Author: rossco How well do you understand this dynamic principle? If you ask any magician, whether aspiring or otherwise, the answer you are likely to receive is "Of course I do, I use it all the time". But my question is "Do you really?" Read on to find out.
The first thing you must learn in order to understand the potential of misdirection is that it matters not where you look, but only what you see. How many of you knew that? I'm betting not many can answer this in the affirmative.
Before we go any further, STOP, and look up at the ceiling where you are. Go ahead, I'll wait. Now how many of you can describe in detail what you saw on the ceiling? To those of you who can, take another look and see if your memory is correct. For everyone else, forget what you might have seen. It is totally irrelevant.
What I have just done is show you how easy it is to use misdirection. Yes, I hear you saying "No, you didn't!". This is where a true understanding of the concept of misdirection is required. When you looked up at the ceiling, you STOPPED looking at this article. All I have done is subtly convinced you to look somewhere other then at this page. That, my friends, is misdirection.
What is misdirection
Misdirection is the process of making an audience look elsewhere while you perform a secret move. Misdirection can come in many forms. Perhaps best known as an action, object or event that draws spectators' attention away from something that the magician doesn't want spectators to see. This is a very apt description of the word, but personally, I find the word to be a misnomer. I would prefer to call it redirection, as in the essence of the word, you are redirecting the spectators attention, not misdirecting the gaze. This though is merely semantics.
How does it work?
There are volumes written on this subject and I am not here to go into an in depth study of the subject. References for further study are included at the the end of the article.
Misdirection is based on
(1) Psychology and human nature
(2) Challenging logic and skepticism
(3) Understanding the use of suggestion
(4) The use of the emotional affect of color and of black and white.
An example
A magician walks on stage, introduces himself, informs the audience that everything they see will be due to his control. The magician then takes a large colorful yellow handkerchief out of his pocket and starts waving it around, saying nothing. Suddenly, the magician points to the far side of the stage and says loudly "Look over there", while at the same time openly stuffing the handkerchief into his/her pocket. People will either look in the direction you have pointed or laugh at you for attempting such a blatant attempt at misdirection. Either way, it shows that the magician is in control, since they never know what is going to happen. What this demonstrates is the use of all of the above principles. It is both psychological and human nature to look where someone else is looking or pointing. This action also helps with the skeptics, who will now relax, thinking "ha, they can't fool me" and illustrates the power of suggestion, as you have subtly suggested to the audience that there is something worth looking at, where the magician pointed. The use of the color yellow creates a relaxed and serene emotional feeling for the audience.
Through the use of suggestion, it is possible to create your own opportunities for misdirection. One of my favorites is to start counting cards one at a time into a volunteers hand, pushing down every so gently with the first card and gradually increasing the pressure with each successive card, until I reach the fourth card, when I pause and say "I know the cards are heavy, but could you please hold your hand a little higher and don't let it drop anymore". This will not only get a laugh, but creates an opportunity for me to do any secret moves required with the rest of the deck, as all attention is then focused on the spectator and their hand.
There are innumerable methods of misdirection and each one has a purpose, so it is the best interests of the magician to learn as much as possible about this critical aspect of magic. Please take the time to either read the references list below on this subject, research misdirection on the internet, or at the very least, study other magicians and try to determine how they are using misdirection and apply these principles to your own show. You will be a much better magician because of this.
It has often been said that you cannot misdirect someone who does not wish to be misdirected. The way around this is when the person does not know they are being deceived. This may sound absurd, but I am going to illustrate this point with a real life incident
Recently there was a 25 year reunion of my high school (which I didn't attend) held at the high school with a dinner party afterwards at a restaurant approximately 15 miles away from the school. Three people attending the reunion, who had not been home in 20 years were asking for directions and 2 people at the reunion offered to not only give these people directions but go with them to make sure they didn't get lost. Long and short of it is the people offering to go with the partygoers were carjackers and directed the driver to a location where others were waiting and
stole the car. These three reunion attendee's did not know they were being misdirected or deceived and had no reason to suspect they would.
The whole point of this is to show that even if someone claims "you can't fool me", you, as the magician, can then create an atmosphere where they don't realize they are being deceived. This is the essence of misdirection.
In closing for this article, remember this misdirection is one of the means of achieving the suspension of disbelief. Magic must be plausible not impossible. The best magic will be performed by talented magicians who understand and use almost invisible misdirection. This is the true test and talent of the magician.
Reference Material
John Mulholland - Book of Magic
Milbourne Christopher - 1977 Magic Book
Vincent Gaddis - The Art of Honest Deception
Andrew Galloway - Diverting Card Magic
Juan Tamariz - The Five Points in Magic
Misdirection in the Performance of Mentalism by Tom Crone The sly art of misdirection Coreographic Misdirection
