The Theory Of Magic by Al Schneider
CHAPTER ONE THE TECHNOLOGY OF MAGIC ? This chapter is about magic as a technology. I do not believe magic is an art or something that you are born with. I believe it is something that is learned and can be accomplished by following a series of well understood steps. That is, there are specific principles that one can know and learn. The specific task of this chapter is to list the elements of this technology. As this book develops I intend to show that there are several aspects involved with magic as entertainment. This ranges from humor, tragedy, magic and maybe even dancing and singing. Often when magicians discuss magic and entertainment they confuse these with each other. Thus, my goal is to address a few of these aspects in an effort to separate magic as a separate entity. In so doing I hope you will see that the execution of a magic effect can be a technology much the same as a chemist pouring two chemicals into a beaker that creates a glowing gold light. To get into this discussion I would like to draw from my experience from areas other than magic. One experience is an event that occurred while going to college. Most people that go to college are required to take an English writing course. I was no different. However, during the course I became very confused because the course did not seem to be about writing. The instructors always talked about politics or religion or artsy crafty things. The classes seemed to have nothing to do with writing. My major was physics. Most of the English professors seemed to be using science to prove or disprove the existence of God. As a scientist, or a student trying to become one, I didn¡¦t think about God at all. So, why did the English professors that didn¡¦t study science concern themselves so much with it. This confusion is like magicians talking about doing magic artistically but never really talking about what is important. Fortunately, one of the assignments given to us in English class to read was about how to learn to write. I found the information in that article could be applied to other areas, such as magic. Thus, the subject of that article I was required to read is a fitting beginning for what I am to say here. The point of the article was that to become a successful writer one had to master the technical skills of writing. In the beginning one need not worry about putting fire into the hearts of the reader. But one needed to master the basics of writing. For example, one needed to master development of paragraphs. There should be one sentence in a paragraph that precisely states the topic of it. Paragraphs have five basic ways to develop and each paragraph should use one of them to do so. Then there should be a way to allow the paragraph to end off and allow the next paragraph to begin in some smooth way. All of this is fitting for I feel the same way about magic. To be a good or even great magician, one needs to master the basic technology of magic. Let¡¦s look at an example outside of the magic realm that may portray this idea. How about carving squirrels? A man learns how to carve squirrels. He merely tries to make a piece of wood look like a squirrel. He practices it over and over again. He sees a squirrel outside his window. The squirrel is sitting up. The man makes a figure of a squirrel 2 inches tall sitting up. He strives to make the squirrel very accurate in every detail to the squirrel he saw sitting outside his window. And he is successful. He opens a stand in a mall somewhere and puts the squirrels out for sale. People buy them because they instantly love them. He thinks he just copied something that occurs naturally. However, the people that buy them see them as a piece of wood that has been magically transformed into a creature frozen in time. To this man, copying a squirrel is a technology. He did it well and for some people a little piece of wood becomes a fond possession. Some of them consider
it art. Another example. I was a carpenter part time when I was in college. Each man on our crew had specific tasks. One was a saw man. He cut every piece of wood that went into a house. One day we were a little behind and we needed some help nailing down the Celotex (insulation nailed to the outside walls of a house). The walls are built lying flat on the new floor of a house and then tipped up into position. When nailing down the Celotex, one must put a nail about every 8 inches into the frame of the wall. This saw man reached into a box of nails, extracted a handful, jumped up onto a wall and started nailing. I watched in amazement. He was so fast I was emotionally affected. From his point of view he was just nailing down Celotex. Let me explain what I saw. First of all, he just grabbed a handful of nails. Those things are sharp and he grabbed a handfull without another thought. He was not wearing a glove. Second, he crouched low on the wall. He stood on the wall while it was lying on the new floor of the house. He had to stand on the studs in the wall, otherwise he would put a hole in the Celotex because it wasn¡¦t strong. He walked on the studs that he couldn¡¦t see but accomplished this by feeling them with his feet. He crouched low walking up and down the wall. Thus, he was low and could hammer nails into the Celotex and the studs. He walked up and down this wall fast. His first finger and thumb of the left hand would find a nail in that hand¡¦s fistfull of nails. The point of the nail would be put into the correct position. Then the right hand would swing a hammer hitting the nail driving it into place. Note, that is one swing, no tap to set the nail and one to drive it in. Then he would step forward, the left already putting a nail into position and the right hand would whack it. It was nailed into place as he stepped forward. He was a machine walking up and down the walls. Wham, wham, wham, wham, nails went in faster than you could blink. I was moved by watching him, perform. To me he was on stage moving with incredible skill and artistry. What he did was amazing. To him, he was just nailing walls. So, with these observations I would like to make my first major point: First make your magic technically sound, eventually the audience will see the magic. When I say technically sound I don¡¦t just mean a good palm or good double lift. There are many aspects to magic, many of them having nothing to do with mechanics. Communication plays a vital role as does your mannerisms. The purpose of the document you are reading is to cover these aspects. So, a critical part of this introduction is to point out the vastness of issues involved with the technology of magic. One of those aspects is understanding your audience. Another is forming an idea of how you expect yourself to appear in the eyes of the audience. How do you want the audience to perceive you? I did not have all of this down when I began practicing magic. In the beginning I wrestled with this question of how I wanted to appear. I, like all of us that get into magic, talked to other magicians and read books on the subject. I was confused about this task when I heard others and read what they had to say. I heard things like being entertaining or commercial. Others say that I must play some role and carry people away to another world. Words such as, "Suspension of disbelief" crossed my ears. In my confusion I grabbed onto something I understood and something I could do. And so I thought about one of my physics professors showing my class an experiment. The experiment I have in mind is one about standing waves. The professor had strung up a string across the lab desk that sits in front of the class. The string is about 8 feet long. He plucks the string and it vibrates. Eventually there is a standing wave in the string. The string is constantly moving. However, at some areas the string is not moving at all. These locations are the main point of his discussion. He indicates that if a fly were sitting at some locations on the string it would immediately be knocked off. Then he points out that if the fly were on the non-moving areas the fly would be safe. During the discussion the professor is making noises like a fly and points with his finger at a path of some fly that may have entered the experiment. I was totally entertained. This is how I view the magic performer. He is a technician demonstrating some physical phenomena. I cannot help but offer another two examples of the way mechanical technology
appeals to an audience. Since we have made a transition to a new century there has been much press on what happened at the beginning of this century. Two very applicable stories came to light. When the phonograph was invented, some enterprising people turned it into a showpiece. They would take one of these devices into a theater and sell tickets to see it work. They would get the town mayor up on stage and have him speak into the recording device. Then they would play that recording for all to hear. This simple display of technology was very, very entertaining to the audience. They paid money for the experience. Another example was the invention of moving pictures. Again, some enterprising individual carried the equipment into theaters and sold tickets to see it. One was a clip of two parents feeding their baby. Another was a clip of an older man kissing an older woman. They were silent of course. They were just simple displays of technology. All of these examples are simple displays of technology that are very entertaining. People wanted to see them. This leads into my next primary thought, the success of a magician, as a magician, is directly proportional to his ability to produce significant phenomena. Therefore: The phenomena is what the audience came to see. This is the cornerstone of my style of doing magic. I do not believe the audience has come to me to be entertained. I do not believe the audience came to me to have fun. I do not believe the audience came to me to laugh. I believe the audience came to me to see magic. They will be entertained, they will have fun and they will laugh. All this because I am applying a known and studied magic technology. So, what is the technology of magic? In the forgoing I have suggested that there is this thing called technology of magic and that its mastery is the path to being a great, or at least good, magician. Here I will attempt to list, without explanation, what the parts of this thing are. This list, then, will be what the remainder of what this document will talk about. The technology of magic includes: 1. Moves or the ability to move your hands in a natural way while doing something unknown to the audience. 2. Misdirection 3. Direction 4. Knowing how to communicate to the audience 5. Knowing what amazes the audience 6. Knowing how the audience perceives reality 7. Understanding people 8. Creation of a personal style. 9. Knowing how to relate to people. I am trying to indicate that technology is not simply mastering moves. It does include dressing appropriately. It does include your manner of speech. It does include being polite. It does include respecting your audience. And it does mean working hard at doing things well. I have spent many years of my life studying these subjects. Often during those years I have been challenged by senior magicians about the amount of effort I devote to this study. I have been unable until recently to explain why I think this level of study is important. My explanation takes the form of levels of magic deception. That is the subject of the next chapter. ? ? CHAPTER TWO LEVELS OF MAGIC DECEPTION ? I believe that magic can be classified into the following levels: Clown magic Theater magic Virtual magic Clown Magic Clown magic is a kind of magic that gets a reaction or a laugh out of an audience but is not particularly deceptive. Pulling a ribbon of cards out of
your mouth is an example. It looks very good. It always gets a laugh from the audience. But do they believe the cards come out of your mouth? Not for a second. Paper hat coils are the same. When people see that streamer coming out of a hat do they say, "Where in the world does all that come from?" No, they say, "Boy, he sure can pack a lot of that stuff into that hat." I am not saying that this is bad magic. It has its place. I do this kind of magic myself. I need to get a laugh sometimes. My goal here is to label the kind of magic it is. My point is that there is a type of magic that has a punch but no one is worried about how it is done for if they think about it for a second they would understand it. It is so obvious the audience simply laughs and ignores it. It can be solid entertainment. Theater magic Theater magic is more serious and is more puzzle like. The audience doesn¡¦t know how it works but they could think of a way it could work or they know, if they could get their hands on that box, they could find a mirror or something. This kind of magic generates statements from the audience such as: "I would catch him if he did it again." "If I got up closer I would see how it worked." "Boy that guy has fast hands." These comments suggest that the audience can see possible ways of accomplishing the effect. They are not sure which one it could be. Theater magic is magic that looks like magic but is not completely deceptive. I have used the tag "theater magic" because for it to be truly effective there must be a "suspension of disbelief". Spellbound is such an effect. I have performed this trick for a long time. I have questioned people about what they think goes on. They are definitely impressed with it. However, they usually come up with two solutions. 1. The performer is very skilled in always hiding one coin. 2. The coin has two sides. To destroy the opinion of the second, one coin I used was a Chinese coin with a hole in it. I did the trick and checked back later to determine what they thought. A person said I used one coin with two sides. I pointed out that one coin had a hole in it. The person looked at me and said, "Oh, I never thought of that." The point is that theater magic looks magical but does not come across as magic. However, it is often entertaining. Most of the vast body of magic falls into this category. The performer must be an actor as well as a magician for he is required to not only do the magic but "act" as if it is magic. This enables the audience to "suspend their disbelief." Virtual magic Virtual magic is a kind of magic, that when observed, the audience cannot determine any method of how it was accomplished. Virtual magic differs from Theater Magic in that "suspension of disbelief" is not required for the audience to react strongly to what has occurred. Brainwave or Invisible Deck is an example of this type of effect. The audience names any card and that card is upside down in the deck. Matrix falls into this category as well. This makes me think of an event that will bring this point home. I had been asked to perform at a singles meeting one Sunday. I did a little stand up, then got a table and invited anyone that wished to get closer to sit down at the table. I must point out that my style of performing has changed over the years. Now I attempt to become a part of the audience. That is, I try not to perform for them. Instead, I act like I am letting them in the back door of the theater and simply showing them what goes on, on stage. So anyway, these people gather around my table to watch. One of the tricks I do is Matrix, of course. You must picture several people with their elbows on the table, chins on hands and eyes looking down at my pad inches away. After I did Matrix one of them said, "I have no idea how that could be done." I said nothing for a bit and another said, "Ya know, that is a good trick, could you do it again?" So I did it again. They watched expressionless. Then one said, "I have no idea how that works." Then another said, "Could you do it again?" And I did. And then again. Each time they calmly watched and reacted as if it were really magic. Before I quit doing it one person said, "Ya know, I could watch that over and over and never have a clue how that happens."
My point is that virtual magic not only looks like magic but appears as real magic for the audience cannot come up with a possible solution. The main reason I thought of the three levels of magic was to explain why I devote the energy into the subject as much as I do. The answer is that virtual magic requires this devotion to detail to become as powerful as it is. I feel I am really onto something here. I value the separation of one kind of magic from another kind of magic. This can move us forward to develop an even better technology. To clarify my feelings about this, I see that another definition of virtual magic could be "Magic that does not require suspension of disbelief to appear as magic." With this you can understand better some of my introductory remarks. Virtual magic requires a pure and effective technology. Theater magic requires the actors "art" to "suspend disbelief" enabling the audience to see the magic. CHAPTER THREE BASIS OF MAGIC ? As we think of doing magic we think of doing moves or think of some gimmick that will achieve some phenomena. We buy tricks at the magic shop or off of the Internet. We do these tricks for people and we discover a few things about it all. First, we find that people can be fooled. Another is that we find some tricks are better than others. Why is that? In fact, why does a magic trick fool anyone in the first place? Then we encounter something else. In the beginning we will not consider doing a trick unless we ourselves are fooled with it. This fact enables magic shops to exist. We go into a shop and ask what they have for sale. The salesman shows us a trick and, hopefully, fools us. Then we buy an effect that we believe we can do and likewise fool our audiences. If the owner of the shop shows us the trick first, that is, how it works, we are less likely to buy. We don¡¦t know if it will fool anyone or not. We as beginners, have no way to determine the effectiveness of a commercial trick. As we gain experience we get more confidence at determining the value of an effect. However, in general, we really don¡¦t know why some work and some don¡¦t. The purpose of this section is to try and determine what makes magic, magic. If we could understand that, then we could evaluate a trick and determine if it would be good or bad. Even better, we could create better tricks. So, let¡¦s take a stab at understanding what makes magic, magic. During my study of why magic works, I came up with a concept I refer to as the "Five Steps Of Deception". Here are the five steps. 1. Show some condition 2. Perform some action 3. Show that the resulting condition is different than the audience expected. 4. The audience reviews the first three steps 5. The audience comes to the conclusion that they are fooled. To illustrate this let¡¦s use a ball under the cup vanish. 1. Show some condition. The audience sees a ball resting in front of a mouth down cup. 2. Perform some action The performer rolls the ball under the cup. 3. Show that the resulting condition is different than the audience expected. The performer raises the cup showing that there is no ball under the cup. 4. The audience reviews steps 1, 2, and 3. When the audience sees nothing under the cup they go to their memory and recall what had happened. They remember seeing a ball in front of a cup, they remember seeing the ball rolled under the cup and then seeing the cup raised to show the ball gone. 5. The audience comes to the conclusion that they are fooled. The audience then decides there should have been a ball there, there wasn¡¦t, so therefore, they are fooled. To be a little complete we must observe that this scenario does not cover all magical situations. It does not cover things that float. It does not cover the trick in which the performer says, "Think of a card", and then names the card
the person is thinking of. A similar analysis of these effects could be made and would include some statement that there is one possibility of an event occurring but another event occurs. At this point in life I would rather not get into this and I am presently satisfied to deal only with the five steps above. Getting back to the main point, the essence of this is that the audience expects/predicts one event but sees another. Hence, magic must have occurred, or at least they cannot explain why their prediction deviates from observation. If a performer is present that is talking while the observation is going on, the audience can be told that it is magic. The initial reason I came up with the five steps was not to explain magic, but to ascertain what might go wrong with the process. For example: What if the person thinks the ball went somewhere else? What if the person can¡¦t remember the first three steps? What if the person doesn¡¦t care? What if they don¡¦t have a chance to make a decision? Why should they believe the performer rolled the ball under the cup? Actually my first concern was about magicians that rush through a performance and never allow steps four and five to happen. They may be doing good magic but they are moving so fast the audience cannot decide that magic happened. However, these five steps accelerate our understanding of the magic process. Let¡¦s recollect what our immediate purpose is. Our purpose is to understand the basis of magic. I believe the five steps are close but I do not think they are what I am really after. However, the five steps seem to be very close to the correct answers or at least point the way in which we can effectively discuss the real issues. After thinking and sorting all of this out there seems to be a basic amongst all of this. The basic concerns step two. In this step the performer did something that produced a different result than the audience assumed would happen. It occurs to me that human beings exist in their daily life by making assumptions about the things that go on around them. Let¡¦s shorten this and make it a critical point: People make assumptions. In step two of our previous example the performer pretended to roll the ball under the cup. The motion was something that the audience was accustomed to seeing. So, the audience assumed the performer, in fact, did roll the ball under the cup when in fact the performer did not. The study of magic then is a study of the assumptions that people make. This is really a twist around from normal thinking. Normally we think. "Well I can do this move to vanish a coin, and I can use this gimmick to have it appear." We do not think, "OK, what will the audience think if I hold my hand in a particular position during the trick." Or, "What will the audience assume I am doing when I lift the glass slowly at some particular point." While learning how to falsely roll the ball under the cup one must study what the audience will assume while that is going on. For me, a whole new universe of understanding has been opened up. Whereas before, I focused on misdirection techniques, I now see that manipulating assumptions can be far more productive and misdirection falls to the role of supporting assumptions. We will see this as this document unfolds. Now we will go to a new chapter to deal with assumptions in more detail. However, we will not forget the Five Steps Of Deception for there are still valuable insights there we have not touched upon yet. We will return to it. ? ? CHAPTER FOUR ASSUMPTIONS ? In the preceding chapter we have stumbled upon the basis of magic deception. Let¡¦s highlight what we discovered and then continue to discuss it:
People make assumptions. From the foregoing we have seen that there are two actions, an assumed action and a real action producing a different result. In step one of the Five Steps Of Deception the performer establishes an initial condition. Then in step two the performer executes some action. During this action the audience assumes some outcome. The performer has constructed this action to produce some outcome other than what the audience expects. That is, the assumption the audience makes is false. Then, in step three, the performer reveals the outcome or resulting condition of the action executed in step two. Here the audience sees their assumed outcome was wrong. In step four they review the events and in step five they conclude that they have been deceived. The key is that: People make false assumptions. It is interesting to note that these assumptions can be very strong. Consider the following. This event occurred while I was in college. Two classmates were visiting me one day. I was living in one of those one room apartments in the slums of Detroit that have barely enough space for one bed. The two classmates were in my physics class with me. We were talking about school of course, but for some reason the subject switched to magic and I attempted to show them a trick. We, as students of Physics, were accustomed to using the scientific method. That is, we ran experiments where we listed givens, events and recorded results. At the time I did not realize I was about to put these two guys in a position to use those skills. I was sitting on my bed and they were sitting in front of me in two chairs. I put a penny to my right on the bed. Then I put my right hand over the penny in a position to pick it up. I raised my left hand palm up to attract their attention to it and raised my right hand as if it held a penny. I dropped the pretend coin into my left and closed it. Then I opened it to show the coin not there. My two friends looked at my empty hand and then looked at the coin to my right that I had not picked up. I thought they simply caught me. But then, there eyes opened wide and the both exclaimed, "How did you do that?" I was confused but as they chattered on I gathered that they saw me put the coin into my hand, open it and the coin jumped instantly onto the bed beside me. Then they started to compose themselves and their scientific training started to turn on. One said, "OK, let¡¦s list the givens." The other said, "Right, the first given is that he had a coin." The other said, "Right". And one said, "It was lying on his hand." The other said, "Right." Then one said, "It was tails side up." Then the other said, "No, it was heads side up!" They looked at each other dumbfounded. Then, their discussion fell apart. They decided that I had a half a penny in my left hand that I somehow hid in my hand. They could not resolve how one saw a head and the other saw a tail. What is my main point in this story? The way I moved my hand and how I dropped the pretend coin into my left hand, caused them to assume there was a coin there. The assumption was so strong that they actually put a coin in my hand in their memory. This leads to another interesting basic point to highlight. False assumptions can be so strong they become reality. The motion I used during that episode was one I have spent a great deal of time with and utilize its principles in the vanishes that I have developed. Once we realize the importance of the audience¡¦s assumptions about what we are doing, the "art" of magic rapidly disappears and we begin to consider assumptions the audience can make and how we can do something other than the assumed outcome. Thus, we gain more power to do magic. We can also see the need to understand the human assumptive process. Now that we understand these basic concepts we can move forward by asking the question, "How do we get people to make false assumptions?" As I think about this now, I see two possible ways. 1. Perform a normal real motion doing another unseen action. 2. Perform a normal motion that actually does something different than it usually does. To explain the first, let¡¦s use a real example. The magician needs an extra/hidden coin for some reason. The performer can pick up a pen from the table and put it into his pocket. During the process the performer palms a coin out of the pocket. The false assumption is that the performer brought his hand out of the pocket empty. In this way of creating a false assumption, there is an
observed action that is real and in fact produces the expected outcome. An extra action is done however. The action the audience observes is that you removed your hand from your pocket empty. That assumption would be false. This assumption can be enforced by a variety of factors. If you have a very pressing need to put the pen into your pocket the audience will question the act less. For example, if you are standing while performing, there are no tables around, you are also holding a deck of cards and an envelope and you just had a member from the audience put a mark on a coin, the audience will understand totally that you must put the pen into your pocket. Also the speed with which your hand moves in and out of your pocket enhances the false assumption. Here you must somehow suspend the hidden coin near the top of your pocket so it appears that when your hand enters the pocket the pen is released to fall into the pocket and the hand is withdrawn immediately. That is very good. If you push your hand all the way into your pocket, fumble for the hidden coin and then withdraw your hand, you have weakened the audience¡¦s assumption your hand is empty. Then another issue is the position of your hand after leaving the pocket. If the fingers are loose as if the hand contained nothing you are winning. The Basic Transfer Vanish is an example of the second method of creating a false assumption. In this vanish you pretend to move a coin from your right hand to your left. The fingers and hands simply go through the motions. However, the coin remains in your right hand. The motion of the hands and fingers normally move a coin from one hand to the other. Here however, the result is that the coin remains in the right hand. There are several things the performer can do to reinforce the false assumption that the coin changed hands. One is similar to the first method which is the stronger the reason to do some action, the more likely the audience will assume that you did nothing else. For that reason routines that use a transfer vanish are structured so there is motivation for transferring a coin. For example, the coin is on the table on your right and so is your magic wand. You pick up the coin with your right to move it to your left hand and free up your right hand so it can pick up the magic wand you apparently need to make the coin disappear. However, the strongest enforcer of the false assumption is similarity between a real move and a move of deception. Let¡¦s highlight this point: The more similar a sleight-of-hand move is to a normal action the more the audience will be likely to make a false assumption. My visualization of this principle is like painting a picture of reality but leaving out one little item. While doing a coin transfer, I put everything into the picture I can, except the coin. The speed of motion of the hands, the curvature of the fingers, the tension in the shoulders, the tone of my voice and several more details are all in this picture. However, the coin does not fall from hand to hand. In fact there is a space there the audience can see into that does not contain a coin. If all other parts of the picture are in place, the audience creates a coin there to complete the picture. Let¡¦s back up a moment and consider what false assumptions we want the audience to make. In the two examples above we wanted the audience to make the false assumptions that we removed an empty hand from a pocket and that a coin was transferred from hand to hand. However, there is a stronger false assumption we can shoot for. Let¡¦s highlight this one: The most effective false assumption the audience can make is that you are doing nothing. In general the audience will not or cannot question nothing. For example, if you palm a card while you do a fancy card cut, the audience might say, "I wonder if he did something when he did that fancy card thingy?" If, however, you can palm a card during the normal sequence of actions of having a card selected, return the card to the deck and simply place the cards onto the table, the audience will perceive you did nothing. In fact, you did many nothings. Which one will they question? Let¡¦s move on to another interesting bit of information. Up to this point we have been rather cavalier about our ability to create a situation in which the audience makes a false assumption. When a person begins the path of becoming a magician he quickly learns that getting a spectator to make a false assumption is difficult. We can also see that there might be a look of surprise in the spectator¡¦s eye telling us that we have been successful. Suddenly, however, that look in their eye can appear threatening when you realize that they just
