A young child will frequently ask me if I am really doing magic. There are several possible answers that I could give this child. I could say “yes”, or “no”. I could respond with a question and ask them what they think. If they say “yes’, do I then agree with them, or do I possibly disappoint them and say “no”. This may seem a futile topic, but I consider the answer of great importance for a children’s entertainer who performs magic. Your response could unknowingly have a profound effect on the child. It is as important as the answer you give when a child reaches a certain age and asks if there is really such a person as Santa Claus. What needs to be considered while formulating the response to the question is what is really the truth? As adults, I am sure most of my readers believe there is no such thing as real magic, and as performers we all know that there is a logical explanation for all the tricks that we do. However, children see the world through very different eyes, and a young child may well believe in magic in the same way as they have imaginary friends. What right do we have to take away this belief?

“Never ever doubt in Magic. The purest honest thoughts come from children, ask any child if they believe in magic and they will tell you the truth.”
Scott Dixon

I take out a puppet in my show, and a child shouts out: “Is he real?” Obviously, this child thinks that there is a possibility that he is real, so do we say to the child: “he thinks he’s real” or “Of course he’s real” or “Yes he’s real” or “Don’t be silly….he’s only a puppet!” If you say he IS real, then another child may say: “No he’s not” and an argument follows!! Oh……….the joys of entertaining children!

There is another situation which sometimes takes place which is when a child comes up to you before the show and makes a statement: “I know that magic is not real!” Here again, think carefully about the way you react to this. You could say nothing, you could agree with the child, you could disagree with the child and get into an argument, or you could say something like: “are you really sure?” In truth, the very fact that the child makes this statement could be that they are trying to prove something to themselves. Also, you can ask yourself what the child is really getting at. Maybe they have always thought that magic was real, and a friend tells them it is not. They are curious to see what you have to say, as there could still be some doubt in their mind.

When a potential client calls me up and asks me to describe my show, I always tell them that I end my show by levitating myself and becoming invisible. I do not tell them that I do a magic trick where it looks as if I am levitating and becoming invisible. I actually imply in my response that I really do magical things in my show. The client never asks me if there is a trick to it. It is almost as though as adults we are all yearning to believe in magic in a troubled world. In their mind they are likely to create a picture of what they are going to see at the end of their child’s magic show. The adult may well be as excited about witnessing this as their offspring! They are looking forward to seeing magic!

What is reality? As magicians, we create a false reality through trickery. To deceive, it also becomes necessary to tell false truths. We announce that we are putting a coin from one hand to the other, when in truth we are retaining the coin in the original hand. I prefer to call this a false truth, as the word “lie” seems too harsh. We are not liars; we are deceivers who create an alternative reality. Our audiences accept this reality without question. The fact that most older folks know that you are using trickery to perform your illusions does not take away from the reality that they are experiencing in their thoughts while they are watching your show. To my way of thinking, we all do not live in the same reality. What is real to a young child is quite different to the reality of an adult. Only you know what is real and what is not. Two years ago, I attended Magic Live in Las Vegas. There was a lecture unlike anything I had attended before. It was how to experience magic if you were blind. We were all given a blindfold, and lead to a chair where we were seated for an hour. All we could hear was a voice telling us what to do. There were various objects that we could feel on the side of the chair, and through the sense of touch we were able to experience magic in our hands. It was quite fascinating and indeed amazing. It was another reality, and one which many blind and folk around the planet experience on a daily basis. For most of us, light is a reality. For these people, darkness is a permanent reality, and light does not exist.

“That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.”


I am not going to tell you what to say to a child when they ask you if magic is real. My purpose is to invite you to ponder on the possible responses, realizing the implications that they can have on the child. When I moved to from England to the United States in 1992, my son Nicholas was just 8 years old. He had always believed in Father Christmas, although he discovered fairly quickly that Americans called him Santa Claus! I explained to him that it was the same person, and he accepted that. Enter his third grade teacher, who decides to make the statement one day in class that “as you all know, there is no such thing as Santa.” My son came home from school devastated and confused, and I was forced to tell him the truth. Santa was real to him even at the age of eight, and in my opinion it was wrong of the teacher to make the presumption that nobody in the class still believed in him. A magical part of my son’s childhood vanished in a moment of time, never to return.

