On the surface, secrets seem to be the most important thing in magic.

It’s a brave man who would argue against the importance of secrets, but I’d suggest to you that secrets do not occupy the number one spot on the list of what’s most important in the world of magic.

What is magic?

I’ll bet tricks didn’t come immediately to mind. Neither did secrets. (Unfortunately for a few of you “greasy guy in a dirty tux” might have, but that’s a post for another day.) Maybe, if you’re lucky, the words wonder, or impossible came to mind.

In his e-book, “Making Magic Real,” Richard Osterlind writes:

Contrary to what anyone has written, magic is not the art of deception! It is an art of creation, just like all the rest! It is an art that creates a magic world! It creates a reality where the impossible can happen and we can all experience…wonder!

So really, whatever creates wonder also creates magic.

I have drawers and boxes filled with tricks. I have a wall of books in my magic library with more tricks than ten men could ever learn to do in ten lifetimes. Possessing either the tricks, or the knowledge of how tricks are done is not magic. And it certainly doesn’t make me a magician any more than owning a set of drums makes me a drummer.

Magic does not exist outside of performance.

Unlike the literal answer to the proverbial question, “Does a tree falling in a forest make a sound if there is no one there to hear it,” without an audience to watch, to be drawn in, to participate in the creation of a moment of magic, magic does not exist.

Even so, an audience can watch a magic trick being performed and walk away thinking what they just saw was anything but magic. Done poorly, most magic is not even barely interesting. Done just adequately, it’s not much more than a logical puzzle.

But done in an engaging, inviting, surprising, and believable manner, magic becomes magic to an audience.

Do those things have anything to do with secrets? No, they don’t. Two performers can do the same trick, exactly alike down to the words and gestures, and one will create magic and one will demonstrate a puzzle. The difference is in the successful performer’s ability to emotionally touch an audience. To literally reach out make an audience member feel something wondrous.

How can a performer do that?

Well, allow me to ask you this: if you saw someone — a complete stranger — from across the room, what could you do to make them feel happy to see you? I’ll give you a hint: it has nothing to do with secrets and everything to do with people.