I’ve always been interested in magic. As a kid it was the sleight of hand sort. My mother bought me a box of magic tricks and I learned how to do most of them. I was never very good with the cards, though.
It was really more interesting to me to know how the trick was done, not actually doing it. I wondered how people are deceived, especially when they know to watch out for it. I read many a book about it, including Houdini’s biography. But I still wonder that today.
Here’s a presentation by Keith Barry which demonstrates that the mind can be fooled, even in the guise of explaining how it’s fooled.
This is the kind of trick for me. It’s all in the mind, no sleight of hand involved. (or very little) Even watching it twice doesn’t help me understand how he makes it work. I guess that’s why they call it magic.