subject: Get Your Magic Tricks: Try A Magic Shop [print this page] Magic has been around for longer than any other type of performing art and in fact probably been around for as long as we have. Magic was originally performed as part of the rites of worship, by religious leaders, to show how powerful a certain god and his priest servant were. These magicians invented the tricks and worked out how to do them themselves. They couldnt just buy them from a magic shop, and they passed down the secrets of their tricks to selected apprentices.
In those days magicians were called witches or sorcerers, and their illusions were not considered to be magic tricks. The book The Discoveries of Witchcraft, published by Reginald Scott in 1584, provided an explanation of how many of these magic tricks were done. It wasnt only witches and sorcerers who used sleight of hand, but street thieves would also use it to steal peoples purses.
Magic was brought to the theater by John Eugene Robert-Houdini and Jacob Philadelphia in the eighteenth century. Houdinis magic tricks were all complex and designed by himself, something every magician had to do back then, there being no magic shop available for people to buy magic tricks from. Magic became a very popular form of entertainment in the nineteenth century, and traveling shows and theaters would feature magicians. Magic shops began to appear when people began specializing in the creation of illusions for performing magicians.
Of course over time people started to learn how magic tricks were done. Harry Houdini, protected his own illusion secrets, but exposed the tricks that mediums used during sances. Houdini, being a magician himself, knew how the magic tricks worked and so wanted to debunk the spiritualists and mediums by exposing them.
In the twentieth century magic was still popular, and many television variety shows would include a magician. This wide exposure via television led to an increased demand for new illusions, and also to an increased number of magic shops. Amateur magicians could now buy magic tricks and impress family and friends with their skills. Magic shops best customers were often children.
Magic is still popular as a form of entertainment today, both on television and performed live. People are now much more savvy when it comes to how magic tricks work, so illusions have now become very much more sophisticated. Often the illusions are designed by the magicians themselves who closely guard their secrets. There are also some magicians such as Penn and Teller, who are known to expose the secrets behind some magic tricks.
People can usually buy standard types of illusions in a magic shop now, and there are lots of books available which explain how the most popular ones work. Examples of popular magic tricks include card tricks, the rabbit out of a hat and a vanishing woman, and most amateur magicians can learn these. So if you would like to know how to perform magic tricks, then go to a magic shop or get a book on the subject, and you will soon be impressing everyone too!
by: Vikram Kumar
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