Everybody screws up now and then

Unfortunately they can also make an unthinking habit of it ... Then offer the error as useful technique.

Watch the audience.

True, yes, you have to recognize the difference

I just think, Etienne, that the emphasis of this thread has gone toward focusing on a negative outcome. I recommend diligence, of course, but overly focusing on the "empty" hand as a source of suspicion contributes to leading it exactly in that direction, and my concern is that this thread has tipped the scale that way.



"All that seeming spontaneity, all that ease of deportment and delivery, are the result of careful preparation. They depend upon an adherence to artistic principles and methods, rather than upon natural self-possession or personal resource. It is only in accidental circumstances that ready wit and promptitude are called into play. Apart from such contingencies, an artist always knows beforehand what he intends to say and do. Relieved of all anxiety in that direction, his mind is free to attend to the work of actual presentation. If his attention is diverted from the work in hand by constant anxiety concerning details of which he is uncertain, he can never do his best. His performance, consequently, is bound to suffer to the precise extent of the anxiety he feels." p.78 Our Magic. Maskelyne and Devant.



"At all times, a performer should remember how greatly his own attitude may influence the thoughts of his spectators. His views and impressions may not always be shared by those who witness his performance. The audience may not be disposed either to accept his abilities at his own valuation, or to agree with the opinions he expresses. But it is practically certain that the relative importance of any detail in his performance will be estimated by his own attitude toward it." p.99 Our Magic. Maskelyne and Devant.



"The description of all sleights and the accompanying illustrations are taken from the practice of the author. They may not be quite right for anyone else... Once the mind is sure of exactly what is to be done, the hands will respond with a new-found ease." p.15-16 Wonderful Routines of Magic. Ellison Poland.



"You as the actor understand this structure, and you design the consciousness of the character so as to contribute to it; then, as you play the scene, you can surrender your immediate awareness to the character's consciousness while continuing to ensure that your character's thoughts, words, and actions serve the scene. Again, your ability for dual consciousness comes into play" p.101 The Actor at Work. Ninth Edition. Robert Benedetti.



"The score eventually becomes habitual; you absorb it so totally that you can begin to experience the scene fully, moment by moment. This is the point at which your actor's awareness begins to give way more and more to the character's consciousness; when the score is completely automatic, then you can give yourself fully to each moment with complete attention to 'the here and now,' confident in the knowledge that the scene can move toward its proper conclusion." p.168 The Actor at Work. Ninth Edition. Robert Benedetti.



"What you do in performance should feel spontaneous, 'as if for the first time,' no matter how many times you have done it before. To achieve this spontaneity, you must keep your awareness on your objective rather than on the mechanics of your external action" p.87-88 The Actor at Work. Ninth Edition. Robert Benedetti.

asking something like "why is my false transfer so suspicious" is pretty much directing a dialog at negative outcomes.

a perfect fit at best, IMHO.

Now, Magicalaurie, this is a very valuable, positive and rich contribution.
The only thing that I would disagree upon is "that the emphasis of this thread has gone toward focusing on a negative outcome". It STARTED to answer that "negative outcome" in an attempt to give tools for building confidence. Now for the rest, this selection of quotes reflecting your thinking hits the nail on the head.

Thus your last post by bringing forth the necessary positive performer's state of mind, comes like the icing on the cake (with a shining cherry on top)

And, yes, as Jon reminds, if fear is directing the dialog or is underlying the sequence of moves, it will somehow bring the feared negative outcome. But armed with the subtle tools shared in this thread by experienced magicians and masters, a performer has nothing to fear: his misdirection will work and he can feel confident and positive right from the start for he knows ahead of time that he has "nothing to fear but the fear itself"

IMHO the question we need to address is:

"What can I do so the audience will believe the coin is where it's supposed to be"?

Sudden and rushed actions involving awkward large gestures and cramped hands (the perfect fit) seem counterproductive in this effort. Additional awkward motions due to secret transfers (from concealment to concealment) are similarly counterproductive - IMHO, likely to distract the audience from perceiving a simple flow of mundane action and instead get them looking around for other items out of place.

"...the first task of the student should be to carefully read and consider the instructions given, and to make quite certain that he perfectly comprehends their meaning. This being ascertained, the next point will be to see whether the trick involves any principle of sleight-of-hand in which he is not thoroughly proficient, and if it does, to set to work and practise diligently, till the difficulty is conquered. Having thus mastered the elements of the trick, he should next attack it as a whole, and in like manner practise, practise, practise, till from beginning to end he can work each successive step of the process with ease and finish. Having achieved thus much, he may perhaps consider that his task is at an end. By no means. Being perfect in the mechanical portion of the illusion, he must now devote himself to its dramatic element, which, as regards the effect upon the spectator, is by far the more important portion....When he goes through the motion of passing a coin from the right hand to the left, he should have imagination enough to persuade himself, for the moment, that the coin has really been transferred as it appears to be. If a performer has sufficient imaginative faculty to do this- if he can so enter into the spirit of his part, as himself to believe in the marvels he professes, he will achieve an almost unlimited mastery over the imaginations of his audience." p.502-503. Hoffmann's Modern Magic. Professor Hoffmann (Angelo John Lewis).



"'Heavens!' I would say to myself, in terror, 'am I so sure of myself as to deserve such anxiety to see me?'

But, soon reassured by the past, I waited with greater calmness the signal for the curtain to draw up. I then walked on the stage: I was near the foot-lights, before my judges--but no, I err-- before my kind spectators, whose applause I was in hopes to gain....Already I fancy myself in the presence of spectators whose kindness encourages me. I imagine they are waiting for me-- they are listening eagerly.