figured out what actually happened. Thus, we have another important item to highlight: People can review false assumptions and unwind them. The audience, during step 4 of the Five Steps Of Deception can review the events of the first three steps and realize that they have made a false assumption. They can correct that, realizing that you made a false attempt to deceive them. Hence, to deceive, we must not only get them to make a false assumption, you must prevent them from reviewing it. The primary way of doing this is to perform several actions. In this sequence of events the audience makes several assumptions or even several false assumptions. The results of these actions are then revealed. An example is in order. First let¡¦s present the simple act of vanishing a coin with a transfer vanish. Most magician¡¦s understand that simply doing a vanish for a spectator is very bad. When you show a coin in your right hand, execute a transfer vanish into your left and then open your left hand, the audience will be surprised for a moment but quickly point out that the coin is in your right hand. From the perspective of the Five Steps Of Deception, the spectator witnessed the first three steps, and upon review of them, realized that, though you apparently tossed the coin into your left hand, you probably did not, for the coin is not there. Realizing that magicians are quick with their hands, the spectator figures out that you did not really toss it and the coin must still be in the right hand. They really don¡¦t understand how you did what you did but they do realize that they made a false assumption. You can fix this by doing a bit more that requires the audience to make more false assumptions that will trip up their review. For example, suppose you have a dollar bill rolled up as a small ball in your left hand. Now you execute your vanish of the coin from your right to your left, then open the left showing the rolled up dollar bill. You can unroll the bill showing the palms of both hands empty by hiding the coin under the fingers while it is in a finger palm grip. This can be a very good trick. Before you even begin the trick the audience has made several false assumptions. One is that you were not performing a trick. Actually you were for you were standing there with this ball palmed the entire time. Another false assumption probably made is that your left hand was empty. During the palming of the rolled up dollar bill your hand was in a natural position and you probably used it while you were talking. Next, you executed the transfer vanish. A false assumption was made that you tossed the coin into your left hand. You quickly started to unroll the bill while they were reviewing the first three steps of the transfer vanish sequence. They see the palm of the right hand and make another false assumption that that hand is empty. This is a much better trick. The spectator does not know which assumptions they should review. Understand, that the routine of tossing a coin into your left hand and changing it to a dollar bill as presented now is not the ultimate. The audience will realize that they have made false assumptions and realize that something was awry. If the performer tells a cute story with the routine or in some other fashion suspends the disbelief of the spectator, the spectator will see the magic in it and find it fascinating. The trick could be transferred into virtual magic if we paid more attention to the sequence of events and did a little more. That is, build more action into the little routine that causes the spectator to make more false assumptions. In other words we could do more to show the left hand apparently empty before the transfer of the coin. We could also do more to show the right hand empty immediately after the transfer vanish. We could build a routine that appears to the spectator as follows. We begin to do the trick by showing the spectator a coin and showing that our hands are otherwise empty. Then the coin is squeezed and the coin becomes a dollar bill. After that the spectator is absolutely sure there is nothing else in our hands. In essence we could be applying several techniques to stop the spectator from reviewing assumptions. One is to have one false assumption cover another false assumption. Another is to structure the sequence of events so the audience rewinds to a point after a false assumption was made. And another is to mislabel some action so as to hide the false assumption. Let¡¦s isolate these and take them up one at a time. Consider the case of causing the audience to rewind to a point after a false assumption was made. For
an example, let¡¦s use the transfer vanish. As we have reviewed, doing a basic transfer vanish is dangerous for the audience can quickly review the first three steps of the vanish and come to a conclusion that a coin was not really transferred. Let¡¦s add one more action to the vanish sequence. Immediately after the action is executed, that is after step two and before step three where we reveal the coin not in the left hand, we make a magical gesture with the left hand. That is, we make a crumbling motion with the fingers of the left hand. The audience believes there is a coin in that hand. They have no reason to think otherwise at this point. Then the hand is held wide open but palm down, however you hold your thumb tight against your hand. To the audience it appears that the coin could be clipped under the thumb. Just as quickly you open your thumb. The spectator, thinking a coin is there, will resolve this by thinking you can keep the coin stuck to your hand. Then just as quickly you turn your hand palm up showing no coin. Now, the spectator will rewind the previous events to determine where the coin slipped away from them. If they rewind to the point where you showed a coin in your right hand, they may challenge their assumption that you actually put the coin into your left hand. If so your deception has been discovered. If however, they rewind to a point just after you apparently tossed the coin into your left hand, they begin with their assumptions about what you were doing when you were making crumbling motions with your fingers. The only conclusion they can come to is that they have seen magic. Now let¡¦s take up another way to prevent the audience from reviewing an assumption. This technique requires that you do something with your body while you do the move you wish to be ignored. Tony Slydini popularized the technique of leaning backwards while lapping an object to cover the fact the object was dropped. While dropping your hand to the table is a very natural action, if you lean back when you do it you are also communicating to the audience that you are not doing anything. It is an accepted message that you are simply relaxing. Thus, when the audience reviews the events, they regard that motion as something everyone does without thought. Thus, it escapes review. In other parts of this document this is referred to as mislabeling some assumption. The last device, listed before, to prevent false assumptions from being reviewed, is to use several false assumptions to hide each other. The business of pretending to pick up a penny and pretending to put it into my hand is an example of this. The first action requiring a false assumption to be made was pretending to pick up the penny. The spectators made the false assumption a coin was picked up. Before revealing the outcome of that action, the pretend penny was dropped into my hand. Then they formed a second false assumption. This duo of false assumptions was so strong they created a penny in their mind¡¦s eye. Probably a sequence of false assumptions is one common factor of all solid magic effects. Now, after reviewing these three techniques, we can highlight a couple major points. Effective deception depends on several false assumptions working together. The process of diverting the audience¡¦s attention away from a false assumption is called misdirection. I consider the business of rewinding to a point after a false assumption and relabeling an assumption; as misdirection. A word about misdirection is in order and how it affects the organization of these chapters. There is a problem in that false assumptions and misdirection are very close to each other. False assumptions contain an element of misdirection. Then, at the same time, misdirection contains an element of false assumptions. For simplicity this book assumes the two can be separated. This book treats an assumption as an act that is the basis of magic deception. This book treats misdirection as a device to prevent a false assumption from being detected. This chapter has been devoted to false assumptions. Out of necessity we have discussed misdirection as well. However, we will be covering direction and misdirection more in the next chapter as a separate subject. Let¡¦s end this chapter with an answer to what might be a very strong question in your mind right now. How do we get the audience to make false assumptions? Simple, we assume they will. We get the audience to make false assumptions by doing things they are accustomed to assuming. People live their lives by making assumptions all of the time. Consider what
happens when most people give a coin to someone else. They reach into their pocket to get a handful of change. The other hand picks up the appropriate coins. You will notice the person does not hold the coins by their edges at the finger tips. The coins well be held deeper in the hand, although the edges of the coins may be showing. Then the giver extends their hand toward the receiver expecting them to take it. The receiver extends their hand and accepts the change. The point is that people assume that other people are offering change when they say they are going to do so. Consider the last time you gave some coins to a cashier in a grocery store. You expected the cashier to assume you were giving them change. For them not to do so would be very anti-social behavior. As an experiment, after entering the above into the computer, I went to a grocery store and bought some bacon and a semi-sweet dark chocolate candy bar and paid for it with a twenty dollar bill. The cashier was then required to give me some change. She first counted some bills out of the cash drawer and then she slid the coins out of the little curved bottom boxes in that drawer. She counted the change as she slid the coins out of those little compartments. Then she gave me the bills with one hand and extended the other hand to offer me the coins. The coins were totally covered in her finger tips. The change was forty five cents. The point here is that people must assume hundreds of actions every day. This is done so often it becomes automatic. This social training provides magicians with a lot of people that can be deceived. New magicians, not understanding or not trusting the power of assumption, want to do something stronger than assume an assumption will be made. The beginner might want to say, "I put the coin into that hand." I have attended magic meetings where some of the performers actually said something to that effect. Or, more commonly, new magicians will exaggerate the motion of moving a coin from one hand to another in an effort to communicate the same thought. They will hold their hand high in the air, hold the coin at the finger tips of the other hand, then they do a false transfer move staring intently at their hands. Then, after the move, they point at the hand that received the coin as if to say, "I put the coin into that hand." Clearly the key is to capitalize on the motions people see in their everyday life. We must assume they assume falsely. ? ? ? ? CHAPTER FIVE MISDIRECTION AND DIRECTION ? This chapter presents several points of view on direction and misdirection. A few words are spent discussing some ideas from other sources about this subject. Then some time is spent talking about what kind of misdirection is not discussed here. After all this is kicked around, a definition of misdirection is presented that is used in this document. This definition depends upon some things that were discovered in the earlier chapters. Finally, some kinds of misdirection and direction are listed which are considered one at a time. So to begin, I would like to point out a few things other people have said. There has been a great deal published in the magic industry about the word misdirection. Some of this material is claiming the word misdirect is not appropriate. Apparently the people publishing this information simply do not understand what the word means. The word misdirection is very appropriate to what we do in magic. As we proceed this will become clear. The primary point is that you realize that what some others call misdirection and what I call misdirection are not the same. I hope my meaning comes from the dictionaries of
the world and is universally acceptable. Another issue, there are two kinds of misdirection that are not covered in this document. The first is two point misdirection, and the other "Oh, I¡¦m stupid" misdirection. The two point misdirection calls for causing the audience to look over there when I do something sneaky over here. Other lecturers and other material I have read, devote a lot of energy to getting an audience to look away from your hands when a move is executed. While I will not tell you that this is wrong, I will tell you that this is definitely not my style. My goal in presenting magic is to do Virtual Magic. In this style of magic the audience must be looking directly at the dirty work the very moment it is occurring. To require that the audience look elsewhere, to do a dirty move, is to reduce the impact of the effect. The other kind of misdirection I am very much against as well. I call it, "Oh, I¡¦m stupid!" misdirection, for it occurs when the magician does something and then tells his audience he did the wrong thing and must do something entirely different. All of this is used as a misdirective device to accomplish some hidden event. For example, a card could be selected, marked and shuffled into the deck. The card is actually controlled to the top. Then the performer puts the deck into his pocket. Then he says, "Oh, I¡¦m stupid, actually, you are supposed to hold it." He then retrieves the deck from his pocket and gives the deck to a member of the audience to hold. In the process of retrieving the deck from the pocket, the performer pushes the top card, the selected card, off of the deck into the pocket next to a gimmicked wallet. Again, I am not saying this is bad magic or bad entertainment. I am saying that this type of action most certainly does not promote Virtual Magic. Now, let¡¦s clarify what direction and misdirection are. First let¡¦s see what a dictionary has to say about direct. "To aim or guide something or someone toward a result, goal or purpose." Then misdirection: "To aim or guide something or someone toward a wrong result, goal or purpose." Reviewing this I can see why my magical partners do not like the word misdirection. They apparently feel they are directing the attention of the audience to, for the performer, a positive place. However, the goal of the audience is to discern how the effect is achieved. Thus, a member of the audience would say the performer caused the member of the audience to look at the wrong place. That is, the audience member was misdirected. However, from the performer¡¦s perspective the member was directed. We as magicians must not forget the duality of our business. We live in two universes, one we see and one the audience sees. What is good for us is "mis" for the other. WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE So, in conclusion, two point misdirection and the "Oh, I¡¦m stupid," kind of misdirection¡¦s are in fact misdirection. Long ago, after reviewing the definition of direct and misdirect I also concluded that direction and misdirection are not necessarily about locations in space. Long ago I decided that good misdirection is more of a mental process than a spatial one. I would prefer to define misdirection as causing a person to consider something and draw a wrong conclusion. This document will continue with this point of view. And, as I am thinking about this subject to write this document, I have come to see the importance of direction. Direction is the act of causing a person to consider something and draw a desired (from the magician¡¦s point of view) conclusion. For this I must thank those individuals that wrote and spoke about their opinion¡¦s of direction and misdirection. Let¡¦s leave these issues now and move forward a bit. I would like to do so by pointing out that I did not clearly understand the role of misdirection until I put these thoughts into this document. I had thought misdirection was the whole of magic deception. As I produced this document I realized that this is not the case. Actually misdirection serves a secondary role. This is a significant point so let¡¦s make it an issue: The purpose of misdirection is to direct the attention of the audience away from or hide the false assumptions they have made. In the past I thought I was deceiving the audience by misdirecting them. Now I believe I am creating an environment in which the audience makes a false assumption about a future outcome. Then I use misdirection to cause the audience to not see that a false assumption was made. This is a very big departure for me. In conversations with magicians in the
past, I now realize the role of misdirection was not clear to me. Now, with this new point of view, I see there are three things working together to produce deception. These would be natural motions, assumptions and misdirection. In the past misdirection and deception were very similar words to me. Recently I had a conversation with Paul Critelli from Grand Rapids, Michigan. During this conversation Paul expressed the idea that Matrix did not need misdirection for the moves were so strong. I told him that Matrix was so very strong because of the application of good misdirection. As I think about this I am having a great deal of trouble, for in the past I have put so much thought into "misdirecting" the audience during the performance of Matrix that I can¡¦t see what is really going on relative to this new point of view. As I think about this, with some difficulty, I can see that my effort was really building ways to cause the audience to make false assumptions. In fact, one of the powerful things of Matrix is that one false assumption is based on another false assumption. This makes it very difficult for the audience to unwind the assumptions even during review. Be aware though, I am still applying strong misdirection techniques to prevent the audience from reviewing the false assumptions the audience does create. However, I suspect this new way of thinking will put me at odds with many magicians while discussing this subject. And I will repeat this again. Probably most of the confusion comes from what magicians believe misdirection to be. They believe that the execution of misdirection means getting people to physically look away from the location that the dirty work is going on. And to repeat, this new definition (hopefully correct definition) means getting the audience to ignore the false assumption they have made. To me misdirection means, directing attention away from something I don¡¦t want them to be aware of. Ideally, from my perspective, I wish the audience to physically look at the exact location where the dirty work is going on, but not be aware it is going on. To me this type of misdirection is very mental. Now that we have ground all of this to death, let¡¦s just list some primary misdirection techniques. Verbal/mental misdirection. Power of the question. Leaning backward. Looking at the audience when doing the move. Setting the rewind point. Release tension in body, shoulders and voice. So let¡¦s take up the first item on the list, Verbal/mental misdirection. Let¡¦s explain this by using an example in which the misdirection does not even depend upon a physical act. In this example nothing actually happens. The performer, via clever patter, directs the audience to believe that some magical phenomena has occurred. On a TV show named Maverick a long time ago the star of the show won a bet with another character by getting five pat hands from any 25 cards dealt at random. A pat hand would be something like a full house or five cards of the same suit. He began by asking what are the chances of getting one pat hand when dealing five cards at random. The chances are, of course, very low. Then he asked what the chances would be of getting two pat hands after dealing ten cards. The answer was even lower. Actually the odds are better. But, with appropriate patter we can convince an audience that the odds are worse. On this show the star got the another character in the show to agree that five pat hands from any 25 cards dealt would almost be impossible. In fact, when picking 25 cards at random, you can always make five pat hands. Here the other character was misdirected to the result of drawing 25 cards at random. While this is a TV show, it demonstrates our craft very well. Let¡¦s highlight this: Clever patter can misdirect the audience. To continue, lets take up the second item on the list of misdirection techniques, asking a question. Asking a question is the most powerful misdirection technique available. When executing any move that can pass for normal, you ask a question at the precise moment you execute the move. You can use other devices that cause the audience
to focus on your hands. The audience can look directly at the move you are doing, however, their mind will not be aware of what you are doing but be reaching into their memory banks attempting to answer the question you have posed. For some reason when a person is searching for an answer to a question, what they are watching is labeled as "nothing going on". Later when they review the events they will remember watching every move you made but will tend not to challenge the assumption they made at the time. I recollect a gig I had helping a friend at a trade show. My friend had a booth and thought I might help attract people. It was an interesting experience for it was the first time I did such a thing. During the show a gentleman dressed in a suit and vest approached me and asked what I was doing. He had a very businesslike appearance and a very threatening demeanor. He said something about me doing magic and asked if I could fool him. I was not sure what was going on. I was performing sitting at a table and invited him to sit at the table across from me. I did a card trick in which I palmed a card from the deck and apparently removed it from a card case. My fear level of being detected went way up. While this guy sat in the chair he leaned back to watch. This is a very bad position for a spectator to be in for it seems to enhance their ability to see through trickery. As I moved into the performance of the trick I began asking questions. During the actual performance of the sleights I asked four questions in a row. When the trick was over, he grunted, stood up and walked away. My take on it was that I fooled him, however I am not sure what he thought or why it happened. I did think I did the best I could and felt the questioning technique saved me. There are two kinds of questions that you can ask. They are extrovertive and introvertive. An extrovertive question is about something other than the person. That is, the question is about something exterior to the person. If you ask, "What color is my tie?" you are asking an extrovertive question. It is something outside of the spectators mind. If you ask, "Why did you select that card?" you are asking an introvertive question for you are asking them to look into themselves to come up with an answer. Introvertive questions remove more attention from you than extrovertive questions. Introvertive questions cause the audience to be a bit uncomfortable, however, so they should only be used when you feel one is necessary to mislead a problem spectator. I use a slightly introvertive question when I perform Matrix. In the first phase of the trick, when the cards and coins are being placed onto the table, I ask if anyone knows what a matrix is. This question stops them from questioning what I am doing. Actually I am performing fifty percent of the trick as I put the cards and coins onto the table. The question stops the audience from questioning what I am doing. After that point they believe I am beginning the trick. The most complicated part of the trick is done. Asking a question will cause the audience to look inside of themselves and stop conscious mental processing of whatever they are looking at. Leaning backward, the next technique on the list was popularized by Tony Slydini. When the performer leans back it communicates to the audience that the performer is not doing anything. At that point the audience tends to disregard anything the performer might be doing. Tony utilized this a great deal in his work. He often used this device when lapping something. To create a frame of reference to discuss this, let¡¦s assume a performer has done a coin transfer vanish of some sort and wishes to lap the coin to remove it from the surface of the table. The performer does the vanish then, before revealing the left hand empty, laps the coin in the right hand. This is done by allowing the right hand to come to a rest position at the edge of the table. While there, the coin is allowed to fall into the lap. Then the performer can raise the closed left fist making a crumbling motion with the left fingers. Then the performer can show the right hand empty. The audience is fooled. Let¡¦s consider the complexity of this simple sequence. A coin transfer vanish is done. The audience assumes the coin is in the left hand. The hand is rested on the edge of the table when the coin is lapped. The audience assumes the hand was just rested on the table. Then the left hand is opened to show the coin gone. The audience is fooled for they will not know where the coin has gone. They might try review their assumptions, but they will have difficulty determining which one to review. During the coin transfer vanish the performer may have asked a question. That could tend to hide that assumption. When the
performer rested his right hand on the table, he could have also leaned back a bit. This misdirective technique that takes the heat off of the resting of the right hand on the table. It actually puts a label on the action that says, "This action is nothing." The result of the multiple false assumptions and misdirection techniques labeling the false assumptions as nothing, produces a sequence of actions of which the audience has trouble considering what parts to review. Thus, leaning back during a critical move, such as lapping, labels the action as, "Nothing is happening here." While discussing the leaning backward technique with other magicians, I will do the following in an attempt to show the real power of this device. I will ask for the loan of a coin. Someone will come up with a coin. While they are fetching it I will keep my hands on my lap. Thus, as they come up with the coin they will set it on the table in front of me. Then I raise my hands above the table and lean forward a bit as my right hand reaches for the coin. As soon as my right hand touches the coin I start to lean back. The action of leaning back and picking up the coin coincide so that when I am leaning back in my chair all the way, the right hand has picked up the coin and gone all the way into my lap. Note that I said all the way into my lap. I look at the person that loaned me the coin and say, "Remember, you loaned me the coin." Then I hold my left hand palm up and raise my hand from my lap leaving the coin behind as I lean forward. I pretend to drop the coin into my left hand. After a quick show of making a crumbling motion with the left fingers, the left is opened to show the coin gone. Often the person that loaned me the coin is very surprised. In this little stunt, I am attempting to show that you can drop your hand farther than the edge of the table to lap a coin using the lean back misdirection move. In this stunt I drop my hand all the way onto my lap. The coin is left there when I raise my hand up for the next sequence of motions. This does not always work, however, it works much more than you might think. Often my target will see through the trick instantly but be caught of guard enough that the power of this misdirective technique is communicated. Let¡¦s end this leaning back discussion by pointing out that this is probably the second most powerful misdirective technique after asking a question. It is a technique, like asking a question, that can be used any time you wish to blank the mind of a spectator when you are doing sneaky stuff. To prevent the audience from focusing attention on a move or sleight, the performer can lean back in his chair. Looking at the audience at critical times is very similar to the lean back technique. This technique works best with actions that most people do every day. Transferring a coin from one hand to another is such an action. Picking up a pencil is another just as putting a coin onto the table. This technique is used when we are doing some sleight of hand motion while doing one of these everyday motions. The technique is to either glance or look at your audience right when you are performing the sleight. For example, during a transfer vanish, just when you retain the coin in the right hand, glance at the audience. This act has the tendency to render the motion invisible to the audience. It tends to label the transfer as nothing. In the past, while lecturing before a number of magicians, I have had the audience do the following. I request everyone to get a coin out of their pocket and hold it above their head with their left hand. When all have complied, I say, "Oh, I¡¦m sorry, I mean with your right hand." Then I move the coin I am holding from left to right and hold the coin above my head. When everyone complies, I ask, "How many people looked at their hands when the coin was transferred from one hand to the other?" During many years of doing this no one has indicated they did that. The point is, that when normal people do something over and over they do not look at their hands when the action is actually done. Transferring a coin from one hand to another is an example. People won¡¦t even look at their hand when they pick up a glass of water. They will watch their hand until it is close to the glass. But just before the glass is touched, they look away. This device is very powerful when setting a cup back onto the table and loading a small ball during a cups and balls routine. If you do this trick see if you can get a tape of yourself doing this move on a camera. Do a little ball load while looking at the cup and while not looking at the cup. The difference is
