Proprietary designs and Intellectual Property imformation for new or used illusions

The very nature of a great illusion is to wonder how it's done.

Magic is more than the sum of all the parts, it's another step beyond the equal sum. "Zigmont"

Our goal is to elevate the art of magic and illusion by presenting information all illusionists should know.

Buying The Real Proprietary Design;

In my 20 years of buying, selling, building, producing, designing and performing Illusions, as well as working with over 100 different illusions, I have found used illusions to be the most cost effective way of obtaining illusions needed for a particular project. I always prefer to buy new cutting edge illusions whenever I have the opportunity from an authorized builder.

Not only do you get the most for your money buying the real proprietary design, you also preserve the craft by not flooding the market with cheap knock off imitations. Most times knock-offs are just a shell of what the original looks like and stops there. The knock offs do not have the creator's original ideas nor does it have the design that was worked out with some of the best minds in magic brainstorming.

A new or used illusion manufacturer by a major illusion builder has a team of trained, sub contractors that has assembled parts into a working illusion. The builder assembles all the parts into a functional prop. The knock offs for the most part don't have the real secrets, and are a disappointment in craftsmanship, is not the real deal. The materials used by the major builders and the construction techniques will insure that the illusion will perform as designed and stand up under heavy use for touring.

When you buy an illusion from a authorize builder with permission from the inventor you allow the inventor to receive a fee and continue his work of providing new concepts. You also gain the benefit from a major builder with all the technology that the builder has obtained from years of building for the top names and minds in magic. You can buy all the parts to a racecar, but putting it together and turning it into a racing machine takes an experienced professional team.

Do not be fooled by a knock-off illusion that may not have been built to work correctly. A savings of 3000.00 on a knock-off illusion can be a waste of the entire sum spent when it fails to achieve the deception that the original has obtained. Instead of magic being refined magic is cheapened. A knock-off illusion can be as bad as the masked magician exposing.
End Quote Zigmont

Here is a Quote From Jim Steinmeyer on Intellectual Property

"The important point that an illusion won't actually "make" a performer, but I know that, when you're starting out in this business, that's the impression you have. This just points out my personal problems with this business: that "I'm damned if I do" and "I'm damned if I don't." In fact, I have dozens of illusions, which exist in plan form and are available for people to build. Some have been put in books, others have not. People can contact me about material they can build. However, of course, no one really wants a new idea or an unseen idea, they want one of several effects which is already being performed by someone else. Right?

In fact, a number of effects like Origami, Interlude and the Pole Levitations were parts of agreements that I had with builders for them to supply the prop. I know that this made other builders unhappy. But, in the long run, I feel it dramatically increased the value of these effects as professional performers knew that the illusions being featured by others would be designed and built to a certain standard--they would be deceptive and built with quality, incorporating all of the latest design elements and features. And, over the years, they really have been quality props and all incorporated the latest technology and improvements, which are always improving the final product.

Interlude was first built for the Pendragons for a British television show, and I was contracted to provide material for their act. John Gaughan built that prop, and has built them in conjunction with me. He was involved in the design and, or course, brought a lot to the table, as did Jonathan and Charlotte, who worked out the routine in conjunction with all of us.

It's true that Interlude has been built, and built pretty badly, by other builders who never bothered to deal with me, never asked permission or asked about my arrangements. This is one of the sad aspects of magic. Still, among the top level of perfomers, there's an understanding about who designs props and who is owed credit or payment for permission to use them. This isn't a matter of patents or copyrights as the government doesn't really provide proper protection for "magic effects," but I've based my reputation on creating good, deceptive props in conjunction with the top builders and performers. That's the only way I know how to do it. Other performers, like David Copperfield, Mark Kalin, Siegfried and Roy and others, interested in Interlude, have dealt with me and I know they've gotten a quality prop with all of the design features.
Regarding the method with the fake, I have my own opinions about what works best and how it's all best presented; it's really not right for me to discuss all of this here as it involves presentational touches from other performers.

I agree that sometimes the illusion is amazing, and sometimes it's not. I've seen some embarrassing, knocked-off versions built that were, quite simply, exposures. Of course, these crummy versions are, invariably, being performed by crummy performers, so it's sort of the double whammy. To be honest, that stuff breaks my heart.

As you know, there are some truly terrible "Origami" illusion copies out there, and most of them that are so badly built that they expose the prop. I object to them being built, but I haven't been paid for these--I don't ask for money for them and don't have an arrangement where I would ask for a fee. To me, that's just fine. It guarantees that the effects I'm involved with are all of a certain quality, and that's important to my clients. I have a problem taking a fee for a product and having no idea what the result is going to be.
Again, I don't know if it's the "best" system, but it is a good system and it has gone a long way towards retaining the value of these ideas.

I know there are a lot of great builders out there, people who have the tools and know how to use them to make a table or a box. But I wonder how many great magic designers or innovative illusion engineers are out there. Every one of my effects has benefited by a number of amazing design features and mechanical touches incorporated as they were being constructed. I have enormous respect for these ideas, and am grateful for them. They've increased the value of the illusion to a working performer.

Again, I've seen some horrible, embarrassing Origami "knock-offs" in Europe. But some of them were actually very well built, in the traditional sense of the phrase. So I'd offer my experience that magic building is more than "building."

A lot of people can operate a sewing machine. A lot of people can do it very well, with straight seams. But I don't find magicians who think they can design and sew their own costumes. When it comes down to that, they go out and buy professional costumes. Even if they're short of funds, most people end up with real clothes when they're on stage.

Every hardware store sells electrical fixtures, wiring and plugs. But I've never known a magician who tries to wire his own lighting, or assemble his own sound system from the wire and circuit boards at Radio Shack. I'm sure that there's some real savings potential there.

So, I've always been curious. Why are magician obsessed with building their own copies of props, and obtaining a less-than-perfect product?"
End of Jim's Quote