And it’s not for the weird stolen valor of the brick. Nor the strange exploitation of having someone read a surprise intimate letter on stage. Nor is it for the fact DelGaudio’s voice sounds like he’s a Muppet about to cry the whole show. No, I don’t really hate the special: I hate us.

In the years since it debuted, first on stage and then on Hulu, In & Of Itself has been a staple in the conversation about what magic is and means in the 21st century. It is, for many people, the pinnacle of what magic can do. And, for someone used to a typical magic show structure, I can see how that special might be somewhat mind-blowing. It handles its magic in a fundamentally different way than the specials that came before, for the most part, and is a work of very successful storytelling. I get it.

But now, almost a decade after it was performed, and half since it came out on streaming, have we really got nothing to replace it with? Is this really supposed to be all magic can achieve artistically?

It’s not a new observation to say that magicians are stuck in the past. I will invoke here (even though I don’t fully agree with it) Carisa Hendrix’s observation of the magical zeitgeist moving forward about 10-20 years behind the general one. Magic is bad at speaking to its immediate moment, and it is primarily due to a sense of artistic laziness, complacency, and a sense that magic is somehow its own world separate from all the other shit.

But I’m not sure this analysis is relevant for DelGaudio, nor the reason why we don’t have anything newer to talk about. He’s performing a one-man show, a thing that has been around for decades to millennia, depending on definition, but which also still has plenty of new and revived productions of its sort. And it’s not like DelGaudio is the first or last to do it. So what gives?

Unfortunately, I think the answer lies in money and availability. In & Of Itself was a big production, both in its performances and its filmic version. It had Frank fuckin’ Oz behind it. The special isn’t truly new in its form, but it is likely the most polished production of its type. That is why magicians care about it, and why it grabs so much attention. That, combined with the fact that it’s pro shot makes it available for convenient study, makes it a thing that those not willing to look far point to and think is radical.

I don’t think In & Of Itself is the pinnacle of magic. I don’t even think it’s the best possible show of its type. So how do we surpass it? First, if you don’t do the kind of storytelling magic that DelGaudio does, seek it out. Find someone to watch and read and love and learn from. Study all you can, rather than going deep on a single well. And for those of us who make that kind of magic? Film your shit. Please. I’m deeply hypocritical in saying it, because I forget to film all the time. But film it. Film it so something new can be loved. Film it so we can have better conversations. Film it so I don’t need to look at that guy’s face again.