striking. Note that you are not attempting to get the audience to look up into your eyes when you do this. In fact you do not want them to take their eyes off of your hands when you look up at them. If they look up at you, you are starting at them to much. You just want to take your eyes off of your hands at the moment and put your eyes back onto your hands. Doing so is just a quick flick of the eyes. During this process the audience knows you are looking at them. They can see out of their peripheral vision that you are looking at them. Also your head tips back a bit as well as your body. These motions are very slight. However, an audience can detect them without their attention being focused on them. This technique does not work with all moves, however. People tend to look at their hands when some tedious action is going on. For example, when people get a coin from a fistful of change they are looking directly at what they are doing. When they tear an envelope open, they will look at their hands. And when they shuffle cards, they will look at their hands. If you have the capability to look away from your hands when you do these things you will probably attract attention when you do so. So, again, this is a technique that should be used as any other gimmick, careful study is required to determine where it should be used and if it should be used. Now let¡¦s make a stand and highlight this principle: To prevent the audience from focusing attention on a move or sleight, the performer can simply look at them. The next technique on the list, while not as strong as the others, blends in well with the others. In this technique you look at the point of deception and then look away. The process of looking at something causes the attention of the audience to look at that something. Then, you look away quite quickly. The audience¡¦s eyes cannot keep up with your motion, however, they are aware that your eyes have rapidly shifted to something else. While their eyes remain on the point you just moved away from, your sleight of hand motion is executed. Thus, they are looking right at your hands the precise moment you did the deceptive move. But their mind is not there. There mind is on the next location to where you are directing their attention. Let¡¦s look at this in action. Suppose a performer is using a magic wand to vanish a coin. The coin is in the performer¡¦s right hand and the wand is to the right of the performer. The performer looks at the coin on display in the performer¡¦s right hand. The performer executes a transfer vanish move apparently moving the coin from the right hand into the left. The right hand retains a hidden coin. While the move is being executed the performer looks at the wand to his right. That is, the performer looks away, as described above, from the deceptive move while the audience remains looking at the move during the deception. The eyes of the performer have moved to the wand. The attention of the audience has also moved to the wand even though they are still looking at the performer¡¦s hands. Once the hand arrives at the wand the hand grasps the wand. Just before the hand touches the wand, the performer¡¦s eyes look back at the left hand. The audience¡¦s attention slips to the wand and perhaps their eye¡¦s will as well. But the performer¡¦s eyes slip to his left hand. The eyes of the audience are now on the performer¡¦s hand picking up the wand. Hopefully the audience sees the hand picking up the wand and is making an assumption that that hand is otherwise empty. But the audience¡¦s attention is not on the hand picking up the wand for it is being moved to the performer¡¦s left hand. Now, all can be focused on the performer¡¦s left hand for nothing is going on insofar as deception is concerned. In this sequence of motions the eyes of the performer have constantly leaped ahead of the audience¡¦s. In so doing the audience¡¦s attention goes with but their eyes lag behind. And where they lag behind, labels are left behind indicating that that which is being recorded is recorded as nothing. This device can be used in many ways. Suppose you have a card palmed in your hand and you are also holding the deck with that hand. You wish to place the deck onto the table and insure the audience is unaware of the palmed card. Look at the spot you wish to place the deck and look away as you place the deck there. The audience might actually be looking at your hand placing the deck onto the table, however, their attention will float to whatever you are looking at next. Suppose you wish to switch a stack of real quarters for a Stack Of Quarters (quarters glued together and hollowed out). The real quarters are
displayed in your left hand and the stack is palmed in your right. You can do the switch by looking directly at the quarters in your left, bringing your right hand over the left so the contents of the left hand is hidden, and looking away to the spot where you are going to place the gimmicked stack. As you look away the right hand brings the gimmick to the finger tips of the right hand and the left hand palms the real stack of quarters turning palm down. As the right hand moves toward the spot where the eyes are looking, the gimmick stack comes into view. Let¡¦s highlight this as an important point: To cover a move first look at it and then look away. Let's move foward and discuss setting the rewind point. This is based on the idea that when we recollect what has transpired, we do not scan our memories backward. Instead, we locate a point back in our memory and scan forward to recollect what happened. The point back in our memory is referred to here as a rewind point. The misdirection technique is to set the rewind point after a magic move was executed but before the result of the move was shown to the audinece. Thus the observer reviews the magic event but not the action that caused the magic event to occur. To set the rewind point the performer can do something unusual that seems to have meaning to the audience but actually does nothing. For example, after pretending to put a coin into the left hand, the left hand might squeeze as if trying to make the coin go away. The audience may latch onto this later and get the idea that squeeze is what made the coin disappear. They, "rewind" to the point where you did the squeeze and move forward in their memory from there. They do not review the point where you pretended to toss the coin into the other hand. This method of misdirection is actually Step 4 of the Five Steps of Deception that indicates people rewind to review what has happened. In my vanishing penny example, the two students rewound to the point where the coin was in my hand. Hence, they did not review the assumption that I had picked up the penny nor did they review the assumption that I dropped a coin into my hand. Recollect that our goal is to do something which has a different outcome from which the audience assumes will happen. Given that the audience will realize that their assumption was wrong, they will of course attempt to determine what the false assumption was. Then our task is to, somehow, prevent them from detecting the assumption they were making. One way we do this is getting people to rewind to a point after the assumption was made. Or, phrased in another way, your job is to get them to rewind to a point after they made a false assumption. As this is written an incident comes to mind about the effectiveness of this vanish. The incident is about an old friend named Karrell Hovland. At the time he was working in a magic shop in Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis. One mid afternoon two young ladies about fifteen years old entered the store. They were just browsing and noticed a few magic tricks in one of the cases. They asked if he did magic to which he responded yes. Then, of course, they wanted to see a trick. One of the tricks Karrell and I were playing with at the time was the Ball and Vase. We had extended the range of that trick by adding sleight-of-hand to the use of the standard shell gimmick. Karrell decided to show them one of these routines. The Basic 3D Vanish was the first move in the routine he decided to do. So, he put the Ball and Vase on the counter top, removed the ball from the vase and used the Basic Vanish to make it disappear. He could do no more for the girls were flabbergasted. They shrieked, "Where did the ball go?" One girl grabbed his left arm and began feeling around in his sleeve. The other grabbed his right arm and began feeling around in his right sleeve. Then the other looked under the close up mat that was lying on the top of the counter. The other jumped up over the counter a bit so she could look behind the counter to see if the ball had been dropped onto the floor. During all of this the ball was resting where it does for all of us when we do some sort of transfer vanish, finger palmed in his right hand. This is testimony to the skill of Karrell Hovland and the power of the Basic Vanish. The important point here is that the ladies did not question their assumption that the ball was moved from Karrell¡¦s right hand to his left hand. Had they
questioned that, they would have immediately grabbed his right hand. Relaxing body tension is the final misdirective device we shall take up here. While doing a move, you would be wise to relax your entire body and talk softer and with a more conversational tone. While doing a sleight keep the shoulders low and relaxed. The elbows of each arm should hang limply at your sides. The body should be somewhat relaxed. I am reminded of my magic students while they were practicing the basic vanish. From across the room I could see the tension in their shoulders as they transferred a coin from one hand to another. Their head would tilt a little to one side and their jaw clinched a little bit at the point they actually clipped the coin with the thumb. Just watching their head and shoulders I could determine which part of the sleight they were doing. I, of course, did not point this out to them for they were in the beginning stages of mastering the sleight. However, at some later stage I would begin correcting this error. I am also reminded of another event many years ago at the "Fox Fun-n-Magic" shop in Detroit. I was doing some kind of trick for somebody. I cannot remember what the trick was nor can I remember who I was doing it for. However, I do remember that Barry Hurd was standing behind me at the time. Sometime after I had performed this trick Barry told me he was very impressed with what he had seen. He said that from his point of view he could see my fingers moving, holding this, clipping that or whatever. However, my body, eyes or tone of voice did not reflect the hidden actions that I was doing. He was amazed at how the two parts of the presentation were disconnected. The goal in all of this is to label sleight of hand motions as being unworthy of review when the time comes to do that. At the time of performance of a sleight, a false assumption is made. If, during the performance, your body is relaxed the chances of that move being labeled as nothing to consider is increased. Let¡¦s add this to the list of misdirective actions: When doing a sleight, relax the shoulders, arms and body while speaking a little softer. Now let¡¦s take up the devices one uses to direct the audience¡¦s attention. You may ask, after all of the foregoing, why I am interested in presenting directive techniques. Clearly I do not believe in getting the audience to look elsewhere when I am performing some move. So why am I worried about directing the audience¡¦s attention? There are two answers to this question. The first is that I want them to look at my hands when I do the dirty work. This is precisely opposite of the normal approach most magicians have to the performance of an effect. Good Virtual Magic requires that the audience be aware of all that happens during a performance. Thus, it is vital that the audience be looking at precisely the right place when the move is executed. In their mind they must remember they saw every move and could not detect any method to accomplish some phenomena. The second answer is that I want them watching when the magic event is revealed. Actually each directive technique is an opposite of some technique used as misdirection. In general anything you do that is not smooth or normal will attract attention. So there is a bit of a problem here. If you are constantly forcing your audience to look here and then there, you will overwhelm them with control and thus loose it. A desirable plan would be to allow the audience to be idle most of the time. That is, just let them watch without the need to focus on any particular thing. Then at critical times, do what you must do to focus their attention. Then you will be misdirecting them so that they label something as nothing or you will be directing them so they, "See the magic." There is a strange feeling to this. As a performer a great deal of pressure is put on you while you monitor the entire performance. You are not resting for a moment. You are on edge all of the time. However, the nature of your business is to appear quiet at times and then intense at times. But the pressure you are under is to keep your audience comfortable and content most of the time. You must hold their quiet attention on yourself. Then, because they are generally at rest, you can snap them out of their rest state as you misdirect or direct their attention. Once you focus their attention, you must contrive to get them back into their rest state so later you can force them to focus on a single point again. Let¡¦s list some actions that direct attention.
Lean forward Looking at the point you want them to focus attention on. Increased body and voice tension. Pause These items are devices that enable you to focus the audience¡¦s attention on a single point. You are doing all of these things all the time you are sitting in front of your audience. You will, of course, keep them at a low level of force until you really need to force attention to a single point. Then you simply turn on the heat to get the job done. Consider leaning forward. You are of course always leaning forward and backward. Normally the motion back and forth is slight so as not to attract undue attention. However, when you want maximum attention you will lean forward more than this normal amount. When you open your hand to reveal a coin not in then hand, lean forward as you do so. This queues the audience to look there and see what magic is occurring. When you raise the three cups at the end of a cup and ball routine to reveal the three big final loads, lean forward to get the attention fitting for a climax. The second action follows quickly behind. As you lean forward, you might also look at the point you wish them to observe closely. Again, consider opening the hand to reveal a coin gone. Simply look at the empty hand. When you reveal the chosen card, look at it not the audience. Everyone will look at the card. When you want the attention of the audience on a cup when you lift it, look at it. Of course, the intensity you look at that point must be higher than what we are calling here, the rest state or do nothing state. And another issue is that you only have a moment immediately after you look at that point to be sure the audience¡¦s attention is on that point. The reason is that human awareness or gaze is a changing thing. Try this. Put a dot on an otherwise blank piece of paper. Then look at that dot constantly. Try and keep your eyes focused on that dot. You will find that you cannot. While you focus on that dot you will feel a force on your eyes pulling you away from it. The dot will always be in your view but this force will pull you away from the dot and your intention to focus on the dot will pull your eyes back to it. Your eyes will feel as if they are bouncing back and forth a little as you look at the dot. This force affects your audience in a similar way, except they have no desire to keep their eyes in one location. Whenever they focus on a particular point, you know their gaze will shift from that point a moment later. This means that when you look at a point to cause your audience to look there, you had better be ready to reveal the big whatever, for a moment after that they will look away. Pausing also causes your audience to focus attention. However, a pause does not necessarily cause your audience to focus on a particular point. When you pause it causes the audience to search for a point to focus upon. Thus you would be wise to be looking at the point where you want them to focus. Also you would be wise to be holding your hand up displaying something thus indicating where you wish the focus to be. A side issue is that if you do not obviously indicate what the audience should focus upon they will pick the most abnormal event in their view to look at. For example, suppose you do the vanish of a coin and pause. Suppose your right shoulder is very tight. If everything else about you is relaxed the audience¡¦s attention will be on your right shoulder. Think of how disrupting this can be to a demonstration of magic. More than likely, when you arrive at the grand finale of your effect you will pause, look at the outcome while you are leaning forward. Then, a long pause is also an audience queue for applause. Building tension in you body and in your voice is similar to a pause. Again the attention of the audience will be heightened. And, again, the audience will be looking for something to focus upon. Unlike the pause however, simply tensing your body and raising your voice will not be a queue for applause. During my performance of Matrix I utilize increased body tension to focus the audience¡¦s attention on my hands. This occurs when I am "magically" causing a coin to go from one card to another. I hold my hands over the cards in an unusual and strained position. I move my hands slowly from one card to another. I know they are thinking that I am very strange. However, they are put a bit on edge. Then I relax my body and ask a question, "Isn¡¦t that amazing?" At that point I casually raise the two cards revealing that a coin traveled from one
spot to another. At that moment I have done the move to accomplish that transposition. Using body tension I have raised the attention of the audience to a high point. Due to the ideas already presented, the next step is for the audience to drop that attention. I allow them to do so, doing the dirty work at that exact instant. Then the audience sees the coin has traveled through space. From their point of view they were watching me like a hawk and yet the coin still traveled from one spot to the next. Worse, they know I was forcing them to watch me. As you can see I am using several directive and misdirective techniques when I perform Matrix. I am looking at a point, pausing and using tense body motion to focus attention. I am using the power of the question, a relaxed body, leaning back, glancing at the audience and speaking softly to communicate that I am doing nothing during the execution of the critical move. In fact, every misdirective technique presented in this document is incorporated in spades in Matrix. Before leaving the subject of misdirection, let¡¦s touch on how these techniques are used. From some of the examples offered, you can see that each is not necessarily used as a separate device. Probably none of them would work on their own. The techniques are mixed and matched into a pattern that functions as a whole. Also, they all will not work in all circumstances. If you are doing a silent trick, for example, you cannot ask a question. If you are doing a trick on TV and the camera is on your hands, you cannot depend upon the use of your eyes. All of these techniques are used in a manner similar to the way you select the sleights and props for a routine. As you plan the sequence of events for a trick you select the sleights, the misdirection techniques, patter and props you will use. Indeed, the whole flow of a routine can depend upon some necessary misdirection technique. So, there is a process of selecting the devices that can be used and weaving them together with the other elements of the trick. ? ? CHAPTER SIX BODY KINEMATICS ? In this chapter we examine how human body parts move during normal everyday action. There have been those in my past that have asked me why I want to do this. A particular event crosses my mind. The event occurred in about 1973. I was at a magic convention in Wisconsin. The people there are very, very nice people. At the time I had begun selling magic books at magic conventions. I happened to have a booth at this magic convention and, as usual at conventions, there was a dealer¡¦s show. Since I was a dealer, I of course stood up and talked about what I was selling. I talked about my books, a particular feature being the amount of space I devoted to magic theory. After I stepped off of the stage, I was approached by Ali Bongo from England. He said something about the theory I was presenting in my books. Then he looked me in the eye and said, "Do you think that is really necessary?" I did not know what to say and expressed a curiosity about why he asked the question. I do not recollect the answer. But it does raise an interesting point. Why are we doing this? In a sense this entire document is an attempt to answer Mr. Bongo¡¦s question. So, please be aware, I did not brush off his question lightly. But let¡¦s answer the question of why are we doing this. My ultimate answer is that I am doing this to achieve Virtual Magic. If you ask why do I want to do that, I¡¦ll have trouble. That is like asking me why I want to breath. Well, it sounds like kind of a good idea. But, given that I want to do Virtual Magic, the study of body kinematics better enables me to achieve that lofty goal. Achieving Virtual Magic requires creating effective false assumptions in the minds of the audience. I need to study natural body motion so I can understand how to create false assumptions. The primary goal of this chapter is to present a variety of body kinematics such as flipping a card up, transferring a coin from hand to hand and so on. That task is very large. Since I want to put all of this on the Internet soon, I do not have enough time to compile this information. Therefore this chapter will begin this task and add as time, interest and desire permits. In the
presentation for each motion three things are to be addressed. First, problems with the way many magicians perform a motion might be considered. For example, when some magicians palm a card, their hand has a fish hook look. Next will be a description on how that particular motion might normally be done. Then, a discussion about the motion may be presented. The discussion could include additional tips on how the motion is done or on alternate ways to do the motion enabling a sleight-of-hand version to be accomplished. We will begin, however, with a discussion about body motion in general. A list of factors common to most body motions will be discussed. Fast, slow, pauses and that sort of thing. Next we look at the fact that some deceptive moves are not natural and never will be. Some advice is offered on how to make these moves appear natural when they really aren¡¦t. Then we will go over a variety of body kinematics that is the primary goal of this chapter. To finish off this chapter some vital issues about sleight-of-hand kinematics will be presented. BASICS OF BODY KINEMATICS So, here is a list of general properties of body kinematics. 1. Body motion in general is quick and full of stops and starts. 2. When both hands move they start and stop at the same time. 3. Empty hands fall dead and tend to remain at rest. 4. Normal people don¡¦t look at their hands when transferring something from one hand to the other. 5. Empty hands tend to remain cupped and closed until needed. Item 1. In general people normally do not move in a slow methodical manner. Our hands are normally at rest until needed. Then they start quite suddenly to go someplace where they quite suddenly stop. Something might be picked up and carried elsewhere again with this quick start stop motion unless we are moving something like a full glass of water. Most people move their hands slowly, only when they are concentrating on something. Normally people do not pay attention to their hand motion and move them about rapidly as their attention is on some task at hand. A magician would be wise to copy this type of motion. The magician should focus his or her attention on some made up task so the hands can move about with rapidity, just as a normal person would do. For your own education, try this the next time you go out to lunch with your friends. When you pick up your glass to take a drink, move your hand toward your glass with a constant speed as you reach to pick it up. Carefully pick it up at the same speed and move it toward your mouth at the same slow speed. Return it to the table at the same speed. Remember how they respond. Item 2. Both hands do not move independent of each other. Their shared motion is highly coordinated. If one moves the other doesn¡¦t. If they both move, they both start moving at the same time and stop moving at the same time. Understand that this is the behavior when one is not concerned with how their hands are moving. Often in particular tasks, such as playing a musical instrument, this coordination may disappear. But in normal motion this behavior rules. Try an experiment. Put the fingertips of both hands on a table in front of you. Raise both hands up and forward to a point five inches further from you. Notice that both hands will start and stop moving at the same time. Next move one hand and then the other. One will start and completely stop before the other moves. Now try and not do that. Start to move one hand, then when that one is in midair move the other forward. It can be done but it takes concentration. Even when you do it successfully, you will notice that the second hand moves when the first stops moving up and begins its motion downward. The point is that you can violate these behavior rules but you won¡¦t if you are just "acting normally." Item 3. Empty hands tend to drop like a rock when they no longer have anything to do. During normal behavior when a hand is busy it will dart about, doing what it needs to do. Once a hand¡¦s task is done, then the hand falls until needed for some other task. That is, of course, unless it has some other task to do like pick up a magic wand. If so, the empty hand will dart away quickly after the wand. If the empty hand has nothing to do it drops maybe slowing down just before it hits the table to cushion its landing. If the person is sitting at a table, the hand will actually fall with a bit of a thud. The thud is controlled however, the person normally being careful not to make an attention getting noise. The hand is never, never allowed to fall to the table gently like a
feather. That sort of motion requires a great deal of attention that normal people will not devote. Item 4. In general, people do not look at their hands when doing some task that requires little attention. During the transfer of a coin from hand to hand, the normal person doesn¡¦t look at their hands. Thus, if you look at your hands during such a transfer, you will appear a bit odd. This also applies to other motions as well. When people set a glass on the table after taking a drink from it they do not watch the glass go all the way to the table. They will briefly look at the spot on which they are going to set their glass, but then they take their eyes off of the glass and it finds its way under automatic pilot. In a similar fashion, one would not pay attention to how a deck of cards were placed onto a table. Item 5. Empty hands tend to remain closed when not in use. As a test of this go someplace and watch people¡¦s hands. A library is a good place for there are a lot of hands not busy with physical things. As a drill, look at hands and try to visualize that person palming something. You will see that most of the people around you could be hiding something from you. I do hope you don¡¦t stare at their hands for long, for I would be very embarrassed for you if they say, "Why are you staring at me?" MAKING UNNATURAL MOTIONS, NATURAL The point of listing and reviewing these basic factors of body motion is so that we can integrate them into sleight-of-hand motions in the hope that the audience will make the right false assumptions. Unfortunately there are some sleight-ofhand motions that do not allow us to follow accurate normal motions. One example is picking up and cup while a ball is finger palmed in the hand. This is presented in the section on cup and ball moves. To overcome this problem the wrist was bent at an odd angle and the cup manipulated in a little different way. Thus, the handling was no longer natural. The toss change has a similar problem. If you look at parts of the move separately, they look very awkward. Palming a card and resting your hand on the table can present another problem. With a coin, the hand can relax naturally for the hand can curl conveniently around the coin. A card must be held flat, so the relaxation technique must be different. Because of these odd requirements that magic places on these motions there must be a way to make these actions seem normal in spite of themselves. Covering the coins in Matrix is another example of this problem. Normally when one pushes off a card from a packet of cards onto the table, the hand is rotated while the thumb pushes the card. Try this. Hold four cards in your right hand. Push the top card off of the top of the four with your right thumb onto the table. Make sure your thumb pushes the card all the way to the table. If you do this, you will notice that the hand rotates so the thumb can go all the way down. In the process the back of the hand rotates uppermost and the fingers are exposed to the right. If the fingers were clipping a coin it certainly would be seen. The solution is to not push a card off of the packet in this way, rather the card is pushed to the left by the thumb and the hand is moved abruptly to the right. Then, the card, because of its inertia, remains behind and falls to the table as the hand moves out of the way. This is definitely not a normal way of placing a card onto the table so is a potential problem. There are several ways to overcome these problems. One is to repeat the move over and over such that it, apparently, becomes part of your normal way of moving. This can be very tedious. However, that is what I did to handle the way I was required to pick up a cup while palming a ball. I simply sat at a table and picked the cup up and replaced it onto the table. This is not really practice but rather body training. The act was performed over and over until it felt natural. I also repeated the motion of placing a card on the table as just described. If there is any hesitation while performing these deviations, the move has not been done enough. If done correctly, you will not notice the change when the affected moves are performed. Another solution is to move the hands quickly when those difficult actions are performed. A requisite for this, of course, is that those moves are normally done fast. This does include picking up a cup with a palmed ball. It includes the Toss Change and the Pop Up move. In each of these moves the fingers and hands are actually doing several actions. While practicing them, there is a tendency to move slowly. Because they are awkward motions, they will attract a
great deal of attention when moving at that speed. However, even though the motions may be awkward and illogical, when done fast, they look very, very deceptive. Again the motion should be done over and over again. Here you are practicing for you are trying to get an awkward sequence of moves ingrained into your hands so they can act on their own. Sometimes even these techniques will not accomplish the task. Then you must train your audience. Palming a card is such an example. Suppose you wish to palm a card, place the deck onto the table and then rest your hand palming the card on the table also. You can do this but the hand will be held very flat. You realize that this motion is unlike any other motion in your act and will certainly attract attention. The solution is to train your audience by placing your hand in that position earlier in the trick or even during the trick previous to the one where the palm is needed. Let¡¦s assume you wish to do the strange motion in the same trick as you need to use it. Here is a way to handle it. Set up the routine so you are acting like a snobby American in France. Then give the deck to a spectator to shuffle. While they are shuffling, you sit very straight in the chair and put your hands on the table in a flat rest position in front of you. Now you are playing a role but you are also duplicating the hand position that will be used during the performance of the trick. Later when you have palmed a card and have asked the audience to shuffle the cards again, no one will question why your hands are lying flat on the table for you are acting like a stuffy, prim and proper snob. OBJECT KINEMATICS Now let¡¦s list a variety of motions and present how they normally appear. MOVING A COIN FROM HAND TO HAND This task has received most of my attention over the years. Books can be written about how it has been mishandled. Indeed much of this document is about this subject. So we will not cover the things that can go wrong with it except for one thing. Please do not point at the hand after doing the transfer. Sequence Right hand displays coin with some tension. Eyes looking at coin. Left hand at rest on table. Right hand begins to turn palm down over left. Left rises turning palm up to receive coin. Eyes glance at audience. Coin falls out of hand. Right hand continues moving downward as coin falls downward. Left hand is waiting for coin to arrive. Coin hits surface of palm up left hand. Right hand continues moving downward. Left hand snaps shut with some force to be sure coin is captured. Left hand fingers snap closed around coin. Right hand stops moving downward the instant the left fingers stop snapping around coin. Eyes reach the point where they are glancing at spectator. The right hand is suspended above a closed left fist (left fingers closed under right hand). The right hand is relaxed and tends to be open. Eyes begin to go back to the left hand. Right hand begins to drop to the table. Right hand starts to curl up in a relaxed position. Left hand begins to rise a bit. Right hand falls to the surface of the table with a small controlled thud. Left hand is held up as if displaying the closed left hand to the audience. Eyes are looking at the left hand. Discussion The upper hand relaxes when it releases a coin during a transfer. Often magicians will try to open the hand wide after releasing the coin. This looks unnatural causing the transfer to attract undue and usually suspicious attention from the audience. If the dropping hand has the coin to vanish palmed, this attention will be very bad. Normally, the upper hand has carried its load over to the lower hand, and once the load is released the hand simply relaxes for its task is over.
