The following lists the main categories of magical effects. Many magical routines use combinations of effects, for example, in the famous 'cups and balls' a magician may use vanishes, productions, penetrations, teleportations and transformations all as part of the one presentation:

• Production: The magician produces something from nothing - a rabbit from an empty hat, a fan of cards from thin air, a shower of coins from an empty bucket, or the magician themselves, appearing in a puff of smoke on an empty stage - all of these effects are productions.

• Vanishing: The magician makes something disappear - a coin, a cage of doves, milk from a newspaper, an assistant from a cabinet, or even the Statue of Liberty. A vanish, being the reverse of a production, may use a similar technique, in reverse.

• Transformation: The magician transforms something from one state into another - a silk handkerchief changes colour, a lady turns into a tiger, an indifferent card changes to the spectator's chosen card. A transformation can be seen as a combination of a vanish and a production.

• Restoration: The magician destroys an object, then restores it back to its original state - a rope is cut, a newspaper is torn, a woman is sawn in half, a borrowed watch is smashed to pieces—then they are all restored to their original state.

• Teleportation: The magician causes something to move from one place to another - a borrowed ring is found inside a ball of wool, a canary inside a light bulb, an assistant from a cabinet to the back of the theatre. When two objects exchange places, it is called a transposition: a simultaneous, double teleportation.

• Levitation: The magician defies gravity, either by making something float in the air, or with the aid of another object (suspension) - a silver ball floats around a cloth, an assistant floats in mid-air, another is suspended from a broom, a scarf dances in a sealed bottle, the magician hovers a few inches off the floor. There are many popular ways to create this illusion of the magician himself being levitated, such as the Balducci levitation, the King Rising, Criss Angel's stool levitations, and the Andruzzi levitations.

• Penetration: The magician makes a solid object pass through another - a set of steel rings link and unlink, a candle penetrates an arm, swords pass through an assistant in a basket, a saltshaker penetrates the table-top, a man walks through a mirror. Sometimes referred to as 'solid-through-solid'.

• Prediction: The magician predicts the choice of a spectator, or the outcome of an event under seemingly impossible circumstances - a newspaper headline is predicted, the total amount of loose change in the spectator's pocket, a picture drawn on a slate. Prediction forms the basis for most 'pick-a-card' tricks, where a random card is chosen, then revealed to be known by the performer.