In the season-opener, now in the Monday 9 p.m. Now in its thirteenth season on a broadcast network, Masters of Illusion offers a lively mixture of magic a “soup to nuts” potpourri from A to Z. Call it a “who’s who” of the magic world! And there is no shortage of magicians and illusionists, both new and established, waiting to entertain in the upcoming season of Masters of Illusion on The CW.

Nor is any television season without the magic genre. Naturally, no season of the NBC competition mainstay is complete without the category of magic. More recently, magician Anna DeGuzman came second in the 2023 summer AGT season. Modern day magicians, meanwhile, include David Copperfield, Penn Jillette and Teller, David Blaine, Criss Angel, Dynamo, Michael Grandinetti and Shin Lim, who was the winner of America’s Got Talent ( AGT) on NBC in 2018 and is currently headlining a Las Vegas show. Then, in 1964, magician Fantasio made his mark as a guest on the classic variety hour The Ed Sullivan Show the evening the Beatles made their debut. Initial names of magicians of note on TV include The Amazing Kreskin, Harry Blackstone, Doug Henning, The Amazing Randi, and Uri Geller. The advent of television, of course, saw the category of magic introduced to mass audiences.

And Harry Houdini is synonymous with amazing and sensational escape acts, as were other early magicians in their allotted formats like Neville Maskelyne and David Devant, Howard Thurston, and Harry Keller. Jean Robert-Houdin is credited as the founding father of modern magic shows, bringing them into mainstream entertainment. In the early 1800s, Richard Potter became the first stage magician in the United States.

The first recorded magic act was from a magician named Dedi who performed his tricks in Ancient Egypt in 2,700 B.C. Historically, the art of magic has captivated people for over 2,500 years.

Firekeepers casino masters of illusion