Easy, yes. Reality, sadly no.
There’s an easy way to tell the difference between fiction and fact. Fact is never simple or easy.
Or said better by one wiser than myself, “Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.”
By your definition anyone calling themselves illusionists are con artists as they don’t call themselves magicians. Ditto actors or any other performers who get paid by the performance.
Your ‘easy’ brush is way to broad but of course your use of poisoned verbs pretty much doesn’t show a deep contemplation about the issue.
Also, many people I knew in the craft weren’t con artists per se. They believed what they did was legitimate. Self delusion can really be strong.
Then there was me. As a teen I made money reading Tarot cards at psychic fairs. I was extremely popular. I considered it entertainment and the amount of money I made per reading would be chump change for people who came to a psychic “fair” to be entertained.
I considered myself an entertainer and a damned good advice giver. I didn’t call it cold reading as I’d never heard the term but I was a very good cold reader and I knew that this was what I used to create my act. My goal wasn’t to con anyone. It mattered not whether they liked my show or not, they’d already paid their money. My struggle was to perform in a way to earn that money that they had paid. I was quite sincere about that.
Now, a few years later I worked for two days on a 900 tarot line. I made good cash. On the second day I decided to quit. Not because I was failing but because I had a woman keep me on the phone for 90 minutes. This was at 4.99 a minute. I tried to close the call but she needed someone to talk to and didn’t want to stop.
Once I was finished I felt dirty. I felt that at that level of cash I’d entered into the con man zone and I wasn’t comfortable operating in that space. I hadn’t felt that I had any right, even as an advice guy to charge such outrageous rates. The woman was in pain and a $500 phone bill was going to make it worse. I understood that this was wrong. This was my last brush with con artistry.
I never called myself a magician though. I called myself what I was, a tarot card reader, I also explained to anyone who asked ( damned few TBH )exactly what I was doing even explaining that what I said the cards meant were not what the textbook definition of them was. It never mattered. They wanted to believe in the entertainment. They wanted it to be real.
The only way I was a con artist is if I was conning both the audience and myself and worse I was conning myself that I was the exact opposite of what I was conning people into thinking that I was.
I can assure you, that I’m not that good of a con man nor would I be comfortable being so. Like I said, reality is never easy.
