Magic, or illusion as those in the trade call it, is an ancient art form.
At one time, magic was used to manage life, much like technology is today. Take the burial of cave bears by European tribes 50,000 years ago. This was likely tribal spell work -- bury the bear and he can't bury you.
Today, people are far more pragmatic. Thanks to special effects and modern technology, we know the magicians we watch on television and in concert are not actually rending the laws of space and time. They are, rather, illusionists. Even though we know magicians like Criss Angel are messing with our minds, we love them for it.
Magicians categorize their acts in various ways.
Stage illusions -- This type of magic is generally performed for larger audiences, usually in a large venue or auditorium. Large-scale props are typical -- ladies sawed in half and disappearing wild animals are longtime crowd-pleasers. David Copperfield once made the Statue of Liberty vanish before both a live and national TV audience.
Other famous illusionists are both Harry Blackstones (the elder and his son) and Doug Henning, especially early in his career.
Platform magic -- This is sometimes called stand-up magic, in part because it is mostly performed in comedy and nightclubs. These magicians sometimes use small tabletop illusions -- a scaled-down version of the large-hall stage illusions.
A few well-known artists in this field are Penn & Teller, Jeff McBride and Fred Kaps.
Micromagic -- Also known as close-up or table magic, this is performed with an audience close at hand, sometimes even one-on-one. Everyday props such as newspapers, coins and cards are used to pull these tricks off under the very nose of the audience. This style is sometimes featured at dinner or cocktail parties, where a wandering magician moves from group to group to do quick acts of sleight-of-hand.
Ricky Jay and Lee Asher are two working this style today.
Street magic -- Among musicians, the term refers to a type of fairly close magic, performed on the streets by a magician for a given group, who then passes the hat to the assembled crowd -- busking with illusion instead of music, essentially.
But thanks in part to the success of David Blaine's first TV special, "Street Magic," originally aired in 1997, guerilla magic, where magicians approach unsuspecting people and do tricks for them, has made the term "street magic" mean something different to those outside the magic trade. Some professionals are concerned that guerilla magic cheapens the art, as there seems to be no expectation for the accosted audience to pay for such tricks.
Jeff Sheridan and Gazzo are working today as street magicians.
Escapology -- Think Harry Houdini, who made a career of death-defying escapes from straitjackets, safes and cells. The artists usually use yoga and other mental and flexibility techniques to help enable them to unshackle their bonds. Endurance tends to be part of this branch of magic, such as David Blaine's being frozen in a block of ice for 63 hours before escaping.
Mentalism -- The trick here is to convince your audience you can read minds, predict events and even control others' minds. Mind-reading acts can be used one-on-one, but can also translate rather spectacularly to large halls. Psychology is a key tool up the sleeve of the mentalists -- knowing how people's brains works helps shape the information the mentalist needs to pull off these sorts of illusions.
Two well-known mentalists are The Great Kreskin and Banachek.
Sources: Standard-Examiner interview with Richard Hatch; www.magicexhibit.org; www.tarotforum.net; http://magic.about.com; "Dunninger's Book of Magic," Joseph Dunninger (self-published, 1979); http://typesofthings.com/types-of-magic.php
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