History Main / MagicianDetective

** Yoichi Takato, Kindaichi's ArchNemesis is a unique subversion of this. He's an aspiring magician [[spoiler:who learned a few magic tricks from his mother and a lot more from his teacher abroad who became a murderer after finding out that his mother had been killed by her greedy disciples]]. After his debut, he created a lot of impossible murder cases which confuse Kindaichi and police. A straighter example comes from a spin-off ''Takato Shōnen no Jikenbo'' where he had to solve a murder case when he was in high school. In this time, he was shown giving street magic Performance in a public park.
* A unique variation comes from Yusho Sakaki, an Entertainment Duelist in Anime/YuGiOhArcV. His deck contains spellcaster monster and a few spell[=/=]trap cards related with street magic Performance and psychic ability, giving him the magician motif. He's also good at deducing his opponent's strategy based on his[=/=]her reaction and words. A good example is how [[spoiler:he manages to deduce Yuri's strategy on the first turn and take a short advantage of it]]. There's a reason why he's a Champion duelist.

* Hayato Shiramine from ''Manga/TanteiGakuenQ'' is a famous magician who enrolled in Dan Detective School. While he's a minor character since he's in A-class, he shows his his crime-solving ability when he won an analysis duel against [[ChildProdigy Kazuma]][[note]]Although Kazuma here relied too much on his laptop which conveniently ran out of battery during the duel. he could solve the case, but he Hayato was faster[[/note]].
* Kindaichi, titular character from Anime/KindaichiCaseFiles, also counts although it's more of "Detective who knows some magic tricks". This knowledge is very useful in solving several impossible crimes since several tricks uses similar basic concepts as how magic performance Works.

* Hayato Shiramine from Manga/TanteiGakuenQ is a famous magician who enrolled in Dan Detective School. While he's a minor character since he's in A-class, he shows his his crime-solving ability when he won an analysis duel against [[ChildProdigy Kazuma]][[note]]Although Kazuma here relied too much on his laptop which conveniently ran out of battery during the duel. he could solve the case, but he Hayato was faster[[/note]].

* Penn and Teller, good friends of James Randi, also frequently explain how various supernatural cons such as faith healing and mentalism are performed with sleight of hand and cold reading techniques.

Who better to solve an "impossible crime" than someone does the impossible for a living? The Magician Detective is a StageMagician who [[InterdisciplinarySleuth uses his skills with illusion to solve crimes]].

* Harry Houdini [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini#Movie_career made several films]], some featuring himself solving mysteries, and usually showcasing his escape acts. Houdini was, in real life, very good at exposing false mediums and psychics due to his magician background. However, his motivation was a genuine interest in finding a real one, rather than skepticism.

[[quoteright:300:[[Literature/TheMagicalMysteriesOfDonDiavolo http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diavolo.jpg]]

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diavolo.jpg]]

Who better to solve an 'impossible crime' than someone does the impossible for a living? The Magician Detective is a StageMagician who [[InterdisciplinarySleuth uses his skills with illusion to solve crimes]].

It is important to note that the Magician Detective does not have any actual supernatural powers and usually doesn't even believe in the supernatural. It is his disbelief that allows him to look at an 'impossible crime' and realise that there must be a logical explanation and he possesses the skills to work out how it was done.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* Kaitou Kid from ''MagicKaito'' and ''Manga/DetectiveConan''. At times, he has been known to use his intellect as a thief to solve things. Main example - the Golden Eye heist. Plus various other incidences.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* ''Mysto, Magician Detective'' from TheDCU who ran as a back-up feature in ''Detective Comics'' in the 1950s.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

** Rawson also wrote four short stories about a very similar character called Don Diavolo.

* For a time ''WeirdTales'' was closely associated with Harry Houdini, publishing several short stories (one of which, ''Under the Pyramids'', was written by Creator/HPLovecraft!) that portrayed Houdini as an investigator and adventurer.
* The title character of the ''Literature/MediochreQSethSeries'' is - or was, it's unclear - a Member of the Inner Magic Circle. He loosely counts as an example of this trope, in that he ''does'' use his gifts with misdirection and escapology to help in his investigations, but never in an attempt to disprove the existence of magic, because [[UrbanFantasy he knows damn well that magic exists]].
* [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] is most definitely not an example himself, but he's apparently had enough trouble with people getting this trope and OccultDetective mixed up in-universe to feel compelled to put a line about "no children's parties" in his ad in the Yellow Pages.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* ''Series/TheMagician'' was an American television series that ran during the 1973 - 1974 season. It starred Bill Bixby as stage illusionist Anthony "Tony" Blake, a playboy philanthropist who used his skills to solve difficult crimes as needed. One of the big hooks in this series was that Bixby, a rather talented amateur illusionist, performed all the illusions without camera tricks of any kind.

