I worked on the Ramsay tricks, which pretty much depend on some "exposed" knowlege to work properly.

After doing that stuff in college I found that folks prefer to be swept away for a few moments by a routine rather than confronted by their lack of knowlege.

I do hope that all here and the folks we meet understand that we are doing magic inside the frame of a play, or performance and that such things as we show in performace have no direct connection with reality as experienced outside the performance. That's why the woman in the box does not scream and bleed. That's why the borrowed coin is always returned etc.

Here's a story: a boy sees a busker perform the linking rings and persuades his father to buy him a set from the magic store. A week later, the father angrily returns the rings, saying, "No, I want the ones that I saw the guy in the street use."

It may be apocryphal but I've experienced the same truth many times - that even those familiar with the method can be blown away by good presentation and will assume that their version of the truth was but a silly, childish guess in the face of a grown miracle.

Magic happens in the mind of the spectator and it's our job to create that DESPITE all they've read and seen on TV and the internet.