JovialJman - The Disillusion of Magic

"Ooooh, Fancy new graphics. With my compliments." - OddballGreg

Have you ever wondered how magicians feel about the "magic" that they do compared to their audience? If you have ever seen the likes of David Blaine, Penn and Teller, David Copperfield and even the great Houdini; you will know how amazing tricks can get. Let us see what it is like from their point of view.

The aforementioned magicians are some of the greatest illusionist that I know of. David Blaine is the only modern magician that I am aware of that does real life threatening stunts to see how far he can go. Penn and Teller have/had many TV series where they did or showed magic which is truly something to see. Most adults will think of David Copperfield as soon as you say magician. He has been described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. I don't even have to say anything about Houdini as everyone knows him. I have always looked up to these people as my inspiration to become a magician.

About 4 years ago I found that I really liked magic tricks and wanted to find out as much as I could about it, to see if I would be able do it myself. I started from the bottom and work my way up through the tricks. Would you know it, I got fairly good, (but no where near the professionals). Eventually I found I had a passion for the card tricks and any tricks associated with cards in general. 

On a Leader (Prefect) camp OddballGreg and myself went on, I performed for the first time in front of what must have been about 50 people (I was a nervous wreck). Somehow I managed to impress everyone there along with my assistant. That was my first true taste of what it is to preform magic.

But I digress, I can speak from experience when I say that seeing the magic trick when you know how it is done causes it to lose most of its charm, but then you get the joy from the reactions of wonder you get instead of your own wonder at the trick. So for magicians to see a new trick is absolutely amazing but not in the same way as others, for instance the way the other magician goes about the misdirection or the skills he possesses.

When they preform the tricks for people, you will notice that besides the misdirection they look at peoples faces to see their reactions to the magic that they are doing whereas the person seeing the trick for the first time will try and catch the magician out but fail most of the time.

So, I have advice to give ( gasp* ) . Unless you would be willing to do tricks for others quite often, try stay in the dark about the magic as it gives you something to ponder about the next time you are bored and don't have internet access or a magician shows you a trick in the streets.

Just remember, never ask to see how it is done; the devil is in the details and the magic is in the mystery. Thank you for the support in my first post here with TCSA and you shall be seeing me and my awesomeness every other day, although I might make edits here and there since I am still new. If you feel that I left something out or have a different view, or simply wish to show us a magic trick you know of, let us know down in the comments below or over Facebook/Twitter. Of course any sharing of the blog is much appreciated and we here at TCSA hope you have/had the most awesome day. I will speak again in 2 days time.