Misdirection

It is your job as a magician to misdirect them from the palm in the first place. If I said "Hey look it's a meteor shower in the sky." I could palm in any way I wish and the misdirection will have covered the whole thing. MISDIRECTION is the key. Not sleights.

jbear574 posted up this a couple of minutes ago, and gave me the idea, why not ask everyone how they misdirect their audience.

Do you say "Hey look it's a meteor shower in the sky." or do you say "look i'm trying to misdirect you"!
I find that the best misdirection is when you look someone in the eye. That's my opinion.

So my question is, what is your way to misdirect your audience?
-Mike
 
Sep 2, 2007
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0
Sometimes I will say "Look! It's Haley's Comet!" When nobody turns around, I'll tell them "O.K. most of the time people actually turn around when I say that," While saying that, I do whatever move is called for, "but since you're obviously too smart for that, I'll have to do it this way..."
 
Oct 31, 2007
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35
I use a lot of eye contact. Or I tell a story during the trick to get the person thinking about what I'm saying and not what I'm doing so they are more easily distracted by the things around them, this causes them to look around more often than they look at me sometimes. I also like to be a part of the people's conversations around me while I'm doing magic. I may be in the middle of a trick and suddenly add something to an audience member's conversation. This takes focus off of me and onto the audience. Once that happens the person I'm doing the trick for and everyone else is usually no longer looking at me.
 
Nov 10, 2007
1,706
1
I usually just say " look theirs criss angel " lol
I always look them in the eye.
Misdirection is one of the most important things in magic. If you can misdirect well you can pull a bowling ball out of nowhere and they would not know it. You can ditch a deck for a trick deck, if you can misdirect well you can do whatever you want LOL.
 
Jun 27, 2008
219
1
Illinois
i have found that giving someone a sharpie to sign a card works great. the audience dois not focus on the deck but more on their environment and the audience member signing a card.
 
Sep 4, 2007
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Antioch,CA
I say, "What was the color of your card?" Then thats makes them look up as im double undercutting. If they dont look up, I say something random like, "Do you like Ice cream?"
 
Dec 10, 2007
126
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Slovenia (Europe)
Some basic ones I use regularly;
-Eye Contact
-Reach for something to put in my pocket (Sharpie, Coins etc.)
-Just relax, lay back and talk
-Ask a question (Are you right/left handed, do you have a coin I can borrow, does your mother have a cancer etc.)

-Seb
 
Sep 20, 2008
1,112
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I usually need to misdirect when performing ACR's, specially when starting it, as i usually do a pass or double undercut.

Through this, i usually ask them to put back their card, hold a break and ask them the question:

"Do you remember your card?"

Spec: bla bla bla

"That's cool, cause i get a lot of people picking a card, then not remembering it later. "

Spec: bla bla.



Normally, i do the move whenever i get a chance. its easier to do it in a large group, cause its so much easier to misdirect a larger audience than a small one. (For some odd reason)


Some other things i do is ask them to help me out.

E.g.

"Allright- Help me out here, is it a black card or red card...?"

(Normally they'd look up and make eye contact at this point)


or i'd ask them "Do you reckon the card is somewhere in the middle? higher or lower than? maybe? lets try this.. *Snap*"


-Sinful
 
Sep 1, 2007
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England
The example the first poster gave is a terrible example of misdirection, in fact it's not even misdirection.

Misdirection IS incredibly important as many of you are saying, but it's not what many of you are saying. Good misdirection leaves the spectator with the impression that they were watching you the whole time. You let them look at a place that they think is important, while you accomplish the secret move somewhere else, and they believe they were watching closely the whole time. Well they were watching closely, they just happened to be watching the wrong space.

Let me illustrate the difference with an example. Say I want to ditch the deck.

