History Main / ImpossiblyAwesomeMagicTrick

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In the episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' "[[Recap/TheXFilesS07E08TheAmazingMaleeni The Amazing Maleeni]]", the stage magician Maleeni has a magic trick where he rotates his head 360 degrees. Every other trick performed in the episode is possible in real life.

[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' has the main character, the daughter of a PhantomThief and StageMagician, combine both talents to operate as the phantom thief Saint Tail. Her abilities are ''ostensibly'' just stage magic that she'd learned from her father and perfected, but they involve things like [[{{Balloonacy}} getting around via a handful of balloons]] or [[PullARabbitOutOfMyHat producing things out of a silk hat that should absolutely not fit in there]], making the series present more like a MagicalGirl one in practice. The story itself operates on enough of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane to make it ambiguous whether Meimi's "stage magic" does actually involve something beyond normal human ability.

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' has the main character, the daughter of a PhantomThief and StageMagician, combine both talents to operate as the phantom thief Saint Tail. Her abilities are ''ostensibly'' just stage magic that she'd learned from her father and perfected, but they involve things like [[{{Balloonacy}} getting around via a handful of balloons]] or [[PullARabbitOutOfMyHat producing things out of a silk hat that should absolutely not fit in there]], making the series present more like a MagicalGirl one in practice. The story does operate on enough of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane to make it ambiguous whether Meimi's "stage magic" does actually involve something beyond normal human ability.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' has the main character, the daughter of a PhantomThief and StageMagician, combine both talents to operate as the phantom thief Saint Tail. Her abilities are ''ostensibly'' just stage magic that she'd learned from her father and perfected, but they involve things like [[{{Balloonacy}} getting around via a handful of balloons]] or [[PullingARabbitOutOfMyHat producing things out of a silk hat that should absolutely not fit in there]], making the series present more like a MagicalGirl one in practice. The story does operate on enough of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane to make it ambiguous whether Meimi's "stage magic" does actually involve something beyond normal human ability.

* In ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'', the main character is the daughter of a retired PhantomThief and a StageMagician. Of course this trope gets involved. Despite being a MagicalGirl, her "magic" is explicitly all stage magic, but she routinely pulls off impossible feats, such as being carried off by just [[{{Balloonacy}} a handful of balloons]].

* Inadvertently done in a short story-turned film by [[Creator/PennAndTeller Penn Jillette]]. In "Invisible Thread", a magic store owner sells a copy of the "invisible thread" card trick to a kid. After making the sale, the storekeeper explains how it works. The thing is though that it's not really possible. When Jillette wrote the story, he just used [[DanBrowned a more or less plausible explanation]]; but when it became a film [[AdaptationInducedPlothole they had to figure out how to make it work using camera tricks and elaborate mechanical devices]].

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolProdigiesHaveItEasyEvenInAnotherWorld'': Prince Akatsuki is explicitly a stage magician, but many of his magic tricks seem flatly impossible, such as removing his own head and periodically flying. No explanation is ever given for how the tricks work, which becomes even more galling when he ends up in a world where ''magic is real'' and yet without actual magic still manages to impress people.

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' episode "Magic", where Robin is performing tricks that the team all consider ridiculously amazing, but Raven is not convinced. Brought UpToEleven when [[spoiler: Robin tries to be a young Houdini by escaping a tank full of water while tied up. '''It doesn't work.''']] Before the latter, we get this little gem:

** The uncut pilot of the series has GOB turn a 20-dollar bill into a Monopoly game box -- which could not have been concealed on or near his person -- and must have been a StopTrick[[note]]The series is a {{Mockumentary}}, so it's possible GOB bribed the in-universe camera staff.[[/note]].

** The uncut pilot of the series has GOB turn a 20-dollar bill into a Monopoly game box -- which could not have been concealed on or near his person -- and must have been a StopTrick.

* Some of Adam Klaus's tricks in ''Series/JonathanCreek'' can be like this (for example his escape routine in "The Scented Room", where he's somehow back in his trailer mere seconds after being put in the coffin). This is a bit ironic, since the point of the series is that Jonathan knows impossible things ''don't'' happen and there's always an explanation that a conjurer's assistant might see.

Magic tricks are difficult. Audiences are cynical, and people want to know how to do them. However, in TV Shows, a StageMagician can do amazing things, completely impossible in real life. They don't even have to bother with an explanation, "magicians never reveal their tricks" is an ideal {{handwave}} for forgoing any explanation.

