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The experiment

1. the experiment
2. 3 important things, I have learned
3. funny things I have noticed


1. The experiment

In order to improve my showmanship, I decided to stop learning any new sleights and started doing a lot of street magic. I only did really basic tricks which are quite easy to work out and not very magical. My aim was to perfect my story-telling skills and my misdirection. I wanted spectators to be astonished even when I was doing some of the worst tricks.

Here is one of the tricks I was doing:
For preparation the top cards of the deck have to be in this order:
7 of spades
7 of diamonds
7 of clubs
7 of hearts

The trick is basically showing the top two cards to the spectator and then putting them in the middle of the deck. Afterwards you tell him that the two cards have travelled back to the top of the deck and you show him the other two cards.

Usually these tricks work only for little children. But believe it or not, now I am able to make it work for almost anyone.



2. 3 important things, I have learned

- Never tell what you are going to do (only do it when it is a lie)
Otherwise they know what to look for; also a surprise is always nice.

- give the spectator something to believe in
E.g. the ambitious card: If you tell a spectator that the card always jumps to the top when you snap, they will only focus when you are snapping. This gives you the possibility to do any sleight easily.

- tell emotional (with happy-end), interesting and funny stories
E.g. any simple coin vanish: Don’t just say: “Here is a coin… and now it’s gone”. Take a Chinese coin and tell how you were lost in China and that you can’t speak their language. Because even if the trick really obvious or if the trick goes wrong, you have entertained the audience with the story. And magic is nothing more than entertainment.



3. funny things I have noticed

- The turnover pass – misdirection
The way to make this sleight invisible is to pretend that you have lost the grip on the cards and that they turn over. So naturally you would loose the grip and the cards would start to turnover and you would then say “oops”.

But If you actually start the turnover pass and then say “oops”, most people will later say that you were doing some kind of move and distracting them with the “oops”.

When you say “oops” firstly and then the turnover pass, everybody is happy. But why should you say “oops” when nothing has happened. I think that is quite strange.

It sounds obvious when you spell it out, but that's really good advice.

Especially in mentalism, you need the spectator's concentration to be firmly fixed on the fantasy you've created for them to believe in.

The best way to improve anything is experimentation.
change little bits each time and stick with what works.

Sounds advice there. Sounds obvious, but it's nice to have it spelt out. I found the same with Magic in Theory. It's obvious stuff, but it's laid out and well summarised.