All magician questions ever asked – a guide to magic in question form.

The Magic Circle is a members club for amateur, semi pro and professional magicians. It usually has around 1500 members and is based in Euston, London. To gain membership you must do an interview and audition to show you are of a high standard.

Best is always subjective. Most magicians have different skill sets. For instance, one might be better at tricks with cards and another might be a better stage magician. David Copperfield would be at the top of most magicians list as the best of all time.

In the UK, professional magicians tend to charge between £400 – £1000 per event. Obviously it depends on how many gigs they do and how popular they are. It can vary between £20,000 to £100,000 for most professional magicians. Some of the TV magicians are millionaires.

The Magic Castle is a members club based on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, California. They hire the best magicians to perform either close up magic or stage magic through the evening. If you eat there you get priority entrance to the main stage show so that’s definitely worth doing.

To get entry, you must be a member or a guest of a member. Alternatively, if you stay next door at The Magic Hotel you will get entry for the night you are staying. There is also a strict dress code so make sure you check their website.

The route is different for almost everyone. There isn’t a college or university course. Most magicians tend to start with an amateur interest and treat is as a hobby. As they get deeper in to the art, they start performing for family and friends. Some then take it up semi professionally and get bookings at local birthday parties. If bookings start flooding in, a very small percentage then decide to be a professional magician.

Magicians use sleight of hand, misdirection, gimmicks and timing to make it look like it’s real magic. However, there has been no proof yet that real magic actually exists.

There are many magic shows in Las Vegas and they are changing all the time. Most magicians would agree that the best daytime show is Mac King. A very funny comedy magician. For an evening show, David Copperfield has the best magic show. A full spectacular show with illusions and the appearance of Blu the Alien.

Most magicians perform at different venues. Everywhere from large corporate events to intimate house parties. Look on the individual magician’s website to see if they offer house party visits. If they don’t say they do on their site, it’s worth emailing them as they probably do but might just not have mentioned it specifically.

Best is always subjective. However, if you ask any magician or mind reader the answer would probably be Derren Brown. He’s been performing on TV for more than 20 years and has toured relentlessly in the UK and had a run on Broadway.

Part of the fun with magic is the mystery. If you knew how the trick was done, you could still enjoy it but on a different level. Many magicians enjoy to watch magic but they are looking for technique, presentation, originality etc. If you want to enjoy magic in it’s purest form, it’s best not to ask them how it’s done. And hopefully they won’t tell you even if you do.

This answer is so vast that it’s almost impossible to answer. For instance, semi pros often charge less than professionals. Children’s party magicians charge less than Illusionists performing a big stage show. The cost can be from nothing to thousands of pounds.

As a general rule, UK close up magicians will charge anything from £400 – £1500. However, this could change depending on the date, how long you’d like them for, the location and whether or not you’d like them to come up some bespoke tricks for your event.

Harry Houdini is the most famous magician of all time. Most famous for being an escapologist, but was a famous magician when he was performing in the early 1900s.

The most famous living magician is David Copperfield who currently has a show in Las Vegas at the MGM.

It’s an interactive magic show that is performed over the conferencing app Zoom. The magic is performed live over the internet so the audience are involved the whole time.

A lot of people think there aren’t any/many because there isn’t a famous one on TV all the time. But like other things like comedy, female magicians are starting to make waves and break through. There are around 70 female magicians in The Magic Circle

Sleight of hand is when the magician manipulates an object to make it appear like magic has happened. Not all magic is sleight of hand (although some people think it is). Sleight of hand is usually quite tricky to perform and requires a lot of practise from the magician, for instance producing fans of cards at the fingertips.

All magicians are different so earn different amounts. It’s a bit like asking how much a singer earns. A pub singer will be on a very different wage to Elton John. And there are many levels of magician. Some perform children’s parties, or close up magic in restaurants. Others perform mainly virtual magic shows or corporate events on stage.

Magicians perform magic shows on Zoom for different fees. In my experience the fees can be anyway from a few hundred pounds/dollars to thousands.

Mentalists generally use lots of different methods so there is no exact answer. Mentalists are usually magicians so use magic techniques to make it look like they are reading minds.

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