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Three Parts of a Magic Trick

According to the "Free Dictionary," a magic trick is "an illusory feat" that is "considered magical by naive observers." There are multiple kinds of magic tricks. Close-up magic involves decks of cards and platform magic involves cutting a person inside a box in half. Meanwhile, stage magic includes disappearing acts. All great magic tricks consist of three parts: "the pledge," "the turn" and "the prestige." A basic card trick can illustrate the three parts of a magic trick.
  1. The Pledge

    • The first part of a magic trick is "the pledge," also known as the setup. A magician turns to the audience and introduces a common object or scenario. In this example, you will be setting out three rows of cards for your audience -- three across and seven down. Since you are practicing, your audience can be one person.

    The Turn

    • The second part of a magic trick is "the turn." A magician creates an astonishing part of the illusion with the audience. With the basic card trick example, ask an audience volunteer to pick a card in their head.

    The Prestige

    • The third part of a magic trick is "the prestige." This is when the magician reveals the illusion of the trick. In the final part of the card trick, ask your audience volunteer to pick cards three times and on the third time, tell your volunteer what their card was.

    Practice and conceal magic tricks

    • Before testing a card trick on an audience, familiarize yourself with the three parts of a magic trick and identify each part of the magic trick as you go along. Keep in mind that a good magician will never disclose the secrets of his or her tricks. The illusion of the basic card trick above is that the magician will pick up all of the rows, one by one, but make sure that he picks up the row that the card is in second. Assume the volunteer secretly chose blue card No. 5 and told the magician that his card was in the second row. The magician would pick up the rows and make sure the blue row was picked up second so that it was in the middle of the deck.

Magic Tricks

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