New Guys Assemble! [2]

Author

Rory Adams
February 16, 2023 • Read Time: 8 minutes

A lot has happened since last week’s dramatic Receipts story. You deserve a follow-up to conclude it. The goal is always to summarise what happened based on public information. Suppose you can set aside the drama and the spectacle. In that case, well, it’s pretty impressive you can put it all aside — good on you.

As you read this, remember that last week, Craig Petty alleged there is a “magic mafia” of well-known magicians secretly working to manipulate the industry and further their agenda.

Here we go, then.

Part 1. Sudo’s Side Of The Story

You should know what happened five years ago.

Sudo was publishing a periodical on The Magic Cafe titled “Skeletons From the Closet”. His PayPal details were on the final page. One of the people who donated generously was Michael Weber.

Sudo emailed him a thank you and asked how he got his copy. Weber said he’d requested it via his cafe username and asked Sudo to keep his identity secret.

And so he did — for five years.

But then things kicked off between Petty and Weber. Sudo saw New Guy levelling accusations towards Petty and pretending to be a Weber collector. He felt if he said nothing, he would be complicit in the “underhanded tactics”.

And so he dropped the big bombshell.

Sudo shared his evidence that Weber is New Guy.

The backlash ensued.

This brings us to where last week’s story ended.

  • New Guy posted that Petty had won.

  • Petty released his receipt trick.

  • New Guy didn’t confirm if he was Weber.

  • Discussion, for the most part, had moved on.

  • People started actually to discuss Petty’s trick.

Members certainly appeared to stop trawling through New Guy’s post history.

That was until someone well-known posted a new statement.

Their post changed everything.

Part 2. A Friend In Mead

Eric Mead is a well-respected American magician and long-time friend of Weber. He’s even published an acclaimed magic book titled “Tangled Web.”

Suddenly, Mead joined the thread and posted in part:

A Real Secret

You guys are right. Michael Weber is Newguy. But, so was I. And so were a handful of other magicians whose names many of you would likely recognize (some no longer with us.) The original idea was to allow a few of us to participate in this community anonymously, primarily so the MagicCafe wouldn’t show up in web searches of our names by clients or muggles. We soon realized it had the nice side effect of allowing us to share ideas, information and opinions absent the air of authority (or lack of in my case) that sometimes happens when a recognizable name posts here. We thought that if we appeared to be a “new guy” in magic, we might side step a lot of the petty arguments and flame throwing that happen in all public magic forums, and that people would consider the ideas and opinions without being tainted by the reputation of the source—like Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman. I never knew which posts came from who, but I can tell you that I never posted as Newguy after the first time Michael Weber was unmasked here as “Newguy” way back in 2008. In fact, I rarely look at the Café except to research specific topics, and I had all but forgotten about Newguy until a friend pointed me to this thread. I hope you’ll believe me when I tell you there was no nefarious plan to deceive or con anyone, and no malice intended. Surely it's no surprise that many magicians have shadow accounts here and a desire for anonymity, so we didn't think it was any big deal. Perhaps we were naive.

We are telling you this because the Newguy account is useless now, and we don’t like seeing our friend getting beaten up by a half wise mob. My understanding is that the responses to Mr. Petty here were not made by Michael personally, but with his blessing and on his behalf, and only after Mr. Petty refused to communicate with Michael and Tim Trono about their trick Age Receipts--choosing instead to have Murphy’s Magic act as intermediary, and taking the situation public on YouTube rather than have what should have been a civil and private conversation. I have more to say about that situation, but Michael has politely requested that I stand down.

Newguy is dead. Long live "Newguy."

Your friend in magic,

Eric Mead

Wait — what?!

As one forum member swiftly posted:

Well there's a twist I never saw coming....

It’s unclear if Mead had read the 35 pages that came before his comment. It’s also unclear if Mead took time to review the last 20 years of New Guy posts.

It’s hard to imagine Mead’s statement received the reaction he expected.

People were upset.

Many posted replies that read in part:

It’s fantastic that every post that Webber and “friends” made under the newguy account were all written in identical linguistic fashion, always has the same spelling mistake and all smothered in mirror image arrogance. That’s the REAL genius behind New Guy’s account.

The sad part is… there’s still no apology from Weber.

One member referenced a scene from the film “Life of Brian”.

"I'm Brian!" "No, I'm Brian!"

"I'm Brian and so is my wife!"

Some considered comments followed:

I’d say it’s convenient but it’s not. It’s either a plan to spread the hate expressed here over “Michael’s” behaviour and dampen the blow by allowing several “names” to come forward and each take a portion of the heat or what you’re saying is true, and you’ve all behaved disgustingly, patting each other’s backs and shilling each other to allow all your profiles to grow and benefit from that account.

I think it’s offensive that Michael has not come forward and simply apologised - instead, he “gave his blessing” for others to post on his behalf. He has you come here to face the music - why couldn’t he tell us what you have come forward and said?

Some aimed their frustration at Mead:

Eric, if I'd created a collective anon account so we could share ideas without people having preconceptions about the people involved and it went this way I'd be deeply ashamed.

Eric, thank you for helping me so easily add your name to the list of magicians I will never patronize. Where is your sense of shame?

Adding Eric Mead (a thinker and performer I used to admire) to the list of “newguys” I will be boycotting moving forward after his most ridiculous post!

Another poked fun at Craig’s last name and Weber’s tagline.

What Would Weber Do? Be Petty.

Then some poked holes in the idea of a shared account:

So Eric Mead is saying his friends - some of the most creative men in magic by all accounts - couldn't think of more than one sock puppet name between them?

I'm sorry but this sounds absolutely ridiculous. If it is somehow true, it is bizarre if not downright dopey.

Most concisely, one user quoted Mead’s complete statement, adding:

This just makes it worse and is probably not true anyway.

At the time of writing, Mead has not posted again since his statement.

Part 3. Long Live The King

In the middle of the heated reactions, New Guy reappeared and posted a new comment. No mention of Mead’s statement or the new backlash.

It was a single sentence about Bob King, who first published the trick that Petty got accused of stealing ten years ago.

Tom Gilbert shared the sad news about Bob King in Genii’s forum.

New Guy then posted in the cafe thread for the first time in a while.

The comment reads in its entirety:

Extremely sad to share that the remarkable, innovative and sharing magician Bob King has just passed away.

And that was it. Just like that, thousands of magicians following the EDCeipt forum thread learned the sad news of Bob King’s passing.

At the time of writing, this was the final post made by New Guy.

Part 4. An Expert At The Card Table

Jason England is a well-respected Vegas-based magician and long-time friend of Weber.

Suddenly, he arrived in the cafe, too.

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