Exactly what is it that magicians do?
I would like to say that basically magicians come on the stage or on our screens and they lie. That’s what they do.
Take a very simple card trick. The magician says to a probably unwilling audience member, “I have an ordinary pack of cards here. They are all different, look. I will shuffle the cards so we don’t know which card is where. Pick a card at random, you have a free choice. Put it back at random, you have a free choice. Look, I have a banana here, I will make you card inside the banana. It’s not there? Oh no, it’s been under your chair the whole time.”
So, the cards may be ordinary, or they may not. Things can be done to alter the shape or surface of a card, for example, that is not immediately detectable.
The cards may not all be different. They could be. If they are fanned out, you may not see them all.
Pick a card at random, a free choice. Well, maybe, or maybe it was forced.
It’s in the banana. Not, that’s misdirection. And the card under the chair may not be your card, but a duplicate.
The magician does not have to say anything at all. By their actions, they imply they are doing something they really are not. It’s just a lie. And maybe we like being lied to.
Did Copperfield actually vanish the Statue of Liberty? No, of course not.