Now, before you hit that “Back” button on your browser thinking that this is yet another one of those oh-so-boring magic articles that have been posted merely with the intent of obtaining a few of those Black Tiger decks; let me tell you this: I’m not here for the decks. I’m just writing an article because I can… so I will.

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First of all, let me make this bold statement (no pun intended):

MAGIC IS ALL ABOUT MANIPULATION

Now, I know you hardcore old-school magicians out there are already loading up your BB guns, muttering “Blasphemy! What happened to all the discrepancies and subtleties and patter and NLP and discombobulating the perimeter that we all know as the RIGHT way? All about manipulation? This guy must a be a biased flourish bastard, for real!”

I wasn’t talking about physical manipulation.

To quote a very wise and respected (not to forget incredibly dashing) magician, “Magic is taking what people know and manipulating it”. I know, I was the one who said that. But still, look at what people say 98.63% of the time when we blow their minds away:

“How’d you do that?”
“That’s impossible!”
“No &*$#ing way!”
“I have NO clue how the hell he…”

What is the common theme? “There is no logical method”. The only reason why they’re baffled is because they’re forced to accept the apparent fact that what they have been taught, what they have known for ages, is actually FALSE. They “know” that a coin that was in a hand must stay in a hand. They “know” that the cards that were torn apart can’t be healed. They “know” that they were holding only 2 of those spongy little red balls in their hands. Hell, they “know” that there’s no such thing as magic… until you come along and warp reality.

That’s why kids don’t dig card tricks. They don’t know how freaking hard it was to find that playing card. They don’t know that it’s any more magical that you produced the 4 aces with your bare hands, blindfolded with a strap-on at the same time. What does work, however, is the simple stuff… most kids are simple, so you take what they SHOULD at least know, and you manipulate it. I thought that the hat was empty? Oh… he pulled a rabbit out, that’s so cool! Wait… hehe, the peanut butter is on THAT side of the room now… I didn’t know that could be done. Lemme go home and try…

What can destroy a magic most times is people knowing the secret. It’s those 6 deadly words… not “you’re a lousy magician… and lover”, but: “I know how you did that”. How do you solve this problem? Go back to square one: magic is taking what people know and manipulating it. They know about double lifts? Go ahead and take a single, then execute a top change. Breaks? Why use breaks when you can use an injog to “cleanly” show your hands innocently? When people know that even these “methods” have been debunked, then your credibility as a magician will be boosted. And that’s always a good thing… I hope. So don’t be worried when someone knows the methodology behind an effect… do something else EVEN stronger, or better yet… hit them with the same thing, but with a different technique. I swear to God, they’ll be blubbering at the mouth when they find out that metaphysics isn’t do consistent nowadays.

Manipulation… what else can you do with it within the context of magic? You can you can manipulate angles, the way your spectators think, the little discrepancies and subtleties that come with an effect; hell, you can even manipulate words to your advantage:

“Was your card a red card?”

If they say no, then “Look, it’s a red-backed card! How can you say it’s not red, mofo?”; if they say yes, just proceed with the revelation of the card.

To sum it all quite a bit, you can see that manipulation doesn’t always have to be done with physical objects… look, I’ve just manipulated the letters of the English language to make an article that might incite you to type in the word “vote” in that reply box down there.

Now, is that magic or what?

-Kev


"This article is in The Competition. If you like this article, please vote for me with a follow-up post just saying "Vote". If you didn't like it, then may the curse of the monkey's paw be layed upon you and all of your descendents.. burr"

Vote. Now, THATS good. Very very useful, just like this article... http://s7.invisionfree.com/SGMCircle/index.php?showtopic=478 . I think people should vote for both of 'us'. No! I mean 'them'.

Vote

VOTE

LOL....good 1 kevin! VOTE :lol:

Now THIS People.. is SUBSTANCE B)

im Lovin' this..

VOTE!

you have my freaking vote. i think i should have everyone in my family sign up on this forum and vote for this as well. holy crud :ph43r: :ph43r: :ph43r:

HOLY CRAP.. MOnkey Paw.. AGAIN!>!?!!?


VOTE !
VOTE! :lol:

Good one mate, very nice....

Vote.

If your teacher is a magician and you wrote this article. Chances are your article will turn out to be one of the best article in class.

Very good article. This articl has really enlighten me alot.

Yeah! I totally agree with you. Doesn't means that the other person knows some little secret like DL or Breaks, you should avoid him. Just when they are expecting you to hold a break, go around it by injogging the cards. Simple things like these can shut them up.

Good article.

Can I cast 2 votes? ;)

VOTE
VOTE

*** Morphine: I think you should consolidate those good articles and bring it over to our new site. Its a waste if these article are lost.

You got to love Kevin sometimes..

VOTE

Kev!!!!!!! Can I have your autograph please???? :wub:

VOTE!

Hey, hey.. remember to hurry up and vote for me, so the decks don't fall into Daryl's hands! Hehe...:D

-Kev

The lines are closed.


Vote Count
11 votes