Never Break the Rules of Magic

Never show a magic trick twice to the same audience.

We know the rule and the reason for the rule and yet we broke the rule. Breaking the rule also broke the magical moment for those entertained by the first presentation. It was a simple trick – a coin through the table – just a throw-away slight that wasn’t part of a bigger show or routine.

Our friends at the far end of the table saw me perform it and then friends at the other end of the table wanted to see it as well.

We weren’t thinking about the rule, we just wanted to entertain more people with the effect.

Unfortunately, in doing so, the first group were able to catch our sleight. The folks in the second group did not know what to look for and were entertained about as much as the first group.

As we understand the rules they are:

Practice, Practice and Practice before performing for any audience;
Never do the same trick twice for an audience; and,
Never expose the secret.

By performing the trick a second time we violated rules numbers two and three. The secret was exposed to those who saw the trick a second time.

So why did we do it. We knew it was wrong and yet we broke the rule. It was our vanity and desire to perform what seemed to be an amazing feat of legerdemain. Vanity was our enemy and a positive audience reaction was our drug.

Looking back, we should have used a different sleight for the second group. That would have helped to hide the secret to the effect.

We took it hard; apparently hard enough that we are writing about it now. We’ve been doing magic for more than a couple of years or decades and, know the rules and why they are there. By performing it a second time, using the same sleight, we not only exposed the secret, we also exposed a method that other magicians may use.

There was no excuse for the transgression but there was a real lesson learned.