Getting famous behind a mask
     Val Valentino is the Las Vegas illusionist universally despised by magicians who recoil in disgust from the masked man.
Notable but nameless
He performed and explained all eight types of magic tricks on national TV. At the time, copyright law did not cover illusions and other magic secrets, and there was no reason to revise the law to include a magic trick as intellectual property. For many centuries, magicians have trusted other magicians to keep a secret with a handshake and a nod. Mute Magician Teller changed the law in 2012 when Teller sued a Belgian magician over his Shadows illusion. Sure, there are books on magic. However, many of the best books on magic still keep the secret from the merely curious by revealing the secret in coded text while showing photographs of an incorrect method. The illusion where the magician shoves a pencil or cigarette through a coin. An excellent illusion in the right hands.
For 18 years, Fox Network TV had extended a proposal for any magician to star in a show they called ‘Breaking The Magician’s Code’. Year after year, professional magicians repeatedly turned down the offer.
Anonymity as illusion
Hiding identity to reveal secrets
One day in March, an integrity-free hobbyist in Brazil contacted Fox. Haunted by his shadowed past, this magician left Brazil and became famous in America while wearing a mask. But I know what you’re thinking: Why does this failed magician wear a mask? Failed magician? But in the first 60 seconds of the first episode of ‘Breaking The Magicians’ Code,’ the narrator himself said,
“You’re about to see one of the world’s top magicians break his code of silence and reveal magic’s most closely guarded secrets. We’re not sure why a well-known magician would go on television and expose deep dark secrets.”
His real name was Leonard Montano, and on stage, he had billed himself as Valentino.
Montano was willing to sell out.
The man behind the mask
But had you heard of Valentino? No, you hadn’t. Not even pros had heard of him. It was a publicity stunt to make the premise of the show more sensational. The intrigue makes for great marketing. The Masked Magician has been claiming to reveal the magicians’ secrets of the trade for a long time now. Has he been revealing the secrets of the trade or convincing the uninitiated that these are the real secrets? He never revealed the real methods behind modern magic tricks. His explanations were decades old — even centuries old — and obsolete. Or he described a bit of a technique but not the real secrets to make it workable. The viewer would feel a sense of satisfaction but would not be able to perform the trick convincingly.
Who was the masked magician? Identity revealed
“I gallantly took the opportunity for the better good of the art of magic, when all other magicians backed away.”
He said he was afraid magic had taken a backseat to movies and video games and was in danger of being forgotten. He said he wanted to let the viewers in on the magic to increase their appreciation of the art and force magicians to reinvent, letting go of “old and tired tricks.” Far Val has given three different noble reasons for telling other magicians’ secrets.
- Inspire children to learn magic.
- Increase the spectator’s appreciation of magic.
- Force other magicians to reinvent.
None of those reasons seem valid, however. Children have always wanted to learn magic. When a group of spectators sees a magic show, some people in the group want to learn how it was done—even more if the tricks aren’t explained throughout. You don’t increase a spectator’s appreciation of magic by indulging them when they say, “How did you do that?” Often, even usually, the method is disappointing, leaving the spectator with less appreciation. Forcing other magicians to reinvent new methods? That’s probably the lamest excuse. There have always been innovative magicians, and there always will be. If “old magic” were a problem, then the noble magician wouldn’t sell out on national TV and then claim he was only trying to encourage other magicians to do new material. The right thing to do is to invent new magic. That would be like Miley Cyrus making 20 million of copies of a new Taylor Swift album and selling the 20 million copies. When the judge asks Miley, “Why have you done this?” She answers, “I did it to encourage Taylor Swift to come up with new music.”
That doesn’t fly.
‘Breaking the Magicians’ Code’ gave Leonard the chance to do an act he otherwise couldn’t do, complete with big, expensive illusions and lots of scantily clad female assistants. One thing to his credit, he never revealed the secrets behind any contemporary magic tricks. He made it all up! In our era, magicians do magic in new ways. His “explanations” were garbage, except for Sawing a Woman in Half. He did explain the way that one was done… back in the late 1800’s. We use different techniques these days. The explanations the magician did report were amusing and entertaining, but a clever method is not what a professional magician looks for when crafting a magic trick on the level. The true zoom magician couldn’t care less about the cleverness or intrigue of the method. He is concerned with the effect of the trick on an audience, who will never see the technique (it is hoped).
The Masked Magician has been revived in the graphic novel by the same name, Masked Magician, published in 2007 by Nash Entertainment.
In 2012, the same publisher tried to make an action/adventure movie in which a masked magician fights crime using illusions, but that movie didn’t happen.
What happened to Val Valentino?
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We’ve given Valentino one year to get his things in order.
