Despite claims to the contrary every magic trick must be properly presented to ensure the mechanics are obscured so that only the intended illusion is seen. It isn't the prop that makes the magic or makes the operator a magician.
Many magicians engage in a life long quest to discover props that are self-working. While this endeavor certainly warms the hearts of magic dealers it rarely results in anything more than the acquisition of a few tricks that the magician finds easier to do than the rest. Even competent, experienced magicians are susceptible to this conviction that there is one trick out there somewhere which when added to a show will make them super stars.
This isn't to say that a correctly fashioned prop or gimmick won't make a trick easier to do. Since props and gimmicks must be manipulated, the performer should ensure that they are reliable and that their design facilitates comfortable handling.
While some magicians collect props and gimmicks just because they like props and gimmicks, many magicians buy tricks based on the advertised effect. They imagine the effect and the sensation they'll create when the spectators see them perform it. Very often on receipt of the trick they are disappointed by the so-called secret of how the trick is done. This may be because the props are shoddy or the method is impractical, a state of affairs that isn't unusual. On finding that the trick won't work itself with the method supplied, they express disappointment that the trick doesn't work and wouldn't fool anybody.
Dissatisfied with their purchase and the fact that it will not advance their desire to work wonders they forget they bought the trick because of the effect. However the effect hasn't gone away. The method may be clumsy, hardly self-working and unlikely to fool anyone but the effect is what they really paid for and should not be discarded along with the props. The concept that the value of a magic trick is the effect rather than the secret is foreign to most magicians. Yet the effect is what the audience will see and remember.
Having been prompted to acquire a trick because of the effect, the magician must then set out to find a way to create the effect so that it is guaranteed to absolutely fool those watching in that the illusion of the effect appears momentarily to be reality, no matter how fantastic that reality may be. Some magicians will 'get something out' of a particular effect, others will not. This has the amusing result of a magician buying a trick, deciding it is useless, then seeing another magician perform it effectively, and rushing home to dig out the props to add it to the play list.
It is advisable to stop worrying about how it is done and instead worry about how you'll do it. This is a more involved process which increases the possibility those watching will be taken by surprise as a result of your magic.
Yours Magically
Solomon
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