talkmagic.co.uk

A fine question and such an essential feature of what we do!

I was thinking of the final loads in my chop cup routine. It is amazing how much the audience is not looking at the load as it goes in. If the sequence of moves has been done correctly, the last revelation of the regular ball is still a surprise that the first load is pretty simple. The revelation of the first load is so suprising that you have so much time to load the second one. The delay in revealing the second load builds the surprise even more. This kind of misdirection is so effortless.

I have used this notion of performative contradiction before, but that is what we really are doing when we perform a sleight combined with misdirection. We are literally contradicting with our actions what we are saying.

I use misdirection in my teaching, and comedians use a form of verbal misdirection, which is why (for good comedians anyway) that the punchline comes as such a surprise.

The word 'misdirection' is a bit of a misnomer. It's really DIRECTION.which is Directing Your Audience of 1 or 1001 to where you want them to look, to hear, to see, to think or to put it in a nutshell, 'what you want them to believe.' It is influencing/manipulating the audiences' senses and thoughts to achieve your effect. There are 2 good, useful and simple 'reads' on the subject. 'Patrick Page On Misdirection' and 'Magic By Misdirection' by Dariel Fitzkee.
Allen Tipton.

When I first started in magic I found the whole concept of missdirection very difficult to grasp. It took me about 12 months before I realised that the concept of missdirection is in fact body language.

You control what the spectator does by your own actions, look, touch, moves etc.

Thanks guys, the answers you've given have been very interesting.