The one problem i have with misdirection is that i feel sometimes magic is not as effective as if misdirection isn't used.

Like for example a hypothetical trick where i get one spectator to tell me when to stop as i spread the cards and turn the stopped card over face-up. I then turn it back face-down and look at the spectator and ask him/her what the name of the card is. As he/she looks at me i do a p*** and later reveal that the card has jumped to the top. In a similar situation, i've had someone say that i did something while they weren't looking/while they were busy thinking. And it makes sense that if the spectator were to be staring at the cards the whole time the trick would have been more convincing.

This isn't really a problem with misdirection in principle, but more like the problem that I have with misdirection, because the person is not supposed to know - even after - that you misdirected him/her.

I noe that some magicians like to progress through their tricks quickly and move on to another one so that they give their audiences no time to back-track, like Slydini.

But sometimes it can get confusing and the full efficacy of the performance isn't as great as it should be. I wonder if there's a better way?

Practise your misdirection and p***, i've seen people who can do a p*** with the spectators looking. Or if you encounter spectators going "u did something while we weren't looking" , do the effect again with a different method like acr.

nono, the pass thing was an example.

Hi,

One way to improve your misdirection skills is first and foremost to not think about it as 'misdirection - a magical psychology term' but rather remembering that misdirection is essentially communication.

Misdirection is merely a fancy way of describing how to effectively communicate to your audience so that they do not look at, think about or consider something you do not want to call attention to.

Misdirecting is about directing away which is simply the opposite of directing towards; which is simply communicating attention towards.

What I'm trying to drive at is that if misdirection is not as effective as one wants, it is more than likely that one's communication ability is not 1st class yet.

Communication in terms of verbal and non verbal communication. When you perform an effect you need to learn how spectators respond to your communication. How clear are you in giving instructions and directing attention towards the 'action' of the magic? Can you do it by merely looking at the 'action' or do you need to point with your fingers or do you need to verbally call attention to it. Excellent communicators (and all good magicians and good actors are expert communicators) can call attention to 'action' but a mere gesture and body language. By learning what works for you to effectively direct attention towards, you will automatically know what will work to direct attention away... which is the essence of misdirection.

So, spend time improving your ability to communicate to your audience and misdirection will become a non-issue.

Tip: drama, acting and miming classes will work wonders for you.


Best,

J C

Well Lumpy, Slydini isn't a magician of our time... Yes, he's a great master magician and has paved the way for others after him but we can't take everything wholesale from the guy ^_^ I think you'll appreciate the works of the late Tommy Wonder... he has FANTASTIC material on the art of misdirection featured in his well written books, and even in his DVDs. Aloy's a great fan of his because Tommy Wonder is such a BRILLIANT creative thinker and he totally understands audience psychology! :lol: We all have a lot to learn...

My 2 cents worth...
ning ;)

Misdirection is such a strong device that it misdirect many magicians.

Many people try to shift people's attention away from the "secret action". Such ploys don't really work, because when you do so you yourself are really focusing on the "secret action" itself.

When you are misdirecting, you should directing it towards a particular thing, to focus your audience's attention on that thing. The human mind cannot focus on more than one thing. As a result, anything out of focus goes unnoticed. Your mind also don't think much about the "secret action".

Hopefully its clear, because I think I put it in a very messy way.

Yes, Tommy Wonder is a master of misdirection. I think you will agree when you watch his two-cups cups and balls. My eyes dropped out at how he wreck miracles with misdirection. Truly wonderful.

JC Sum said something about misdirection which I totally agree.

1. Do not think: " I don't want them(the specs) to look here (the dirty work)" while misdirecting. Think instead, " I WANT them to look there." Notice the difference? One is focusing on where you don't want, even if it's phrased in negative. The other is focusing on where you want. It's just like driving, you always look in front, not at the rear mirror (only occasionally).

2. Communicate through your body languauge on where you want them to look. This is something that can't really be described in words. Basically, it means giving total attention to the place without needing to say "look here". I think most of us, subconsciously, pick up vibes from body language. Eg. You would know whether the gal is interested in you by their body language. (admittedly, most gals can fake quite well but that's another subject altogether.)

My personal experience:

I tried 2 kinds of method of misdirection. The first method is when you use a speech that was provided in most DVDs and then you try to imitate what the creator does.

Now, this first method is good in one sense, you don't need to prepare any speech uphand, and cause the creator use it, you thought it will work generally. But the sad thing is, it doesn't work all the time, half of the time, you have a hard time trying to convice people of what you are saying, because it doesn't sound like something that is coming from you.

The second method is naturally speaking. When you talk naturally, people will listen to you. Hmm, explaining, what i meant is, think about how you communicate with people everyday, what kind of structure language you using that people feel safe and listen to you. Then use that in your magic acts. I changed my form of speaking on the same acts differently most of the time. Its like, a simple ACR trick, you have multiple presentation. Its not because you made thousands over script just for it, but you naturally create a story and do the effect. In the end, the spec will listen the story and enjoy your magic, then half believing what you talking.

The only setback of the second method, your friends will start to wonder whether you are talking the right thing, or you are bluffing them. It happens on me, I telling the truth and they will say, you trying to bluff me right. It can be annoying, but its fun to know that your speech is working on people.

Pambudi told me that we should write scripts on how our acts are going to be. Its true, it break down on the sequence of your acts, and give you a good time focus and judgement. But it is always bad to just read from scripts, even actors don't read from scripts directly, they change the content but still bring the same meaning to the audience, inorder to bring out the natural feeling to the viewers and then they are not acting anymore, they are the person in the movie.

Hope this long msg don't bore you.

My 2 cents worth
Larry

Hmm.. Think Larry post is more on presentation. Could start a different thread on it.

Not really, cause your topic is on misdirection ma. So I give you my thoughts.

Presentation helps alot on misdirection, a magician that knows what he is talking about and a magican that knows nothing of what he is talking about, which one you think the audience will believe?

And once the audience believe in you, your misdirection will be smooth. One of us mentioned about body language, and I will say its needed for everyone. Because gesture speaks alot, express yourself and not confine yourself to the standard routine will make sure that you can misdirect well.

If you are natural when doing the movement, nobody would notice it. Don't do a big deal when doing the "secret move" and your audiences will think you are just very casually doing something but they won't know its the "secret move" because they had not see the trick before.