Note: Ehh, well this is one of my first essays. Not the first, but I don't know how it is. Please tell me what I need to work on. Thanks!

There's no such thing as Magic

You either looked at this title and went, "duh" or you went, "no, that's wrong." Or you thought something else that i didn't predict. But the title is partly true. There is no such thin as magic, to us. Can someone actually levitate? no. Can someone actually make coins appear from nowhere? no. But what magicians (that's most of us) can do is make a performance magical for someone.

To be "magic" is to actually have supernatural powers. As of now, I don't know too many people who can make a card go from the middle to the top of the deck without the aid of a sleight or gimmick. And those slieghts and gimmicks are exactly what we use in our performance. We, as magicians, buy, read and watch trick after trick. This either leads to much joy, or much disappointment. Joy, when there is an ingenios method. But most times, especially when I was younger I found that I was disappointed. "what? this is...it? I could have thought of that! This isn't magic, this is just dumb." So be it.

But then there is another disappointment or joy, for the audience. Many, if not all, know true magic isn't real. So why are they amazed at the performance? The awnser is in the performance. Taking a basic trick and transcending it to more than just "a trick" is the magic. Through the process of learning, practicing and rehearsing, magic is born within a trick. That's the magic: the art, process and performance.

So that actually contradicts the title. There is such thing as magic, but a different kind of magic. THe magic is connecting with the spectator. Making them believe, making them wonder, making them feel fooled. All this is the goal. And this is the major reason I practice every day-to see those faces.

So what now? Why did I just read this kid's essay? Well let's review. There's no "supernatural" power magic-there's connection and amazement magic. So this means what? Well, for one- don't go around telling people you have powers. Because the second you slip up, people will laugh at you. You can even publicly state, "oh yeah, magic- i don't believe in that." I've always thought that, "Magicians are not magicians by definition. In fact, magicians are entertainers."

So don't be that stupid performer claiming powers with a super ego, just to be torn down. Because you, yourself know that superpowers aren't real. Every time you say, what a waste of $30-i could have thought about this, or that! But you know what, you didn't-that's why you bought it and a guy on the other end is counting money. So just take what you have, "put your nose tot he grind stone" and make magic in the performance.

that's it for now.

Not bad. Not Kate Turabian's magic , but your ideas,your thought process, and your experience shows through.
Your submission should be read by all entertainers as you have written down the reality of your art and craft.
Oh yes, Groucho Marx talking about the girl in my header said, "Yeah, her dad was a plastic surgeon!" Now that is definitely not Turabian!
Thanks again, Ron0

I prefer to look at it a completely different way.

Yes, I do magic. Yes, it is real. I do exactly what I say I am doing... what you see me do actually happens right in front of you. Do I have "special powers"? Yes. They may not be what you think they are, but, yes, I have special abilities which the average person does not.

I can do these things, and, in doing so, I entertain my audience. There is magic in that. If you don't believe in the "magic" you do, there's no reason for your audience to, either.

Gee, you hockey players up there don't take any prisoners! I wonder, though, if the original author also wasn't trying to show he too believes his performance art is magic also?
As they say at the Polka Fest after a few sodas.."I think you're slicing the bread a bit thin!"
Really I wonder if a lot of things are also magic. For example, lying on your kitchen floor helping your dying dog cash in her chips or getting a 15 year old who thinks he's stupid to believe in himself.
I understand the spirit of your message and , of course, you're right.
Have to say though that maybe you folks up there would be more mellow if you had a football team instead of those scrappy puck people!
Ron0

Magic exists, and exists in the mind. Your mind is so powerful; it allows you to have thoughts, sights, and pleasures. Not only that, but you have dreams. Just sit back and think about that. You have dreams, images, lifelike people and situations, all while you sleep.

It’s an amazing tool, a tool that we as magicians must learn to use. Minds can be misdirected, and not even know that misdirection is occurring. When this happens our art has truly reached its height. It’s when the “magic” really happens.

Every thing we do follows this simple rule, a rule of misdirection. Every single sleight we know depends on one thing, deceiving the mind, misdirecting it. Causing the mind to see something happen, that really isn’t happening, we cause the mind to create a reality that doesn’t exist. But since it is created in that moment, and the mind projects it, it becomes reality. “Magic” happens.

This is more then just art, this is more then just misdirecting. It’s showing people that the impossible is possible. You say that you really can’t take a card, and place it in the middle of a deck, and make it come to the top. But you can, if your mind projects that reality, you truly can do this. In fact, this makes all things possible.

When I’m performing, I tell people I’m not trying to lie to them, I’m not trying to deceive you into giving me money. I’m trying to show them that just because you see something you can’t explain, does not mean it didn’t happen. The fact that you can’t understand it, doesn’t make it impossible. Your own limitations will be set by one thing, your mind. Because your mind will project the reality of impossibility and that is the only reason you will not succeed.

For me, magic has become more then just an art, but the way I observe the world, and the way I understand the things around me. I see things not as limitations, but as opportunities to overcome.
It’s understanding that I am going to set my own limitations; the only person that allows me to fail is myself. My wife supports me, but that doesn’t mean I won’t fail. I will fail because I have allowed my self to, because I have projected the reality that it’s impossible to succeed.

That is the same reason you can’t get that DL down, or because you can’t get that palm down. You might say you have small hands, but I tell you, small hands has nothing to do with it. You have told yourself you cannot do it, and that is why you aren’t doing it.


You’re mind is a powerful tool, and you can use to against you, or for you. It all depends on how you approach your life, and your magic.

Magic, my friend, is real.

powerful words. I understand your points. I like that. Thanks!

Great post, Terrk! I enjoyed reading it.

Thanks folks. I remember a teacher saying a thinking citizen is a good citizen.
Nice to read stuff that challenges you.
Ron0

In a universe where a single photon of light can simultaneously pass through two different openings in a barrier-and so be in two different places at the same time-who is to say what is, and isn't possible? Call it magic, or call it quantum mechanics...it is real. Are dreams just illusions, or are they visits to parallel universes? Are what we take for ghosts, demon possessions, etc, that, or hallucinations, or communications across dimensional barriers with beings in parallel universes? The more you know the more you realize how little you know. Those who think they know all there is to know-and thus are able to say what is, and isn't, real-know the least of all. Not so long ago, physicists knew that the universe was in a steady state...neither expanding, or contracting, and having neither beginning or ending. Not so long after that, the same physicists knew that the universe began with a big bang, is now expanding, and will one day end....probably in a big crunch. Calling gravity gravity does not really explain it. Putting a name on the strong nuclear force does not really explain how it works. Our brains are electromagnetic, and alive, and thinking. What in electromagnetism produces life and thought? What is life? No one can truly say whether magic is real, because no one knows what magic truly is, or isn't....any more than they can truly say what science, or life, truly are, or aren't.

Okay you guy's this go's back to


What is magic? yeah and thats a interesting question...
you know magic is not to have supernatural powers
To have supernatural powers is to have supernaturalpowers...
but magic is a feeling that a person is experiencing...

It's the feeling where you are looking for an answer... but there is no answer...

and that feeling you can't make yourself... but thats a magicians job.

- Kalle A Moen

That actually made sense. I agree with everything you just said. Great post.