The Rules of Magic

There are three important rules of magic, especially when one is first learning.

1. Never tell the Secret.  When we perform magic for people, it is natural that they are curious how we did the illusion, the trick.  But when we tell the Secret, it spoils the illusion. When we keep the secret, no matter how much someone seems to want to know, it keeps the illusion, it keeps the image of what we seemed to do with our magic.

2. Practice.  Practice.  Practice.  Even though a trick or effect or illusion (all words we use for a magic trick) seems very simple, there is a lot to learn how to do to perform it well.  One must understand how the trick works.  Then one must master doing it.  Then one must perform it well, including the story that you tell or the talk (magicians call it “patter”) that you give when performing the trick.

3. Never repeat the trick for the same audience.  The trick (or illusion or effect) catches an audience by surprise, and they think they see something happen that they know is impossible.  The next time they will be looking for anything that might be a clue as to how you did the magic trick, the magical effect.  As you learn how to do magic, you will certainly have people say  “Do that again!  When this happens, you may reply in several ways.  Either say, “I don’t repeat a trick.”  If you have another trick ready to go, you might add, “But let me show you something else!”