An important note. If there is no coin in the dropping hand, as might occur if the coin were lapped during a transfer, one can significantly capitalize on this. In this situation, the hand can open wide and quite quickly when it has apparently dropped a coin into the other hand. As mentioned, it will attract attention. Now, however, that attention is a plus for the audience will see the dropping hand open and the receiving hand snap shut. This creates the very strong illusion of a real coin falling through space. You are also chaining false assumptions together. An empty hand enforces the assumption that a coin fell through space into the other hand. However, you need not open the dropping hand, fingers wide, to achieve the desired effect. Relaxing the dropping hand but enabling the audience to see all of the interior of the hand is vastly better. When the coin falls into the receiving hand , that hand has a new duty. It must take care of the coin. So, it grabs it and stops moving. The hand is closed firmly, the arm and shoulder are a little bit tense. Your body language tells the audience that they should be aware of that hand for that is where the magic is going to happen. The hand will be held as if communicating to the audience that it holds an object. The empty hand now being empty, just drops like a rock to the table because it no longer has anything to do. That is of course unless it has some other task to do like pick up a magic wand. If so, the empty hand will dart away quickly after the wand. If the empty hand has nothing to do it drops maybe slowing down just before it hits the table to cushion its landing. How the fingers of the receiving hand close is another interesting point. When a coin is dropped from one hand to another the fingers of the lower hand close under the upper hand. This is a drastic difference from the traditional vanishes taught before Al Schneider On Coins appeared. In most vanishes, from that era, the fingertips of the hand doing the transfer entered the slightly closed receiving hand. Apparently when we really drop a coin from one hand to another the receiving hand is so concerned about capturing the coin it snatches it as soon as it can. The receiving hand does not allow any time at all for the fingers of the upper hand to get near the palm of the lower hand. This item of behavior is probably the most powerful element in the Al Schneider transfer vanishes. FLIPPING A CARD FACE UP ON TOP OF THE DECK This is a handling I decided to use when doing a double lift. The card is turned face up on the top of a deck of cards. I got this entire concept from the Dai Vernon Book Of Magic by Lewis Ganson. Sequence deck is held in dealing position in the left hand the right hand is curled naturally, resting on the table. eyes move to look at the deck the left thumb begins to push the top card to the right three quarters of an inch the right hand starts to rise from the table the right hand starts to turn palm up as the card moves to the right the right finger tips are placed under the right edge of the card the right thumb touches the card on the top so thumb on top and fingers are actually holding the card. At this point the top card stops moving and the right hand stops moving. The left thumb is moved to the left as if to get out of the way enabling the card to be flipped. At the same time the right hand moves the card a bit more to the right The right hand moves so your left long edge of the card is touching the top of the deck. Note that the thumb stops moving to the left when the right hand stops moving to the right. The right thumb raises allowing the card to rest on the deck and the tips of the right fingers at the same time. The right hand moves up and to your left causing the card to turn face down The motion of the right hand to the left stops when the card is face up on top of the deck. The right hand begins to curl naturally and begins to fall to the table
The left hand closes its grip on the card to keep the face up card in place The left hand moves toward the audience a bit so as to display the face up card. The eyes begin to move up to look at the audience The right hand hits the table with a controlled thud in a rest position the left hand stops moving toward the audience the eyes end their upward motion to look at the audience. Discussion The only extra point I would like to make now is that many people hold the card while it is being flipped over. That is they are not actually flipping it, but holding it on both sides as the card is turned over. Actually releasing the card and allowing to fly is very disarming. SHOWING A CARD IN A DISPLAY POSITION Magicians do double lifts in many unusual ways. Here is a handling that can be done easily with the double lift that looks quite good. Here, the right hand grasps the card from the top, turns it face up so the audience can see the face of it and returns the card back to the top of the deck. Sequence hold deck in left hand in dealing position right hand is at rest on table eyes move to look at the deck the left thumb begins to push the top card to the right three quarters of an inch the right hand starts to rise from the table the right hand remains palm down the right moves above the card opening as if to grasp the card by the short ends when the right hand is above the card it stops the left thumb stops pushing the card to the right at that moment the right hand moves downward. The card is grasped by the short ends of the card. At this moment the hands will move a bit slower as the hands are maneuvered to grasp the card. The left thumb moves to the left freeing the card. The right hand turns palm up showing the face of the card to the audience. The eyes look at the audience as the card is displayed. The left hand holding the deck does not move The right hand rotates palm down carefully placing the card back on top of the deck. The hand falls to the table into a relaxed position The left hand tightens its hold on the deck as if securing it. Discussion None yet. PUTTING A DECK OF CARDS ONTO THE TABLE The observed problem is that some magicians will be too careful with the deck while palming a card and placing the deck onto the table. They do this in a very smooth way. Their hand moves slowly to the spot the deck is to be placed, the deck is lowered to the surface at the same speed and the hand moves away with the same speed. The audience will not hesitate to look directly at this. They probably won¡¦t know what is going on, but their conscious thought will not allow them to assume nothing is going on. The deck is held in the right hand from the top. The eyes locate a spot on the table where the deck is to be placed. The hand moves forward carrying the deck to a position immediately above that spot. Here the deck is about one eighth of an inch above the surface of the table. The eyes move away from the deck. The hand relaxes allowing the deck to slip from the hand falling onto the table. The hand does not otherwise open or change position. The right hand moves away from deck toward the performer¡¦s body. As the hand moves away, the hand curls up and falls to a rest position. Discussion None yet. PUTTING A CARD ONTO THE TABLE In some routines a card is placed onto the table that has a coin concealed under it. The observed problem with this move is that some magicians will press the
coin onto the table along with the card. If the audience does not know there is a coin under the card, this motion will appear as if the performer is pressing the card into the table for no reason. Sequence A card is held in the hand. The eyes look at a spot where the card will be placed The card is moved to that location while the eyes watch. One edge of the card is placed onto the table The hand is moved away from the card, allowing the card to fall freely onto the table. The hand is moved just enough to allow the card to fall. They eyes then look away from the card The hand moves back toward the performer to a rest position. Discussion In general a method for placing a card onto the table and a hidden card, is to allow the coin to fall onto the table first, then allow the card to fall on top of it. PUTTING A MOUTH DOWN CUP ONTO THE TABLE Most performers, when setting a cup onto a table mouth down, seem to hit the table with one edge of the cup, then the cup levers down onto the table. The hand is holding the cup constantly. This simply looks awkward. Sequence The cup is held in the right hand. The cup is not held in a perfectly upright position but at a relaxed angle. The eyes locate a spot on the table where the cup is to be placed. The hand moves forward carrying the cup to a position immediately above that spot. The mouth of the cup is held perfectly parallel to the surface of the table. Here the cup is about one eighth of an inch above the surface of the table. The eyes are fixed on that spot The eyes move away from the cup. The hand relaxes allowing the cup to slip from the hand falling onto the table. The hand does not otherwise open or change position. The right hand moves away from cup toward the performer¡¦s body. As the hand moves away, the hand curls up and falls to a rest position. Discussion No comments at the present time. ROLLING A BALL UNDER A CUP I don¡¦t have much comment here for I have not seen many performers do this maneuver. However, in some write-ups about this move the hand is usually held perpendicular to the table during the performance of the sleight using this move. The major problem is that, because the hand is straight up and down, the audience on the left and right sides of the performer have a chance to see the ball rolled into the hand. Sequence Begin with a cup mouth down on a table. The ball is an inch and a half on the audience side of the cup. The right hand approaches the ball as if to pick it up. The left hand approaches the cup as if to tip it back. The eyes look at the cup. The ball is grasped by the thumb on the performer¡¦s side of the ball and the middle two fingers on the audience side of the ball. The top of the cup is grasped by the left hand so the cup can be tipped toward the performer. The right hand (the one grasping the ball) heel is near the table top. That is the hand is in a fairly relaxed position the hand being more parallel to the table top than vertical to it. The cup is tipped toward the performer, the edge of the cup nearest the performer remaining in contact with the surface of the table top. The right hand thumb and middle two finger tips grasp the ball and move it toward the cup. On the way to the cup the thumb releases its grip and moves up out of the way. The middle two fingers continue sliding the ball along the surface of the table top under the cup.
The left hand continues tipping the cup backwards. The fingers continue sliding the ball under the cup the fingers going under the cup by about an inch. When the right hand stops moving toward the performer, the left hand stops tipping the cup backward. The cup is tipped back to the surface of the table in an attempt to be sure the ball is captured. Since the right fingers were pushing it the ball can roll out of control, hence the cup is removed to the table to capture it. As the cup moves toward the table it brushes the finger¡¦s of the right hand as the fingers are moved out of the cup toward the audience. The right hand stops moving away from the cup at the same time the cup comes to rest on the surface of the table. The right hand finger tips have moved about an inch away from the cup before stopping. The right and left hand pause for a split second. Then both hands move away to a rest position. The eyes move away to whatever else is next. Discussion The motion of the hand back under the cup should be done with a bit of a snap. You kind of want to smack the ball under the cup. This quick motion is followed by tipping the cup forward quickly capturing the smacked ball. PUTTING SOMETHING INTO YOUR POCKET This is something that Mike Close brought to my attention while attending one of his lectures. The problem is that magicians will often return something to their pocket to steal some other object in a way that is suspicious. The object they steal is often lying at the bottom of their pocket. The performer then reaches all the way into the pocket, searches for the object, finds it and comes out of the pocket. Sequence The object to be put in the pocket is held in the finger tips. The eyes remain looking at the audience during the entire motion. The hand is moved toward the pocket. The hand stops at the entrance of the pocket. The fingers curl in a bit while holding the object. This is preparation to open the entrance of the pocket. The backs of the fingers press against the inside of the pocket away from the performer¡¦s body. The fingers uncurl a bit as they do this. The pocket being open the tips of the fingers are inserted into the pocket deep enough to be sure the object is inside the pocket. The fingers relax, allowing the object to fall deeper into the pocket. The hand immediately assumes a curled at rest position and is removed from the pocket. Discussion The performer would be wise to keep the object to steal near the entrance of the pocket. This could be accomplished with a clip of some sort. Then, the object being put into the pocket should be held between the first finger and second finger. This leaves the thumb and inside of the hand free to grasp the object being stolen. During performance the finger tips insert the object into the pocket. While the hand is part way into the pocket the thumb can press the object near the opening of the pocket in a finger palm position of the hand as the hand leaves the pocket. In this way the hand goes in and out of the pocket in blink. ( TO BE DONE IN THE FUTURE) PICKING A CUP UP FROM THE TABLE THREADING A STRING INTO A RING PUTTING A RING ONTO A PENCIL A FINAL VITAL INGREDIENT This chapter is dedicated to the descriptions of normal body kinematics so that we can attempt to utilize the motions in generating false assumptions. The most critical of those already discussed are the speed of motion and the nature of people to start and stop their hand motions quickly. There is one other item not
discussed yet that is very critical. This has to do with the number of real muscle motions versus sleight muscle motions. In many coin vanishes, a coin is required to be clipped by the fingers during the apparent process of transferring the coin from one hand to the other. This hinders the ability of these moves to inspire the audience to make false assumptions for they are seeing more during a false transfer than an actual transfer. The beauty of the Al Schneider Basic and Classic transfer vanishes is that there are no extra motions. In both of these moves the coin begins in the position it will be in after the sleight is performed. If you count the muscle motions the hands will do during the actual transfer of a coin and compare that to the muscle motions done during either of these sleights, you will see the count is the same. In those vanishes wherein two fingers must clip the coin, there are two extra motions. One to extend the fingers to clip the coin and another to pull the coin back into the hand. Even worse, after the sleight is done, the coin is moved to palm position as the hand moves to a rest position. Then the hand is seen to be moving when there is not supposed to be anything in the hand! The correct action is to have the same number of motions in actual and sleightof-hand motions. This is a critical point so let¡¦s highlight it. In any motion of deception there should be the same number of sleight muscle motions as there are real muscle motions. Now let¡¦s review two moves which obey this principle and are very, very successful. The first is the Al Schneider Basic Transfer Vanish. In this vanish the thumb holds the coin in the right hand during the vanish motion. To do this the thumb must move from the side of the hand to where the coin is, to clip it. The thumb is moved at the same time the hand is rotated to drop the coin into the other hand. This obeys some of the principles presented earlier. The thumb starts moving when the hand starts turning. The thumb stops moving when the hand stops turning. No one, absolutely no one sees the thumb move. In fact, when people learn the vanish, they are not aware that the thumb is moving when it should not be. When you tell them that the thumb does not normally move like that, they will say, "You know, I never thought of it that way." Another example is how the first coin is picked up in Matrix. It is picked up while a card is placed over the location where the coin is lying. Most people new to the trick will push the card over the coin, pick up the coin by bending the fingers and then allow the card to fall on that spot. That looks very bad. However, if the coin is picked up at the same time the hand moves to the right allowing the card to fall to the table, the pickup is totally invisible. This is actually scary. The motion of picking up the coin is done at exactly the same time the thumb is raised when the hand begins to move to the right. If you show someone the move as three separate moves, what you are doing is very obvious. If you do those two moves at the same time, there suddenly is no move and you apparently have simply allowed a card to fall to the table. This single technique of matching sleight-of-hand muscle motions to real muscle motions is probably responsible for my reputation in magic. The application of this technique to all of the standard moves of magic transforms the standard moves into a new technology. What appears as invention is actually renovation. ? ? CHAPTER SEVEN CLARITY ? To enhance the impact of your magic, perform with clarity. An event occurred at the magic shop in Detroit long ago that stands out in my mind whenever the subject of clarity comes up. At this particular incident I was talking to a young boy and a middle aged man we will call Bob. Bob said he was a magician and we were sharing thoughts on magic. Bob decided to do a magic trick and brought forth a coin, showed it to the young boy and proceeded to make it disappear. After initially showing the coin, his entire body began to move violently. He flung his arms around so rapidly I stepped back and brought my hands up to protect myself. After this sudden show of violent activity, the man, just as
suddenly stopped with his hand held in front of himself closed as if it held a coin. Then, with a dramatic flair, he blew on his hand and opened it to show nothing in his hand. Then he looked at me and asked, "Did you see where the coin went?" Answering truthfully I said, "No." A smile spread across his face expressing triumph with his deception. WHAT IS CLARITY When I speak of clarity I am not suggesting the audience understand what you are doing. I am suggesting that the audience has a clear understanding of what the effect is. If a coin is to disappear it is nice to show the coin in your hand, close your hand and open it to show it gone. It is not nice to show a coin, put it into a box, wrap it in a rubber band, get a member of the audience to come up, sign the rubber band, give that person a magic wand to wave over the box then unwrap the box open it and show the coin gone then have the box examined. PRIMARY GOAL OF CLARITY The purpose of clarity is to enable the audience to know they have seen everything, know they saw an unnatural result and know they cannot explain the unnatural result. You must allow people to watch what is going on so they know they are fooled. Matrix is an example of this. When Matrix is performed there is not much going on. Cards are picked up and cards are put onto the table. That is it. There is no doubt in the minds of the spectator of what the effect is supposed to be. So they need not try and figure out what is supposed to be happening. They can devote their energy to trying to figure how it is happening. The more energy they devote to that, the more they are fooled. However, even in Matrix this clarity depends upon the speed with which it is performed. Those performers that snap the cards creating the idea something else is going on are destroying the inherent clarity in Matrix. Those performers that rush through each transition are destroying the inherent clarity in Matrix. Thus, one of the critical components of clarity is timing. TIMING IN 5 STEPS OF DECEPTION Again we refer to the Five Steps Of Deception. One of its purposes of existence was to focus on this issue of timing. The Five Steps Of Deception divide a single magic event into five critical components. Effective deception depends upon each of these five components being clearly performed and allowing a bit of time to pass after each one to allow the audience to absorb what has transpired. While this is not the totality of clarity, it is a very critical component. Let¡¦s reexamine each step and consider the importance of each step. We will use the example of doing a coin vanish. If, in the first step the audience does not see a coin in your hand they will not perceive that something disappeared. They may see you make some motion and show your hand empty. They will see no point to that. So, when you make a coin disappear you must first show the coin. You must allow them a moment to absorb the fact you are holding a coin. If, in the second step, the audience cannot clearly see that you (apparently) moved the coin from one hand to the other, they will see no magic when you open the receiving hand. You must present that sleight clearly so they form an idea that the coin was transferred. Then, if they are not given time to realize the coin was transferred, they will not realize the coin is supposed to be in the other hand when it is opened. If, in the third step, the audience is not shown there is no coin in the receiving hand, no magic will have occurred. You must open the hand and allow the audience to see an empty hand for some specific amount of time for the audience to absorb the idea the coin is now gone. Then comes the critical step. If, in the fourth step, you do not allow the audience to review the first three steps, the audience will not have an opportunity to realize they cannot explain what has transpired and will not realize that magic has happened. Likewise in the fifth step, the audience must be allowed a moment to decide that they have been fooled. Magicians deceive themselves when they think that they alone create the illusion of magic. The spectator is the one that actually decides they are fooled. The magician merely sets the stage to enable the spectator to come to that conclusion. And setting the stage requires that each step must be clearly communicated. In a sense all of this can be reduced to a need to understand the basic elements of communication. DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION Let¡¦s take a closer look at communication. During normal communication between people someone speaks and the other listens. The listener gets the message. When the speaker finishes the message they often raise or lower their voice at the
end of that message. This let¡¦s the listener know the message is complete. The listener will then indicate, in some way, the message was received. The listener may nod, grunt, say "OK", or say, "I got that!" A performer, to be clear, must follow the same pattern with the audience. Unfortunately, during a performance, the performer must accept part of the task of the listener. The performer¡¦s actions are the message¡¦s being sent to the listener. The performer must mark the end of messages for the audience/listener. Then the performer must allow for the time the audience/listener does something to indicate they got the message. This can be difficult, for often the audience, playing the role of a good audience will not always respond for their duty is to sit their and watch. None the less, the performer must recognize that the audience gets the message and has sent a silent mental indication that they got the message. Only then can the performance continue. If the performer does not allow this "message transfer time" to occur and does not allow that time to occur in which the audience indicates receipt of the message; they will not be ready to move on. They will not see the magic. Just as when someone talks into your face too fast, your actions will become a blur to the audience. How this adds to the impact of your show is clear. Seeing a coin and then not knowing where it is considerably different from seeing a coin and seeing it disappear. This is a matter of clarity and communication. ELIMINATE POSSIBILITIES Clarity depends upon doing as little as possible to achieve the desired effect. In this way the audience focuses on the important issue, where did the coin go? And not on all the possible points where the magician could sneak the coin away. The more possibilities you have to slip the coin away, the less clear your coin vanish will be and the less impact it will have. In general while doing the magical moves, make an effort to behave in a normal way. An odd move will not be understood by the audience and they might say, that is when you accomplished the deception. Perhaps they audience will see nothing but such actions can generate the thought, "if I were watching closer I could have see how he did it." IN MULTIPLE EFFECTS ONLY DO ONE EFFECT AT A TIME Let¡¦s move onto another aspect of enhancing the clarity of magic. Let¡¦s take up speed of performance. Often performers will perform effects very quickly preventing the audience from following what has transpired. An effect that suffers greatly from this is the transposition of two objects. A popular one is a copper and silver coin changing places or two playing cards changing places. One of my favorite gags when around magicians is to name a card and place it face down on the table, name another card and place it face down on the table. Then announce the two cards change places. The two cards are turned face up and I look at the person in front of me and ask, "Did you see the move?" They look at me like I am daft. However, it never occurs to them that three minutes previous they showed me an effect of which they executed some moves and produced the same effect. I have realized after several years of dismal failure that an audience cannot follow the action when two things change places. Take a copper and silver transposition. There is only one way to do it. Show that the copper changes to silver. Then stop there for a moment and allow the audience to realize the copper has changed to silver. Once they grasp that then you can show the previously silver coin has changed to copper. Once they grasp that, they can then realize that the two coins have changed places. There is a trick on the market in which checkers, rice and water change places. The props are beautiful and cleverly constructed. However, the few times I have seen it I see the performer shows some containers that contain checkers, rice and water. Then I see the checkers, rice and water removed from some containers. I don¡¦t see this stuff change places. I see each item put into something and removed from something. That¡¦s it. Not much of an impact on me. When doing effects in which multiple things occur, break them apart as separate effects. Allow the audience to weave them back together as a transposition or whatever. FOCUS ON ONE EFFECT OR DON¡¦T MIX EFFECTS At one of the first IBM meetings I ever went to, one of the members did a trick in which someone wrote something on a card and stuck it into one of five
