Among Devant's signature routines was his "Magic Kettle", which produced, on demand, any alcoholic beverage called for by the audience, and "Mascot Moth", an instantaneous vanish of a winged assistant.

[6] Critics of Devant claim many of the items in his repertoire were elaborated sketches in which the magical element was insufficient to justify the staging.

Maskelyne and Devant's House of Magic became famous all over the world, and was the showcase for the premier magicians of the day, including Paul Valadon, Charles Bertram and Buatier de Kolta.

Milbourne Christopher, in his book Magic: A Picture History, wrote that "most British magicians agree, [Devant] was the master performer of his time".

[2] Devant was a fixture in British entertainment and it was he who was selected to represent "the world of wizardry" at King George V's command performance at the Palace Theatre in London on 1 July 1912.

Devant made headlines not long after when an escaped mental patient cornered him in London and insisted that the conjurer pull coins from the air as he had been seen to do on stage.

Also that year Devant began his association with the pioneer of cinematic special effects, Georges Méliès, to whom he sold a Theatrograph.

[11][12] Devant was still at the peak of his profession when his health began to fail during the war years, until the consequences of "paralysis agitans", as he identifies it in his autobiography, forced him to retire in 1920.

According to the magician John Booth, Devant managed to fool a number of people into believing he had genuine psychic ability who did not realize that his feats were magic tricks.

At St. George's Hall, London, he performed a fake "clairvoyant" act where he would read a message sealed inside an envelope.