Without further hesitation I begin.

Robert-Houdin." p.10 Memoirs of Robert Houdin. (epub) Jean Henri Robert-Houdin.

Yes Laurie, sage advice for one's internal narrative. A recent word to describe matching ones apparent actions, attention and words to present an apparent authenticity is "congruence".

The RH advice does not address the basic question of technique. What about the perfect fit? Remember the guy contorting himself so his suit fit. What about the basic issues that raise more suspicion than credulity?

Fabulous book (and great quote as were the others ones in your last post)

Just a remark : His name was Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and not Jean Henri Robert-Houdin

From Jonathan Townsend decribing the spectator as "...preceiving a simple flow of mundane action..."

That's it.

When all is said and done, that's the goal of the conjuror even in making a simple coin pass, and mundane actions are not perfect and most are not beautiful to look at.

Adopting a character, gaze management, footwork, obliteration parenthesis, erasing challenge and creating the magical moment - all wonderful revelations about human action that magicians can come to understand and benefit from - and I agree with all of it.

I also know that human physical actions and movements, although economical and naturally efficient, aren't very artful or graceful or always pretty. There is a certain ....."slop" to it all. We are humans after all and we often think and act automatically and pragmatially - where function is prized over form.

So my point is, unless the ROV in the routine is presented as a central moment or focus ('Watch carefully as I place this coin into my left hand" kind of thing), or your character is embued with certain devine powers, a casual ROV as part of a larger routine can be perfectly believable to the spec even though or even because it is NOT so perfect or so graceful or so artful. This may even add to its naturalness if you really "intend reality." I don't advocate adding imperfection to SOH - the ROV has to be good enough to accomplish its purpose afterall.

Keep the action simple, keep it natural, and keep it as mundane as possible. Intend reality.

Jon, to that I'll resubmit:

"The description of all sleights and the accompanying illustrations are taken from the practice of the author. They may not be quite right for anyone else... Once the mind is sure of exactly what is to be done, the hands will respond with a new-found ease." p.15-16 Wonderful Routines of Magic. Ellison Poland.

To start, self-awareness, really, I think, is what will facilitate congruence. From there, as complete an awareness of the character's reality as possible, expressed, I would say, in agreement with cperkins, as (relative to the character) simply as possible.

Simulation and Dissimulation, both physical and psychological are what mold the parts into the form the spectator sees. To me, I get the image almost of a melting down into the final form. Sharp edges (incongruencies) are smoothed away. Hopefully, the performer will smooth the edges prior to performance. As you mentioned early on, though, an objective witness ie. a director, might be required to "point out" the parts that stand on end, again, relatively speaking. What do you think, Jon?

Yes, Jiceh, thankyou for the correction.

Emphasis again that congruence is relative.
Can't help myself :

Also, back to "Our Magic" where the term "unity" is employed and an exerpt from Poetics Part II, Chap. V. is quoted on p.20:

" 'As, therefore, in other mimetic arts, one imitation is an imitation of one thing, so here the fable, being an imitation of an action, should be an imitation that is one and entire; the parts of it being so connected that, if any one of them be either transposed or taken away, the whole will be destroyed or changed. For whatever may be either retained or omitted, without making any sensible difference, is not properly a part.'"

Further along "Our Magic" page 20-21:

"What we are concerned with just now is the expediency of presenting each magical item in the form of a harmonious whole, and of avoiding everthing in the nature of incompleteness or discontinuity."

And "consistency"... "Our Magic" page 29: "It implies a general harmony of the various processes, actions, speeches, and appliances, with the scheme or mode of presentation with which they are associated. Its absence undoubtedly gives rise to sources of distraction; which, as we have seen, should be most carefully avoided, so far as may be possible.

"Our Magic" page 66: "(22) No magician should ever present, in public, any magical feat in which the procedure cannot be, or has not been, adapted to his own personal characteristics and abilities."

"Our Magic" page 41: "(10)Cut your coat according to your cloth, but spare no pains in the cutting, or your procedure cannot be justified."

I feel the pattern and process of justification deserves its own discussion. Finding what motivates an action beyond " now I do a transfer, believe it or not" would seem a sensible presupposition in our current discussion.

Not long ago, Lawrence O described a list of justification/motivation actions for a transfer - quite good.

I trust his list was good - it's just that the moment and the action have to work for the character.

I remember Lawrence O's list and I tried to find it in this topic whithout succes.
Is this list here or in an other topic?
I'd like to read it again...

Some advice from dai Vernon : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te-hmawIyAU

I have the all DVD set (I bought it 3 times) and it is a great collection.
The illusion (his false transfer) is very strong (his gesture seems perfect)

Again from "Magic By Misdirection", page 20:

"Let the magician take this pretended ball with the identical simulation physically, but let him forego any supporting behavior....Suppose the words he were to use, and his tone of voice, were to convey some degree of uncertainty. Suppose any sort of lack of convincingness and naturalness should become evident. Suppose any of his behavior were in conformance with the true state of affairs. Imagine that the performer meticulously observes every detail necessary for successful physical simulation. But if his behavior, his attitude, every subtle nuance does not conform to, and support, the physical simulation, he will not deceive the spectator."

"The performer must, also, convince himself that the ball is in the right hand. This carries with it all of the little subtle psychological gestures, attitudes, behavior, that would be evident if the ball were in the right hand. What the performer says, and his manner of saying it, is influenced by the presence of the ball in his right hand."