Hello all! Been awhile since I started a thread. I was talking about this subject to another fellow magician friend of mine and we were talking about explaining the outcome of an effect. I'll give you an example.
On several effects that I perform such as a card at any number plot I almost say "Now wouldn't it be amazing if the card you picked was the 27th card down?" and tada it's there. I usually just have them count it out and then reveal their card which makes the reaction more powerful because they didnt know what to expect, where as if you just told them the card was going to be the 27th card down, yeah sure it's still amazing but not as powerful as if they never expected it. You know if seems like it would be more powerful to turn 1 dollar bills into 500 dollars without them expecting it instead of saying I'm going to turn these 1 dollar bills into 500. You know what I'm saying?
Now that being said, sometimes explanation is sometimes needed, I did this show at the University here in town that I was hired at and it was my version of Daniel Madison's Blind card effect and again I never really explain what is going to happen and (at the time) I never had any problems with it. The two cards would match and they would go nuts, but at this event the spectator turned over the cards, showed everyone else and nothing........ silent crickets. No one understood what the trick was nor was anyone amazed. This took me by surprise as I've performed the trick for years and never once had a problem. Then every now and then, rarely, but still happened, other effects I performed throughout the years that I never had a problem before suddenly at a certain spectator or even just nothing.
My friend recommended that I should explain the plot so everyone in the room understands what we are going for but that's not really my style. So where do we draw the line and give it that good balance between making sure we dont just give away the actual ending but giving enough information so the audience understands the trick. Now like I said, this isn't a major issue I still perform these effects and since then have never had a problem but what could have been done?
On several effects that I perform such as a card at any number plot I almost say "Now wouldn't it be amazing if the card you picked was the 27th card down?" and tada it's there. I usually just have them count it out and then reveal their card which makes the reaction more powerful because they didnt know what to expect, where as if you just told them the card was going to be the 27th card down, yeah sure it's still amazing but not as powerful as if they never expected it. You know if seems like it would be more powerful to turn 1 dollar bills into 500 dollars without them expecting it instead of saying I'm going to turn these 1 dollar bills into 500. You know what I'm saying?
Now that being said, sometimes explanation is sometimes needed, I did this show at the University here in town that I was hired at and it was my version of Daniel Madison's Blind card effect and again I never really explain what is going to happen and (at the time) I never had any problems with it. The two cards would match and they would go nuts, but at this event the spectator turned over the cards, showed everyone else and nothing........ silent crickets. No one understood what the trick was nor was anyone amazed. This took me by surprise as I've performed the trick for years and never once had a problem. Then every now and then, rarely, but still happened, other effects I performed throughout the years that I never had a problem before suddenly at a certain spectator or even just nothing.
My friend recommended that I should explain the plot so everyone in the room understands what we are going for but that's not really my style. So where do we draw the line and give it that good balance between making sure we dont just give away the actual ending but giving enough information so the audience understands the trick. Now like I said, this isn't a major issue I still perform these effects and since then have never had a problem but what could have been done?