A Short History Of Magic Tricks

By James Anthony

One of today's most popular performing arts is magic tricks. This art form is created to entertain people who are willing to be tricked by creating an illusion of the impossible. This happens right in front of the audiences eyes. The people that help to create these wonderful illusions are known as magicians.

The term Magi's is Latin for Magi. A Magi was someone who read the stars as well as foretold the future for their communities. One of the greatest creators of magic tricks was the illusionist and escapologist Harry Houdini. In fact, Houdini was probably the greatest magicians as well as escapologists that ever lived.

Magic tricks are achieved with a sleight of hand, misdirection, mirrors or some other form of deception. What the magician is trying to achieve is a sense of bewilderment as he tries to perform a trick that is seemingly impossible.

Audiences are the biggest part of these magic tricks though. Without a willing audience, they wouldn't be possible. People who go to a magic show are willingly opening themselves to deception. They are willing to be entertained by trickery. But trickery or not, the shows always amaze the audiences.

Houdini was such a great magician because the simple fact that his audience trusted him. He spent time debunking the claims of charlatans and false magicians while entertaining his audience. This practice is still followed today by magicians such as Penn and Teller and James Randi.

During the twentieth century in the U. S., magic tricks were mostly thought of as a children's form of entertainment. This began to change however with the revival of Doug Henning. He began to bring back the old practices of magic tricks and began to amaze adult audiences once again on television and on stage.

In the twentieth century, many illusionists have emerged that are simply amazing. Performers like David Blaine perform Houdini style magic tricks like escapes and physical endurance displays for his fans. Most of these magicians we see on television perform their magic tricks in front of a live audience in order to gain the trust of their television audience.

Most of the magic tricks today are based on old principals. The term it's all done with smoke and mirrors referred to magic tricks. But most today don't use mirrors because of the difficulty in transporting them and setting them up.

There are many types of magic tricks that performers accomplish. First, production tricks are where the illusionist produces an object out of nothing. Vanishing tricks however do the opposite, where the object seemingly disappears. Transformation magic tricks are when the illusionist changes one object into another one and restoration is where a magician destroys an object, then makes it reappear whole once again.

Teleportation tricks are when the magician moves an object from one place to another or when two objects change places. Escapology is when the magician is typically restrained and works his way to escape to safety. Levitation is simply where the magician appears to defy gravity and Penetration is when the magician is able to make one solid object move through another. Most magic tricks today that are successful are a mixture of forms, making an entire show for the audience. - 30290

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