Absolutely correct.

If someone has to believe what you say that is one thing. But if they have convinced themselves they will argue the point with others.

The important part in my mind is they convince themselves of the entire story. So when they are telling others they fill in the gaps. When you make them believe you all they have is what you show them.

It is a HUGE difference in the end. Listen to how people describe magic. How many times have you heard them describe things that never happened? This is them filling in things on their own because they are that convinced. It might happen from your proving things yes but not to the degree if they convince themselves.

Just one position, not a law.

I think those two sentences are really a good summary of the concept and motivation.

I open my close up show with a card routine.

My first line is, "This is a trick deck of cards."

They never question me.

Al

I agree. It just stretches out the process part when basically everyone is waiting for the magic moment. I recap a trick only when I need to provide some time delay or I want the spectator to have a slight different memory than what actually happened.

One of the first rules drummed into me early on was: Don't "say" what you want them to believe. ACT what you want them to believe. Want them to believe the deck of cards is "normal"? Toss out the deck as if it means nothing special and ask them to handle it, shuffle it, etc.

I used to do the Mental Photog deck by taking it out and saying, "Here I have my favorite Trick Deck...." And, then go on to blow them away. People aren't stupid. If you make a deck all blank the way you can with a Mental Photography deck...well, you might as well be up front from the start. The funny thing is, the routine itself is so freaking amazing that folks don't CARE if it's a "trick".

But, saying at ANY time, "Here we have a NORMAL whatever...." is just running when no one is chasing. Why start by putting the idea into the heads of the spectators that there is such a thing as an "abnormal" or "unfair" magic object??? The goofy looking stuff like Chinese Sticks speaks for itself, you don't have to help it along with protestations of "fairness", etc.