I think by making this distinction magicians will be able to increase their prowess and subsequently his/her audiences will be mystified to a greater degree, empowering the magical experience to conclusively label the magician as one who has reached the higher echelons of his/her craft.

First, the distinction has to be made that i believe most magicians gloss over or are mostly ignorant of, that is, the difference between invisibility and deceptiveness. In reference to sleights, invisibility is when the spectator cannot at any time see the sleight, or for that matter any part of the deck (using card magic as an example) when the sleight is being accomplished.

One example is a more common methods of the push-through or strip-out shuffle, a the moment when the strip-out has to be done and the fingers are blocking the ends of the deck from view. The spectator is unable to see what is going on behind the fingers and -in the least- at a subconscious level that spectator will not be convinced completely that everything his entertainer is doing is perfectly legitimate. Contrast this to the lesser used and more difficult methods of the strip-out where the hands are removed completely from the deck to show a perfectly legitimate and shuffled deck of cards ( the cards have been inter-weaved very finely ) and then they come back to cut the deck. That appearance of an apparently legitimately shuffled deck causes the spectator to completely lose his guard and it is at this vulnerable moment that the strip-out is made. The disarming feature of this deceptive method of shuffling is the one that invariably receives the most reaction and appreciation, from laymen and magicians alike.

So as one can see, deceptiveness is letting the spectator see everything in full view and deceiving him right before his/her eyes. Of course, if one were to scan through the many sleights he/she knows, he will find that only a few in his arsenal are invisible as compared to deceptive. Why is this so? Well i think the answer is simply because deceptiveness is very difficult to come by and many sleights undeniably fall under the category of 'undeceptive-able', meaning that they cannot be anything other than invisible no matter how much practice ensues.

For example, the card palm, obviously you can't show your face up hand while your palming a card, unless you have some amazing un-angly way of switching a front palm to a back one while turning the hand face-up. It can't be anything other than invisible right? It can't technically be deceptive, but it can -in my words- be invisibly deceptive, and how some magicians to that is to have disarming hand gestures or natural hand actions that justify the position of the hand.

Another example of a sleight that limbos between the invisible and deceptive is the ever dying second deal. That neck-tying action, where the deck is angled more vertical during the take makes it nigh impossible for anyone in the operator's side and front to see the deal taking place, but that doesn't mean that they don't know or at least suspect that something dirty is going down, especially since neck-tying is univesally recognized by any seasoned card player wary of cheats as a means to cover the false deal. So, whats the solution? Better the sleight and do it plainly horizontally. For skeptics, I can attest that the deal has been done in that fashion by me as a speller effect and has not been questioned or recognized, why? Simply because one, the visual cues accompanying the deal is gone ( neck-tying ), the openness of the deck relaxes the spectator's senses, and as always the decptiveness heightens the end result- the part of the trick most magicians look forward to.

Then one foreseeable problem is that misdirection can only be placed under the section of invisibility. Misdirection which has been the bread and butter for many magicians from the time of old until now, and has been highly sought out by the yearning magician, is and will always be considered the high art, or the crowning achievement of all that is magic, and will still be the means by which a magician's prowess are judged. But in this light, misdirection cannot in my opinion be as effective as deceptivity. I posted a topic on this :" one problem with misdirection" and i wrote how i had the problem of spectators accusing me of doing something while their attention was directed somewhere else. If spectators know that they are being misdirected, then the end result becomes completely unsatisfying and uninteresting because the spectator can just pin everything that he/she cannot explain towards the brief blanks of time that he/she wasn't paying close attention to the deck.

Even with time, misdirection comes to haunt the spectator as to the possibilities that the magician had hoodwinked them when they were not paying attention. I think others have had this experience as do I when I watched Huron perform at the beginning of this year before my interest in magic had sprouted: some of the things that he did ( and as people know, he relies on misdirection and is amazingly good at it ) came to me as an after-thought that there were indeed periods of time that i hand not paid attention to the deck but to where-ever he wanted my attention to be, and that spoiled my experience though not completely, because his riffle pass and classic force was mind-boggling and throughly mystical to me at the time.

So what is the solution? I'm guessing some would say better your misdirection and make sure that they don't know that your misdirecting them. Its a fairly reasonable answer but i think mine would produce more authority and is easier to accomplish than to truly master the art of misdirection, which, still doesn't guarantee that spectators will be completely fooled. The best soluton that i can come up with stems from the same limbo idea that i mentioned before, that transition between deceptiveness and invisibility. Always emphasize openness and clear presentations and use this deceptive cadence to insert pockets of well orchestrated misdirection what works only specifically on that certain trick. Eliminate the visual cues, disarm the spectator and then swiftly go for the jugular.

As Hugard and Bruae put it in their book, 'Expert Card Technique', " The card expert commands the respect and admiration of those who watch him because apparently he does not manipulate the cards. His every effort in centred on presenting his feats with a minimum of handling of the cards. He attempts to present each trick exactly as though it were accomplished by true magical means. Under such conditions, the pack will be held simply and naturally without ostentation. The performer who constantly riffles the ends of the pack, who rushes through his feats as though Beezlebub was hard on his heels, whose movements are quick and jerky, is defeated before he starts, for his spectators are conscious of the fact that he is employing sleight of hand; his every action betrays this fact."

And so in conclusion, to round up what i'm trying to say, at every turn, put some deceptiveness into your magic, and you will reap the rewards that all magicians yearn, for it is in that reaction from the spectator that is the first and perpetual motivation for the craftsman to persue the art of magic.

OMG! This is enlightenment! The part about handling the cards simply as though the feat was done through magical means really strikes me. I'm sure many of us are guilty of not handling the cards simply. And we always do things like dribble the card or spring them or do fancy cuts in between our routines or even during out routines when we're pattering and stuff. and i agree that if pple sees you as a fancy card handler, it does make them think that u are using sleight of hand instead of real magic. but nowadays it's hard to find ppl who believe in real magic......not impossible..but it truly is hard..

That was a good read. But I think no sleights are "un-deceiveable", unless they were designed to look that way. They can be done naturally if practised(like a whole lot of practise). Hehez. Just thoughts.

Here's something I just wanted to point out... (not really relevant)

You know how sometimes, when you do a pass? With a deck of face down cards. An invisible pass, or so you hoped. And the magician who was looking suddenly says, "Oh, wow. Nice pass." :g:

(duh, if it was any good, you wouldn't have seen it now, would you?) :off: But it's true. I've seen it happen plenty of times. And it's confusing.

"(duh, if it was any good, you wouldn't have seen it now, would you?)"

I don't think it's because your pass is lousy. Magicians who know the pass will somehow realize you are doing a pass. Even as I watched Daniel Garcia's DvDs, I could see he did a pass in one of his tricks but it was so fast and smooth that made me think: "Good Pass!!".

"i had the problem of spectators accusing me of doing something while their attention was directed somewhere else. If spectators know that they are being misdirected, then the end result becomes completely unsatisfying"

Actually, I think you should train up on your misdirection. I suppose that you did it a bit too unnaturally that raised their suspicions. Not to say I am very good at it, I had my share of mishaps (people turning over the cards, or they spotted me doing something with my hands). But when I looked back, I realised it's due to my own poor misdirection (but of course, we like to think it's spectators' fault).

Anyway, well-written. YOu should have leave it for the next essay writing competition.

Great article. We might find a place to feature this later. B)
Good job. :)