Magic as Entertainment
The fascination with magic has progressed to an art in the form of illusionists and magicians who create effects that seem to make the impossible possible. Through the use of magic tricks, illusions and effects magicians can wow their audience and appear to read minds see the future, defy gravity and more.
There are many categories of the magic effects that magicians and illusionists employ in there acts, though there is often some disagreement into which category each effect should be placed. Production is the effect where the magician seems to produce something from nothing, materializing such items as the classic rabbit from a hat. Vanishing is the reverse magic trick to Production where the magician dematerializes an object to seemingly vanish before the audiences eyes. In magic Transformation an object is changed from one state to another, for example a woman is turned into an animal of some sort. In Restoration an object is destroyed them reappears unharmed. A classic example of this is to smash a member of the audiences’ watches and then reproduce it undamaged. Teleportation magic tricks involve moving an object from one place to another. Levitation tricks allow the magician to seemingly defy laws of gravity and suspend something in mid air unsupported. Penetration magic creates the illusion of one object passing through another. Finally Prediction magic tricks which allow the performer to seemingly forecast the outcome of an event that cannot be known.
There is a code amongst magicians to keep the secrets of how these tricks and illusions of magic closely guarded. This is cited by the magicians’ organisations as a way to keep the wonder of the magic fresh. To know the secrets of how the magic trick was performed would destroy all the fun and awe for the audience.