envelopes. The performer ascertained which envelope it was in and caused it to disappear from the envelope and appear elsewhere. Karrell Fox happened to be at the meeting and offered this advice. Do not mix effects. Detecting the position of the note was one effect. Causing it to transport to another location was another effect. They should be kept separate. Doing them together would confuse the audience. DOING EXTRA MAGIC OBSTIFICATES THE EFFECT OF MAGIC Recently Mike Close visited St. Paul giving a lecture. He performed a trick in which a name written on a business card was duplicated on other cards held next to the first. The name used was of an individual selected from the audience by the audience. Not only that, the color of the pen used to write the person¡¦s name on the card in the first place was also selected by the audience. I was totally fooled by this effect. I did not know how it was accomplished. But I was also perplexed by one thing, why was the color of the pen selected by the audience? My mind was really stuck on that. I could not see what role the color of the ink played. Then Mike explained the how the effect worked. The routine was and is a work of genius. Only after the effect was explained did I understand the reason for selecting the color of the ink. But I also remember trying to understand, when I didn¡¦t know, what the role of it was. I believe the effect would be cleaner if the effect was simply done with black ink. To me the trick was obstificated by trying to show that there was no set up. The reason for allowing the audience to select the color was to demonstrate that. Brainwave is another example. In the original Brainwave a card is named and that named card is found upside down in a deck of playing cards. It is also found to be of the opposite color from the other cards. A very powerful effect. However, the two results can be confusing. For the card to be upside down is very good. But for it to be a different color suggests that there is more going on than simply flipping a card over. It is interesting to see that as this trick matured the color difference has been dropped. The result is a much cleaner effect. A named card is found upside down in the deck. It is virtual magic. The audience is spared the mental gymnastics trying to determine the roll of a different colored card. DONT DO MAGIC TO PROVE NOTHING One Saturday I was hanging around the Hall¡¦s Magic Shop in Detroit talking to another magician. He was much older than myself, although we were both new to magic. He showed someone that was browsing in the shop a color change. Well the move was not done real well and the spectator said, "Oh, you just put one card over the other!" Well, let¡¦s face it guys, we just got caught. However, after the spectator was gone, my friend said that he should do a double lift to show that the previous card actually did change. Then I realized, if you need to do a move to prove another move, you are really losing. There are several problems with doing something like that. In the first place there is some confusion with the first effect. That confusion is there because you are doing a move. If you are going to do a second move, you are not going to clear anything up, you are going to cause more confusion. In the second place if they think they have you, chances are they will have you on the second move as well. Then, finally, if you are getting caught in the first place, why are you still doing the trick? Just as the doctor said when his patient complained about his arm hurting when he held it straight up, "Don¡¦t do that!" Of course the better answer would be to do the trick right. Find out what is wrong and fix it. Unfortunately there are many routines in the world that do some move and then use some other device to prove the move was actually done. The gimmicks that people attach to their arms to cause a sound like rattling coins is such a device. I am not saying that this is a bad device. In its own right it is a brilliant device. However, the way I have seen it used is disappointing. When a magician tosses several coins into one hand and then uses the rattler to prove the coins are there, I get embarrassed for the magician. Clearly the performer wants to tell the audience the coins are actually in the hand. So, he rattles the coins and grins as if he is really pulling something off. Well, if the performer really wishes to prove the coins are in his hand, why doesn¡¦t he just open his hand and show the coins? Duh? No, the performer keeps his hands closed rattling away with this grin on his face that implies, "See the coins are really there!" Now the audience might think about this in several ways. "Oh, this must be an artist for what he is doing simply doesn¡¦t make sense. It must be deep." Or they might
think, "Hmmm, he can¡¦t show the coins, otherwise he would. I wonder how he makes that noise?" Now I sound very cavalier in criticizing those rattle lovers. However, I have a bad memory of my own about this. Long ago while learning about all of this, I was devoted to Modern Coin Magic and was doing a coins across routine. I was using the click pass to get one of the coins to go across. I did it at work one day for one of the secretaries. I did the vanish move and then did the click pass. Then the coin magically traveled from one hand to the other. Then she looked at me and said, "Oh that¡¦s really cute. How did you get the coin to clink like that?" That, my friends, is what put me on the road to coming up with the Pop Up move. With that move you can put two coins into one hand, the audience will not doubt that you have done so and you don¡¦t need to get a clink to prove it happened. Getting back to the rattle lovers. If the device is used to subtly "prove" the coins are in the hand after an effective false pass, then I approve. For example, after the performer puts a stack of coins into the left hand and then reaches for a magic wand, the coins clank as the performer gets the wand out from under his coat. This is a different scenario. Or the performer can do a false pass to the left hand and then just before the coins vanish they rattle a little bit during the process of disappearing. That can be astounding. However, my concern is that rattle lovers are using it to compensate for a bad or weak false pass of several coins. Well, I guess I beat this one to death. In conclusion, don¡¦t do a move to show nothing happened. GOOD BEHAVIOR Timing, communication and effect structure are somewhat elusive. They are very important but doing them well much less understanding them requires skill and practice. The are some mechanical things, however, that greatly affect the clarity of a performance. These are very basic items such as where you hold your hand. There are a number of them. The first we will take up is the positioning of your hands on the close-up pad. Your pad is your stage. There are some basic rules to follow. Try and stay on the pad. Don¡¦t go off the left or to the right. Also attempt to stay in the middle of the pad as you perform. As the audience is in front of you, the center of the pad for them will be near their side of the pad well away from your body. The most critical rule about pad positioning is that you should not move your hands from side to side while performing. This bears some more explanation. The following would be an inappropriate pattern of behavior. The performer could show a coin at the finger tips of the right hand on the performer¡¦s right side of the pad. Then the hand could carry the coin to the center where it is apparently transferred to the left hand. The left hand continues to carry the coin (now a pretend coin) to the performer¡¦s left side of the pad where the left hand is opened showing the coin gone. Then in a dramatic sweep, the hand is moved from performer¡¦s left to right showing both sides of the audience that the coin is gone. The problem is that this sort of moving behavior disperses the audience¡¦s attention. Their task should be to try and figure out how some miracle happened. With the behavior just described the audience is spending a majority of their attention just keeping up with the motion of the hands from side to side. A more appropriate way would be to keep both hands in the middle of the pad. Then one hand would show a coin and place it into the other hand. That hand opens showing the hand empty. At that point the hand would not move but remain fixed in space allowing the audience time to consider what happened. Consider a made up trick to further illustrate this point. Suppose the performer cups his right hand and places it palm down on the performer¡¦s right side of the pad. Then the performer cups his left hand and puts it palm down on the left side of the pad. Then the right hand is raised to reveal a ball. Then the left hand is raised to reveal another ball. This would be a very good trick. However, the audience would tend to feel cheated. First their eyes are pulled to one side. The magic happens at the other side so their eyes are pulled over to there. Then magic happens on the other side. The audience would feel like they were being pulled away in order for some deception to occur. Side to side action can be confusing and irritating. Consider a better trick. The performer puts both hands together in the middle of the pad. The hands are held palm up. Both hands are cupped together palm down
right in the middle of the pad. Then both hands are turned palm up revealing a golf ball sitting on the pad. This just sounds much cleaner and more appealing. There is no confusion of where one should be looking. There is no other place to look. The hands were in the middle, the hands closed down in the middle and the ball appeared in the middle. The point of all this? Don¡¦t move your hands about when you perform. Allow the audience to focus on one point where the magic is occurring. Several of the things in this to-do list are about keeping a same position before and after a move of some kind. Next we are addressing Spellbound and producing a coin from behind you arm. The effort is not to specifically address these issues but, rather, to address a class of motions. The idea is to present some commonality between events so the audience does not need to invest mental energy to eliminate those events from the magic process. Spellbound is an example. In this effect a coin is held by the tips of the fingers and the tip of a thumb. The other hand covers the coin. When the coin is uncovered the coin is seen to be different. The point here is that the position of the fingers and thumb should be exactly the same after as before. If the fingers are straight before the change and curved after the change a spectator will quickly consider that while questioning what happened. Often the fingers are curved after because they had to change position to catch one coin as it fell. If however, the fingers are held curved before as well as after, the audience will not be as apt to question the position of the fingers. They will see that the coin was covered and uncovered without any other change. The only explanation can be that magic has happened. (Well, let¡¦s just say the illusion of magic is enhanced.) The same technique can be used when producing a coin from behind your arm or from behind a scarf. If your fingers are curved as your hand goes behind your arm and comes out holding a coin at the finger tips and now your fingers are straight, the impression is that the coin was in your curled up fingers and was brought to your finger tips so that you no longer need to keep your fingers curled. You would be wise to keep your fingers curled before and after. This greatly enhances the illusion of magic. Now I am not suggesting that this little change will convert what is essentially Clown Magic into Virtual Magic. What I am suggesting is that you can inject some suspension of disbelief and sell the idea that it appears like magic. In fact, if you are able to show your hand totally empty and reach behind your arm and bring forth a coin, it could appear as Virtual Magic. If however, the shape of the hand is different before and after you might convert Virtual Magic to Theater Magic for the audience will notice the difference and assume you somehow got a coin to your hand from which you got it to your finger tips. Now let¡¦s discuss taking and putting. I have heard and read something about transfer vanishes that say taking is better than putting or putting is better than taking. I can¡¦t remember which. I have not noticed much difference between the two. In general most of my motions are putting motions. So, having a vested interest in that form, I am prejudiced and lean toward that form. However, I have found something that is superior to take or put. That is stay. In general the idea is that the object being transferred not be moved at all. Or, don¡¦t take or put. I am not necessarily advocating this position. However, I am indicating that when this principle is utilized, the results are quite stunning. For sake of clarity let¡¦s apply a name to this when it is used to vanish a coin. Let¡¦s call it the Mental Retention Vanish. This is of course a take off on the Visual Retention Vanish name. In the Mental Retention Vanish the coin is held in one location in space. This includes the pretend coin that is a part of the vanishing motion. As an example of the Mental Retention Vanish let¡¦s assume we are using a Snap Back Vanish motion. In this motion a coin is held at the right finger tips. The left hand covers the coin and the right hand finger tips snap the coin into the right hand. The left closes around a pretend coin then opens a moment later to show the coin gone. This is basic stuff. Now, let¡¦s make it a Mental Retention Vanish. Start out by holding the coin precisely in front of yourself at your right hand finger tips. The left hand is at rest position. The left hand approaches the coin. The coin does not move. The left hand covers the coin. The right hand fingers snap the coin back. However, the pretend coin or the spot where the audience thinks the coin to be, remains fixed in exactly that one spot. Then the right hand drops to a relaxed position. The left hand closes around the pretend coin. However, the left hand does not change
position but keeps the pretend coin in that one same location in space. Then the hand is opened revealing the spot where the pretend coin is supposed to be. Now there is not a coin there! The power of this is quite extraordinary. This is one of those things you can entertain yourself with while standing in front of a mirror for hours. It also seems to work with any kind of vanish technique. The trick is to keep the coin and its pretend counterpart in the same physical location. The term Mental Retention Vanish is applied for the audience does not see the physical coin at all during the move. They must mentally locate where the coin is during the brief time period the move is done. Try it you¡¦ll like it. Now let¡¦s switch to a problem with cards. To see examples of this problem you can go to any magic meeting and simply watch the show. Chances are that fifty percent of the performers that do card tricks will not allow you to see the faces of the cards. They will hold the cards so that they, the performer, can see the cards just fine. However, they will be unaware that the audience cannot see the faces but will be looking at the edges of the cards. To solve this problem the performer must twist his wrists so the faces turn toward the audience. There are two problems with this. First, this action puts strain on the performer¡¦s wrists and therefore is avoided. Second, some card moves cannot be performed when the cards are tilted. The solution is to practice performing for an audience that might be sitting in front of you. During the practice you train yourself to keep those hands tilted forward. You also learn to modify the card moves slightly so they can be performed while the cards are tilted forward. This can be very difficult. However, if you wish to perform magic as opposed to displaying the fancy edges of your cards you might want to take this under advisement. Well, that is the items that are fairly mechanical in nature. Doing them is a matter of practicing them. One cannot think of doing all of these things while one is performing. They are actually like sleights and misdirective techniques. They should be considered as a class of items to be incorporated into your act. Then as you build your act, you select a gimmick, a sleight, a misdirection technique and an appropriate way to hold or move your hands on the close-up pad. All of these are woven together and practiced as a unit. APPLICATION OF CLARITY ENHANCING AN EFFECT I cannot help but offer one more example of the importance of clarity. This one concerns the Rubric¡¦s Cube. There is an effect on the market in which a cube is shown to be not ordered. Then the performer tosses the cube into the air and it magically becomes ordered. At some point I had seen the trick performed and was not told the method. I was not impressed with the trick. To me the cube was simply close to being solved. The performer, under the guise of showing the cube was normal and "shuffled", twisted the cube a bit. To me the performer simply twisted the cube into its final order and kept it covered to conceal the fact it was solved. Then the performer tossed the cube into the air coming down solved. I was not impressed. Years later someone coming through town demonstrated the trick and showed how it worked. Now I think the trick is brilliant. However, the performance suffers greatly from lack of clarity. The performers, due to a fear of being discovered, cover the cube with their hands and destroy the effect. In my mind the effect should appear as follows. The cube can be shown at the finger tips to be "shuffled". The performer twists the cube a bit to show it is a normal cube while chatting. Then the performer holds the cube at his eye level and shows the cube on all sides as shuffled. The performer holds his other hand palm up waist level. The cube is allowed to fall to the palm up hand. As it falls the cube solves itself for when it hits the lower hand, one side of the cube is blue, one is white and so on. This can be a very significant trick. I mean really significant. It all depends upon clarity. What would I do different? First of all I would work out a paddle move with the cube. One can hold even a large cube such as this at the finger tips and rotate the wrist and the cube in the finger tips at the same time. Doing this would present the same side to the audience although it would appear the cube is shown on several sides. With this the routine would proceed a bit different. The routine would begin by showing the cube at the finger tips with the paddle like move. The cube appears very shuffled anyway so even doing a bad paddle move will appear very normal and nothing will be revealed. However, doing the paddle move
at this point sets up the audience to not challenge the motion a moment later. Then the performer could twist the cube parts showing the cube normal and still shuffled. In reality 5 sides become ordered while one side, due to special construction, shows random colors. At this point most performers cover the solid colors with their hands in preparation for the magic. The audience here believes the performer has lined something up and is covering it. Instead the performer could hold the cube at the finger tips and do the paddle move showing the shuffled color side several times as different sides. The audience will see lots of shuffled colors and, because the performer is holding the cube in a very open manner will not mentally focus on the solid colors they might happen to see. In fact they will not notice the solid colors even if they see them. Then the performer can allow the cube to fall into the other hand, the single shuffled side against the hand. All sides will now seem ordered. That, my friends, will appear as real magic. CONCLUSION The point of all this is to get you to think about clarity while doing magic. Several issues have been touched upon. They only serve as examples of the infinite things that can be done. Your goal should be to enable your audience to clearly understand what effect you are trying to produce without understanding how it is accomplished. As is pointed out elsewhere in this article, the biggest motivation would come from taking the point of view the audience during one of your performances. ? ? CHAPTER EIGHT THE PEOPLE PART ? One winter I went with a group of people to Salt Lake City to ski. There is a very nice ski resort in the mountains there. There is a little town in the mountains that is essentially part of the ski area. You can leave your hotel room, go down to the end of the block and get on a ski lift. From that ski lift you can get on an entire mountain range on skis. This little town is full of small shops and stores. After skiing you can walk up and down the main street looking in windows, shopping and snacking at small cafes. After skiing one evening one of the members of the group, Anne, and I walked around the small shops. The reason I bring Anne into this picture is that she is a catalyst for conversation. Anne is opposite from me. Wherever she goes, she talks to people. She is very skilled at it. As we walked up and down the street, stopping in shops here and there, she would strike up conversations with sales people in the stores. We stopped in one shop that had very attractive photos, blown up and framed. For some reason Anne and the people that ran this shop really hit it off and we spent some time there. While there, an event occurred that I wish to share with you as an introduction to this chapter. I did some very bad magic that went over very, very well. As I said, Anne is a very good conversationalist. So, while in this store, she talked and I stood around listening. As time wore on, Anne told the three ladies in the shop that I did magic. Of course they wanted to see some. I thought of what to do. I scanned my memory and recalled that most times I am in this position, I do some little thing that never really goes over that well because I really don¡¦t have anything to do in these situations. This kind of environment is simply not my turf. I usually try to impress everyone anyway and it tends to go flat. This time I decided to be different. I did some dumb little tricks. Anything I did that was sort of serious magic, I did poorly. The response was amazing. Everyone was laughing at what I was doing and everyone enjoyed my little show. I was amazed. I wasn¡¦t trying to fool anyone. I was just trying to have fun. They seemed to like ME. From this point forward, my style of magic changed. I did not stop trying to fool people. My whole goal in doing magic is to fry people¡¦s brain. I want people to believe that, for a moment, the physical laws of nature have been changed. I want them to feel like their mind is tilted twenty degrees out of whack. However, I stopped being a performer. At some point I realized that
