I should clarify: they're illusions with a non-magical explanation for how they were performed. Even if sometimes that explanation is as simple as "the illusionist is very, very good at his work".

[But. Moving on.]

As to this being new...well, it doesn't seem so now, after the time I've spent here. And there's something very like this that exists as a game in my world, so some of my friends have found it quite familiar. Personally, I've largely fallen out of finding it wondrous and simply consider it strange.