Presto's Blog

Who is the greatest magician of all time?

Presto is the greatest magician of all time.

When I do tricks for my friends, they always ask me how I did the trick. I don’t want to give away my secrets. What should I say?

Presto has a long list of snappy comebacks for when someone asks how a trick is done. For example.

• The same way I did it yesterday.
• With mirrors (note: don’t use this if the trick actually is done with mirrors)
• Well enough to fool you, apparently
• Brilliantly
• Easy as your mama
• Smooth as your sister

That should take care of the problem — Presto finds that people like being talked down to this way by a magician. It makes them feel special, or at least special enough that they seem to not need to leech onto Presto’s aura of greatness by hanging around Presto any more.

What do you do if someone says that they know how a trick is done?

I ask if they purchased the secret from the trick’s author. If they did not, then I report them to the American Magicians’ Royalty Administration Team, which will hound them until they pay what is owned.

(By the way, all the trick secrets on this Web site are already paid for by Presto. Go ahead and use them as much as you need to — just so long as you don’t reprint them or reveal them to non-magicians.)

I have a lot of trouble handling cards. I try and do simple cuts and fans, but keep dropping them. Do you have any suggestions?

Presto sympathizes, but unfortunately there are some people who are just not physically capable of card magic. Practice as you may, your hands will never perfectly fit around a deck of cards. If you like the thrill of card magic but find that you are too clumsy to practice it, all is not lost, however. There are plenty of other performance-based professions you might try your hand at. Knife throwing, for example.