people want to be backstage. They want to be part of showbiz somehow and they want their friends to think they are on the inside. So I stopped being a performer and became a person willing to be very friendly to someone and invite them behind the curtain and show them what goes on. To put this in another way, I figured out that you must be a human being before you are a magician. This is very important, so let¡¦s make it bold and highlight it: You must be a human being before you can be a magician. The critical issue here is: does the audience like you or dislike you? Is the audience comfortable watching your act? Do they want to see more? Are they willing to admit they are fooled? Are they willing to admit to themselves they are fooled? Are they willing to admit to you they are fooled? Are they willing to admit to the person that hired you that they are fooled? STEP 5 Let¡¦s visit the Five Steps Of Deception once again. Our goal in doing magic is to create an illusion for the audience we have done magic. The Five Steps Of Deception describe the elements of achieving this. The first three steps outline the performer¡¦s part of the task. The last two parts outline the audience¡¦s part of the task. The performer has control over the first three steps and must do those in such a way that when the audience works on their part, the last two steps, they reach the goal we wish to achieve. If the audience in step five, FOR ANY REASON, does not make the decision that they are fooled, THE PERFORMER HAS NOT REACHED THE GOAL. If the performer does a perfect pass and the audience decides they are not fooled in step five then the performer has failed. If the performer does a perfect double lift and the audience decides they are not fooled in step five then the performer has failed. If the performer has thirty years of theater experience and the audience decides they are not fooled in step five then the performer has failed. If the performer does a killer act and the audience decides they are not fooled in step five then the performer has failed. Doing one thing does not mean the other follows. Getting an audience to make a false assumption is very difficult to do. Getting an audience to decide that they are fooled is even more difficult. Because you can do one, does not mean you can do the other. If subtle things affect assumptions in step two then subtle things affect the conclusion in step five. The primary goal here is how to deal with the situation in step 5 when the audience must draw a conclusion about whether they are fooled or not. If the audience is comfortable with you, they can make a decision they are fooled. If they like you, they want to make a decision they are fooled. If they don¡¦t like you they will not want to make a decision they are fooled. You are aware that an audience makes assumptions while they watch you. You understand how subtle the relationship is between a little move you make and the assumption or false assumption the audience will make. In a similar way, the opinion of the audience has a subtle effect on how the audience makes decisions on what they have observed. Most magicians understand that a gimmick or sleight can affect what the audience observes. Most magicians know that a gimmick or sleight can cause the audience to interpret reality in a wrong way. However, most magicians do not understand that what the audience thinks of the performer can also affect what the audience observes. Also, most magicians do not understand that what the audience thinks of the performer can affect how the audience reacts. Magicians often make a false assumption. If the audience cannot explain something, magicians assume the audience will conclude that magic has happened. This might be a false assumption. People see pictures on TV of far away places. They cannot explain how that works. Yet, they do not call it magic. There are people that do not know that the engine in a car makes the back wheels go round which propels the car forward. From their perspective, the car moves forward when one presses down on the gas pedal. They have no clue about the relationship between the gas pedal and the rear wheels. Yet, they do not call it magic. SOME EXAMPLES OF SPECTATORS NOT DRAWING A CONCLUSION THEY SAW MAGIC. A couple of examples come to mind of people that observed a magical event, but
did not see the magic. Long ago I decided to try doing magic on open stages at local comedy clubs. At one I did Zombie. At one show a woman ducked behind a chair to avoid being attacked by the flying ball. She was two seats back from the front row of chairs. The ball really looks like it floats. After a show at one of these comedy clubs the manager of the club expressed his opinion about the Zombie routine. He said, "I really don¡¦t care about tricks that anyone can go down to the magic shop and buy!" I also had done Trouble Wit during the show. He loved that. He wanted to get together with me and write patter and make a really "theatrical" routine out of this "wonderful idea". Another event occurred when I was visiting relatives in the middle of Ohio. That is where my mother grew up on a farm. My family was over at one of our relative¡¦s farms on a sunny afternoon. I did an ambitious card routine for the master of the house. He did not seem the least bit surprised at a card constantly jumping to the top of the deck. I stopped performing, for I could see I was getting nowhere, and asked how he thought all of this was occurring. He said, "That¡¦s how playing cards work!" Larry Jennings could suffer from the same problem. Long ago in Detroit, he had a party at his house one evening; including a few magicians. Some of us were trying out a few tricks. Larry did a card trick for this attractive young lady. The effect was that she cut a deck into four packets. When the top card of each packet was turned face up, each was an ace. I remember standing beside Larry, looking down at the cards, four aces face up and this blond looking expressionless at them. Larry said, "Well, what do you think?" She said, "About what?" He said, "Isn¡¦t it odd that you cut to the four aces?" She said, "No, that¡¦s just what they happened to be!" (Boom, crash, burn) What exactly was going on in these peoples minds, I cannot say. They, however, saw something they could not explain. Yet, for some reason, they did not understand that something significant occurred. I believe the guy that managed the comedy club was interested in his personal agenda and had no interest in what my capabilities were. Then, my relative probably thought I was not supposed to be capable of something significant or I was a city slicker and not to be trusted. The issue is this, just because you can do miracles does not mean other people will recognize them as miracles. Let¡¦s highlight this. Miracles are in the eye of the beholder. Then the next follows. If they don¡¦t behold you, they won¡¦t behold miracles. This is particularly devastating in theater magic in which part of the deception depends upon your part to be an actor. Theater magic requires the suspension of disbelief. If you cannot act as if your audience likes you, all is lost. THE BEST YOU CAN DO I attended a very nice magic get-together in Chicago some time ago. One of the lecturers was Al Koran. Listening to a pro talk about his business is very interesting. He revealed to us his aspirations in mentalism. He said when he started he wanted to convince his audience that he could actually read minds. He worked feverishly to achieve this end. He became a pro and did many shows. While doing these shows he observed a very common thing. After he did some particularly devastating miracle, he could see all the wives in the club turn to their husbands and ask, "How does he do that?" To this question the husband would respond, "There¡¦s a trick to it!" After years of performing he decided that if they said, "That Al Koran is a pretty nice guy," when he walked off stage; he had done the best he could do. SO, WHAT IS NEXT? All of the foregoing is an attempt to convince you that you should struggle to get your audience to like you. If I am successful in getting you to think that is an admirable goal, then I would consider myself very successful. Then, the chapter could end here for I cannot really tell you how to get people to like you. However, I have spent a lot of time trying to answer this question for myself. So, I will share some of my conclusions with you. My first big step in this pursuit was to realize that everyone else is not like me.
PEOPLE TYPES Somewhere on my travels through life I came upon a very good tool expressing the difference between people. It has the label of Meyers Briggs Personality Profiles. Before encountering this tool I had great doubts about such categorizations of people. However, after taking a small test and reviewing the results of it, I was thoroughly impressed. It is not something that makes a judgment about people. Rather it attempts to ascertain how individuals make decisions about the world around themselves. To give a real flavor about what this is all about I will summarize the system. Understanding some of this is valuable in this chapter for it could enable you to better appreciate your audience. The system categorizes people¡¦s attitudes in four categories. Each category has two sides. An individual will tend to one side or the other. Sometimes an individual can be in the middle so there is nothing actually absolute about it. There have been books and books written on this subject, however, perhaps I can offer a very, very short summary of it. To do all this quickly I will label each category A, B, C and D. Then each side of each category will be 1 and 2. I must point out that the following is not how this material is presented in these books. The following is my brief interpretation. A1 Some people like to think inside their head before voicing an opinion. A2 Others like to voice their point of view to hear how it sounds to others. B1 Some people like to believe that everything in the world is real. B2 Others like to think that everything in the world is a point of view. C1 Some people want to do the right thing even if it may hurt someone. C2 Other people want do the thing that helps people. D1 Some people believe that now is the most important time in life. D2 Others believe that each individual is a result of past experiences and that determines what is important. I personally am A1, B2, C1, D2. What this means is that I think mostly inside my head and normally only tell people what I am thinking once I have clearly thought something through. I believe the world is constructed from many points of view and, as such, the world can be changed for the better. I am more concerned with the truth than whether or not anyone disagrees with me. Finally, I believe each of us is a combination of our past experiences that we use to make decisions in the future. Only about 1.5% of the population have this particular combination of characteristics. This means that what I see and the conclusions I draw are different than 98.5% of the people around me. Now here are some interesting points. About 75% of people are type B1. This means that most people believe that the world is very fixed and unchangeable. These people tend to believe what they read in the newspaper. This is opposite from what I believe. These people also tend to believe you when you tell them you placed a coin into your other hand. They also tend to believe more in magic for they are easier to deceive. After all, what they see is real. They tend not to doubt what they see with their own eyes. Also, about 75% of the world are C2¡¦s which means that most people are more interested in protecting the feelings of others rather than exposing them to the truth. Thus, they would rather believe that you do magic rather than suggesting that you are cheating them. They want you to feel good about yourself. Consider the A2, B1, C2, D1 type. This person is exactly my opposite. This personality type wants everyone to be happy and will never find fault with anyone¡¦s behavior. This person¡¦s goal in life is to use their talents to create joy right now without concern for what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future. This person tends to be the life of the party. Everything you do will please this person. When you do magic for this person, they will not review any false assumptions they have made. They, however, will not respond to significant magic for everything you do will seem magic to them. They will respond to plots that emotionally affect people or things that appear pretty and showy. Changing a paper napkin into a paper flower will stun this person. You will find yourself trying to please this person but you will find that you are in competition with everyone else in the room. What is my point in presenting this personality type casting? I am trying to indicate that there is a volume of information about the differences between people. This indicates how different we really are. What you see and what another sees is simply not the same. Sometimes the difference is not subtle.
When one person sees a deadly monster, another may see a cute furry creature. The goal of pointing this out is to convince you that you should consider the point of view of others while you perform. When we began in magic we assumed we would be doing magic for people that would all be the same. We probably assumed they all would be just like ourselves. To be successful you must look at your act from the audience point of view, not your own. START BY MAKING THEM FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH YOU An admirable beginning in all of this is to structure your act so the audience is simply comfortable with you. When I began magic, I was taught that I should begin with a flashy trick that got attention right away. The trick should convince the audience you are a magician and you know what you are doing. I struggled with this for some time. One day it occurred to me that I should observe some successful pros and see how they start. There are three people in the world that I have looked up to most of my magic life. They are or have been accomplished performers. They are Karrell Fox, Jay Marshal and Paul Howard Bahaman. Karrell and Paul are no longer with us at this writing. When these gentlemen walked out onto the stage they dominated it. But they did not begin with a flashy stunning trick. They simply walked out onto the stage, approached the microphone and said hello to the audience. To me these gentlemen were giving the audience a chance to decide what they thought of this man standing on stage. That is, each performer gave the audience a chance to become comfortable with the performer. Each performer labeled the beginning of the show with their own simple human presence. The point here? You open with you. Over the years I found another technique to help the audience be comfortable during a performance. This was actually developed when I worked in a magic shop. I found I could sell a trick much faster if I performed a trick for a potential customer and turned around immediately. When I removed the trick from the box, I would set the box behind me on a shelf. Then I would do the trick. At the conclusion of the trick I would not look at the spectator but put the props on the counter in front of the customer and turn to locate the box. Sometimes I would pretend to be having trouble finding the box. After a bit I "located" the box and turned around facing the customer. I put the box on the counter in front of the customer and told them how much the trick sold for. Often they simply said, "I¡¦ll take it." My discovery was, that when people are fooled they feel exposed. After all, we all feel we are intelligent. When we are fooled by anyone we feel that our intelligence is lacking. From another perspective, we feel our stupidity is showing. By turning around I was not looking at the customer when their, "stupidity was showing." Hence, they felt more comfortable and could think about what was going on. Instead of worrying about being stupid they could make up their mind about buying the trick. I have adopted this technique during all of my presentations of magic. Whenever a magic moment occurs I manage to look away from the audience. When a coin disappears, I look at the empty hand or spot on the table where the coin should be. When the selected card is revealed I look at the card. In general I do not know how my audience is responding because I cannot see them when I do magic. If I really want to know what is going on in an audience I will plant a friend ahead of time that will tell me later how things went. When I am discussing this technique with other magicians, I have a little canned presentation that I use to bring this point home. I am able to use the Snap Back Vanish to cause a coin to disappear quite suddenly. Essentially, I hold a silver dollar in front of my face and close one hand around it and then immediately open the hand showing the coin gone. Even if you know the move it looks very stunning. It has a kind of visual retention quality to it. It is one of those moves that you can entertain yourself in front of the mirror with. To demonstrate the technique about not looking at the audience I do this vanish and look at my hands. Then, I do the vanish again and at the point the coin is shown to be gone I am staring at the observer. The difference is staggering. When a member of the audience is looking at an empty hand only, the member of the audience sees only an empty hand and feels a thought in their mind which is, "Where is that coin?" When the member of the audience sees an empty hand and someone staring at them there seems to be no place to focus. The member of the audience feels exposed. Their thinking process is revealed. And if the performer
is staring, who else is staring? By not looking at the audience at the moment the magic occurs the audience can feel more comfortable and think about what is going on, in there time. At the magic moment, do not look at the audience. INTERESTED/INTERESTING Let¡¦s move all of this up a notch by discussing a way you can get your audience to like you. This trick is to become interested in them and stop trying to interesting to them. The difference between the two is subtle. If you are interested in seeing your audience being amazed your magic will have more impact. If you are trying to be interesting to your audience your magic will have less impact. In an effort to describe what this means let¡¦s look at each action separately. If you are trying to be interesting you are asking the audience to look at you. In a sense you are saying, "I¡¦m doing this magic so you think I¡¦m a cool guy." Going back to one of the earlier principles presented, "The audience came to see phenomena." When you attempt to make them look at you, you are asking them to ignore the phenomena. On the other hand being interested that they are amazed, focuses their attention more on the phenomena. In a sense you are asking them to look away from you and look at a phenomena. In a sense you are releasing them from your control and allowing them the freedom to draw their own conclusions. Then they see the phenomena as a phenomena and not something you have contrived to happen to enhance your own power. All of this can be quite difficult to grasp. As you think of both aspects you can kind of get tied up in a semantics logic loop. Those that are dedicated "trying to be interesting types" will say, "Well, don¡¦t you need to be interesting to get people to watch you in the first place?" "And won¡¦t they continue to watch you only if you are interesting?" I have a difficult time responding to this. Perhaps the word interesting has two meanings here. However, to try and resolve this with an analogy, consider the following: Would you rather buy a product from a salesman that needed the commission or would you rather buy a product from a salesman that was an attempting to fulfill some need you had. In both situations there is a salesman, commission, product and so on. With one , however, you feel very good about, with the other you don¡¦t feel so good. The first salesman is interesting. He wants the sale for himself. In the second the salesman is interested to see that you get what you need. While all of this is very illusive, its effect upon the impact on the audience is significant. This brings to mind an incident in my home town. There was a gig up for grabs and two acquaintances were auditioning for it. One performer was highly skilled in theater, dramatic presence and obviously was well versed in all matters stage. He use all of his skills to sell himself and make himself interesting. The other person, a lady, was skilled in a trouper sense. She had performed a lot and was interested in seeing that her audience got what they came to see. She got the gig. She did not think she would get it for the other act was much stronger on stage. She asked the client why they selected her. The client told here that they felt the audience would accept her more and would be more interested in what he was trying to sell for them Curiously, the guy, shortly after the event, got a very large contract doing a TV ad. In this ad the client wanted someone that that appeared arrogant and disinterested in serving people. He fit the bill. Let¡¦s highlight this point and move on Be interested in your audience. Don¡¦t try to be interesting. HANDLING HECKLERS Before we leave the subject of the people part of magic we must discuss how to deal with hecklers. However, this is strange, for if you are successful about applying the principles in this chapter you probably will not need to deal with hecklers for, hopefully, all of your customer¡¦s will be on your side. I have found this to be true. The longer I have performed and the better I have become the heckler problem has disappeared. I cannot remember the last time I have had a heckler bother me during my show. Actually, there could be several reasons for this. One is that I am such a great guy, no one bothers me anymore. Another could be that my manner of dealing with the situation is seamless so that no one including myself notices that I am
being heckled. Perhaps my philosophy of getting my audience to be on my side means that there is no point to heckling. Or then, maybe, I simply don¡¦t perform enough to encounter the problem. However, there are precautions I take to stop hecklers. The first one is that the audience must enter my domain to see the magic. As I have said elsewhere, I get the host of any performance I do to set up a space away from the area where people normally are. Often this is in the kitchen or off in the family room. Then, I con the host to invite people into this area to watch the show. The fact that people have made a conscious decision to enter my area to watch, programs the people to be polite. They are there to see the show not harass. Another factor is the way I set up the area in which I perform. Mr. Bob Stencil from Detroit, Michigan gave me a tip a long time ago about the sitting position of people in the audience. He said that people leaning backward in their chairs tend to oppose or challenge anything you say. He also said, they tend to penetrate the deception you are attempting to accomplish. I value this information, so when I set up the seats for the audience I select hard seats that force the audience to lean forward. Sometimes I am setting up in the end of a living room that has overstuffed sofas and chairs. I turn the soft chairs around so no one will sit in them to watch the show. If there is a sofa or some other seat I cannot turn, I will ask a close friend or other magician to sit there so no one else does. You may wonder if this really has an effect on the audience. An event happened very early in my magic career that convinced me of the power of this. Unfortunately, for me, it was not a pleasant experience. I was with some friends at a dance or football game or something. We met some ladies. My two friends hit it off with a couple of the ladies. That left one for me. However, she did not like me. To her I seemed to be raw meat. We all went out to Gussepi¡¦s for pizza. After we finished eating and while we were chatting, my friends suggested I do some magic. The lady that was sort of matched with me was leaning back in her chair and was looking very sour about all of this. I started doing something and she would have nothing to do with it. I remembered my conversations with Bob Stencil about people leaning back. He did say that if you can get them to lean forward you will change their point of view. So, I took a brave and daring step. I put my hand on this lady¡¦s shoulder and pulled her forward so she was leaning toward the table instead of away. Instantly her demeanor changed. She said, "Oh, OK!" I did the magic and it went quite well. She still treated me like raw meat, but at least I gained something. From that point forward I have been very careful about how the audience is sitting. I do not believe I am immune to the problem however, and have a way to handle hecklers should the need arise. I have used these techniques in the past. The technique is to believe that a person is heckling because they want attention. My solution is to give it to them. When someone hammers me I stop performing and focus all of my attention on them. I wait for a moment to see what happens. Often I would see their shoulders drop, their head tip forward a bit and, apparently, decide to say nothing more. If they are more persistent, they say something. The next action that I expect is that someone else in the audience will tell the person to be quiet. That not occurring I go into the next step which is to say something about how observant they are. I might say, "I see that you are not easily deceived." In really bad situations this usually does the trick and their threatening body position melts and I continue. But sometimes that did not work. Then of course I went to another level. I would say, "You apparently have experience and knowledge about magic." If that doesn¡¦t change the situation, I will ask, "Where did you study magic?" At this point they will say something. Often it is something about reading a book. Whatever then say I acknowledge what they say very strongly. I lean my head back and say, "Ohhhhh," They then offer one more comment and relax. Then I continue my show. I have never had to go past this point. The primary point I wish to make about hecklers here however, is that as you gain skill and ability as a performer, the problem seems to disappear. I have spoken about this to several pros and they, in general, concur. ? ?
