I know that this topic is a bit weird/not that important but I think it's a interesting topic.
It is. Which is why I am not reading any of the previous posts before I write this reply, because I don't want to be biased in what I say (I will read them afterwards however, since this is a fascinating topic to dive into!).
Recently I was going through my morning ritual of moves and effects/routines and realized something. We as magicians are people that induce a false sense of reality where the boundary of what is possible and not possible are non-existent. Then we do something like a for ace production which at a glance is impressive but at it’s very core not a magical effect but a feat of skill. What is the point of doing them when it’s not a magical effect. To clarify I don’t mean like a production from the pocket or some impossible location, but from the deck.
In the beginning I thought going up to people and producing the four aces justified why people should pay attention for a few moments; however, the more I began to look back on my past performances I realized that I didn’t know why I produced four aces. I was just doing it for the fact that I needed something fast to catch people's attention.
A very practical statement we should get out of our way is:-
We do it because it's easy.
And it really is. There are loads of methods all over magic literature, loads of personalisation can be applied to it, loads of presentation ideas and also, it just fits into what laymen think of as 'magic'. Ace productions and other such effects are also easy in the sense that we don't have to THINK about how to make it magical. Also, nobody can really just pull out 4 cards and have them be the 4 aces (insane coincidences aside) but we can. Hence we did the impossible. Hence we are magicians in a loose sense of the word.
There. No complications.
HOWEVER, let us look at the issue a bit deeper:-
First off, people are smart. So a lot of the things we think are truly magical... aren't. Even an amazing mentalism routine can be explained with ''high-tech machines in their ears which makes light bend around it so it's invisible". Though it is nonsensical, essentially we have realised that there are really no limits to what humans CAN achieve. So true magic is very difficult to do.
Secondly, I believe that presentation is what makes something magic. I've seen clips of Marcus Eddie do the crazy man's handcuffs and it looks like real MAGIC. When Brian Brushwood or Michael Ammar do it I think it's a fun little trick, a bit gag-like (nothing against either of them. Tricks have their own high place). If I imagine Chris Ramsay doing it, and I didn't know the method, for some reason I'd think that there's something up with the rubber bands themselves. If Daniel Madison did it and I didn't know how it was done, I'd think there's some very mad sleight of hand involved (possibly involving a lightning switch of rubber bands and some help from the Illuminati). If Zach King did it and I didn't know the method, I'd think it's camera tricks and leave it at that.
Similarly, whether an ace production looks like real magic or not depends very, very heavily on your presentation of it and your general magic-persona.
Thirdly and lastly, if magic genuinely were real, we wouldn't be doing ANYTHING we do right now. Think of any fictional universe where magic is real, example- Harry Potter universe.
What is the point of the series? What's the climax?
The magic? No. Things vanishing or flying? No.
The fact that Harry can levitate objects or Hermione can brew potions to make clones isn't what's important. What's important is how it has been used. The
FINAL CLIMAX is Harry defeating Voldemort. The fact that Harry can do magic is just a vehicle in achieving that climax or the
destination. The
PURPOSE of the series isn't that we can use a wand to blast things, rather that good always trumps evil, an age-old purpose of stories.
A lot of magicians imply that sleights, misdirection, gimmicks, gaffs, everything is just a vehicle to achieve the destination--> Magic.
I, as far as I've been exposed to magic till date, think a bit differently.
I think magic itself, is the vehicle. The sleights, misdirection, gimmicks and gaffs are the seats, the radio, and other components inside the vehicle. The destination is a purpose or a story.
Hence, the ace production is not a destination so as you correctly pointed out, it is not magic, and I don't think it is meant to be. Magicians shouldn't do the ace production. They should
USE the ace production,
DO magic and
REACH climax to
CONVEY an idea.