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This may seem like an academic post, but after a recent discussion with a freind of mine, I've been rethinking the idea of misdirection. I'd like to hear how people define misdirection. Like I said, this may seem pointless, but my own analysis of misdirection has had profound effects on the way I perform magic.

So how do you define misdirection?

No so good at answering things like this but hear goes...

Making some ones attention focus on what you want them to focus on.

Like I said not so good at things like that but hey, I had a shot!

misdirection, hmmm...i would class it as whatever i draw attention to or suggest - whether it be with my eyes, actions or words...

...don't look at the emoticons!

In Card College Roberto Giobbi makes some excelent points on misdirection I'll find them and get back to you.

http://www.leirpoll.com/martialart.htm

...very nice point of view there....

To me, misdirection is simply the act of making an audience look away whilst you do a sleight/move/clean-up etc.

This can simply be asking them a question whilst you make a move, or moving onto doing something else, body language wise.

A perfect example of this is whilst doing the pass. A card is slected and returned at an appropriate point, I look down to the deck, as do the spectators. Then I look up, and occasionally ask them a question.
This is the misdirection, as the focus is diverted,a lbeit momentarily, from something you wish to hide.
Obviously by the time they look back to the deck, the card has long been passed.

Just a little view there...

Misdirection, to me, is a diversionary tactic—whether verbal, visual, audible or suggestive.

It can be consciously recognisable, or hidden within another more innocent act.

Sure, you can make someone think you have a coin in your left hand, and through misdirection, actually ditch the coin. But is that really the point?

Don't think that I am trying to be clever here... I'm just pointing out that misdirection doesn't just have to be obvious!

In the world outside magic, misdirection is used constantly. Salesmen will use it to get a good sale, robbers will use it to steal swag, parents do it to keep their children's minds on something.

Real-world magic misdirection is an artform which buries itself more in the realms of the subconsious, I believe.

Easiest way to understand what I mean is to watch someone like Marlo at work, or Slydini.

Can Misdirection, therefore, take a new meaning when used in the 'magic' context? Does the word differ in usage when magic is involved?

To quote Vernon: "A large action covers a small". That's misdirection. A diversion which fits naturally within the flow of conversation or actions. Something which isn't obviously a 'misdirection'. But that's just my own analysis.

In roundabout terms, there's a lot of different descriptions, and I think many people will have many different interpretations.

On a Monday afternoon, this is a very profound question to ask!

Now, the key point being that misdirection IMO is less to do with "look over there, there's a pink pig flying outside" and more to do with the fact that during reading this you've not noticed that the first letter of every paragraph in my post spells the word 'Misdirection', because you weren't looking for it. And that pretty much sums it up for me.

I'd say it was the art of doing one thing while appearing to do another - including appearing to do nothing at all.

I always think of it the other way round, more as direction than misdirection.

When we perform we tend to be very good at getting people to look at what we are doing, so why not do exactly the same to get them to look elswhere during the dodgy bit? All it takes is to be able to routine something interesting with the other hand (or whatever) and go on with that as the focus.

Having said that, I also like effects that use some fairly barefaced techiques, for example, the version of "Wild Card" I do requires you to turn over a DF'er, not only in full view but whilst asking your spectators to watch the card. You are holding a regular card in the hand at the same time and for some reason people just completely miss what you've done.

An even more powerful tool is that of Indirection.

one of my favouire forms of "Misdirection" is not doing something when they aren't looking, but not doing something when they are looking

allow me to give an example:

i pretend to put something in my pocket, but make it look believable, and make it look like i didn't want them to see, for example in Gregory Wilson's re-caped you pretend to put the pen in your pocket, they point it out, and you proceed to show your hand empty before pulling it out of the cap.

well that is my rambling over with - time to see if Kioku has arived since i placed the order 2 hours ago...nope, still not there!

and another form of misdirection is while you have been reading this i have been taking your watches...and putting them back! see how clever i am! and all of that was through misdirection!

talking about misdirectiona nd watch stealing, i nicked a couple more watches today (gave them back of course ) - and was very pleased with myself.

but anyhow, this time i really am finished with my rambling...

...for now...

mwahahahahahaha......(evil cackles fade out).......

Seige .... very nice on the initial letters. How derren brown of you ....

There was a mention of indirection. Attributed to kenton K (got his black tie up stairs ... is that the right name? Keep getting it wrong!).

Must get hold f his stuff on the subject. Actually I really enjoyed some work on pickpocketting last night. All about the larger pressure masks the smaller pressure. perhaps this is misdirection too .... where the focus on one area is so much larger than on another area, the smaller area is ignored.

To get misdirection to work I don't just stare in another direction, I imagine the thing that I am supposed to be looking at and it is mre effective. Weird! What body languag do i give off which is different when I personally believe its there?

Oh, and if you notice, each paragraph has made the word stmto ....

nickj wrote:I always think of it the other way round, more as direction than misdirection.

I agree with Nick. When using the term misdirection it almost becomes an after thought; "oh yes, I must remember to misdirect at that point". I think the difference between most of us and the true artists is there ability to control and direct the audiences attention at every stage of the effect. I've heard and read this on a number of occasions and am only just coming to terms with it as a concept. I now spend a lot more time watching the performances of magicians, looking for what they do, as opposed to simply how they do it.

byron0512 wrote:There was a mention of indirection. Attributed to kenton K (got his black tie up stairs ... is that the right name? Keep getting it wrong!).

Yes. Well, it's written by him with his insights in to it, but according to the front cover it's been around for ages (but is still relatively unkown by magicians and mentalists)...he didn't exactly create it, just expanded upon it. I did a review of it somewhere...just search for Secrets of Indirection.

A very good book it is.

The brain is constantly active while we are awake and it's always thinking of something, if we say don't think of a car everyone has a car image in their head. I can't remember who but a magician once said misdirect all the time:

To me misdirection is just focusing attention where you want, like direction as has been said, this can be achieved through a joke, a command or just the magician's gaze. It is, I think, just one part of audience control and performance.