Those of you who have had the privilege of working in theatre know there is a process of research and then an application of that research in conjunction with a creative concept to make a play a successful artistic achievement. It has been said magic is very much theatre. How much of it is really theatre? Depending on the performer in any performing arts center, I’d say anywhere from 60%-80%. This varies from performer to performer. You have to realize: performing in a theatre is a form of theatre in itself. Suspension of disbelief is in the center of the experience, along with the “fourth wall”, which means the stage edge acts as a fourth wall between the performers and the audience.
Although it is a performing art, magic relies much more on suspension of disbelief and is not dependent on reproducing real life situations like theatre and this is where the major differences lie between the arts. This, and the fact that magic is presentational in nature as opposed to representational, is why you do not see plots in magic so much. Some illusionists like Doug Henning and David Copperfield have been known to take magic to almost a pure theatrical approach. This approach to theatre truly comes down to aesthetics and it is up to you as an illusionist to determine how much into theatre you wish to delve.
