More and more these days I find magicians are asking if the effects that are commercially available or even free tricks are examinable by audience members. My reaction to this is "Why does it matter?" Whether or not an effect is examinable really has very little to do with the overall effect.
This issue comes down to audience control and your own performing skills. Personally, I cringe every time I see a performer whose first move of an effect is hand out their props for inspection. Handing anything out for inspection, prior to the effect, even those which can be thoroughly examined, is something all magicians need to avoid.
There are numerous reasons why and here are some of them..
1) When you encourage your audience to examine one item, they then want to examine everything.
2) Unless every effect you perform is examinable, which is almost never the case, you don't want to place the idea into their head that they need to inspect anything.
3) By doing this you are in effect saying "Hey, here's a trick that I know the secret to and you don't and you can't figure it out".
Unfortunately all too many magicians do not realize that magic is meant to be entertaining and NOT presented as a puzzle or challenge that the spectators feel they have to solve in order to not feel or look foolish. If your spectators are constantly asking to look at your props then you are definitely doing something wrong. It may be that you are encouraging them through your body language, lack of routine or it could even be that you have to much silence thus giving them an opportunity to start asking questions like "Can I see that". Just as silence can be deadly in a stage show, it can be even more so in intimate or close up situations. Whatever the cause, it is extremely important to determine the cause and correct it as quickly as possible.
To further illustrate this point, consider the following:
You are about to present a coin trick where coins change from silver to copper and then to gold and the effect starts off by setting two stacks of two coins each and one single half dollar on the table. At this point, if the spectator asked to see the coins, or even worse, if they were to move or even touch the stacks or pick up the single coin, the routine would "go bust" (those of you who do coin magic will know what I am referring to here, and those who don't now have some research to do). The coins absolutely cannot be examined. But yet, the coins must be set the coins on the table freely. Sounds dangerous, doesn't it?
Well let me tell you - it can be. The secret to this, is that you must control the routine and your audience. The success or failure of the effect relies more on what you say and how you say it, than the actual mechanics of the effect. The effect is designed to discourage questions and the idea of examination should not even enter anyone's thoughts.
So, start talking before setting the coins on the table.
Here's an example - as you are getting ready to put the coins on the table
"This is called Alchemist Fantasy, There's a story that goes along with it. You may have heard of an Alchemist. An Alchemist is a person that lived back in the middle ages... blah, blah blah".
This causes the audience to focus on what I'm saying and not on what I'm doing. The above is said without any pauses or breaks in the speech, since I don't want to have anyone start to ask questions. I continue telling the story until the coins are on the table and the first "stack" is picked up, then the second coin is picked and the audience will now be focused on my hands and the coins I'm holding.
At this point a "move" is made and one coin changes from silver to copper. Two coins are set back on the table and one is retained in the hand. The two coins are set on the front of the table close to the spectator. If you don't tell them to examine them, then they won't. However, they are totally aware that they could if they wanted to. The process is repeated with the other stack and then the remaining silver coin turns into gold.
Now there are five coins are sitting on the front of the table, they are within the spectators' reach, just beckoning them to take a look. I never tell them to check the coins out. I never tell them to pick them up. But, I want them to, and they always do. They usually ask if they can look at the coins at this point and I act surprised, shrug my shoulders and say "Sure, if you want to". My body language and expression is intended to give the idea that it hadn't occurred to me that anyone would want to look at the coins.
Hopefully through this article and example you can see that your routines need to be designed to control the thoughts and actions of the spectator in a very subtle way. It's simply another form of misdirection. Usually, when we think of misdirection, we think of controlling what a person sees or where they look. It's also very important to control their thoughts and actions with a little psychology or misdirection of the mind.
Don't limit yourself to effects which must be examinable, rather, learn to adapt and utilize all manners of misdirection and improve, not only your own skills, but also your audience's appreciation of these skills. Believe me, your spectators will thank you - usually in the form of more bookings.
Author: rossco
