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.

“There’s a moment in your life when you realize the difference between illusion and reality and that you’re being lied to,” Teller of Penn & Teller once said, referring to childhood figures such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. “[But] if you’re sufficiently preoccupied with the power of a lie, a falsehood, an illusion, you remain interested in

Paul Gertner, a legendary sleight-of-hand artist in his fifties, held court in the close-up room and Jeremy insisted that we see him.

He also performed Unshuffled, an effect he created that bowled over Penn & Teller on their television show Penn & Teller: Fool Us. The deck’s edge is drawn on with black marker and, after shuffling a few times, the scribbles magically transform into letters that spell out the spectator’s chosen card. He also performed Namerology, my favorite effect

“Well, I’ve always thought that magic is a vessel for something bigger,” he said. “Like, I sometimes feel misrepresented by being labeled a magician. I’ve always wanted to be seen as a performance artist, more than anything else,” he continued. “David Blaine did it. I think that’s why he and I get each other.”

The deception is no longer encased within the method, but in the transparency of the presentation. It’s a way to break the fourth wall of magic—to boil down an effect to its utmost simplicity, almost to the point where how it’s done is obvious—while still holding on to a core element of its intrigue and beauty, the almost undefinable characteristic

It’s a universal truth: all humans want to be amazed. And, ironically enough, deception is a useful tool to achieve this effect. Like social deception, the most important facet of magic is this: a magic trick cannot exist, even in its most basic form, without someone on which to perform it. Magic’s purpose is not initially predicated upon the

“But I thought you helped casinos?” I asked him. He beamed a sly, glazed-over grin. “Sometimes, my friend,” he said, putting his hand on my shoulder, his voice falling to just above a whisper, “you have to play both sides.”

To this day, my greatest fear in life is to never be able to truly understand his identity as a man—to fully grasp how much he sacrificed, how much he cared, how hard he tried—and how much we may share as adults. That I, perhaps, will understand we were both just two men who, at their core, were trying nothing more than to grasp the hard truth that