Judging magic by its packaging: are the rules changing?

It occurred to me how often I judge magic by its packaging—how I sometimes, literally, judge a book by its cover. If I see an effect that comes in bright packaging with a cartoon of a tuxedoed magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat on the label, I assume it’s crap…I think I’m probably right most of the time. If I look in the showcase of my local magic shop and see a small white cardboard box with a poorly photocopied label glued to the front of it with a name like “James Davies’ Torn and Restored PB&J”¹ —I’m going to ask to see that.

It’s so strange that until the Criss-Angel/$40-for-one-effect-on-a-DVD movement changed the game, the traditional rules of packaging were inversely effective on professional magicians: if there was too much effort put into the packaging, it must be garbage. There’s an unspoken understanding when you buy an effect in a non-descript box with 5-times photocopied instructions stapled at the top left corner that all of the effort that didn’t find its way into making the box look good and the instructions look professional went into developing the trick, the gimmick and the routine.

1. I have dibs on this idea in case you just got excited—it’s mine [↩]