* A main plot point of the “Misdirection” episode of ''Series/InsideNo9'' is an up-and-coming stage magician murdering an old man who performs at children’s parties in order to steal his trick. The trick in question involves the magician sitting on an empty chair in the middle of a warehouse and floating up into the air on it. The creators have stated that the floating chair is impossible in real life, at least in the way they showed it.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}: [[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]'', the added S.link plotline with the main character's uncle's BumblingSidekick Adachi includes a scene where he demonstrates a magic trick that involves transporting a coin from his hand to the main character's pocket (from across a table they're sitting at opposite sides of). [[spoiler: Which subtly foreshadows his [[EvilAllAlong true nature]] as a CorruptCop who's been committing the murders mainly ForTheEvulz.]]

* A main plot point of the “Misdirection” episode of Series/InsideNo9 is an up-and-coming stage magician murdering an old man who performs at children’s parties in order to steal his trick. The trick in question involves the magician sitting on an empty chair in the middle of a warehouse and floating up into the air on it. The creators have stated that the floating chair is impossible in real life, at least in the way they showed it.[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

----

Compare ImpossibleTheft which is a similar idea applied to the field of thievery instead of stage magic. Contrast MagiciansAreWizards, in which a character is explicitly in-universe camouflaging real magic as stage magic. Related to CharlesAtlasSuperpower, in which mundane athletic training is depicted as giving people superhuman strength and agility that would be impossible for anyone to achieve in real life.

* The proverbial Indian Rope Trick, to the extent where while most people are pretty sure accounts of the supposed traditional piece of stage magic have gone through repeated cycles of embellishment and addition of new elements, nobody's sure what real trick inspired these accounts. The "complete" trick doesn't seem to have actually been performed, traditional performers of India seem unfamiliar with it, and modern attempts to reproduce it have never been entirely satisfactory (although individual portions of it can be done rather well, the best methods tend to interfere with attempting to do other parts of the trick).

* The author continues the tradition in ''Manga/CaseClosed'': while major or plot-relevant "magic" is at least as reasonable as the rest of the gimmicks non-magician criminals manage to pull off, stage magicians pull off all sorts of very implausible ''minor'' tricks - for example, loading half a dozen doves into somebody's clothes and underwear within half a second without them noticing. While this ''could'' be a sort of perceptual filter (it's well known how showmanship alters the audience's memory of stage magic performances in this direction), enough stage magic the research could just have been spotty where it didn't matter.

* A main plot point of the “Misdirection” episode of Series/InsideNo9 is an up and coming stage magician murdering an old man who performs at children’s parties in order to steal his trick. The trick in question involves the magician sitting on an empty chair in the middle of a warehouse and floating up into the air on it. The creators have stated that the floating chair is impossible in real life, at least in the way they showed it.[[/folder]]

* In ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'', the main character is the daughter of a GentlemanThief and StageMagician. Of course this trope gets involved. Despite being a MagicalGirl, her "magic" is explicitly all stage magic, but she routinely pulls off impossible feats, such as being carried off by just [[{{Balloonacy}} a handful of balloons]].

* ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'': The episode "Riva Ras Regas" centers on the ghost of the recently deceased stage magician Rufus Raucous, who turns out to have faked his death to get out of the spotlight and retire. He was last seen [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill in a straitjacket nailed to a spinning wheel inside a building being demolishing by a wrecking ball]], yet no explanation is given for how he survived other than "he's just that good", apparently. Later, when Rufus is encouraged by the gang to hold one more show to lure out the ghost, he perfoms tricks like being able to sprout new disembodied hands out of his sleeves, which walk around with a life of their own. How he does that isn't explained either, unless he invested thousands of dollars in animatronics.[[note]]Of course, this ''is'' the ''Scooby-Doo'' universe, where any disgruntled crook can build a monster mecha on a whim.[[/note]] His "ghost" can also fly, which turns out to be by magnets in its shoes, far more powerful than any real world magnet.

* Mousse of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' carries an [[HyperspaceArsenal utterly impossible amount]] of HiddenWeapons inside of his clothes. The series' setting contains plenty of supernatural phenomena, but there's no implication any of that is involved. Mousse just claims he's ''that'' good at concealment.