Many of us – perhaps most – have at one time or another been the ones to inform a group of friends or a younger sibling that the guy on the TV who seems to be making colored handkerchiefs appear out of the palm of his hand is actually doing no such thing. At the moment we do it, it makes us feel somewhat powerful. We’re in on the secret! However, part of the enjoyment of magic or illusion is the very real spell it casts on […]

There is no shortage of people who will criticise illusionists for giving the appearance of being able to do something while not explaining that it features no more real magic than a pen does. One can only wonder at such a response. After all, do the same people walk up to Leonardo di Caprio and slap him for pretending to have drowned when the Titanic sank? For this is what illusion is – the ability to create an appearance that something has happened, when in reality it […]

The difference between magic and illusion is perhaps most persuasively explained if you have read the Harry Potter books or similar fiction written around a magical world. In the “Potterverse”, magic is very much a real thing, and indeed the binding and guiding force of the world the characters inhabit. Things that those characters do could never be explained by illusion. In the world of Harry Potter and his friends, acquaintances and enemies, the casting of spells does change the effects of natural forces. With certain spells, […]

“Magicians” are constantly among the entertainers that are most commonly booked for children’s parties. This love of magic might dissipate as we get older, but there can be no doubting that a skilled magician will have both the children and the adults at any party looking on in astonishment as they perform tricks which seem on the face of it to be impossible. Of course, the fact that the tricks are being done means that they are not impossible. However, it is that fine line between what […]