MAGIC TRICKS
Although there is much discussion among magicians as
to how a given effect is to be categorised, and in fact,
disagreements as to what categories actually exist for
instance, some magicians consider "penetrations"
to be a separate category, others consider penetrations
a form of restoration it is generally agreed that there
are very few different types of illusions.
Perhaps because it is considered a magic number, it
has often been said that there are only seven types
of illusion:
Production
The magician pulls a rabbit from an empty hat; a fan
of cards from 'thin air'; a shower of coins from an
empty bucket; or appears in a puff of smoke on an empty
stage-- all of these effects are productions, the magician
produces "something from nothing".
Vanish
The magician snaps their fingers and a coin disappears;
places a dove in a cage, claps his hands and the bird
vanishes, including the cage, stuffs a silk into his
fist and opens his hands revealing nothing, or waves
a magic wand and the Statue of Liberty magically "goes
away". A vanish, being the reverse of a production,
may use a similar technique, in reverse.
Transformation
The magician has a volunteer "pick a card, any
card" from a deck, and with a flourish, show the
card: "Is this your card?" -- it is not the
card, and the magician tells the volunteer, "here,
hold it for a second", handing them the card and
then picking card after card from the deck, none of
which is the card the volunteer picked. The magician
says, "will you look at that first card again?"
-- whereupon the volunteer finds it has magically become
his card.
Or, a chicken is placed in a cage, the cage is covered
with a cloth, which is immediately whisked from the
cage, and the chicken has become an eagle. A bowl of
fire may become a rabbit, a broom may be transformed
into a beautiful woman. Transformations change one thing
into another. Or, into several others.
Restoration
The cut-and-restored rope is a restoration: a rope is
cut into two pieces, the two pieces are tied together,
the knot vanishes, leaving one piece of rope. A newspaper
is torn to bits. The magician rubs the pieces together
and the newspaper becomes whole. A woman is sawn into
two separate parts (an apparent hemicorporectomy), and
then magically rejoined. A card is torn in fourths and
then restored piece by piece to a normal state. Restorations
put something back into the state it once was. Example
Video
Teleportation
A teleportation transfers an object from one place to
another. A coin is vanished, then later found inside
a tightly bound bag, which is inside a box that is tied
shut, inside another box, which is in a locked box...
all of which were across the stage.
The magician locks her burly assistant in a cage, then
locks herself in another. Both cages are uncovered and
the pair have magically exchanged places. This is a
transposition, a simultaneous, double teleportation.
The magician climbs on a motorcycle, rides it into
a crate, the crate is hoisted aloft, and presto! The
motorcycle instantly appears, engine roaring, in the
middle of the audience, 60 feet away, with the magician
astride it. In a teleportation, something magically
moves from one place to another.
Levitation
The magician "puts his assistant into a trance"
and then floats her up and into the air, passing a ring
around her body to show that there are 'no wires' supporting
her. A close-up artist wads up your dollar bill, and
then floats it in the air. A playing card hovers over
a deck of cards. A penny on an open palm rises onto
its edge on command. A scarf dances in a sealed bottle.
Levitations are illusions where the conjurer magically
raises something -- possibly including the magician
him or herself -- into the air.
Penetration
In which one solid object passes through another. The
magician links two apparently solid steel rings, or
the cup and balls trick in which the foam balls appear
to pass through the cup are penetration illusions.
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