Stage and Parlour Magic Tricks

Stage and parlour magic tricks are magic tricks that can be performed to medium to large audiences. 

A skilled magician will usually perform tricks that are impossible in real life , which is handwaved by simply saying a magician never reveals his secret. August 7 from Darker Than Black was a former professional stage magician before becoming a straight-up reality warping Contractor and MI6 operative. Humorously, and cruelly given his past profession, the price for using his power is to give away the secrets of every magic trick he knows. Joseph Joestar in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure uses stage magic tricks to supplement his superhuman martial arts. One of the Characters of the Week of the Pokémon anime was a (rather pathetic) stage magician named Melvin.

The main character from Jar Of Fools, Ernie Weiss (based on Harry Houdini , whose real name was Ehric Weiss), and his mentor Al Floss (based on the actual magician named Al Floss). One arc in Spawn had the title character encounter and work alongside Houdini, who is revealed to be an actual dimension-travelling mage using his show as a cover. Now You See Me stars a team of four stage magicians dubbed The Four Horsemen, who use their acts to rob banks. They are generally amateurs and are quite popular with the populace of Ankh-Morpork; magic’s magic, but the idea that someone’s making billiard balls appear without doing magic is something else.

Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters novel Reserved for the Cat featured a Fire Master (i.e., a mage) who spent his career being a very good stage magician. Also in the series, the book Steadfast had an Air Magician who was also a stage magician and used Air Elementals to help him in his act. Funnily, their joke shop also does steady, if not exactly booming, business in selling Muggle stage magic props to wizards.

The 1970s ITV kids’ show Ace Of Wands featured a stage magician called Tarot who solved mysteries in his spare time. The show had a magic advisor, but most of the tricks depicted in the show were cheats using video effects. On How I Met Your Mother Barney frequently uses magic to try to impress girls, and has vintage magic posters in his apartment. In real life Neil Patrick Harris is president of the Magic Circle, and an accomplished magician. An episode of Leverage features Nathan masquerading as a stage magician at a corporate event whilst the team pull off a heist. Sometimes Mumford’s tricks would have an educational bent (for example, when he subtracted pineapples), sometimes they were just gags.

Similarly, Pinball Magic has the player proving his magic skills before Matra Magna and her panel of mystics and magicians. Theatre of Magic casts the player as a (female) Stage Magician performing before an unseen audience. Space 1889 in Magical Mystery Tour from Challenge 63 the player characters are supposed to escort and help a stage magician out-magic a warmongering shaman. A Dragon article about adding magic to Alternity included sleight of hand as one option, with the note that in high-tech settings like StarDrive , misdirection and illusion could be really convincing.