Mailbag #145: Magic and the Internet

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Convince me people actually want to see magic anymore. The only things I see online that get views are people exposing magic tricks. Did the internet kill magic?—TW

Magic isn’t made for the internet. It’s meant to be experienced offline, between humans, in person.

Secrets are the only part of magic that gets traction online because they’re the only aspect that really works there.

It’s amazing how few magicians seem to grasp this:

Magic is a real-world, interpersonal experience.

Magic on the internet doesn’t really exist. Even on TV, you still need an audience there to replicate the person-to-person connection.

Saying, “People don’t like magic because all I see online is people exposing magic,” is like saying, “People don’t like romance because all I see online is hardcore pornography.”

Yes, but that’s because “romance” doesn’t translate well online either. Done well, in person, it’s wildly effective.

My friends have two daughters, Sarah (9) and Evie (13).

At the end of each season, their parents ask them to list three highlights from the past few months—special moments they want to remember.

At the end of June, my friend sent me his daughters’ “highlights” for spring. They were:

1. The taffy pull.

2. The beach scavenger hunt.

3. Forming their “band.”

Now, what these highlights had in common was:

  • They were all fully offline.

  • I was there for all three.

  • They took place over the course of about 10 hours.

A “taffy pull” couldn’t be less online. It’s the sort of thing you would find done at a party, like, 100 or 200 years ago.

The “scavenger hunt” was really a magic trick where a bunch of clues led us to a deck of cards. A card was selected and signed, and the rest of the deck was assembled to reveal a treasure map on the back of the cards. We followed the treasure map to find the card they just signed, buried in a locked box. (A variation on a trick from one of my previous books.)

The “band” was me and my girlfriend teaching them to play “When U Love Somebody” by the Fruit Bats.*

My point: these are two girls who live online. The 13-year-old often has one earbud in, streaming TikToks while talking to you. But their seasonal highlights were entirely offline. The things they remembered and wanted to remember were all in the real world.

People worry that face-to-face interaction has been replaced by the internet and AI. It hasn’t. If anything, those pale imitations make real-world connection more valuable.

Do magic online, and you’ll find people chasing secrets.

Do shitty magic in person, and you’ll find people wishing they were online.

But do fascinating things for real people in the real world and you will find an unending pool of people who enjoy magic.

* Teaching a group of people “When U Love Somebody” by the Fruit Bats is one of my favorite things to do. You can teach non-musicians the keyboard part (you don’t need a keyboard, you can play an app on your phone), the “drum” part (just banging out quarter-notes on an empty box) and the tambourine part (anything that jangles) very simply. The lyrics are easy to pick up too.

I do the guitar part myself, usually. But if there’s someone else in the group who knows guitar or ukulele, I’ll give it to them. It’s very easy to pick up. I just wouldn’t try and give those parts to an absolute beginner. But they can handle everything else.