CHAPTER NINE ADDING IMPACT TO YOUR MAGIC ? In this section we discuss how to add more impact to your performance. We begin here with the idea that you are getting your audience to make assumptions correctly and you are directing them away from realizing they are assumptions. You are also communicating with your audience effectively and they like you so they are willing to admit to you they are fooled. And you have done whatever you need to do to make your presentation clear. In short, your presentation is technologically accurate. If all of this is true you are probably knocking them dead. But you want to be better. A working professional magician knows there is something extra the performer can do to add impact to a trick. There is more than one way to do a trick without changing any of the moves or gimmicks. That is what this section is about. What can that extra more be? Listening to professionals talk about their performances is very interesting. You might think they discuss moves and technique. Actually they discuss very mundane things. For example Suzanne and I sat around one afternoon trying to come up with cute comebacks for things that people say during her act. She had a list of things that people would say over and over again when she performed table hopping. The list included things like, "Can you make the bill disappear?" "Can you make my wife disappear?" "Are you standing in a hole?" Her list contained 12 items. Most she had good comebacks for, but there were some for which she did not have an appropriate response. We will talk more about Sue later. The point is that pros will discuss very little things to sharpen their act. This chapter recognizes the "art" of magic more than any other section in this entire presentation. While I do believe magic is a technology, I also believe it can grow into an art. I cannot tell you how to do that. Each individual must work on this themselves. But while I cannot tell you how to do it, I can present examples of things that can add that extra something that will add impact to a performance. We will start off with some obvious impact adders and later get into some that are practical. Consider a person doing magic that has only one arm. You can do a four ace collection and this person can do the same trick. You would not be surprised that the reaction of the audience to the one arm performer will be stronger than to your performance. While this is a very obvious impact enhancer you will probably not want to cut off an arm to take advantage of this, however, you get the point. Another automatic enhancer is the performance of magic in which the audience is absolutely sure that you are not prepared to do anything. This reminds me of one of my favorite tricks with a paper table napkin. The napkin is the kind you set drinks on in a bar. In this effect I roll two into small balls and do a sponge ball routine. Done impromptu, the effect always gets a strong reaction. The effect was so good I added it to my regular close-up show. There it died, so I removed it. Clearly, doing it when the audience knew that there was no advance preparation made it a winner. You can use this point to enhance your impromptu magic. Always carry your favorite power gimmick. Then when that moment occurs to do magic in which you are "totally" unprepared you are set up for a miracle class effect. Due to this setting, however, you must be careful to limit gimmicks or props to things absolutely natural. Pull out a half dollar and you have lost it. They will know you were prepared in some way. Switching their quarter for a magnetic one can set the stage for miracles. Let¡¦s move on to other ways to create impact. When I was in college a natural event often occurred which made my magic twice as stunning. Then, I was often doing magic at school parties. I had been doing my share of drinking and, not being a serious drinker, I was obviously out of control after one beer. However, my magic was not out of control. The effect on my fellow students was strong. They knew I was half hung over. I dropped coins, missed cards when I shuffled them and so on. The hours of practice I had done, however, enabled my hands to move without thought. So, the magic I did seemed
more impressive for it seemed to happen by itself. In these three situations the conditions of performance added extra impact. These examples serve to show, what, outside of standard magic performance, can add impact. This chapter will continue with suggestions on what can be done to increase the impact of your magic performance. I also caution you that these are my thoughts on this subject. Some of this I have heard elsewhere and I am simply passing it along to you. At times I might present something with a caviler and flippant attitude. You have a responsibility, as with all of this material, to make it your own and decide what is right for you. We will begin the suggestions with some things that just seem to make sense. Essentially we will start with ways to build impact into your act while constructing it. As we near the end of the list we will focus on things that are added or done after your act is established and you are successfully performing it. SOME COMMON SENSE THINGS TO NOT DO From the very beginning you would be wise to avoid some things that are simply objectionable. There are those that will want to do some of this because it is a style that will win for them. However, for most of us, this kind of material should be simply avoided. We already have an uphill fight, so don¡¦t throw up unnecessary barriers that you need to overcome. The list is very mechanical. First never use blue material. And don¡¦t use suggestive material no matter how cute. If a woman is holding the end of a piece of rope, do not tell her to, "Hold your end up high so everyone can see it." Never embarrass anyone. I have seen performers that treat their helpers in a very abrupt manner. This bothers me a great deal. Whenever I find myself in a room with these performers I leave immediately. I am afraid they might treat me that way in a simple social situation. Actually I¡¦m afraid I¡¦ll push their face in if they talk to me the way they talk to people when they are on stage. Don¡¦t pick on women. At magic conventions I have heard ladies share notes about certain performers. They will warn each other not to sit in the front of the audience for "so-and-so" will get you up to do tricks. Wouldn¡¦t you rather be remembered for the magic you do rather than being remembered as the guy that uses women as helpers. If you must, get a guy and a lady to help. And try to figure out how to treat them so it is a pleasure to help you, not torture. Don¡¦t insult your helpers or people in your audience. Some mentalists will "accidentally" insult members of the audience to suggest there was no setup between them before the show. I recollect a mental act that used this device to convince the audience there was no relationship between the lady that helped and the effect he produced. I cannot remember the effect. However, I remember him insulting her. And finally, don¡¦t use gross material. While doing any of these might get a reaction from the audience, you are not getting an appropriate reaction. If you feel it is your style to present this type of behavior, then I will say, OK that is your style. However, please do not advertise your act as a magic act. Please advertise your act as a "Human insult spectacle". But then you wouldn¡¦t get much business, would you. Next up on the "Do not do", list is, don¡¦t do bad magic. This is so obvious it hurts. It is also an item that I have a lot of personal experience with. For this reason I will not be offering personal examples of bad magic tricks. All magicians are beginners at some point. We gather some tricks together and do a show. Some of it really stinks. The secret is to trash the bad stuff and look for better stuff. We all want to be spectacular so we contrive something that is different and novel. Because we are beginners, we will probably not hit the mark the first time. But we must try it out and see how it flies. However, if it dies, retire the new miracle. If you are hurting for material, go with he tried and true things that most magicians know will work. For example, do the Six Bill Repeat. I personally do not like this trick. However, I have heard from many magicians that it is very strong. If you are having trouble with a close-up act do these three tricks. Invisible deck with Don Alan¡¦s patter theme. Use a thumb tip to make a folding half disappear. Do Card Warp. If you do these marginally well, you cannot help but be a success. You can also use this concept, "Don¡¦t do bad magic", to constantly improve your act. If you do five tricks one will be worse than all of the others. Switch
another trick into its place. If it remains the worst, switch it until another one is. Then switch that one. USING TECHNOLOGY TO ADD IMPACT Now, let¡¦s assume that you have been doing magic for awhile and you are able to put on a fairly decent show. Your goal now is to build a good act. Or, perhaps you are doing research to come up with a new effect to replace the weakest trick in your show. The next few items are things to consider when building an effect. The first of these follows from much of the previous material about the audience making assumptions. Recollect that the audience makes a false assumption when they assume an outcome of a particular action but that action, through some deceptive move, produces a different outcome. In the chapter on assumptions we were also introduced to the idea that the audience can make false assumptions with such strength that they perceive the false assumption as reality. Here we want to relate these issues to the strength of impact of an effect. So let¡¦s introduce two important points. The stronger the assumption is, the more powerful the effect. and The bigger the difference between the assumed outcome and the actual outcome, the more powerful the effect. Let¡¦s set up a situation to present an example for the first. In this example we want to get the audience to assume a coin was placed in your left hand. To do this let¡¦s attach a coin to a pull that runs up your sleeve. Now during this move you hold the coin in such a way that the coin is held at the finger tips but the pull is hidden along the underside of your thumb. The other hand approaches and covers the coin. Then the coin is allowed to slip into your sleeve due to the force of the pull. You are careful to keep the coins travel quiet and unseen. The other hand closes around the spot where the coin was. The hand that was holding the coin is shown totally empty. At this point the audience will have made a very strong assumption that the coin is in the closed hand. When you open that hand they will be very surprised. This reaction is very much stronger than when you use a finger clip vanish to pretend to put the coin into the other hand. The point is that using a pull to do the same thing can develop a stronger assumption and a more powerful effect. Consider an example for the second point above. Let¡¦s assume you can do an effective side steal. You can have a card selected and apparently replaced into the middle of the deck. Actually you slip the card out with your finger tips and into the palm of the other hand. Then, you can do one of two things. You can deposit the card on top of the deck or you can reach into your pocket and find the card there. Now the audience assumes the card was placed into the middle of the deck. If the result is that the card is on top of the deck, the audience will be amazed to find it there. If, however, the result is that the card is in your pocket, the audience will be even more amazed. You can apply the technology of deception in artful combinations to maximize the impact of an effect. Let¡¦s move on. There are a variety of configurations or ways of performing that produce a range of impact. This has to do with doing magic in your hands, on the table and so on. Let¡¦s just list these. Magic in your hands. Magic on the table. Magic utilizing covers. Magic in the spectator¡¦s hands. In general, magic in your hands has the least impact. Magic on the table has more of an impact because it is happening and you are not touching it. However, magic on the table usually requires some sort of a cover, so magic on the table also means magic with covers. However, this is not always true. Consider that most card tricks are done on the table but do not require covers. Finally, magic in the spectator¡¦s hands generally has the most impact. Note that these are general rules and there are many exceptions. The invisible deck is one of the most powerful tricks of the day and it all happens in the performer¡¦s hands. Also doing magic in the spectator¡¦s hands can limit the view of what is going on. If there is a number of people watching, those type of effects can be very bad.
In general, I prefer to do my magic on the surface of the table. This subject reminds me of the development of a cone and coin effect. The effect is very simple. A silver dollar and a silver dollar sized oriental coin are placed onto the table. The silver dollar is covered with a cone. The oriental coin is held in the finger tips of the left hand. The oriental coin changes to a silver dollar in the hand while the silver dollar coin under the cone changes to an oriental coin. The effect is very stunning. I had developed it simply as a test of my magic skills. One day I said to myself, "If you think you know that much about magic, let¡¦s see you sit down right now and come up with a new trick that will be very, very good." I challenged myself and the cone and coin trick was the result. I began by going over a number of routines I was presently doing and considered those that had potential but were not going anywhere. Spellbound fit that category. It is good but never really produces a strong response. I also thought about using covers on the surface of the table. My perception was that magic happening under covers produces a good strong response from the audience. Matrix of course was my model for this. So I played with combinations of things with coins, changing coins and things happening with covers. Cone and coin was the solution. I built one and decided to test it out. I had a friend over to my apartment one day for the specific task of doing a test. This person was quite intelligent. He also had no exposure to magic and had never seen me do magic. In fact, he did not know that I was involved with it. I told him I was going to show him a trick. I told him that after I did the trick, I would ask him how I did it. Then I would tell him if he was right or wrong. With that, I performed the cone and coin effect. He said that he could understand how I could switch one coin for another in my hands. However, he had no idea how I did that. He had no clue, however, how the coin under the cone could change from one coin to the other and back. I felt I was successful. I personally feel that magic in the hands of the spectator can be weak because most of the time the spectator must be subjected to a significant amount of preparation to get them to hold or grab in the correct way. Also, many performers I have seen that utilize the spectator¡¦s hands in some way, tend to be very rough with the spectator getting them to do the desired motion. I tend to feel magic on the table is best. I avoid having the magic happen in their hands. However, I feel quite strongly that the spectators should be given some chance to control what is going on. This control need not be holding something at the point the magic occurs. They are simple ways in which a spectator can participate. Again let¡¦s make a list of these for simple clarity. Use their objects as props such as borrowing a coin or ring. Have them mark a card or coin. Allow them to rip open the envelope. Allow them to raise the cup. Have them hold the ends of the rope. Let them look at the rings. These types of actions greatly enhance the impact of the magic and do not generally require significant training or coaching. When I table hop I like to walk up to a table and give someone a deck of cards and ask them to shuffle it. Then I step back a bit. I feel very comfortable with this. I do not need to worry about having their attention for everyone at the table is watching their friend shuffle the cards. They often give advice on how to do it to really trip me up. While the person is shuffling the cards I ask them to find their favorite one and give the other cards to me. They have a stranger at their table but they also have some control over what is happening. Let¡¦s move on. IMPACT WILL BE HIGHTENED IF THE AUDIENCE KNOWS WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN The most powerful magic occurs when the audience knows what is going to happen, has the opportunity to observe it without distraction and the magic happens in spite of their intense observation. This is one of the properties of Matrix that makes it so strong. In the routine, three coins travel from under one card to under another card. The audience does not know what will happen before the first coin goes. So, the first transposition serves to let the audience know what is happening. As the performer continues the trick the audience knows that the
magician is going to do this again. Now, forewarned, the audience watches closely. In spite of that, the magic happens anyway. Then the third time it happens again. The repetition enables the audience to formulate opinions of how the effect works and gives them a chance to see that whatever idea they have, is not the solution. Often I have heard that the beauty of magic is the surprise it contains. However, there is a cost to this surprise. There is the chance that the audience might say, "Well if I knew it was going to happen, I would know where to look just before it happened." This is true. Does this mean I oppose surprise. Definitely not. Surprise must be a part of every show. However, if you wish that deep impact magic can present, you are vastly better to let the audience know ahead of time what to expect. A point that is very hard to realize is how surprised the audience is when they know exactly what is supposed to happen and it happens without a clue anyway. That surprise is very chilling. It reminds me of a time I was chatting with a Mel Stover from Canada. I was playing with a variety of coin vanishes at the time. I was showing him a few. One was an attempt to look like I held a coin in the finger tips and allowed it to fall into the other hand slightly cupped below. The upper hand just dipped a bit and executed the Snap Back Vanish. The idea was to create the illusion the coin was dropped from hand to hand. Mel looked at it and gasped. Then he put his hand on my arm and said, "You know that looked so good I think my heart skipped a beat." This just makes me think that really powerful magic does not need to be a surprise. Good magic is inherently wondrous. GAIN IMPACT BY INJECTING AN EMOTIONAL SLANT INTO THE TRICK Doing tricks with kids on stage is always a sure fire winner. The kids are cute and every mother is charmed by their response to magic. The sponge bunnies is another automatic winner. I will never forget the first time I saw someone do the bunnies for a lady. She opened her hand and looked at all the little bunnies in her hand and said, "Oh look, they had babies." I think I was in love. If you can inject an emotional slant into a trick you can triple its effect. Karrell Fox showed me a very interesting trick one day that sells very, very well. It is a tricky trick to do however. You must set up the deck so that when you deal some cards out you deal the date, time and a jack, queen and two of hearts. You will be performing this for a lady. If she is a blond the queen is red. If the lady has dark hair the queen is black. If you have dark hair the jack is black. Now keep this stack someplace other than the deck if you wish. The handling is immaterial. Somehow have her shuffle the cards or just cut them. Whatever you do, get this stack onto the top of the deck. Next you tell the lady you are telling her fortune. Have her deal four cards here, two over there, another two over there and so on. What you are doing is having her deal the cards in a pattern so the date is laid out onto the table. So you point at four cards and it indicates the year. Another two cards indicate the month, another two the day and another four the time. Then you point at the jack and queen. There is a two of hearts between them so you say, "At 1999 at 2:05 a dark haired man kisses a light haired woman." Then look at her. She will lean over so you can give her a kiss. The tricky part is timing it all so the right date and time come out. Karrell had another great suggestion for a very simple but powerful trick. Get the Buddha Papers trick. It is one of those simple tricks that switches some small item for another. In one side put a white piece of paper about the size of a dollar bill. In the other side put a thousand dollar bill. Now when you perform bring out the white piece of paper and announce you are going to print a dollar bill. Draw a mans picture in the middle of the paper, put 1¡¦s and zeros in the corners and in general attempt to draw a dollar bill. Do it quickly and sloppily. Put it into the Buddha Papers, make the magic pass and open the trick up showing the thousand dollar bill. Then say the line I love to hear Mr. Fox say, "Opps, I put the decimal point in the wrong place!" A lot of mental effects can utilize emotional factors quite well. One such routine is where the performer makes a prediction about a car someone might want to buy. Hopefully the member of the audience wants to buy a Jaguar or some other fancy car. The performer can get a lot of mileage out this. I have seen it done twice. At one time the spectator wanted a Mercedes Benz. The other time the person wanted to order a Chevrolet. Oh well, you can¡¦t win them all.
If you can somehow personalize a trick or somehow do something that really affects peoples lives you can add a great deal of impact. INCREASE IMPACT BY ALTERNATING BETWEEN TENSION AND RELAXATION When we think of producing a show with a lot of impact we dream of starting off at a high level and pushing it to the max. Unfortunately human beings do not work that way. Somewhere else in this document I pointed out that you cannot focus your eyes on one point constantly. Likewise, the audience cannot be held at a high pitch constantly. Rather than press for high impact during your entire act, attempt to cycle the impact up and down. Consider the whole of your show as a quiet sea. The quiet times are soothing and pleasant. Then, during your performance you raise the audience to a high point as some miracle occurs. After that you let them drop back into the quiet sea. Thus you create a roller coaster ride. The impact of your performance depends upon the difference in height of the level of the sea and the high point of each deception. Your act is programmed so that each ride up is higher than the previous. Toward the end of your act you attempt to drive it to the max with a single burst of energy. PERFORMING AGAIN AND AGAIN MAKES IT BETTER The previous points were considered as you built your act or created a new effect. You have put it together and you are doing it. Now you sort of switch gears and tweak what you have to make it better. The first lesson is that constant performance itself adds impact. This is one of the elements that separates the pro form the amateur. The pro is doing a trick again and again. Whether by choice or by accident, changes will be made during each performance. When a change, whatever it may be, improves the impact, that change remains in the act. For example, during one performance an audience member may say something that gets a big laugh. That line will become a part of the act. Of course these items are difficult to describe but I do have a few examples on my mind. I began performing a coins across routine about 1965. I do not think it was a particularly strong routine. It has been under development since I began doing it and remains under development today. However, I will always perform it, whatever version I am doing. And it gets better and better. And not because the moves are getting better. Each time I perform it I make it a bit more clear. Each time I perform it I add a little different way of showing something to the audience. For example, at one time I simply let a coin to slip into my hand. It happened slowly so everyone could see exactly what happened. One day I looked at a spectator and said, "Is that fair." They responded with a very positive, "Yes." It was more than simply a positive yes. It was more like, "Yes, are you really going to make that coin disappear from that hand?" In other words, the move was so clean and the spectator had an idea of what was going to happen, they could not believe I could be so open. I eventually started asking the question for each coin that slipped into my hand. It became a kind of running gag. It seemed to add a lot to the performance. It also seemed to clarify what was going on during the performance. That little bit of business became a major part of the show. The other example has to do with the performance of an ambitions card routine. The version I do is from Bert Allerton¡¦s booklet, "The Close Up Magician". He called it the Eye Popper. I began performing this routine during the 1960¡¦s . At that time the effect never seemed to go well. For some reason I continued performing the effect. The routine required a triple lift, a double lift and a turn over move which moved a card from the middle of the deck to second card from the top. For some reason, as I performed this effect over the years, it got better. Now I consider it a sure-fire layman pleaser. At times the effect on the audience is so pronounced that I cannot continue performing. The audience is so shocked and reacting amongst themselves they are not paying attention to what I say or do. Although magicians do not respond with such strength to the performance of this routine I am constantly told by magicians that when they read Allerton¡¦s routine they did not think it would work at all and express surprise that the move looks so good. I do not know why the routine improved over the years. So the only lesson here is that constant performance is a great impact enhancer. A salt shaker through the table routine is another trick that did not seem to get an appropriate response. I started doing the thick when I heard Larry Anderson say, "I¡¦ve got to do that trick every show." That kind of a statement
attracts my attention. So I decided to put some energy into it. My routine is a little different but for our purposes here it could be the standard routine in which a salt shaker is covered with a napkin and lapped. Then I would crush the napkin showing the salt shaker was gone. It is a very good trick but for some reason the impact on the audience was not as strong as it should have been. I wondered what I should do. During one performance I crushed the napkin, placed it on the middle of the table and hit it with my middle finger sending it flying toward the audience. That action got a very strong response from the audience. For some reason it released a tension that was built up in the audience. Why, I do not know. However, that action stayed in my act. Another thing seems to emerge as acts develop. I have noticed this about my own and seen similar things in other people¡¦s acts. I don¡¦t know if they planed it or not. At some point we have accomplished some magical event that is not quite revealed to the audience. Then some little thing can be done giving a clue to the audience that the magic has occurred. This little thing builds a great deal of anticipation in the audience just before revealing the full force of the effect. Such a thing occurs in my coins across routine. The first coin is traveling from one hand to another. I make the mystical pass and a clink is heard from my right hand. This is strange for the audience believes that there is only one coin there. The clink gets a significant reaction from the audience. Immediately after that I show a coin has arrived to that hand. Paul Green does a similar thing. He forces a card on someone in the audience an turns his back on the audience while they show the selected card to their friends. Then he turns around holding a giant card face against his chest with a broad smile across his face. The suspense and impact that builds is very, very good. Richard Roth does a coin trick with some coins and a small globe of the world. After vanishing several coins he says, "Where in the world do you think those coins went?" That is a priceless line. I have heard that Johnny Ace Palmer produces a bottle from under a scarf with great skill. Just before it is shown to the audience he allows a bottle opener to clink against the bottle under the scarf. The noise drives the audience wild and the bottle is immediately produced. Were each of these incidents planned? Whether or not these are the kinds of things that will emerge as you perform. As time passes they set your act apart from all others. SUE¡¦S STORY Suzanne The Magician rather. Suzanne is a walk around close-up worker. At this writing She has been doing it for more than 15 years. At one time she was one of my students. One day she said, "Al, I want to do close-up in restaurants. What do I do?" I told her and she did it. Now, when I need advice about magic I ask her. You might be curious about what I told her in the beginning. Well, I said you need to learn three tricks really well. Then, call family oriented restaurants and ask for an opportunity to come in a talk to them about doing magic for their customers. I suggested that she not call them when they might be very busy. I also suggested that she should not focus on any one restaurant. Instead, work on several until something clicks. We then worked on three tricks. They were, Expansion of Silver, a trick with a thumb tip and piece of yarn and Professor¡¦s Nightmare. The thumb tip was used in conjunction with the handkerchief from the Expansion of Silver trick. The thumb tip was placed into the hank. A short piece of heavy yarn was pushed into the thumb tip, the audience believing the yarn was tucked into the center of the hank. Then the yarn was caused to disappear. Then Sue would have a spectator hand her a napkin which she would roll up and extract the yarn from the middle. The Professor¡¦s Nightmare was the basic routine in which three different size ropes are stretched to the same length. I had worked out a very nice count that could be done inches from a spectator¡¦s face and still be very deceptive. (This count seems to be very standard now.) Sue mastered these tricks and then started calling restaurants. Sue is a very brave person. I could not do this kind of calling. She did however, and was getting interviews all over the city. Within about a month or two she had several gigs around town working at family type restaurants. Right now I would like to take a little detour and discuss what I call the big break theory. In talking to people that have become very successful I have
noticed a pattern. They began doing something they like. There is no guarantee they will be successful. They just do it because they can and they like it and they have hope it will someday pay off. As time passes they get good at whatever they do. Then one day they get a big break. For example, there was a bunch of engineers that built a computer board for the PC¡¦s that came out a long time ago. They thought it was a good idea and did not have a particular market for it. They got a booth at a local trade show and put their boards on the table. Some guy comes along and says, "You know, my company could use these. How long would it take to make 10,000 of these?" Then, overnight they had a serious business. In the big break theory a person starts doing something well. It is not necessarily a great idea. It is not necessarily a real money maker. They just do it well. Then one day someone decides they need it or a lot of people decide they need it. This is the essence of the big break theory. The big break theory is based on the idea that a person becomes competent at something that sets the stage for a big change. To get back to Sue, a big break came along in the name of Eugene Burger. He had business in the Twin Cities about this time and decided to do a lecture. Sue met him at the lecture and mentioned she was doing close-up work around town. She did a trick for Eugene. He said he had a friend that managed a club in town and suggested she call him. Eugene called his friend then Sue called Eugene¡¦s friend. The result was that Sue started working at one of the hottest clubs in town. She got her big break. The club was frequented by the Minneapolis elite and Sue started getting really classy house gigs. She also had changed her act quite a bit. Matrix was one of her staples along with coins across, the Invisible Deck and Card Warp. Now it is easy to say that she just had luck and knew the right people. However, there are two factors the were very much in her favor, she was doing damn good magic and she was brave enough to make phone calls. I might be good at one but I can¡¦t do the other. Years later I asked why Eugene had given that information to Sue and noone else. The response was, "Noone else asked!" Now she is simply an old pro out there making a living at it. Curiously, most of her tricks now are card effects. We had a chat recently and she confessed, "I¡¦m doing the same thing I¡¦ve been doing for years, yet when I do stuff their jaw hits the table. What am I doing different?" We decided to get together and she would do some of her tricks for me to ascertain what was going on. So, let¡¦s discuss her and the magic she does. Suzanne is a little, short, pretty lady. Her first rule of doing business is to not approach a table that does not want to see magic. I asked her how she determines this and she said she does not know. Just doing it for awhile one learns who can be approached and who cannot. For example, if a guy and gal are looking into each others eyes and their coffee is cold, that would be a no-no. When she does approach a table she establishes a rapport with the audience right away. I have seen her do her thing. Sometimes she walks right up, spreads her arms wide and says, "Ta Daaaaaaa." A very brazen approach. However, she does not start doing magic right away. She smoozes. Cute chat. How are you? How is dinner? Etc. In seeing her perform you cannot detect an introduction nor can you detect when she actually starts doing a trick. In fact when you watch her "perform" you might think that the people she is talking to are old friends. I saw her talking to a guy at a trade show gig she was doing. She talked to him, showed him a trick and he left. I asked her who her friend was after he left and she said, "He¡¦s not a friend, I was just doing my pitch." Now, let¡¦s get down to business and review how she actually presents a trick. First their is no introduction or statement about doing a trick. In one second she is schmoozing and the next instant she does something silly. For example, she offers to have someone select a card. As they reach she puts a card into their hand. She say, "Oh, do you want a different one?" Then she takes back the first card and gives them another. Then she says, "Oh, maybe you want to pick your own?" During this by-play a card is signed and returned to the deck. Also during this by-play she has set up for a rapid fire sequence of several magical events. Suddenly cards go to her pocket, top changes occur, the spectator¡¦s card is suddenly over there and so on. So, let¡¦s analyze what is going on. Sue says she is out to have a good time
with the people. She also says wants to do good magic. She also says that she does the moves during off beat moments so she is struggling real hard to create offbeat situations. She is always stepping back after an effect, and getting ready for the next hit. I have actually seen her do this. A spectator¡¦s can be holding a card looking at it and she has stepped away for a moment with a calculated look in her eye. While that guy is looking at the card she is setting up for something else. She is constantly trying new combinations and new effects. However, she is not sure why she is so successful. Now, my analysis. Sue has two primary goals, knock their socks off and get them to like her. When she approaches a table she is very friendly and gets the audience to identify with her. She is a party animal that everyone loves. However, she is also a calculating cat looking for a chance to pounce. During her cute chit-chat she is looking to see when her audience is totally off guard. Then she moves in for the kill. During the time she is being coy, she is setting up for a sequence of events that go bang, bang, bang. The audience loves it. There are two primary points about all of this. The first is the actual effect of the cute by-play. The second is the solid communication link she executes when the actual magic is occurring. Let¡¦s look at the effect of the cute byplay. During this phase of the presentation, no magic is being done. In fact it is really saying I cannot do magic. It is similar to the magic a child might do. Shake a card and pretend it has changed. Misname a card, say a magic word and then name the card correctly. All of this is delivered under the guise of play. It is pleasant and fun for all involved. However, in a sense it is misdirection for she is labeling herself as an unskilled person. However, she is very skilled. When she has lulled them into her fantasy world she drops the hammer. The second issue is that when the hammer is falling again and again her communication cycle is very strong. That is, she is not rushing the audience through each step. She is pausing a great deal, giving the audience a chance to grasp the gravity of what just occurred. She steps back a bit (my point here is that she physically steps backward) allowing the person space and a chance to breath. She also continues to do the mislabeling. She acts surprised and bewildered. However, she is doing a top change or slipping a card out of her pocket or whatever. She is the cat slashing the minds of her audience. The magic seems to happen by itself. It seems to be detached from her. The audience then thinks it is amazing for she has suspended their disbelief. They do not believe she is doing it. They also like her and are very willing to admit they are fooled. Sue is aware of the difference between Virtual Magic and Theater Magic. We both agree that in walk around one cannot do Virtual Magic or that it is very difficult to do. That sort of magic requires a great deal of thought intensity and is very difficult in the walk around environment. She does believe she is doing Theater Magic. She believes that if the magic she is doing were to stand alone it would have trouble flying. However, with the cute acting and schmoozing it all works well and her audience thinks she is an awesome magician. But then, she is. Well, I hope you found this discussion about Sue fascinating. It is a lesson about increasing the impact of your performance. It touches on several factors. Actually it touches on several factors through out this entire article. As I have talked to some length about my style and now Sue¡¦s style you have seen two very different ways of doing magic. In the next chapter we discuss different styles even more. ? ? CHAPTER TEN THE KIND OF MAGIC YOU DO ? As you develop your magic skills you would be wise to formulate a specific style for the kind of magic that you do. There are several categories in this endeavor. A list is appropriate. Where do you expect to perform? What kind of people do you expect to perform for?
