Magic Tricks Using Twins Are Not Impressive

nothing against twins, just magicians

We’ve all been there. You’re excited to see a magician - a brief moment of wonder to cut through the mundane drivel of our lives. A short chance at a resurrection of our faith in things being more mysterious than they seem. With great anticipation you watch as someone gets in a box, goes behind a curtain, is poofed away in a whiff of smoke! They’re gone! Certainly, they must be hurling across space and time at the manipulation of the great wizard before you… or at least, doing some freaky contortionist thing that would be super cool in its own right. You look in the direction of the misdirection with an eager mind waiting to be blown as reality breaks!

And then the magician breaks out some f*cking twins.

I’m sorry, it’s just so not impressive when the magic trick relies on twins (or other lookalike scenarios). I get it, alright, we all know magic isn’t real (probably). But the twin solution feels so uniquely lazy. When the magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat, I know they didn’t materialize a rabbit out of thin air (probably), but at least I can appreciate the contraption they had to build to hold the rabbit! I can appreciate the sleight of hand or physical demands of most magic tricks. Twins? It’s a crutch, and it’s time someone yelled at magicians about it.

I asked a chat AI thingy to draw me yelling at a magician. I like this one because it looks like I’m punching Ben Franklin.

This was my second image attempt, and that’s some sleight of hand if I’ve ever seen it amirite, kids?

This all might seem pretty irrational. You’re probably saying: “Katie, this is truly a silly and obscure opinion. I just don’t get it. How is using twins different than any other magic trick.” That’s what the magicians want! They want you to be complacent with their tomfoolery! They want to sow division in the masses! Houdini never did twin magic! He died getting punched in the gut! Now that’s magical. Don’t let magicians get away with presenting a natural phenomenon as if it were magic. That’s what hippies and philosophers are for.

To further explain my gripe, let me share that this post was inspired by a video of a magician seemingly teleporting four people from one glass box to another (I am not linking the video in protest). The trick was performed on a public street, and the glass boxes were suspended far apart from each other so that you could theoretically get a 360-degree view. Four “““volunteers””” walked inside glass box #1, while glass box #2 was (seemingly) empty. Then, the magician drops down a curtain inside both boxes. A few seconds later, the curtains fall away, and the people in box #1 are now in box #2, in the exact same position! Gasp! Magic???

No, it was just twins. Booooo!!! Hiss!!!! Who cares!!! One set of twins laid down and the others stood up. That was the whole trick. I do that at least several times a day.

That trick was so uniquely boring, anticlimactic, and uninspiring that it (ironically) inspired a whole blog post about it. It is fundamentally not interesting to watch those eight people involved in the trick do nothing impressive except be born as twins (not to say it’s not impressive to be twins for other reasons, but it’s not magical). To be clear, my beef is not with twins (get your bag, twin actors agreeing to be in these shows); my beef is with magicians that leverage people looking similarly to avoid doing any work! Again, it is simply not exciting that the “trick” is two people happening to look similar!

A proper magic trick should involve at least one of the following skills:

• Sleight of hand

• Contortions

• Strength

• Endurance

• Holding your breath a really long time

• Cleverly designed props

• Odd contraptions

• The Power of Suggestion

• Magnets

Using twins in magic is glorified peak-a-boo, and I won’t tolerate it any longer. So, I am putting out a call to action. Reader, if you can spare a moment, please help me harass open a discussion with all of the layabout talented magicians in the world by going to https://www.magician.org/contact and leaving an appropriately scathing thoughtful comment letting the International Brotherhood of Magicians know that it’s time to bring the magic back. #freethetwins