Sublime

Karl Germain, the celebrated conjuror, known to the masses as Germain the Wizard, famously said, “Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you and then he does.”

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

I’m not interested in deceiving people.

Believe it or not, most magicians try not to lie. They resist not out of any particular morality or an effort to compensate for their deceptions. Audiences anticipate lies from magicians, and tend to challenge their statements. A lie often works against the deception, so the performer will avoid making statements that invite challenges or plant

Jim Steinmeyer concludes in Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear.

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Virtually all of the techniques that magicians and cheaters “share” come from the world of the cheater. For hundreds, possibly thousands of years, magicians have taken tools from cheaters and offered little in return. Or, more likely, cheaters didn’t want what magicians had to offer. It’s not that the magician’s methods are inferior. It’s that they