What kind of magician do you intend to present? What style of magic do you intend to do? Actually answering these questions is more like formulating a marketing plan than trying to do magic. You are really trying to establish a business which is you doing magic. During the process of answering these questions you are establishing the product you are attempting to sell. If you are dabbling in magic it does not matter if you are focused or not. If, however, you wish to be successful at any level, answering these questions and following a plan will direct your efforts so you can actually reach a goal. Even if you say you simply want to entertain the friends around you, a plan of action will help you simply to be the life of the party. Here is my answers to the above questions. I expect to do close-up magic sitting at a table. The audience will be from 4 to 15 people sitting in chairs in front of and to the left and right of the table. I cannot perform with people immediately to my left, right or behind me. I assume the roll of a person that once was in show business. When I perform I am showing the kind of magic I once did. I do not perform it but I demonstrate what I can do in a very technical way. My goal is to act as if I am showing my audience what goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment world. While I perform I strive to establish two way communication with my audience. My goal is that they do not perceive we are in a standard performer/audience relationship. Rather my show is part of a bigger conversation in which we are presently discussing magic. This concept came from the observation that people, in general, are very anxious to be associated with the performer and go behind the curtain in some way. Often they wish to share a trick they might know or talk about a magician in their life they know. They want to share magic not be performed for. In my life, the places I actually perform at are very limited. They are either at someone¡¦s home at which I perform at the dining room table or it is in some business of which I am working as a contract programmer. At many of my client sites I become friends with people and when they learn I do magic they want to see some. So I agree to do so. This event usually becomes a very big thing in the company for when the word gets out everyone in the company wants to see it. Occasionally I am set up in a cafeteria and will do 10 shows in an afternoon. One of my requirements is that the host establish a table for me to perform at and the audience must enter this area to see the performance. This tends to eliminate hecklers for only those interested in seeing magic will come. Also the magic is never a surprise. All know that it is me and I am going to do magic that they are expected to sit and watch. I do mostly sleight of hand with props that, in general, are not exclusively magic props. This means a lot of coins, cards, finger rings and similar props. I try to vary the props I use, switching from coins to cards to small balls during the show. A great deal of effort is spent attempting to establish a warm relationship with the audience. I do not have an opening trick. I sit at the table while the audience filters in and locate a chair to sit in. I am playing with a deck of cards on the close-up pad. I do ribbon spreads and card flourishes while I chat with people entering the area. During this time I am also directing people to a comfortable place to sit. Often people ask how I ribbon spread the cards and cause them to flip over. I let them try to flip over the ribbon spread cards. As everyone is settling down I do a planned series of card flourishes and get into the performance. There is no announcement that I am beginning. Let¡¦s continue this discussion by considering the types of magic you could do. First we will assume you wish to do close-up as that is the focus of this document. In close-up you could: Sit at a table Stand behind a table. Stand in front of a table. Walk around table to table. You could stand at the side of the table while you perform. You could sit at the table with the patrons. You could set up a table on the side of the room and those that wanted to watch could go there.
You could do close-up in a very small theater arrangement. You could do close-up in a large theater using projection TV enabling a large audience to see you. You could be a TV magician always performing only for a camera. You could walk around at parties from small group to small group performing while standing. Trades shows standing behind or in front of a table. Trade shows standing on a platform. You could be a bartender magician. You might only do impromptu magic for people you meet in your daily life. If you select one of these performance styles you can excel at that style and make a big impact upon those you perform for. If you expect to perform in all of these environments you can expect that you will not be outstanding in any one. I offer this from my personal experience. As indicated I perform sitting at a table. When I have done walkaround magic moving from table to table my performance is very weak. I just don¡¦t sell well. However, in my element behind a table, I really kick butt. Beyond just picking a style there is a good reason for determining your exact style. The kind of magic you do will depend upon the circumstances you perform within. I sit at a table and therefore can be more involved than if I were walking from group to group. If I decided to do magic walking from group to group at a party I think I would need to spend 3 years developing the right material. In the group to group situation the tricks need to be short and need to be in their hands. They also need to posses greater impact. I am not going to stand in one place for 10 minutes. I would only perform for about 3. Then, I need to get in, do an introductory trick and then drop a hammer on them. Hopefully, they will all be laughing when I walk away. That is the way a party should go. In my present style of performing one group leaves the area while another one comes in to see another show. When one group is leaving they are shaking their heads in confusion and saying things to each other such as, "Either I¡¦ve had to much to drink or that guy hypnotized us all." The people entering my performing area see this confusion and get the idea that something ominous is about to happen. That is the best opening effect one could possibly have. A similar effect could be had in a walk around environment. Consider what it could be like. An observer would see you walk up to a small group of people talking. A moment later there would be an explosion of laughter from those few people as you walk away. Then, such an observer would see you approach another group from which followed another explosion of laughter. Sounds great doesn¡¦t it. If you plan a philosophy for your overall performance you can shoot for such an outcome and have a better chance of achieving it. Now let¡¦s discuss goals you could establish for your performance style. Again let¡¦s list some. Really fool people Get them to laugh Get the women to scream Fool one person and let everyone else in on the joke. Structure the performance so it appears someone in the audience is actually doing the magic. Produce a significant emotional response. I have seen different performers that adopt each one of these styles of performance. Each is valued and comparing them is useless for each has its own charm. Pick one, or better, develop your own to establish a powerful hard hitting show. I have heard of street workers that show a small furry animal and place it under a ladies coat to keep it warm. A moment later she takes a peek to see how the little creature is doing and finds a snake. She shrieks and the crowd goes wild. Some trade show workers work one on one with a show attendee. The worker does top changes like crazy totally confusing that one person. People all around them can see exactly what is going on. But the people crowd around, jamming the aisles to see the action. Though rarely done, one of the most powerful styles is that which produces an emotional response. In such a style the patter theme must come from an
experience in your own life that you have lived through. And that experience must be an emotional one. It need not be tragic but can be one of joy. An example comes to mind. It is not related to magic but is related to public speaking. The presentation was actually for a group of professional speakers that were taking a class on how to improve their speaking skills. The presenter was making a point about creating an emotional impact. She presented her story of being in a firing squad during the old Russian days, falling down, pretending to be dead, being carted away with dead bodies, stowing away on a ship to New York, stealing food off of tables in restaurants to survive, struggling to go to college and ultimately becoming a vice president in a bank in New York. It was her story and it came from her lips and I will never forget it. Going to magic conventions is an ideal place to check out the styles that performers can adopt. Don¡¦t go just to get new tricks, go to see how real pros organize their package. Another aspect of all of this is how you organize your show. I simply perform a trick, put it away, bring out some other props and do another trick. Other performers will have no gaps between effects, the props being used from trick to trick or vanishing and appearing as the show rolls on. Some will do something in the beginning part of the show that results in something happening later on in the show. Some do a trick for 10 minutes. One such performance was based on the idea a handkerchief was magical and the show consisted of demonstrating that. Some present a little play in which the magic is used to help the story unfold. All of these work. Your task is to select a show philosophy with which the audience can latch onto and comfortably roll forward with. The importance of the style and philosophy of the show is difficult for the beginner to see. Such a beginner would be wise to observe a seasoned performer do their job and observe the structure of the whole. When seeing the effect of such directed effort the beginner will quickly see its value. ? CHAPTER ELEVEN PATTER AND AUDIENCE CONTROL ? For the beginning magic technician, patter will be one of the last things of concern. However, if the student pursues his tech with diligence he will find that patter is as important as all other factors. The artist attempting to do magic will see patter as the device that is the reason to exist. This person will spend most of their time on what to say for they believe what they say "moves" the audience into another realm of existence. While I find this point of view tedious I must acknowledge that there are those that feel that way. And I must also conclude that there is some validity to that belief. Certainly what you say can, in and of itself, be entertaining to the audience. This takes us into the realm of acting which is not one of my strong areas. I view patter as an element that supports the magical presentation. Smooth effective delivery of patter enables you to control the attention of the audience. If you stop talking during your show you can easily loose your audience. If there is noise coming from other parts of the room, that noise will pull your audience¡¦s attention away from your act. If there is an extrovert in your audience, a moment of your silence will be a license for that person to speak up and extrovert all over your act. If you are not talking, two people in your audience will start talking to each other. They may be talking about your performance and may well be telling each other how great it is. Even though they may be complementing you, they steal from your show. The only solution is that you keep talking. For introverts like myself the patter must be memorized stone cold. In reality the words coming out of your mouth must flow with as much precision as your fingers move with the cards and coins. Your words and motions must have a mind of their own so that you can concentrate on the overall presentation. The patter must be closely synchronized with what your hands are doing. Also your eyes will be synchronized with all of this as well. We have seen the importance of a quick glance at the audience. We have also seen the importance of leaning back at some important moment. The tone of voice as
well can communicate "I am doing nothing" at the precise moment some sleight is executed. The point is that as you build an effect; the sleights you use, the choreography of hand motion during the presentation, the misdirection techniques and the use of your voice must all be built to work together to produce a total effect. So we can see that there are several important reasons for good patter. First we need to keep talking to keep the attention of our audience. If one of them veers away from the flow we can focus our attention on that person and raise our voice a bit to bring them back into the fold. Second, we need to use patter as an aid to our misdirection and direction techniques. We speak softer to communicate that nothing is happening. We speak with more strength to cause the audience to be more aware of some issue. This could be to get the spectator to be aware of the conclusion of some effect or lock their attention on some assumption they have made that they later may question and cast away as a useless path to the solution to the effect. Third, we need patter to hold the interest of the audience. That is, to keep them from getting bored. Maybe this is done while someone is shuffling cards. In these situations I will have four lines prepared. While a person is shuffling I might use only two for at that point they are done shuffling. If the time they take to shuffle cards is longer I continue with the other lines. Fourth, we need patter to inform the audience about what is going on. Time must be put into its structure so that you inform the audience what they are going to see and what they should do. The words you offer should be concise so that the desired information is communicated without confusion and without running on and on. As in all of the techniques presented in this book, there are various styles one can adopt that guide ones efforts at designing the talk. Patter can be humorous. Patter can be historical in nature. When I do the cups and balls I treat the performance as a lecture of the history of that trick. Some offer poems as they perform. Some people present the magic to explain the spiritual essence of what they are saying. Patter is difficult to write, however, the task becomes easier when you select a unique style or philosophy to follow. There is one danger in the way some people use patter I have noticed over the years. Patter can be presented when no magic is happening and magic can happen without patter. I fell into this trap in my early days of magic. Upon realizing the importance of patter the new magician will struggle with its creation and build a piece to go along with a trick. Then the patter will become a speech that is offered before doing the moves in the trick. Once that speech is presented the student does the trick. If something needs to be said the student will stop moving his hands and deliver more of the speech, then get back to the performance of the trick. The patter should be structured so it can be delivered while your hands are moving, accomplishing any effect in front of you. It all comes down to chewing gum and walking at the same time. Your use of patter also marks you as a pro. I recollect one time early in my magic career after which I realized the importance of patter. I was at someone¡¦s house party. The subject of magic came up. One of the ladies at the party said something about John doing this great trick. Well, John brought out a deck of cards and did a trick that many laymen know about. Everyone thought it was really cute. Then he gave the cards to me asking me to show my trick. I began to do some simple trick with a solid patter line. John looked at me and said, "Whoa man, you know what you¡¦re doing. We are not in the same class." In short, the delivery of simple patter got solid attention and respect immediately. The patter was not particularly good, it was simply something to say while I moved my hands. I will never forget the lesson. ? ? CHAPTER TWELVE FIVE STEPS TO MASTERY ? This chapter is not directly related to magic. It is about mastering anything
you might wish to do. It applies to magic in that to master it, you will tend to be more successful if you apply the principles in this chapter. Much of what is in this chapter was developed while I was studying and learning magic myself and while I was teaching magic classes. I had a small class I ran once a week for about five years. In this chapter I will introduce a few things that help success and then I will present, what I call, Five Steps to Mastery. The first few things are fairly obvious. For that reason they are often ignored. So I offer them for your consideration and let you decide if they are valuable to you. Factor One To be successful you must have a technology that works. Obvious? If you have some tech that doesn¡¦t work you clearly won¡¦t succeed. We are surrounded with and sold things that do not work or, at best, are marginal. Factor Two Having the right technology, we must know that it works. We have been deceived in the past. Even if we have the right technology we may not apply it for we have suffered so much in the past trying to apply others that failed. We simply don¡¦t know if something is right or wrong. To be successful then, we must risk trying another one and see if it works. Factor Three We must understand the technology. Without understanding it, we cannot make it go. This is a guiding light in my programming business. There it is phrased differently, "If you don¡¦t understand how it works, it will fail." Factor Four The technology must be practiced and rehearsed. You can read how to shoot an arrow, but you will never do it until you do it. Factor Five The technology must be applied. You will not be a magician until you do magic for someone. These do not necessarily help you, but they are interesting. However, there is a reason they are presented here. I believe that the material presented in this book works. So, Factor One is satisfied. I have spent my life coming up with this technology. It is my experience that many others have tried and have not been as successful. I personally have spent much time with other concepts and found many lacking. Unfortunately, what is obvious to me is not obvious to others. So, whatever you do, you will somehow come to your own conclusion. However, I believe if you study long enough you will arrive at the same conclusions that I have. If you are successful I know that whatever you finally settle on you will: Know that it works. Understand it. Practice it. And apply it. The five steps that follow are very critical to rapid success. I have never heard about these from others. These were totally developed by myself. However, I am sure they exist elsewhere in the universe for they seem to apply universally. Here are the Five Steps To Mastery. 1. Learn a new move slowly and with confusion. 2. With attention the move can be done well. 3. While doing the move over and over again bungles will occur more and more. 4. Great frustration and boredom is experienced doing the move. 5. Eventually doing the move is fun and you don¡¦t want to stop. To apply these steps you first take the trick you are learning and cut it up to parts you need to practice. Then you can apply these steps to practicing a single part. For an example of a separate part, consider the three steps in the basic vanish. Those steps are: show the coin, execute the false transfer and palm the coin. One can spend some time practicing the act of showing a coin. One can spend even more time practicing the false transfer. In fact it is desireable to isolate that action and rehearse it over and over. During this rehearseal the events
outlined above occur. Consider what most go through. Most magicians get a book and learn how to make a coin vanish. They play and try this and that. After some time they can look pretty good. I myself spent years going through this process. Then consider what happens to most of the students that go to my class. I run them through the basic vanish using the above five steps in about two hours. They endure all five steps with each of the three parts. At the end of that time, they are, for all practical purposes, doing a perfect vanish. Most people that came to my magic classes were new to magic. Trust me when I say that this can be very rewarding. Let¡¦s go over the steps. In the first step when you learn a move you are going very slowly. You are not sure if your hand should be up or down or where. Doing this can be fun for the motions may be interesting. Eventually you get the move. Then you enter the second step. You can do the move. However, this is the dangerous step. You have not mastered the move. Most people quit practicing the move here and go on to another move. When they put it all together they will experience failure. Then they quit. The issue here is that the move can be done well with tremendous mental attention. If you do the move over and over again you will falter for a person cannot apply the necessary mental attention for a long period of time. As you attempt to repeat the motion you enter the third step. In the third step you find that the more you do it, the more you bungle it. If you keep at it you bungle it more and more. Eventually you enter the fourth step which is boredom and frustration with the move. As you continue to practice, your seat gets hot and itchy. You don¡¦t really want to be there. If you continue, you will eventually reach step five in which you enjoy doing the move. You can sit there happily and let it rip. You will feel as if you have created a machine. You think the thought, "do it" and it happens. Here is my opinion of what is going on. There are two aspects to us. The control aware side and the automatic side. We live our lives with the control side being aware and controlling things. The control side does not do things however. It observes, makes decisions and directs the other side to do things. As we grow and learn we have trained our automatic side to do a number of things. Then as the control side makes decisions, it directs our automatic side to do those things. In the Five Steps to Mastery we are moving the thing we wish to do from the control side to the automatic side. In the first step the control side learns what we want to do. The other three steps are required to transfer the process to the automatic side. In step five the transfer has been a success. Then the control side decides to do the move and the automatic side does it, well, automatically. We feel good for it certainly looks like magic. There is one thing about this that I do not understand however. Why does the control side or automatic side rebel during the transfer? In step four, particularly, the desire to trash it and walk away is very strong. It seems the more difficulty you have there, the more pleasure you will have in step five. ?
