The Art of Magic Introduction and a Few Tricks

A Brief History of Magic

Magic. When you hear that word, what do you think of? Trickery? Illusion? Playing cards? Houdini? Actually, magic is a mixture of all of these, and more. Magicians use trickery and slight of hand to fool their audience and illusion to perform “the impossible”. Houdini used magic to trick, confuse, and fool people.

Magic has been around for a long time, since the time of the Ancient Egyptians in fact. The first recorded magic performance is in an Egyptian scroll dated about 2600 B.C. It tells of an illusionist called Dedi entertaining the Pharaoh, Cheops. Or is it? The Bible tells us in the book of Exodus about how Aaron changed his staff into a snake. But then it says in chapter 7, verses 11 and 12, ‘But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.’ Is what the Pharaoh’s magicians did magic? Possibly. Or is it the work of supernatural powers? Who knows? For right now let’s stick with the point: magic has been around for a long time. I mean, who doesn’t like to fool their friends every once in a while?

In Medieval Europe, magic was confused with witchcraft, which was punishable by death. But that problem was soon resolved when a man named Reginald Scot wrote a book called The Discoverie of Witchcraft. It showed how the slight of hand tricks preformed at that time were accomplished to prove that it was not the work of the Devil. Very helpful. Thank you Reginald.

After this period, more scientific tricks came into play: levitation, disappearing objects, transported beings, sawing people in half, and many more “feats”  started to pop up here and there more frequently. Near the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th, spectacular magic shows were being preformed across the globe. As this happened, people developed more and more tricks with more and more props. One American illusionist, Howard Thurston, needed ten railway cars to haul all of his equipment at one time!

During more modern times, though, magicians have stopped moving everywhere so often. They chose places like night clubs or TV channels to promote their talent. Advances in technology, such as lasers and holograms, may seem almost magical. Still simple tricks done by a magician before your eyes are as baffling today as they were in ancient times. That is unlikely to change and I for one, hope that it never does.

A Few Tricks to Start You Off

After that short history on magic, I present you with a few easy tricks to get you started on your magic career.

The Key Card: An Easy Card Trick

Here is a very easy to do card trick that may involve a little practice at first, but you’ll get the hang of it. All you need is a deck of cards and a victim (sorry, volunteer).

Procedure:

1. Shuffle the deck. You can even have your volunteer shuffle the deck, too.
2. Tap the deck on the table and as you do so, glance at the bottom card. Remember this card.
3. Fan the cards in front of your volunteer and ask them to chose one, but ‘not the bottom, because that’s too easy’. Ask them to memorize it and maybe even show it to the audience.
4. As they do this, cut the deck into two piles: Pile 1, which has the original top card on its top and Pile 2, which has the card that you memorized on its bottom. When they’re done, ask them to place the card that they chose face down on top of Pile 1. Now put Pile 2 on top of their card.
5. Now search through the deck until you find the card that you memorized. Their card will be to the right of that card. Pull it out with an air of mystery and watch your volunteer’s jaw drop.

The Disappearing Salt

This trick is a little harder, but after practicing, it gets easier. You will need a shaker of salt, a paper napkin, a table, and a volunteer.

Procedure:

1. Place the salt on the table and tell your volunteer that you will make it disappear. Begin by placing the napkin on the salt shaker, making sure that your audience cannot see the salt shaker.
2. Gripping the salt shaker firmly, bring it toward you (don’t slide it on the table) so that it is over the edge of the table, above your lap. Blow on the napkin, mystically. Put the salt shaker back down on the table.
3. Say ‘Voila!’ and yank the napkin off the salt shaker. The salt shaker will still be there. Apologize and perform steps 2-3 again twice more, however, on the second time, drop the salt shaker into your lap, making sure that the audience doesn’t see the drop. If you did it right, the napkin will retain the shape of the salt shaker.
4. Bring the salt shaker shaped napkin back down on the table and squash it from the top. To the audience it will look like you just squished the solid salt shaker into thin air.

These two tricks should help you get started on your magic adventure. If you practice them, you’ll get them perfect every time. I will be posting again on magic soon, so don’t worry, more tricks will be coming your way.

Until we meet again,

HRTF