Magic Is Dead: My Journey into the World's Most Secretive Society of Magicians

Around this time, the popular American magician Howard Thurston hired his own secret weapon: Guy Jarrett. Jarrett worked with a range of materials and engineered complex props like the Siamese Cabinet. During the trick, Thurston would wheel out the cabinet, open all its doors to show it was empty, and then close it back up. A second later, people w

We went through the trick’s beginnings step by step. The small, in-between moments typically reveal opportunities in which to pull off a sleight, so it’s crucial to intimately understand every step of the trick in order to dig in and insert a deceptive method.

Magic is about experience. It’s an art form that pokes at the brain and tugs at the heart. The spectator isn’t privy to the moves; they aren’t looking for them.

Every Once in a While, the Lion Has to Show the Jackal Who He Is Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive. —SIR WALTER SCOTT He is devoted to a theater that he alone sees. —YEVGENY VAKHTANGOV

gig. Once I made that first dollar, I sold all my guns and quit the gang. I never looked back,” he said. “I can say, without a doubt, that magic saved my life.” “It seems to be a theme with magic, you know? I’m starting to see that it can do remarkable things.”

The first “magician” is said to be a man named Dedi, who lived in ancient Egypt around 2590 BC during the reign of King Khufu. Dedi is credited with creating magic’s oldest routine, the Cups and Balls, which is still performed today—by magicians like Paul Gertner.

For the proceeding 3,500 years, magicians were largely viewed as people with supernatural powers, not performers. “When guys back in the caveman days figured out how to make a stick disappear, they didn’t do it to make money; they did it to foster a belief in the supernatural, or to be perceived as godlike, to deceive people and make them believe t

For the52, you are sought out by the founders based on your approach to the craft. It’s that simple. It’s not uncommon, too, for members to be recruited for more than a year before being asked to join. Many of the members not only perform magic professionally but also invent new tricks for other magicians,

Xavior is a quintessential move monkey, a sleight-of-hand artist dedicated to mastering and innovating the hardest moves a person can do with a deck of cards. He is most famous for his flawless pass—where a stack of cards is undetectably and instantaneously moved from the top of the deck to the bottom, or vice versa, or from one area to another wit