Flashback Friday: Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed (1997-1998, 2002, 2012)

From the perspective of an audience member, a magician performing on stage must truly have magical abilities. But like any performer, this magician has tricks of the trade that the audience is not privy to.

Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed aired three times of the last twenty or so years (1997-1998, 2002 and 2012). Starring the now unmasked Val Valentino, the premise of the show was as follows: a series of magic tricks would be presented as the viewer is used to seeing them. Once the trick is done, the magician and his assistants take the viewer through the step by step processing of creating the “magic trick”.

I have mixed feelings about this series.

I can perfectly understand why the rest of the magic community would not be pleased with this series. But, at the same time, I feel like it it challenges other magicians to up their game when it comes to their own performances.

Watching this program gave me a new appreciation for the female assistants. They are not just there to be cut in half or levitated. Their role is just as important as the magician’s is.

However, that being said, I hate the commentary with a passion. It is so completely sexist that it makes my skin crawl. I would have also preferred that the women who work with the magician wore a little more than tights and a version of a barely there swimsuit.

Do I recommend it? Maybe.