"Wonder is a very subtle, precious emotion, often lost in the gross hustle and bustle of modern life. When we feel wonder, we are immediately reminded of the purity and innocence of our childhood. Then everything was magical and mysterious. Magic should help us relive that wonder." ~ Doug Henning

I consider it of great importance for those of us who entertain children to try and enter their reality. One way of doing this is to try and take yourself back to the days when you were a child. If you were lucky enough to have seen a magic show at a young age, try and recall what kind of emotional experience you had. Did you think the magician was just a silly man who made you laugh with his antics? Were you fooled by the magic, and did you try in your head to work out how the tricks were done? Or dare I suggest that you actually believed that what you were seeing was a real man of magic who cast spells and worked wonders? Have you ever observed a young child, in their own little creative world? They are oblivious to anyone or anything around them. They are lost in their own imaginative land of make-believe. They might be singing to themselves, or scribbling without thought on a scrap of paper. They could be playing imagination games, or maybe creating towers in their room out of their toys. Often a child's toy, a toy that to us adults is quite simple, is the toy the child will play with the most. They enjoy toys such as simple building blocks, or Lego where all the pieces are maybe the same size, shape and consistency. Out of this simplicity they can create magnificent structures such as boats, airplanes and castles. This is the reality for this child. An adult may not be too impressed by the structure that the child has made, but in the child’s world it is a masterpiece!

“Children see magic because they look for it.”
¯ Christopher Moore,

We all create our own reality. If you are a professional children’s entertainer, you manifest your working life by your actions. If you want more shows, you advertise, organize a marketing campaign, and network with others. If you don’t want to do shows for a couple of weeks, and take a vacation, you make that choice. You are master of your destiny, and what starts as only a dream becomes reality. If a child comes to see you at a magic show, they expect to witness magic. They may consider the magic to be real or trickery, depending on their age. In my opinion each child should be allowed to react to that magic in whatever way comes natural to them. They do not all experience the same reality.

Fantastic thoughts, Jolly Roger! I particularly like the quote from Doug Henning, who was one of my early heroes in magic...and a man whom I had the pleasure of meeting.

In fact, I named my production company "World of Wonder Entertainment" in his honor.

Excellent post Roger. Lot of good stuff there.

A childhood is sooo short for most kids nowadays and it really is important that they get as much as possible out of it.
Unlike magicians, the average person doesn't get to be a child but once. It is true, most grow up way too soon.

Tom

Quite right Tom!! I hate to see kids grow up too fast. There is something beautiful and innocent about a young child, and I feel that as adults we should allow that innocence to remain with them as long as possible. I believe that is part of our role as children's entertainers.

Great post Roger. Really gives you something to think about.

The usual question I have gotten from kids is "How did you do that?" Can't say that I have ever been questioned about whether the magic is real or not, but I can see that it is just a matter of time before the question comes up.

In trying to develop a ready answer, I have come up with this... As a response to the question about if I am really doing magic, I could answer the question with a question..."Do you know what magic is?" My explanation would be, "The magic that I do is making your eyes see things that they don't consider as normal and causes your mind to think "How did he do that?" I could then give a visual demonstration with a silk and TT. "When I put this silk scarf in my hand, I could tell you that it has disappeared, but your mind knows that just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't in my hand." I could open my hand, revealing the silk and confirm their belief that it hasn't disappeared. "But if I put this scarf in my hand (making it disappear with the TT) and then open it and you see that it has disappeared... that's when your eyes and your mind realize that what you have seen isn't normal... so it must be magic!"

I can remember explaining it to both kids and adults this way:

"Magic is an illusion. An illusion is something that you see that you think you see that you really don't see,
in other words, you don't know what you seeing."

That pretty well explained it.

Tom

G'day Roger

That was a well thought out discussion of this important issue.

So much of what you have shared rings true from my own reading and experience.

I think I will read it through again and try to take in more of your insights.

Bob latta (aka Troppo Bob)

Thanks Bob! Let me know if ever I can help with anything, and watch out for them Kangaroos!!