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All tricks easy to figure out?

T'ai Chi

Penultimate Amazing
T
Joined
May 20, 2003
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11,219
Are all magic tricks easy to figure out??

I can't say I've met one yet that is too challenging to figure out.

That's not to say I have the dexterity, skill, acting, presence to do any, I don't, except for the canned ones and the easy ones, but just that most all tricks I've seen seemed really easy to solve.

What are some peoples' candidates for hard/near impossible to figure out tricks?
 
TERASABOS

Five cups, mugs, hats, whatever...it doesn't matter.

Spectator takes something, preferably of emotional value, it doesn't matter what, and places it under one of the cups, etc.

Magician legitimately does not see which one it is placed under.

Magician returns and proceeds to turn over the cups until only the one is left.

No gimmicks. No sleights. Free choice by spectator.

Caveat: Impossible to figure out when performed by a skilled magician. Easy to blow the presentation.
 
Derren Brown did that with 6 cups as part of his russian roulette show and said that the russian roulette technique was the same principle. Now, not knowing how TERASABOS works, I wouldn't know if he was telling the truth or just using misdirection.
 
Not movement, gestures, facial expressions, anything. No forcing a choice on the spectator.

If Brown did his six cups the same as TERASABOS, I'm not sure it could--in the details--be the same as the russian roulette method.

I'll give one semi-hint in the interest of full disclosure and say that the magician almost always turns over the right cup as the last one.

On occasion, the magician will instead turn the cup over on the first or second turn, but he let's you know that's what he's doing; it's not a mistake.

Now if that doesn't screw up the non-magicians' attempts to figure this out, I don't know what will.
 
No, not "movement" referring to the people, "movement" referring to the cups or whatever.
 
Nope, not that either. At least in the case of Terasabos. I don't know about his russian roulette method.

The method is extremely simple (in concept, not execution), diabolical for that reason, and not at all related to what you think it would be.

There are NO tells (to use a poker term).

No more hints or answers.
 
Having watched Derren Brown on TV last night and being totally captivated by many of his performances within that show, I was quite delighted today to find that he explains on his website the methodology behind them and even offers "practise this skill" type exercises.

I understand the "mounting hugely expensive illusion which people will no longer want to see if they understand how it works" argument, but I remain in awe of the illusionists who can perform "simple" illusions whose execution I understand perfectly so well that they still enchant me. That - to me - is "magic". I know perfectly well how the various "joined rings" illusions work, but seeing them well executed still thrills me more than the "smoke and mirrors" (pun fully intended) disappearing elephant style illusions.
 
A 'tell' is a giveaway that you don't know about.

For instance, in poker you sometimes have to bluff, which means to keep betting as if you have a strong hand when in reality you have a weak hand.

A 'tell' might be that everytime you bluff, you start drumming the table with your fingers or tapping your toes or humming a song or smirking or raising an eyebrow.

A fellow poker player who discovers your tell will always know when you're bluffing and when you're not, but you will never know how he knows. You just keep losing.

---

For TERASABOS, I was only trying to communicate that there is no equivalent in the method. The magician doesn't jiggle the table to see which cup moves less than the others, or see how the light shines less through one than the others, or see which one the spectator tries to look at least. Nothing like that.

The magician simply fools you in TERASABOS and fools you in such a way that, if you are not familiar with it, and he presents it in a manner similar to Derren Brown's manner, you are astonished, devastated, dumbfounded, bewildered.
 
I can think of at least three variations on a theme that is extraordinarily simple and easy to set up for this trick, yet they could easily go wrong too. How do I tell people without blabbing it, and how do I get to know if this is how it was done?
 
Thanks, Garrette. I understand now. No, my theory on this does not involve such complicated actions, and does not depend on "looking into their eyes" or stooges, etc. It's one of those things that is so obvious once you can see it, that even a child could do it.
 
The Hawk, one of Max Mavin's routines is completely impossible to figure out, even if you are familiar with the Gibreth Priciple, on which it is based.
 
Peter, you are speaking English but making NO sense... But since I'm not even remotely a magician, I'll just leave it alone for now!
 
At TAM2, I'll be happy to demonstrate some tricks that people almost certainly will not be able to figure out... and I'm a crappy magician!
 
Hey! That's one of my performance names! Back off, dude, and bow to "The Crappy Magician!"

P.S. 'tis twoo, 'tis twoo, 'tis pity, 'tis twoo, but I am a crappy magician on the technical side of it. I do the presentation very well, though, if I may say so myself and I may because nobody here can stop me.

So there.
 
Zep said:
Peter, you are speaking English but making NO sense... But since I'm not even remotely a magician, I'll just leave it alone for now!
Click to expand...

Okay, imagine this:
The magician freely shows a deck of cards and places the deck of cards in front of two people. He asks one of the spectators to give the deck a cut and each of the two spectators take a card from where the deck was cut. The cards are replaced and the magician asks each of the spectators to cut the deck again, (while this is done the magician looks away so there can be no doubt that the magician has no idea where the cards are in the deck). The magician cuts the deck in two piles and asks one of the spectators to riffle shuffle the deck. The magician then takes the deck and starts to deal the cards face down on the table. At some point the magician suddenly stops and asks one of the spectators to name their card. The magician then asks the spectator to turn over the card the magician stopped at to reveal it is, in fact, the card named. The magician then gives the deck a shuffle and starts to deal the cards again to find the second spectator's card, but stops saying, "This is boring, let's try something different..." The magician then looks into the spectators eyes and, after a few moments of concentration, names the second spectator's card.

It's interesting to note that throughout most of the trick, (until the magician cuts the cards for the spectator to shuffle), the magician does not handle the cards; all of the cutting and shuffling is done by the spectators. It's also important to note that the deck is not marked or stripped and may be examined.
 
Peter S. said:
It's interesting to note that throughout most of the trick, (until the magician cuts the cards for the spectator to shuffle), the magician does not handle the cards; all of the cutting and shuffling is done by the spectators. It's also important to note that the deck is not marked or stripped and may be examined.
Click to expand...
Examined, as in I can look at the faces of the cards to verify it is a normal 52 card, four suit deck?
 
^^^Yep, it's a normal deck. I use this effect now and again. Very puzzling and effective "impossible Location".
 
Garrette said:
Hey! That's one of my performance names! Back off, dude, and bow to "The Crappy Magician!"
Click to expand...
Well, I shall say then that I am a "pitiful" magician who has no intention of quitting his day job.

In all fairness, I am a better juggler than a magician, and a better magician than a singer.
 
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