much of the time, both in conversations I’m in and, especially, in popular magic media, the questions are… severely lacking.

I find the current round of discussion surrounding creativity uninteresting for one simple reason: it’s fuckin’ basic, compared to the discussions in every other art form. For context, I’ve studied both theatre and visual art, formally and informally, and in both those forms, conversations around creativity look vastly different than in magic. No one asks how to have ideas, or how to “say something” with their work. In both, the ability to create new, interesting work is assumed, allowing for more fundamental questions of meaning and intention and inspiration and ethics. And those discussions are interesting, fruitful, necessary. They’re what result in better work, both personally and overall for the field.

In comparison, discussions of creation in magic always have the tenor of “baby’s first time making something,” an assumption that the audience has never had an original thought before and is hoping to dip their toes into doing anything new. This distorts our view of what even counts as “creation,” where the most minor of lateral variations are treated like revolutionary thoughts. The magicians these conversations are aimed at aren’t trying to make anything unique or challenging, but simply to make it different. No one grows that way.

And the kicker here is that, in truth, I don’t think this state of affairs is actually as reflective of the community as a whole. Because, while there will always be the stodgy old asshats who’ve refused to learn anything new about their craft in 50 years, I see people who want to push forward here. I talk to people trying to do artistically interesting things, making really powerful art in a medium so devoid of it. I don’t think magicians can’t handle depth. I think, instead, that we have deluded ourselves into believing that the average magician is dumber and less competent than we are. Sure, I might be able to handle it, but those other magicians can’t. In order to progress, we have to update our assumptions about our podcast audiences to include intelligence, curiosity, and an actual creative drive. That’s how we create a conversation around creativity that actually enriches us, that leads to our work being on par with every other art form. And if some refuse to catch the wave? Fuck ’em. Let ’em drown.

(This post was about a general grievance and pattern, hence its non-specificity, but the inspiration to write about it came directly from the interview with Chris Philpott from Penguin Magic Podcast S5E16. Not what he said, but the basic questions asked of him.)