🤫 The Magician's Code, for kids

The five promises

• "I will keep the secret." Once somebody knows, the surprise is gone for ever — for them and for everybody they tell. Keeping it is how the next audience gets to feel amazed.
• "I will practise before I perform." A trick shown too early is a trick spoiled. Practise until it is boring for you; that is when it becomes amazing for them.
• "I will not do the same trick twice for the same people." The second time, they know where to look. Magicians have been losing tricks this way for hundreds of years.
• "I will never make a helper look silly." The surprise is the point; the person helping is not the joke. If they get something wrong, it was your fault, out loud.
• "I will not say my magic is real." Magic is a performance, like music or juggling. Saying it is real is the one thing that turns a lovely trick into a fib.

Why the secret is the point

A child who has just learned a trick badly wants to tell somebody how it works. That is natural, and it is also the moment the trick dies. Once a person knows, they can never be amazed by it again, and they will tell other people too.

Keeping the secret is the first grown-up thing about magic. It is a promise to the next audience, people the child hasn't even met yet.

What to say when somebody asks

Somebody will always ask "how did you do that?". The shop's answer is friendly and closed: "A magician never tells. Want to see another one?" Then show another trick. That ends the question kindly and turns it into more of the show.

The one thing never to say is that the magic is real. Magic is a performance, like music or juggling, and saying it is real turns a lovely trick into a fib. Every page in the shop says so, and so does Flick.

Print the Code to sign from the printables, or read more on the magic words page.