Teaching A Magic Trick: A Tale

[Brown]

So much of magic is presentation. The mechanics or "secret" is often a minor thing in comparison to the presentation.

This hit home for me last weekend, when I performed a card trick for a friend and his son (a really smart young man who will soon enter his final year of high school). They were both blown away by the trick. Now, I had previously promised the son that I would teach him a trick, and this is the one that he wanted to learn. I assured him that, despite appearances, the trick required no sleight-of-hand to perform.

We went into a room by ourselves, and I showed him how the trick worked. I then asked him to perform it for me. He did.

His presentation was not very good. He got the mechanics right, but his delivery was no good. I tried to coach him.

He did the trick for me a second time. Still not very good. And a third time. Better, but still not very good. I found myself explaining the psychology behind the trick, even though this young man had seen the trick for the first time just a few minutes before, and he should have recognized the psychological manipulation that I employed on him.

Basically, I told him that the trick was really effective if you gave the spectator reasons for doing what you're doing, even if those reasons are bogus. You have to lie, I said, while appearing to tell the truth. This young man is a fine fellow, and not very good at lying. This was a handicap for him as a magician.

He did the trick for me again. And again. Eventually, I told him that he needed to practice a bit more, so that his delivery would be smoother, and so that his spectators would be surprised when he reached the finish. (When I see him again, I will find out whether he has practiced.)

We spent perhaps a minute on "the secret." We spent far more time discussing the presentation that is needed to make this trick so effective.

 

[Yahweh]

My Tale...

When I was a teenager, I had a lot of aspirations. I remember when in one of my classes, my teacher asked the "What do you want to be when you grow up" question. I raised my hand and I quickly said "HIT MAN!". I could see easily that an answer like this was supposedly taboo, so almost immediately I changed my answer to first nervous laughter, then "I want to be a magician".

I began learning card tricks from books. I had others teach me. Learning the tricks was unnaturally difficult for me, moreso because so many things came so easily.

Eventually, I began practicing alone, constantly.

Finally, a week later, I said "I HATE THIS ◊◊◊◊!" and my dream died in a pile of despair and decks of cards set ablaze.

 

[Yahweh]

Dont let my tale sound so conscending. I actually invented quite a few tricks. Heres one of my favorites (and it takes no time at all to set up):

I pull out a deck of cards.

I fan the cards out in my hands (face down).

Then I ask a random person to pick a card out of the deck, and memorize it.

Then I ask the person to give the card back to me, cover their eyes and count to 5 very slowly.

*Here's the tricky part*

When they've got their eyes closed, I quickly flip over the card and take a look at it. Then I flip the card back as if nothing happened.

I say "During that time you were counting, you unknowingly used telepathy to communicate with me. And do you know what you told me, you told me your card is [insert the appropriate card]."

The person is amazed.

Its really quite a simple trick to pull off if you know how to properly present yourself.

 

[Brown]

A particular magic instruction book describes a card trick that has a "knock your socks off" effect. You will really stun people with it.

The "secret" is: you peek at the selected card.

Well, that's not really the whole secret. There is actually a technique for peeking at the card without getting caught, and I will not describe the technique here. I will say, however, that the technique is about as simple as asking the spectator to close his eyes and concentrate on the card, but is more subtle.

If you can peek at the card without getting caught, then you can appear to have supernatural powers. Whether you will appear to have supernatural powers will depend upon your presentation. By making a good presentation, you can make a very simple trick seem much more mysterious than it actually is.

 

[Cain]

Brown- can you describe the effect?

EDIT: Let me guess: "Out of this World"

 

[wert]

Paul Curry's "Out of this world" has nothing to do with peeking at cards.

 

[Brown]

Brown- can you describe the effect?

Well, the instruction book in question basically describes one technique in which a card is selected by a spectator and (after some mumbo jumbo about mind-reading) is revealed by the performer. The spectator, who cannot understand how the performer could possibly have learned of this card except through mind-reading, is duly amazed.

The book doesn't mention that there are dozens of other ways in which the card could be selected, dozens of other ways in which the card could be revealed, and dozens of other tales (besides mind-reading) that could be told to the spectator. There are probably thousands of ways to present this trick. But in each case, the "secret" is the basically same.

In one instance, I saw this very trick presented as a "prediction" trick, in which the perfomer "predicted" what card would be freely selected. Of course, the perfomer really made his "prediction" (using a clever technique that I will NOT describe) after peeking at the selected card. Many spectators, however, were quite convinced that the perfomer had genuine ESP powers, and refused to accept his word when he said that he had used trickery. (In addition to this prediction trick, the performer also did a couple of other supposed "ESP" tricks, but the predicted card trick was probably the most impressive of the lot, and it was the one that produced the most discussion among the spectators. BTW, if you're thinking the performer was Max Maven, it wasn't.)