The cups and balls is a performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. Street gambling variations performed by conmen were known as Bunco Booths. A typical cups and balls routine includes many of the most fundamental effects of magic: the balls can vanish, appear, transpose, reappear and transform. Basic skills, such as misdirection, manual dexterity, sleight of hand, and audience management are also essential to most cups and balls routines. As a result, mastery of the cups and balls is considered by many as the litmus test of a magician's skill with gimmick style tricks. Magician John Mulholland wrote that Harry Houdini had expressed the opinion that no one could be considered an accomplished magician until he had mastered the cups and balls. Professor Hoffman called the cups and balls "the groundwork of all legerdemain".
Coin magic is the manipulating of coins to entertain audiences. Because coins are small, most coin tricks are considered close-up magic or table magic, as the audience must be close to the performer to see the effects. Though stage conjurers generally do not use coin effects, coin magic is sometimes performed onstage using large coins. In a different type of performance setting, a close-up coin magician will use a large video projector so the audience can see the magic on a big screen. Coin magic is generally considered harder to master than other close-up techniques such as card magic, as it requires great skill and grace to perform convincingly, and this requires much practice to acquire.
Tabarin was the street name assumed by the most famous of the Parisian street charlatans, Anthoine Girard, who amused his audiences in the Place Dauphine by farcical dialogue with his brother Philippe, with whom he reaped a golden harvest by the sale of quack medicines for several years after 1618. Street theatre was popular theatre, on an improvised stage with a curtain backdrop, to the music of a hurdy-gurdy and a set of viols. More formal contemporary performances were confined to the royal court or to the Hotel de Bourgogne, overseen by the medieval guild that had the monopoly of theatrical performances in Paris.
The Ambitious Card, or Elevator Card, is a magic effect in which a playing card seems to return to the top of the deck after being placed elsewhere in the middle of the deck. This is a classic effect in card magic and serves as a study subject for students of magic. Most performing card magicians will have developed their own personal Ambitious Card routine.
Fred Kaps was a Dutch magician, famous for being the only magician to become FISM Grand Prix world champion three times. He was the creator of numerous original effects including his version of the color-changing silks. Another popular effect he often performed was the long-pour salt trick. Part of the act has Kaps exhibiting facial expressions of great surprise and disbelief, as he tries unsuccessfully to desperately stop the flow.
Street magic falls into two genres; traditional street performance and guerrilla magic.
This is a glossary of conjuring terms used by magicians.
The International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM) was founded in 1948 and is one of the most respected organizations in the magic community. It is an international body coordinating dozens of national and international clubs and federations around the world. Together these clubs represent approximately 50,000 magicians from 50 countries as of 2015. The organization hosts a self-named "FISM" conference every three years, where magicians compete for "Best of" categories. The most recent FISM was in 2018, held in Busan, South Korea. Founded in 1948, it is one of the most recognized magic organizations in the magic circle. Currently, there are more than 80 member organizations and about 50,000 members from 50 countries and regions, including Taiwan's Black Hat Magic Association and the Taiwan Magic Development Association (TMA). Another 808 magic item shop is also in the process of applying for membership. The FISM organizes a worldwide magic convention every three years. The member organizations fight for the right to host. Top magicians from all over the world will compete for the title of "World Magic Champion". Prior to this, various regions will hold regional selections. FISM Europe, FISM Asia, FISM North America, FISM Latin America, FISM Africa, FISM Oceania, and member organizations have the quotas recommended by their regional selection committees.
Billy McComb was a British-born American magician and comedian. He was one of the United Kingdom's leading magicians in the 1950s and 1960s. He was hired to perform at the International of Magicians in 1962 and stayed at Jim Swoger's house in Pittsburgh, along with his wife and son, for six months before taking up residence in Los Angeles, California in the 1970s. He joined The Magic Castle in Hollywood, his number being 3323.
David Devant was an English magician, shadowgraphist and film exhibitor. He was born David Wighton in Holloway, London. He is regarded by magicians as a consummate exponent of suave and witty presentation of stage illusion. According to magic historian Jim Steinmeyer, Devant was “England’s greatest magician—arguably the greatest magician of the 20th Century”.
Tobias "Theo" Leendert Bamberg (1875–1963) was a professional magician. Born in the Netherlands, Bamberg performed under the name Okito which is an anagram of Tokio (Tokyo). His father had been court magician to King William III of the Netherlands, making Okito the sixth generation in a family of outstanding magicians known as the Bamberg Magical Dynasty.
Troublewit is a specially pleated paper used for entertainment purposes. The paper is used to form various items, such as hats, fans and umbrellas by stage entertainers and illusionists.
A magician's assistant is a performer in a magic act who is not billed as the magician or principal name in the act. The role of an assistant can include holding the props that are used by a magician, shifting props onto and off the stage, and serving as a living prop in illusions that involve manipulation of the human body. Other aspects of the role can include dancing or acting as visual ornamentation, sometimes for simple aesthetic purposes and sometimes to misdirect audience attention. The figure of the glamorous female assistant has become a stereotype or icon in art, popular media and fiction.
Alan Robert Wakeling (1926–2004) was an American magician and inventor who is known in the magic world for devising classic illusions and routines used by some of the top performers in the business. Some of his most successful work was done in association with leading television magician Mark Wilson. They worked on the television show The Magic Land of Allakazam, which was sponsored by Kellogg's cereal, and aired on CBS every Saturday from October 1st 1960 then moved to ABC in 1962.
Anton Zamloch, also known as “Professor Zamloch” and “Zamloch the Great,” was an American magician who toured with his magic act from 1869 through 1912. Zamloch performed at mining camp “opera houses” in the wild west, New York theaters and locations in Mexico, Hawaii, Canada and across the United States. His act grew to a large size, and he traveled with three assistants and “over a ton of baggage.” Some newspaper accounts described him as “the greatest magician of the age.”
The Tarbell Course in Magic is a notable encyclopedia of magic amongst professional and amateur magicians. It has eight volumes; the first five were part of the original home-study correspondence course compiled in 1928 by Dr. Harlan Tarbell, the remaining three volumes being added on later.
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.
Shadowgraphy or ombromanie is the art of performing a story or show using images made by hand shadows. It can be called "cinema in silhouette". Performers are titled as a shadowgraphist or shadowgrapher.
Headgear, headwear, or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head, including hats, helmets, turbans and many other types. Headgear is worn for many purposes, including protection against the elements, decoration, or for religious or cultural reasons, including social conventions.
Norbert Ferré is a French magician and artist manager.