Magic is an ancient art that is based on deceit and illusion to amaze and baffle an audience. This is done by performing an act that is deemed impossible or part of the supernatural by the magician, who gives the impression of a paranormal entity. However, these tricks are done using perfectly natural methods that are passed down from generation to generation and are regarded as severely guarded secrets that must not be revealed to the general public.



Magic shows have evolved over time, from children's demonstrations up to big televised shows, such as shows by David Copperfield, Lance Burton, Penn and Teller, Derren Brown. Modern magic was started by the famous Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (1805-1871) in Paris around the 1840s, and from there tricks evolved and got more and more complicated. There are a couple of different categories of magic tricks:

-Production-This category includes one of the oldest tricks in the book, pulling a rabbit out of a hat. This referees to magic tricks that include producing something from thin air, like coins from an empty bucker or a fan of cards from the air.

-Transformation-This mainly includes card tricks, such as when a magician takes a man from the audience and then makes the man pick a card, reintroduce it in the stack and then pick another. The man discovers that the card he picked the first time is not his, but when asked again by the magician he realizes that he is holding the card that he picked up in the first time.

-Restoration-Another very old category of tricks, this includes the woman sawn in half and then rejoined and the rope cut in half and then magically reunited , the newspaper torn to bits and then magically reunited and so on, this cathegory is dedicated to reuniting torn pieces of material.

-Teleportation-A very spectacular cathegory in which an object is transferred from one place to another with no obvious link between the two. A coin vanishes and then is found inside a box that is inside another box that is locked with chains and so on; a magician rides a motorcycle into a closed enclosure and then appears in the middle of the crowd; a magician makes a ship disappear and appear in another place

-Levitation-A trick that involves the unexplainable lift of objects off surfaces, vertically. Popular tricks include raising the assistant into the air, and showing the absence of wires by passing an object underneath and over him, the raising of a coin in the palm of the magician, the raising of a deck of cards

-Penetration-These tricks include the popular joining of two steel rings that appear to have no gap in the link and the passing of a foam ball through a cup

The exact methodology and means of achieving such effects is a closely guarded secret amongst magicians and it is generally considered that an exposed trick is dead and cannot be used again because the "magic" element disappears and gives way to a sense of intellectual puzzle .Also secrecy keeps the profession alive.