The World of Magic

Schools of Magic

Close-Up
This magic is performed close to the audience. Normally no more than 3 feet away, it creates an intimate experience between the magician and the audience. Many magicians start there great adventure with close up card tricks, sponge ball manipulation, and similar tricks.

Escapism
A crowd favorite, Escapes usually have a element of danger. The most famous escape artist is Harry Houdini, who is an almost household name for magicians. Escapism is the art of setting up a dangerous environment that the magician escapes from. Normally bound in some way, and with a "death" timer, the magician will escape just in time.

Illusion
Illusionists are typically flashy and perform big tricks with sometime lots of set up. Many times, a performance is a small build up leading to one big trick. David Copperfield is one of the most famous Illusionist. Standard tricks for Illusionist include making objects, buildings, or people disappear and reappear, usually in a different location. It is also common for Illusionist perform unbelievable feats, such as levitating and chopping people in half.

Manipulation
Manipulation tends to the "standard" for what people think of as stage magic. Performances flow from tirck to trick and manipulte objects into dissapearing and reappearing suck as sponge balls, producing cards, doves, rabbits.

Mentalism
Hypnosis, mindreading, foretelling, mind control, bending spoons are all tricks you will see with Mentalism. Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as Mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities.