I found myself on the train some weeks ago with cards in hand. Yep, I'm one of those magicians. Guilty as charged.
The boy sitting opposite me, perhaps 17 or 18 years old, pulled his headphones out and sheepishly asked if I could do the Tenkai control.
I gave him the cards, and he showed me a steal from a fan. We ended up talking about various sleights and deck designs that he liked.
Like the old guy at the back of the magic shop, I found myself asking him the ancient question – how he got into magic. His answer, not too surprisingly, was through the Chris Ramsay YouTube channel.
He is not the first young magician I know to say this. Alfie, a great magician from Sheffield, was the same, as was Ella, a young performer from Ireland. I asked her about YouTube, and indeed, the bright thumbnails of Alex Pandrea and Eric Leclerc, as well as the videos of our main man, Chris Ramsay, were a big reason she got started in magic.
While it's easy to see how titles that scream "LEARN AMAZING COLOR CHANGE" can appeal to a younger generation, what Chris is doing now is far beyond that. Although his channel has changed tact over the years, becoming more puzzle-focused, his videos on magic continue to draw in thousands of views—and for good reason.
A few years ago, the consensus (especially among the older generation) seemed to be that YouTube was a bad thing for magic. "Exposure channels" were popular, and many proclaimed that it was the beginning of the end for magic. While a myriad of these channels still exist, Ramsay's videos show how the internet can progress magic, not hinder it.