[[AC:{{Radio}}]]
* ''BlackstoneTheMagicDetective'' was a 15-minute radio series which aired from October 3, 1948 until March 26, 1950. The series, starring Ed Jerome as "the world's greatest living magician," was based on real-life magician Harry Blackstone Sr. Storylines usually opened with Blackstone (Jerome) telling his friends John (Ted Osborne) and Rhoda (Fran Carlon) about an experience from his past, and this mystery story was then dramatized in a flashback. At the end, Blackstone challenged the audience to find a solution to the magical mystery. Each show concluded with Blackstone outlining a trick that listeners could perform for the amusement of their friends. The scripts were written by Walter B. Gibson, the ghostwriter of Blackstone's books.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* Somewhat in ''VideoGame/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', where Apollo's assistant Trucy is a practicing stage magician. However, it doesn't come in particularly useful.
** She does work out a magic trick that's vital to solving the case very quickly, but refuses to tell you.

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[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Dr. Doofenshmirtz imagined Agent P as one of these in the ShowWithinAShow "Doof 'n' Puss".

[[AC:RealLife]]
* James Randi, aka "The Amazing Randi," was a professional magician before turning his attention to debunking claims of supernatural ability. He has a long-standing $1,000,000 reward set aside for anyone whose abilities withstood his investigation. No one has yet to collect. He is perhaps most famous for exposing Uri Geller as a fraud live on ''The Tonight Show'' with Johnny Carson, who also had magician training and an interest in debunking Geller.
** Randi also maintains that magicians are really necessary when debunking these charlatans, since they are a lot better at catching deliberate fraud than other researchers and scientists.
* Harry Houdini is perhaps the patron saint of this trope having a {{Determinator}}-like passion for exposing psychics and mediums. Paradoxically, that was because he dearly wanted to find the real thing, and the phonies wasting his time really ticked him off. He even arranged a password with his wife so that she would know if a medium was really channeling his spirit after he died. She tried, but never received the code.

* ''BlackesMagic'' was a short-lived American TV show about a magician, Alexander Blacke (played by Hal Linden), who, with some help from his con-man father, Leonard (Harry Morgan), solves mysteries that get in the way of his performances.

* Shawn Spencer from ''{{Psych}}'' is probably close enough to count here. He claims to be a psychic but actually solves crimes through his keen powers of observation.

* Somewhat in ''ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', where Apollo's assistant Trucy is a practicing stage magician. However, it doesn't come in particularly useful.

* In the "[[NoirEpisode Legerdemain & Magic]]" strips of ''DeadMarlo'', Roland invokes this (he literally has "Private Eye & Magician" [[http://deadmarlo.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-case-old-sleights.html stenciled on his office door]]). He's more a victim-of-fate noir protagonist than an investigator, though.

* Kaitou Kid from ''MagicKaito'' and ''DetectiveConan''. At times, he has been known to use his intellect as a thief to solve things. Main example - the Golden Eye heist. Plus various other incidences.

* James Randi, aka "The Amazing Randi," was a professional magician before turning his attention to debunking claims of supernatural ability. He has a long-standing $1,000,000 reward set aside for anyone whose abilities withstood his investigation. No one was yet to collect. He is perhaps most famous for exposing Uri Geller as a fraud live on ''The Tonight Show'' with Johnny Carson, who also had magician training and an interest in debunking Geller.

* Harry Houdini is perhaps the patron saint of this trope having a {{Determinator}}-like passion for exposing psychics and mediums. Paradoxically, that was because he dearly wanted to find the real thing, and the phonies wasting his time really ticked him off. He even arranged a password with his wife so that she would know if a medium was really channeling his spirit after he died.

* James Randi, aka "The Amazing Randi," was a professional magician before turning his attention to debunking claims of supernatural ability. He has a long-standing $1,000,000 reward set aside for anyone whose abilities withstood his investigation. No one was yet to collect. He is perhaps most famous for exposing Uri Gellar as a fraud live on ''The Tonight Show'' with Johnny Carson, who also had magician training and an interest in debunking Gellar.

* Naoko Yamada, played by Yukie Nakama, the main character of the Japanese drama ''{{Trick}}''.

* ''TheMentalist''. Patrick Jane was a professional psychic before his family was murdered. He admits that it was all fake.
* Rollie Tyler, the special effects expert from ''[[FXTheSeries F/X: The Series]]'', ought to qualify for this trope, as he uses similar techniques of deception and misdirection to fool suspects. Hey, movie magic is still magic.

* ''Norgil the Magician'', a pulp hero created by Walter B. Gibson, creator of TheShadow.

* ''Series/TheMagician'' was an American television series that ran during the 1973 - 1974 season. It starred Bill Bixby as stage illusionist Anthony "Tony" Blake, a playboy philanthropist who used his skills to solve difficult crimes as needed. One of the big hooks in this series was that Bixby performed all the illusions without camera tricks of any kind.
** Which would have doubly impressed, as he'd previously played The Uncredible Hulk, a being not famed for subtle manual dexterity of any sort!

* ''TheGreatMerlini'' is a fictional detective created by Clayton Rawson. He is a professional magician who appears in four locked room or impossible crime novels written in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as well as in a few short stories. He also appeared in a two movies and TV pilot.