Lately, I've been analyzing my magic and trying to make it better. Although you can't completely control your audience's mind, you can influence it. One of the things that has been bugging me is audience suspiscion. Now, this is kind of stretching it, but I just wanted to know what you guys think.

When performing in a casual event, even just for friends, I'm asked various questions. "Wait . . . show me yours sleeves." Stuff like that. Now, it's great if you ARE completely clean, but that's not my point. What I'm saying is, is there any way to help remove suspiscion without saying "And look! Nothing up my sleeves!" Of course the audience logically is suspiscious of the magician, but I guess it bugs me. Is a trusting audience a better one?

Tell me what you think.

Good question.

What are you doing to arouse suspicion?

I'd like to see the act, too.

Friends are like that mate. They scrutinize you and always make accusations, and grab at stuff. I was sitting at a table doing a couple card tricks for friends, and out of nowhere one of them grabbed my card box (which had a gaff in it), and he's like OH that's HOW YOU DID IT.

I've gotten to the point, where, even if I'm clean, the spectator inspects nothing. It may have been Bill Palmer who said this: asking to inspect someone's equipment is like asking if you can hold someone's violin. You really think they will let you if they don't know you?

But if they do somehow find out how a trick is done, they will never be satisfied watching that trick again, or any similar to it. It's not entertaining when you know how it's done, because the mystery is gone. But then, maybe they are one of those type who don't care about the entertainment, they are just over-analytical and all they want to know is the method. I hate people like that.

The sleeves issue isn't a big problem for me, cuz I wear short sleeves. With me, it's always "Let me see your pockets."

I am not speaking from experience, but perhaps you can notice which are the 2 or 3 ideas that are in the mind of some jof your friends (special deck, sleeves,...). Also you can direct the thinking of this analytic spectator to a point during the middle of the game and show a little after that it is not the case. A little later you show the climax.

Try with a game that the spectator can guess a possible solution and you destroy it (even better you destroy it after some observation of this spectator) For example if you know he knows about key card you make a game and try to force him saying let me schuffle)

Another posibility is to construct the game using the "False clues theory" of Tamariz. It is possible that for this kind of public you obtain big results

I'm with Jonathan on this one. You are the person who is responsible for the performance, therefore you are the person responsible for the suspicion. Your audience is telling you invaluable things. Listen to them and remove their concerns from your performance. Yes, even the complately ridiculous concerns.

Most often it is only a matter of slowing down so your audience doesn't feel like they simply missed something and/or giving them the opportunity to eliminate their concerns themselves.

There are a number of ways to handle this. Some are good, some aren't.

Darwin Ortiz suggests performing with your sleeves rolled up. If you are in a formal situation, that looks dorky. I'll admit that for one of the routines I do, I actually do pull off the cufflinks and roll the sleeves up. I even comment, "I hope you don't mind if I do this, but I want to eliminate the only possible explanations there is for what you are about to see. (2 beat pause -- then, directed to any lady sitting at the table) Don't worry ma'am. This is as far as I go!" Then I go into the routine. But I don't always do the routine that way, anyway. It depends on my mood at the time.

I think the key here are the terms "casual event" and "for friends." If you are in a casual situation, you probably are making some radical personality changes when you go into your magic routines. This tips people who know you that you are "doing something." This is a very common problem.

Several years ago, a friend of mine who was a really fine woodwind player and a very good magician told me that when he was working in the band for the Shrine Circus and for the various roadshows that came to town, he would often go out with the cast after the show. He would perform for them and fool them mightily. But when he performed for his friends, they always knew he was "doing something."

So I asked him to perform something for me -- anything. He went into one of his favorite routines. I spotted the problem instantly. He became someone else.

I suggested to him that he start modifying his "real" persona very slightly to resemble his "magician" persona, and to modify his "magician" persona more, so that it was the same as his new "real" persona. The main thing with the "real" persona was to eliminate a few bad speech habits.

He did this over a period of about 6 months, so even his relatives didn't notice it. The transformation was completely successful.

Maybe this is the root of the problem and the solution.

