ABANDONED. Fantasy book about a kid and a mage disguising as a stage magician, might be YA fantasy

[Ronny]

This is going to be vague keywords from my memory, but I am sure this book(s) exist out there :p

The book was about a kid, maybe orphan, living or training under an excentric stage-magician that was rumored to know an impossible trick.
It's set in a fantasy world and the kid is the main character.
The stage-magician turns out to be a real mage during the book.
The kid escapes? the city through some tunnels with another kid, girl?
I think the city they lived in was oppressed, or heavily policed or something, but I might remember wrong.
Seem to remember the kid ending up in the royal? castle. Might have been in book two though, as I think book one focused primarily on the kid and the magician.

I don't remember the author's name nor gender or anything on the title. Though I seem to remember the book was quite short and had large lettering, sort of like a YA/children's book.
I am fairly sure it was originally written in English.

I read it early/mid 00's I think, the cover was quite minimalistic iirc and I seem to remember I read two books, but have no idea if more came out beyond those two - nor if it actually was just one book :p

[Tathariell]

It's been quite a while since I read this, so I'm not sure if it matches most of your memories, but possibly Mairelon the Magician?

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Tathariell wrote: "but possibly Mairelon the Magician?"

Also my suggestion, there are two books in the series (iirc), and an omnibus edition.

[Sarah]

Doesn't sound like Mairelon the Magician, although that is a terrific book.

[Yonkers]

Is there any chance it's The Rope Trick by Lloyd Alexander?

The main character is a girl, not a boy, and it isn't a series, but it's about a girl who's a stage magician but wants to learn the ultimate illusion from a famous magician. At first it's unclear whether real magic exists or not, but at the end it's clear it's real. She has several companions including another girl and a boy. It's technically set in historical Italy but has a fantastical feel, and they do have to escape/avoid guards at a few points.

The whole stage magic/but is it real thing seems to match what you're looking for, but I'm not sure the rest of the details do! Wanted to throw it out there just in case.

[Kris]

No response, moving to Abandoned folder.

Ronny (OP) was last active on the site in August 2021.