Bad 'Misdirection' - You are holding the deck in mechanics grip and you say 'look, a meteor shower' the moment they look around your hand goes in the pocket and ditches the deck. Mission accomplished? Well nobody saw you do it, but unless there is a meteor shower going on it won't take long for your audience to realise they've been tricked, and when they think back on the trick there is an obvious moment where they think 'he could have put the cards in his pocket then because I wasn't looking'

Good Misdirection - You place an indifferent card face down on the table, actually switching it for a selection, you tell your audience to watch as you wave your hands over the card on the table then take a step back and ask the audience members to turn over the card. They're all watching closely because they know something is about to happen. While everyone's attention is focused on the card, your hand goes into the pocket and leaves the deck there. Mission accomplished? Yes! This time not only did you ditch the deck without anyone seeing you do it, but also nobody feels like they were made to look somewhere they didn't want to look because they all chose to look at the card, also, as far as they are concerned, they watched everything you did and still saw nothing.

That is effective misdirection. Don't make anyone look anywhere, just offer them a choice you know they will take, and while they look at that, do your sneaky stuff somewhere else.

If they ever think 'damn he made me look away, i probably missed something' then that's not misdirection, they might not have seen you do it, but they haven't been misdirected.

Tom
 
Jun 10, 2008
921
1
Newcastle upon Tyne
Some thoughts...

This is a copied n' pasted post from anther forum...



i like to think of misdirection as a pen knife. you have all these different blades and tools but you need to be able to identify what to use and when to use it.
misdirection, like any other aspect of your performance, must be precticed, rehearsed, refined and streamlined. a full length mirror is your best friend when it comes to misdirection practice sessions. if you have the resource, a video camera will be more than your best friend... it'll be your secret lover. you will find that this is one of the few truly objective means of streamlining your misdirective movement. it has been said that you cant misdirect through a camera, but people have disproved that theory. people like david stone, gary kurtz, apollo robbins, have all proven that you can indeed misdirect through screen, you just ahve to be very good to do it. what an inspiration!


Hope this short and sweet piece can be of some interest!


CL
 
Aug 5, 2008
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Misdirection is for those that Lack the Skill to actually perform the sleights,Its completely Wrong to say that You are a true magician if you are only relying in misdirection to execute your Magic. Misdirection is a tool that people who do not have great skill use to get away from sitting down and mastering a sleight. When you use misdirection the Laymen will later remember that you were distracting him and he wont believe the magic.I do a card to pocket right in front of their faces and I execute a card to mouth even,, without having to rely or Showing lack of skill.
 
Sep 20, 2008
1,112
3
i think a lot of you people confuse misdirection with Distraction.


saying 'LOOK, A METEOR!' is creating a distraction. Kinda like a cartoon.

Doing a French Drop and moving your other hand away is misdirection- as they will believe that the coin was 'grabbed' by the other hand and will then therefore be logical to follow the other hand.



The same would be said if you were to Gesture towards your right hand (or look at your right hand) and execute a pushover or doing a backpalm while you secretly vanish the deck.

Rather than going "What's that over there?" and stashing the cards into your pocket, you misdirect them by producing a card out of thin air while you stash the cards.
 
Misdirection is for those that Lack the Skill to actually perform the sleights,Its completely Wrong to say that You are a true magician if you are only relying in misdirection to execute your Magic. Misdirection is a tool that people who do not have great skill use to get away from sitting down and mastering a sleight. When you use misdirection the Laymen will later remember that you were distracting him and he wont believe the magic.I do a card to pocket right in front of their faces and I execute a card to mouth even,, without having to rely or Showing lack of skill.
<rant>
That was the biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard.
You seem to be confusing 'magician' with 'trick monkey'. Name one (decent) professional magician who doesn't use misdirection. Even performers who are well known for the speed and elegance of their sleights - for example, Brian Tudor or Daniel Madison - are highly skilled in misdirection.
Misdirection is the most important tool for a magician to have - it does not simply mean "distracting the audience", but rather covers all facets of audience management.
</rant>
 
