Exposure is a made up problem.

Exposure is a made up problem. Now exposure exists, not saying it doesn't but as an actual problem hindering magicians, I don't think so. It's a problem made up by magicians with too much time on their hands in order to have something to bitch about. Knowledge of a secret is in no way the sole ruination of an effect. A friend of mine wanted to learn some coin magic and so I obliged. While teaching her a very basic vanish, I learned that even when she knew what was going on she was still amazed and felt that she had seen magic every time I opened my empty hand. Now this wasn't someone who had seen an explanation on YouTube some time back. I had shown her the workings of the vanish and had her run through it a couple time and then showed her the vanish again. No distraction, no mis-direction, no doing it on an off beat. She knew exactly what I was doing and that I was about to do it, still she was taken in by the vanish. She knew better and yet everything else said the coin was where it wasn't. This was just a bs basic coin vanish with no presentation or context, every thing you shouldn't do with magic and it still worked. So if there is something hurting your performances, it's probably not the thirteen year old on YouTube showing everyone the "secret".


Whether or not exposure is a problem for magician financially is a different question entirely.