Who performs magic tricks?

Answer 1

Generally, it's magicians (not being sarcastic, you can do LOADS of magic without being a magician as such).

Other than that, anybody can! Whether it's a granddad impressing his grandkids or a kid showing his friends in the playground, magic is kind of an umbrella term for 'illusion, mystery and inexplicable occurences' and as such can mean any number of different things to different people.

Assuming you mean table magic with cards etc., people with a lot of patience and a nice personality can be the best people to do these tricks. Table magicians have to practice sleight of hand etc. for hours on end to become proficient at what is looked on as 'serious' magic with cards, coins and occasionally glasses.

Otherwise, like with the aforementioned example of a granddad, anybody can pick up a book or learn a couple of things off YouTube. They'll be able to do magic tricks, but what they won't be is magicians. That's like calling somebody who just told a joke a comedian.

If you want a performer, you won't just find one doing tricks in the playground. You'll have to look pretty hard to find somebody that can genuinely captivate the audience.

Magic, for the most part, is pretty serious. If you only want to scratch the surface, however, it can be great fun. Therefore, and I stress this, ANYBODY can do magic tricks. TV performers only get to where they are through PERFORMANCE, and obviously some skill. I don't want to dampen the effect of such people, but their tricks are all performance usually; if somebody showed you the same trick with no storyline, you'd think it was a bit flat. A bit disappointing.

Anyway, hope I've helped!

Bede