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Following on from themagicwand's experience of a layman using helium to explain a contact juggler's skills, has anyone else had wild and outlandish explanations thrust on them for the effect of a trick?

I remember i did Out Of This World once and apparently i ' sorted and switched the cards ' when the spec wasn't looking. The only time their eyes weren't burning my hands is when they blinked so how i did that i'll never know.

Not to extract the urine out of the layman, i dont think the ability to perform sleight of hand makes us any better than anyone else, i just think its amusing to hear a human brain find explanation for something that defies it.

I've had many people pulling and squeezing on sponge balls trying to find the secret opening in which I hide another ball.

And apparently when I spring or dribble cards into my left hand I'm pulling one out and putting on top of the deck.

Yeah I like it when that happens. I can understand it when children come out with these things, but adults! Especially when the explanations are even more improbable than the truth.

My favourites are any of the explanations beneath Derren Brown videos on Youtube.
Ace!

I've had all sorts of explanations.

A funny one I remember is when I was getting into card magic and forced a card and 'read someones mind'.
When I made the revelation a friend who was watching from the side who I was worried had seen the sneaky move shouted out..

"AHHHH! I SAW HOW YOU DID THAT!" he screamed.

A bead of sweat formed on my brow

"Um, eh, um, how did I do it then?" I stuttered

"His eyes moved to the left when you were trying to find out what card he selected! You were just reading his body language!" he confidently proclaimed.

"Damn.. you got me.." I said with a wry smile

Yeah that makes sense, if your looking to the left while your body is more to the right its a face card (The same position as most kings, queens and jacks) and looking at the position of a persons feet in correlation with each other will tell you the suite.

The best (or worst depending on your point of view) I got, was from a kid when I did quantum bandits (or crazy mans handcuffs). After I had seperated the two bands he said 'You just used MAGIC elastic bands'.
I never do that trick without having people check the bands now.

JellyBaby wrote:And apparently when I spring or dribble cards into my left hand I'm pulling one out and putting on top of the deck.

If I'm not mistaken, that is and actual move...!

When I was using the David Abbott cut and restored turban as a closer in Japan, one group of kids, after I gave them the cord (I was using a variation with wrapping cord) they cut and tied knots in about 5 places. Naturally, theirs didn't heal...

Its funny this topic because if your ever looking at magic on tv with a layman they insist its camera tricks so they can relax themselves and not let it get to them.But when its done right in front of their faces they have no choice but to be forced to beleive it.

That is why,in my oppinion why they come out with false explanations and when they play back the trick over and over again in their heads they overlook the parts where the sleights are made ,eg- they will rememember you actually putting the card in their hands,they saw it go into their hands so they're trying to figure out how it was changed if you didn't touch it.Even I would admit i'd suspect that theyre special cards that open up or come apart because there has to be a logical explanation but it just isnt aparent

sleightlycrazy wrote:

JellyBaby wrote:And apparently when I spring or dribble cards into my left hand I'm pulling one out and putting on top of the deck.

If I'm not mistaken, that is and actual move...!

Indeed. The cascade control. Or waterfall control. Or the hard-to-do control, as I am currently calling it.

there's a kinda similar, but very sneaky version from Harry Lorrayne...you cut the deck vigorously, quite cleanly...yet you have their card on top at the end of it...

very sneaky indeed..well, cheeky...

queen of clubs wrote:Indeed. The cascade control. Or waterfall control. Or the hard-to-do control, as I am currently calling it.

Yes I have this somewhere. A DVD if I remember. Where are you learning it from, Queenie?

EDIT: I think it's one of the 'Daryl's Encyclopaedia of Sleights' discs. There's loads on there that I haven't even watched. I might spend a lazy sunday digging through them all again.

Apparently, my sponge ballls react to heat!

I did a watch stop and the women loved it, the men said I suspended their belief in time for 5 seconds

mines slightly different. I did a short kids show and afterwards this young lad came up and said 'I can do a magic trick'. I asked him to show me and he made the coin he was holding dissapear and then coughed it into his hand using the old FD. This move was done at least 5 times in my show he had seen just minutes before and indeed he did it very very well.
I complemented him on his skill and he replied
'yeah but I havent got a clue how you did any of your stuff!'

Marvo Marky wrote:

queen of clubs wrote:Indeed. The cascade control. Or waterfall control. Or the hard-to-do control, as I am currently calling it.

Yes I have this somewhere. A DVD if I remember. Where are you learning it from, Queenie?

I've got it on one of Dan & Dave's PDFs. Nursery Rhymes I think...

I once showed off at this church for a youth group, seeing as i was a part of it at the time. I did the STS & some other things. one kid ran around screaming at the top of his lungs that I do witchcraft. Another jumped out of a van we were in (thank goodness it wasn't moving at the moment) screaming his head off after a simple card trick. I have never had reactions such as that since. I never really expected that much, though.