Sep 1, 2007
168
0
California
I honestly think that everyone here needs to take a crash course on palming from James Brown, by friend from the UK. A palm, when done correctly, will not look like ANYTHING. There is no need for misdirection at all. If you have seen any of my previous posts, I rant about how small my hands are and the fact that I still accomplish my palms. Of course, I spent quite literally months perfecting my palm, but that is quite honestly the dedication it took for me to utilize this effective method well. No disrespect to anyone else here, but proposing the idea of even saying "Look it's something" is quite ridiculous. Also, I do respect that if someof you have issues or complications with palming, that possibly having a card signed or something of that value will give you enough time to confidently palm. I'm just pointing out that palms were meant to not be seen, or acknowledged. Why then, should there be reason to provide exra misdirection for a move which requires little of? Use your presence as a magician and your performing style to your advantage. Spectators are always a step behind (like three if you're Darwin Ortiz) and CAN not possibly expect or predict anything you do unless you give the necessary signs. if you want some more of my ranting about the psychology of palming, just PM me and i'll be glad to give my two cents ( i think that's the idiom?).
 
Sep 1, 2007
168
0
California
Misdirection is for those that Lack the Skill to actually perform the sleights,Its completely Wrong to say that You are a true magician if you are only relying in misdirection to execute your Magic. Misdirection is a tool that people who do not have great skill use to get away from sitting down and mastering a sleight. When you use misdirection the Laymen will later remember that you were distracting him and he wont believe the magic.I do a card to pocket right in front of their faces and I execute a card to mouth even,, without having to rely or Showing lack of skill.

I honestly agree... read my reply above this one. Everyone here needs to sit down and practice in front of an angled mirror set to get your sleights down. I totally respect how everyone is using this forum as a means to gain more knowledge. I feel bad for putting you guys down If I do for the stuff I believe and have learned, but I feel it's necessary that I spread the knowledge to you guys so that we don't all turn out like Criss Angel, who I don't believe could perform a card to pocket better than any of us. That said, we are all on a higher level than him and have a strive and determination to learn. Don't be discouraged at all that professionals need no misdirection for palming. The magic essence of the palming sleight is in that it is undetectable if performed correctly. I wouldn't put it so bluntly as to blame all of you as the person above me could have possibly intended ( i said possibly =) ) but I feel modern day magic and marketing has given everyone a false sense of sleight of hand. Misdirection is an excuse, and I learned this the tough way from my mentor who is a very very very RESPECTABLE person. He literally nailed it into my head for two years to stop using misdirection for everything. Now, through hard practice, I have stopped using misdirection for everything and "all's swell."
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sep 1, 2007
168
0
California
<rant>
That was the biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard.
You seem to be confusing 'magician' with 'trick monkey'. Name one (decent) professional magician who doesn't use misdirection. Even performers who are well known for the speed and elegance of their sleights - for example, Brian Tudor or Daniel Madison - are highly skilled in misdirection.
Misdirection is the most important tool for a magician to have - it does not simply mean "distracting the audience", but rather covers all facets of audience management.
</rant>

I think the biggest load of rubbish in the world is that you believe Brian Tudor and Daniel Madison to be among the best. Please try to go back even a few years ago. Do you know who Dai Vernon is? He has been at least fifty times as important on the magic as an art we know today. The kinds of problems our magic society face today are precisely this. No one respects the old work of magic that has given rise to what we have today. There is literally one hundred years of manuscript from the best magicians and theorists in history, and all anyone can refer to is Daniel Madison ( a card cheat who got caught and turned awesome because he uses black and white ). No offense, I respect DM for his take and style in magic. I believe he is unique, just as Brian Tudor is, but everyone treats them like gods. Why doesn't anyone maybe travel a bit back and check out Carney, or Colombini, and even Darwin Ortiz. There are hundreds of magicians all respectable who have done considerable feats in magic, yet none are known to the modern generation of performers because we haven't been exposed to that. All we see is the new, and I'm sure Chris Kenner learned quite a few things from Bobo's Coin Magic too... before the announced DVD set came out, had anyone actually read his book Totally Out of Control? Just a question
 
Aug 5, 2008
86
0
I honestly agree... read my reply above this one. Everyone here needs to sit down and practice in front of an angled mirror set to get your sleights down. I totally respect how everyone is ..."

Its good to know that there are people that actually know what they are talking about here on t11.The problem is that unlike you most of the people here don't have mentors.They learn the tricks from the "DVD"S and and that's about it.
 
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