From the beginning of time to today's society, magic is what most people have in common. Whether we are the ones being presented with magic or we are the ones presenting the magic, Illusions and how they are performed is something that captivates people's minds.
The age old question, "How to do magic", has been interpreted in different ways by different people. In history, from a spectator's point of view, when a magician was done performing his magic, his spectator would come up to him and ask, "how do you do magic?". Whether it was being asked from a 17-year old, or from a 70-year old, the magician's response would always be, "Ah, a magician never reveals his secrets". It was cliche of course, but that's what kept magic, well, magic. The mystery of how a human-being could pull off such a phenomenom was what kept people wanting more!
But now we fast forward to modern day times. Still, the age old question, "how to do magic?", is still asked by hundreds of people everyday! However, modern day spectators have others ways on asking "how to do magic?". Instead of going up to the magician and asking him said question, some now have what is known as "google" and asks the question there. They will use modern day technology to find out how to do a magic trick, and when they find the how a trick is done, they believe they know how to do magic. As you can tell, from a spectator's point of you, the question, "how to do magic" has been asked for years and years, but, within those years, said question has been interpreted in different ways.
But the question, from the magician's perspective, is taken in in a different fashion, as magicians are familiar with the works of magic. Why you ask? Here's why...
For a magician, doing a magic trick is only half the battle. They don't call it "performing" for nothing. Because when a magician "does" magic, he's actually "performing" magic. There is a difference between the two. Lets take a typical card trick as an example.
"Doing" a card trick, whether its done correctly or not, is still doing a card trick. What's important is HOW the card trick is PERFORMED.
Performing a card trick just isn't about executing the card trick, its about the magician's presentation. Its about his energy, his patter, his body language, the way he speaks, and then the trick itself. Magic these days are known for being 10% trick and 90% performance from the magician. When you combine all that together, that's pretty going to be your answer when you ask a magician "how to do magic".
The magician is as much part of the trick as the trick itself. You must, in a way, BE part of the trick. BECOME the trick, because without a magician's performance, "doing" a card trick won't seem as "magic" as you might think.