What is Magic?

Hieronymus Bosch: The Conjurer, 1475-1480

    Magic is the art of entertaining an audience by performing illusions that baffle and amaze, often by giving the impression that something impossible has been achieved, almost as if the performer had magic or supernatural powers. The practitioners of this mystery art may be called magicians, conjurors, illusionists or prestidigitators. Artists in other media such as theatre, cinema, dance and the visual arts increasingly work using similar means but regard their magical techniques as of secondary importance to the goal of creating a complex cultural performance. It is NOT by any means witchcraft or Satanism as many misunderstand. It is an art of entertainment. It is compared to the art of theatre or acting in which a person embodies the role of a character, i.e. Bob Denver as Gilligan on Gilligan's Island. Magicians or Illusionists are merely playing the part of a person with supernatural powers. If an audience truly believes this, then the magician has done his/her job.

HistoryJean Eugène Robert-Houdin, the first modern magician.

    Performances we would recognize as conjuring date back as early as ancient Egyptian civilization. The same ingenuity behind ancient deceptions such as the Trojan horse would have been used for entertainment in plays or other public performances. Additionally, cheating in gambling games frequently used (and still uses today) common techniques and sleights utilized by performing magicians. However, the respectable profession of the illusionist gained strength during the eighteenth century, and has enjoyed several popular vogues. Successful magicians have become some of the most famous celebrities in popular entertainment.

In this relationship, there is an unspoken agreement between the performer and the audience about what is going on. Unlike in the past, almost no performers today actually claim to possess supernatural powers (although there are exceptions to this, they are regarded as charlatans). It is understood by everyone that the effects in the performance are accomplished through sleight of hand (also called legerdemain), misdirection, deception, collusion with a member of the audience, apparatus with secret mechanisms, mirrors, and other trickery (hence the illusions are commonly referred to as "tricks"). The performer seeks to present an effect so clever and skilful that the audience cannot believe their eyes, and cannot think of the explanation. The sense of bafflement is part of the entertainment. In turn, the audience play a role in which they agree to be entertained by something they know to be a deception. Houdini also gained the trust of his audiences by using his knowledge of illusions to debunk charlatans, a tradition continued by magicians such as James Randi, P. C. Sorcar, and Penn and Teller.

Secrecy Harry Houdini in a promotional shot.

The purpose of a magic trick is to amuse and create a feeling of wonder; the audience is generally aware that the magic is performed using trickery, and derives enjoyment from the magician's skill and cunning. Usually, magicians will refuse to reveal their methods to the audience. The reasons for these include:

However, it is considered permissible to reveal secrets to individuals who are determined to learn magic tricks and become magicians. It is typically a sequential process of increasingly valuable and lesser known secrets. The secrets of almost all tricks are available to the public through numerous books and magazines devoted to magic, available from the specialized magic trade.

Misuse of magic  David Blaine in a recent stunt.

In modern conjuring, it is not considered fully honest to give a performance which claims to be anything other than a clever and skillful deception. In today's skeptical world, claims of actual supernatural powers would likely be greeted with ridicule, although many people believed that the hugely successful 1970s illusionist Uri Geller had a paranormal ability to bend spoons, for example.

Other performers have capitalized on popular belief in ESP and other paranormal phenomena as a way of presenting magic tricks. However, there are dishonest performers who use the techniques of conjuring for fraudulent goals. Cheating at card games is an obvious example, and is no more than a form of theft. During the height of the vogue for spiritualism and the wave of popularity for séances in the late 19th century, many fraudulent mediums used conjuring methods to perform illusions at séances designed to convince those present of actual supernatural events, for financial gain. The great escapologist and illusionist Harry Houdini devoted much of his time to exposing fraudulent mediums. Spiritualists and mediums at work today tend to shy away from effects such as making knocking sounds in darkened rooms, and objects apparently moving without being touched, as these were devices often used in the past by fraudulent practitioners.

Many simple conjuring tricks continue to be used to defraud the innocent, however often they have been exposed and debunked. The three card trick, also called "Find the Lady" or "Three-card Monte", is an old favorite of street hustlers and conmen; also, the shell game, in which a pea is hidden under one of three walnut shells. Although these are well known as frauds, some people are willing to lose money on them just for the entertainment value. There are other street hustles which use conjuring techniques and methods such as misdirection to commit theft.

2007 Wikipedia Article: Magic (Illusion) Words taken into text.