Learn how to use misdirection to perform amazing magic tricks.Art of MisdirectionThe audience follows your eyes. You have a palmed coin in your left hand, for example. You hold it in a natural position and look at your audience and use your right hand while giving them the patter. Your audience will follow your eyes to your right hand and will not even glance at your left hand, which has the coin. That is why you should not to watch your hands. Even a hasty glance will lead someone in the audience to follow your glance and suspect that you have something concealed. You may try this little experiment to prove to yourself that people follow your eyes. Pretend you are throwing a coin up into the air and look up to an imaginary point that the coin reached — but really retain the coin in your hand. The eyes of the spectators will look upward just as you did. You can do this many times and each time the audience will look upward. Almost every trick has some element of Misdirection in it. So remember, in performing your trick — NEVER LOOK AT THE OPPOSITE END OF YOUR EFFECT. By the opposite end, I mean the thing you are really doing -- that is, looking at yourhand which is holding the coin, rather than looking upward for the effect. If you look at your hand, the audience will look at your hand—that is the opposite end. If you look upward, the audience will look upward -- that is the effect. That is the basis of Misdirection. Whatever you direct their attention to, the audience will look at. One thing you must keep in mind is that it is a psychological fact that a person does not hold his attention on any one thing for more than a few seconds. Your job is to keep renewing his attention by the things you say or by varying the thing this person is to attend to -- until you get your work out of the way. You must work fast so that you don't bore the spectator and find him watching you instead of the thing he should be watching. You must remember that his attention wanders and you must be quick so that you are through with your "opposite end" before his attention comes back to you. To get the Art of Misdirection clearly into your mind, I want you to practice thislittle move: Stand in front of your video camera and tape yourself performing. Watch yourself carefully. If you don't have access to a video camera, you can watch yourself in the mirror 1. Take a coin in your left hand. You are going to get the effect of passing it toyour right hand. 2. For a few times really pass the coin from your left to your right hand. This is to give you Naturalness in faking the pass and also to give you an opportunity to observe how your eyes go from your left to your right hand. 3. After you have done this a few times, go through the same moves but retain thecoin in your left hand. Do this as follows:
It is unbelievable until you try it yourself how easily large objects — even a rabbit — can be moved about almost under the very noses of the audience without their seeing or suspecting anything if you know the Art of Misdirection.
In training you to be a Magician, you need to be so well equipped with the principles of Magic and effects that you can vary your tricks to fit any occasion and to be ready to meet any emergencies when you are performing. You can add some little twist to the trick, and even those who see it for the second time will not discover how you do the trick. There are "close investigators" in some audiences.
You will have no difficulty in mystifying them if you vary your effects, even just a trifle. I give you also similar effects based on different principles. A magician often fools another magician with just this style of working. He will introduce a new twist of some kind or a new method of working and he has his fellow magician puzzled. Magically yours,
*Based on material selected, adapted, and modernized from Harlan Tarbell's Mail Order Magic Course. Privacy Policy & Terms of Service  |