Magicians and History of Magic

     Although illusion has always been around since the beginning of civilization (for example, the Trojan horse in ancient Greece), it has only been popularized into an art in the past 200 years. Modern magic originates mostly form the man  Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin , who popularized magic in the 1800s, as well as set new standards to be followed for the following years. Unlike ancient times however, the illusion today is made to entertain rather than to cheat people out of their money, the audience today knows that the tricks performed are simply illusion (hence why they call them "tricks"), and that is one of the reasons why magic is so popular today. There are also several types of illusions and magicians. For example, there are tricks involving teleportation, restoration, vanishing, and levitation. There are also stage magicians and close-up magicians (Jay, 2006).
     Mainly this article breaks down magic for me, the different types of stage illusion. However, it also provides a crucial bit of information, the fact that magic is popular today because the audience knows they are being deceived for their entertainment, rather than being cheated in a game of cards. It also provided some information about the origins of stage magic in the nineteenth century. It has also explained the transition of magic from the stage to television, by stating the fact that no magicians use camera tricks because that makes the illusion too easy. Overall, my essential question is answered in this article, by explaining not only the history of magic, but also how its perception has changed over the ages.
     Are there any magicians that changed the course of magic, especially how it was viewed. The article makes it clear that Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin set the norm for modern-day magicians, but are there any others that have further changed this norm, for example the famous Harry Houdini? Although he is often regarded as one of the best and most famous magicians ever, did he change the view of magic? And if he did, then how?

Citation: Phil, J. (2006). Magicians and history of magic. Retrieved from http://http://www.philjaymagic.com/history-of-magic.htm