Magic glossary
The words magicians use, explained in plain English.
A
Angles
The directions a trick can be watched from without the secret showing. Surrounded means people can stand all around you; front-facing means everyone needs to be in front.
Animation
Making an object move by itself: a pen that rolls, a card that crawls. Often done with invisible thread or magnets.
B
Billet
A small slip of paper someone writes on. Mentalists use billets to learn a secret word or thought.
C
Card force
Making someone take the card you want while they believe they chose freely.
Cardistry
The art of card flourishes: cuts, spins and fans done to look good, not to fool anyone.
Close-up magic
Magic performed at arm's length, often at a table, for a few people.
Colour change
A card, coin or object visibly changes into another while people watch.
D
Double lift
Lifting two cards as if they were one. One of the first card sleights most magicians learn.
Download
A video tutorial you download and keep. You can watch it offline, as often as you like.
E
Effect
What the audience sees happen. The effect is the magic; the method is the secret.
F
Flash paper
Specially treated paper that burns in an instant bright flash with almost no ash. For adults only, and it needs safe storage away from heat.
Flourish
A display of skill with cards or coins. It isn't magic, but it shows you can handle them.
Forcing deck
A trick deck that makes a card force easy, so you know which card they'll take.
French drop
A classic sleight that makes a coin seem to be taken by one hand while it stays in the other.
G
Gaff
A secretly altered object, most often a specially printed card.
Gimmick
A secret prop that makes a trick work. Gimmick included means it comes in the box.
I
Impromptu
Magic done with borrowed, everyday objects and no set-up.
Instant reset
A trick you can perform again straight away, with nothing to put back in place.
Invisible Deck
A famous trick deck: they name any card, and it's the only one reversed in the deck.
Invisible thread
Very fine thread, hard to see even up close, used for levitation and animation.
L
Levitation
Making an object, or a person, appear to float.
Load
Secretly putting an object somewhere, so it can appear there later.
M
Mentalism
Magic presented as mind reading, prediction or the power of suggestion.
Method
How a trick is actually done.
Misdirection
Guiding where, and when, the audience looks.
P
Palm
Secretly holding a coin or card in the hand.
Parlour magic
Magic for a room of people, performed standing, with props big enough to see from the back.
Patter
What you say while you perform.
Peek
Secretly glimpsing information, such as a card or a written word.
Prediction
Revealing something you seemed to know before it happened.
R
Reset
Getting a trick ready to perform again. Reset time is how long that takes.
Routine
Several effects put together into one piece.
S
Self-working
A trick that works by its own principle, with no sleight of hand needed.
Set
The tricks you perform, in the order you perform them.
Shell
A hollow coin that fits over a normal coin, used in many coin tricks.
Sleight of hand
Skilled, secret handling of cards, coins or small objects.
Spectator
The person from the audience who helps with the trick.
Stage magic
Magic for large audiences and theatres, with big, visible props.
Street magic
Informal magic for strangers, often filmed for TV or social media.
Streaming
A video tutorial you watch online through your account, instead of downloading it.
Svengali deck
A classic trick deck that lets you force the same card again and again.
T
Table-hopping
Performing a short set at each table in a restaurant or at an event.
Thumb tip
A fake thumb worn over your own, used to vanish or produce small things like a silk.
W
Walk-around
Strolling magic at events, moving from group to group.