Thanks, guys. Tom, I'll try your advice of slowing down. I think that will help me reach my main goal: showing that I have nothing to hide, without telling the audience.

I'll submit an alternative solution to the problem.

Endeavor to create material that works on two levels. The surface level and the sub-surface level, with the sub-surface level being the more important and impactful of the two.

Example:

Surface Level: A borrowed coin is vanished an reappears in an unusual place.

Sub-Surface Level:

(I'll list several)

1. Throughout history, people in positions of power have used all manner of deception to control the will of the masses.

2. There is a reason for all things, good and bad. The curse of man is trying to figure out the meaning behind the bad things.

3. Flash back in time 1000 years and the things we take for granted today would have been considered magical to the people of that time. The same can be said of people living in different cultures in the present time. It's reasonable to expect that if we were to flash forward in time 1000 years we would see things that completely defy our sense of reality and possibility. One can truly say that we are the "barbarians of the future".


There may be very little logical connection between the two levels, but the "trick" serves to deliver the real point of the material. The sub-surface level can be thought-provoking, poignant, challenging, emotional, confrontational, subversive or just plain funny. But the point is you've given their minds more to work with than simply "how did he do that?".

One could say that what is happening on the surface level is mostly craft and what is happening on the sub-surface level is mostly art. I think it's the careful combination of the two that makes a meaningful presentation.

That answer basically boils down to subtleties. For instance casually rolling up your sleeve before you perform but not drawing any attention to the fact that you are doing it. If the sleeves aren't there then they won't suspect them but saying "nothing up the sleeve" only puts the possibility in their minds.

Another example would be when the spectator examines the props. If you ask them to do that then you are only telling them that it is possible for these props to be gimmicked in some way. But if you find a subtle way for them to check them out without having to point out the fact that they are normal then ther're less likely to question them. For instance you might ask them to read the date of the coin or something like that. So they are examining them but you aren't pointing out that they could be gimmick.

As others have already said. I don't think we can help much unless we know exactly what you are doing. But that's just something to think about.

Ron Jaxon

Thanks a lot, you guys! Although I can't describe my act too well, you guys gave me some great general advice, which is what I needed. I'll be sure to try out all of these tips.

Perform naked

Longhaired1 wrote:

Great post! Not just the part I quoted, but the entire post. (Go read it if you went past it to here. It's way better than what I'm about to write! Really! )

I was fumbling around trying to convey that idea. I was going to mention David Copperfield's "Snow" act and his "Flying" act. Both are not particularly strong methods, although for "Flying" he does "disprove" the obvious method, at least for some people. But he makes both of these effects into powerful magic, and some people actually cry during them.

Your example is perfect. You also managed to convey the difference between art and craft. I've read entire topics that danced around what you wrote in two sentences, without ever actually describing it!

Thanks!

I did have fun after a trick watching a female spectator come up with what she imagined to be cunning dodges to get a look at my cards; having succesfully filched them she spent ages scrutinising the backs, measuring the sides, looking for little marks, doubles and so forth, before finally handing them back and conceding that they were a regular deck of cards. I reckon that she'd never have gone to all that effort if I'd straight up given her the cards to examine, letting her feel clever at having got the cards to examine made her subsequent failure to find anything much stronger.

I wonder if this could be used when using a tricky deck by executing a deck switch at the end but then not handing the deck around for inspection, instead "carelessly" leaving it temptingly within reach of inquisitive fingers. It's not something I've tried, but it could be interesting. A further refinement would be to switch with a deck of cards all printed with the message, "What are you looking at, Big Nose?".

It seems some of the strongest reactions come when spectators think they have busted you, and then are proven wrong. By that time, they have no alternative solutions and are stuck in Whit Haydn's dilemma -- there's no such thing as magic/there's no other explanation.

I suspect that learning how to lead spectators down this path on a regular basis is a key (the key) to taking my magic to the "next level." I could see this happening if they steal the prop and find it innocent, as above, or if something happens later in the effect that proves their current theory impossible.

Note, I'm not speaking of sucker tricks. This is something much more subtle -- a train of thought in the spectator's mind that ends up leading nowhere.......

Geoff