Keeping Magic Secrets, Secret

The most important aspect of magic is not revealing the secret. Why? Because magic is entertaining only for so long as it is mystifying, and when the secrets are told, the pleasure of enjoying a pretended miracle is taken away.

The secret behind most magic is quite simple in concept. But let's think about this for a moment. For example, think about a magician who just made a person float in the air then disappeared like a fading cloud. The audience witnessed something mysterious and miraculous, and they may think that the answer to how this is done must be equally miraculous. We as magicians know that this was an illusion, and we used our tools, lighting, music, secret apparatus, and, most importantly, skill to make this seem real for the audience. If we have done this properly as magicians, we have achieved our goal. To reveal the secret would change this special moment for the audience from spectacular, and maybe even profound, to a mundane gimmick. What an audience doesn't know is, they don't really want to know the secret; they want to enjoy the illusion. The human mind dearly loves a good mystery.

Sometimes, too, the secret to a trick can be revealed accidentally by the magician's lack of practice, and the audience catches on. Magician John Mulholland said it very well in one of his books on magic:

"Magic is the art of creating illusion agreeably. Magic, to be entertaining, must give the effect of being the accomplishment of the impossible by a pleasant person. The means used to perform the wonders has to be held a complete mystery. If you are caught in a trick you are not a magician. If you are not caught, but later disclose how you have fooled your audience, you probably will be thought rude and the audience made to feel foolish, even though you may have been asked for an explanation. When it comes to revealing a secret, there are no exceptions; in magic it is advisable never to mention the secret methods employed. If you are asked to explain a trick you have just done, the best answer, perhaps, is, 'I have promised never to tell.'"

This next point is of equal importance to the above. Never repeat a trick. Why? You risk exposing the secret and diminishing the impact of what you just performed. Magic is the only entertainment where the audience is trying to "catch you out" and deduce how you just did that. Your audience was just amazed by what they saw. Leave them wondering! If you repeat a trick, more than 50% of the trick's impact is already gone; for the same reason you can't tell a joke twice or see a movie twice and expect the exact same experience. There is no value to you or the audience in repeating a trick.

Here's one of my own strategies when someone says, "Do that again!" Usually, this is blurted out in a moment of surprise. I reply by saying, "Okay, I'll do it again," but I continue on with a completely different trick. Satisfy their curiosity with another mystery, not the same mystery.

I do want to highlight a small exception to the rule of not repeating a trick. If you have a trick similar to the one you just performed but has a different method to achieve it, and then someone says "do that again," go ahead and amaze them again. You have thrown them off by using a different way, and ultimately, this will astound them even more so.