So much of magic is showmanship as opposed to ‘tricks’. Sometimes I see a magician putting balls into one end of a tube and see he is unobtrusively using his other hand to put them in his pocket and but he’s got the audience looking at the other end of the tube and I think he’s doing pretty good.

Sleight of hand is a very impressive skill. When you see close magic (which I think is even more bewildering than magic on stages), you know they aren't bending the laws of physics or tapping into another realm. That isn't what makes it interesting and captivating though. It is the fact that it looks indistinguishable to if they were performing "real" magic.

Some of the best tricks are surprisingly simple, but the show around them makes them seem impossible. Can't separate the show from the trick.

Sometimes I see a magician putting balls...

Don't we all