I feel thats better than taking them for fools and down right lie to them, although you may think its cool for the people to think your of another species or something like that, it is always much better to tell that you are proficient in the art of misdirection and slight of hand ( well in my opinion) you look like a person who actually cares about his magic and takes the time to perfect it and show it.
The entire art is built on lies and deception. We're all learning different ways to fool spectators. It's assumed that the spectator doesn't honestly think you have super powers. It's kind of arrogant the way most magicians think they have to come out and include a disclaimer to the audience that what they do is just trickery.
If you just go out and perform, chances are people aren't going to think you are some superpowered being because you did cool things with a deck of cards. Instead, your audience goes into a performance knowing that sleight-of-hand and illusion is used. To come out to them and say, "Really, guys, this is only dexterity and clever illusion. I don't have
real powers," to me, is what
really seems like you're insulting the audience's intelligence - implying that they were stupid enough not to figure that out themselves.
The amount of power we THINK we have seems to greatly outweigh what we can actually do.
Are there some really powerful illusions out there which could be passed off as real? Absolutely: Saw, Thread, Wounded. Could a really strong presentation do the same thing with certain tricks? For really good showmen, yes, but it requires a REALLY GOOD presentation and a total conviction to an appropriate character. Could you mix the right presentation with the right tricks to fool someone into thinking you're some sort of bizarre magical being? Maybe, but that depends on the person you're performing for, what you do, the subtleties of the performance, your acting ability, the setting, the situation, your intention, the audience's willingness to believe - in other words, there's a LOT of factors involved, and it's really rare to come across.
How many of you can manage to do that? Or even try to?
If you want to respect the audience's intelligence, then don't go into a performance thinking you're so amazing or so mind-blowing that the spectators have no other option but to believe you're Dr. Manhattan in disguise.
They know. They may not know how you did it, but they know what sleight of hand is. They know how an illusion works. They know its fake. They know what magicians are - deceptive showmen.
Instead, why not go into it with a little theater? Play the part of a con man, and embellish your act with stories of amazing deceptions and scams you've pulled off (probably tall tales, of course). Play the part of genius psychic, with a n intricate vocabulary and test-condition mentalism. Maybe play the part of wandering astonisher - your Paul Harris or your David Blaine. Make it interesting - provide a character. You are the show, not your tricks.
