I used to do magic when I was a kid, so I wasn’t very good, but my little sister’s birthday parties were a lot of fun for her friends.
She also used to pet sit for some really well trained dogs, and I kid you not, I would make a tennis ball disappear from my hands for the benefit of the doggie. About half had no clue what was going on, some would jump around excitedly, some would jump back and then check my other hand (found it! woof!) and I remember one getting angry.
Fox has a series of masked magician’s where they show how a lot of stage magic can be done. It’s not nearly as fun as close up magic.
I’m going to have to be in the “yes, with spoilers” camp–mostly because there seem to be a lot of us around here, and it would be cool to talk shop. (I may start such a thread.)
It was Teller* who said:
I’ve found this to be mostly true. A friend of mine was hanging out here one day, and she picked up one of my Darwin Ortiz books. She read the description of one of the routines, and was bored senseless. Then I did the routine for her (since I happened to be working on it at the time), and she was as entertained as ever.
Granted, Darwin’s routines are pretty damn complicated. Still, I think that most routines worth doing are not ones that are going to be easy to reveal.
Dr. J
*I found this quote by searching for “Teller”, “Volvo”, and “secret” in Google. I love the Internet.