Masquerade: Difference between revisions

* Early in the profession's history, stage magicians maintained their own Masquerade to conceal how their tricks were done, keeping up a pretense that they actually possessed supernatural powers. As audiences grew more skeptical and came to appreciate magic more for its cleverness and theatrics than for mysticism, this ruse was generally abandoned, yet many still adhere to the "Magician's Oath" of secrecy as to ''how'' a trick works, if only to hide their trade secrets from rival magicians. Many magicians reveal their secrets on You-tube or in magic books, making it a wasted effort for all but the most spectacular illusions.

* National Security services traditionally operate a form of masquerade - traditionally Britain's MI:5 (domestic counter intelligence) and MI:6 (foreign spying) didn't "officially" exist until the mid-80s, even though this was a legal fiction everyone knew about. These days, MI:6 is happy to have its most famous (fictional... probably) operative, [[James Bond]] emerging from its (real) London HQ!

 

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