It's interesting what you specs remember

So I thought I'd share this with you all. The other day I moved into my dorm and met my roommates. One of them had found out I was a magician beforehand and asked me to do one "crazy trick that will blow my mind". I went into my room and brought out Jay Sankey's In A Flash. After I performed the trick he freaked out, as expected and that was it. Or so I thought. Last night he invited a friend over so I could do a trick for him and I heard him tell his friend about In a Flash. This is what he said:

"Ok so he brought out a deck of cards and asked if he could borrow a marker and a coin. I went into my room and brought them out and he had me sign the coin and then choose any card. ANY CARD. He then had me put it into the deck and he shuffled it. Legit shuffles too, not BS shuffles. Then he placed the deck in the box, THE DECK IN THE BOX and wrapped my coin in tissue paper and placed it on the box. He then set the tissue on fire and my coin FELL THROUGH THE DECK ON MY CARD!"

I found this super interesting as half of these things didn't happen. I placed the card in the deck, not him. I did not shuffle the cards. It was my sharpie, and he forgot he signed a card as well.

Just thought you all might be interested in what a layperson remembers.
 
Jun 1, 2009
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6
I love that, when they reconstruct totally wrong haha. I did Carbon Paper(or Fiber, I can't remember) by Jay Sanky, and they guy was like "I held the card, I examined the whole card before he put it in my hand! There was no burn mark before!". Yes you did ;). It's so great because it makes you seem that much more amazing. However, it's a double edged sword because the other people now expect you to recreate it like said crazy person explained it, so you have to be careful of that.
Great story though!

Jacob
 
Aug 17, 2010
411
4
Memory is an interpretation of events, not a record. What a spectator tells you will often reflect the conditions they felt were important (" he had me sign the coin and then choose any card. ANY CARD. Legit shuffles too, not BS shuffles) and any exaggerations usually convey how impressed they were. Sort of how gamblers tend to exaggerate how much they lost to tell you how bad they feel.
 
May 21, 2011
162
1
Bedford, England
Haha! I love stuff like this! It really IS interesting what they remember afterwards. However, i see this as a moment where they have just witnessed some strong and powerful magic they haven't seen before, and the reason why it is so powerful is because you have psychologically misled them (that is a reason why you shouldn't repeat a trick for the same audience. Let them believe what you want them to believe) ;)
 

RickEverhart

forum moderator / t11
Elite Member
Sep 14, 2008
3,637
471
46
Louisville, OH
Great story Zenn. This is how great stories spread and people find out about you but as mentioned above, I normally do not repeat the same effect then when the spectator that has already seen the effect is back and wanting to show his buddies. I perform something else because then everyone is watching too closely and knows what is going to happen and then the initial spectator will see that his memory was actually incorrect and he will reconstruct the effect.
 
Great story Zenn. This is how great stories spread and people find out about you but as mentioned above, I normally do not repeat the same effect then when the spectator that has already seen the effect is back and wanting to show his buddies. I perform something else because then everyone is watching too closely and knows what is going to happen and then the initial spectator will see that his memory was actually incorrect and he will reconstruct the effect.

Thats exactly what I did! After he explained it I said here let me show you something too and did Ring Thing. It worked out quite well =]
 

JD

Jul 5, 2009
638
1
Longview, Texas
My favorite moment like this occurred after I performed Skywalker for the first time. I did it and the guy freaked out. To this day he swears he got down and waved his hands under my feet. I love it when he tells people that story.
 
Mar 6, 2008
1,483
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A Land Down Under
One thing you may want to look into is books dealing with presentation with specific chapters regarding creating false memories. By doing this you can inturn create miracles in the eyes of your audience through very very careful scripting (no just the latter but the physical scripting.)
 
Jun 24, 2011
6
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When I performed Witness for the first time for a group of my friends (around 15 people). The next day they were talking about it and what they said was that they chose a card lost it into the deck, that THEY put a joker in a ziplock and it changed right before their eyes.
 
Nov 20, 2007
4,410
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Sydney, Australia
False memories are explored in many different areas of psychology, but perhaps most notably in cognitive and forensic psychology. I don't have a clue as to where teachers and professors would refer you (or what is commonly used as introductory readings for the topic), but I've personally found Elizabeth Loftus to be an excellent resource on false memories; much of her academic career has been spent on this topic.
 
Jul 13, 2009
424
0
Edmonton, Canada
Stuff like that travels really fast, especially in High School. I did, the "ash on arm trick" once in High School during my first year and two years later people still talk about it. Everyone that saw the trick alter a minor thing about it, this eventually builds up and this results in a true miracle. When people ask me if i can do the trick where i "make ash appear on my arm that says the name of a selected card, and where you blow on it as it disappears" i simply reply "no" because i never really did that .... and i prefer to let the magic build up more and more


DAMN i'm gonna miss high school !!!! :(
 
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