talkmagic.co.uk

I'd be interested to know the experiences people have had with the average spec knowing about various things. I think everyone has heard of "a marked deck". A few know about DBs, although of course Houdini didn't in Vernon's "The trick that fooled Houdini" (exposure!). If anything "moves unexpectedly" then you often get told "it must be magnets". But beyond that I think knowledge is very limited. Blank cards, double-facers, one-way force decks are all a mystery - and quite right too!

I am getting a little wary of using a one way force deck - I got out fairly and squarely once when someone said "Yeah, all of the cards are the same" and a couple of other times I have heard mutterings - fortunately both times the person they were with told them to stop being so stupid.....

Having said that - I did have 'Dini rather amazed at my card technique when I was using a one way deck - I just had an indifferent card on the bottom and flashed it once in a while...

The average spec isn't quite as unknowledgeable as we would like them to be, however with a good performance the little knowledge they have can be suspended long enough to create a good effect.

People know certain things but on the whole I find that they do tend to assume that things like decks of cards, coins ect are exactly what they seem to be. The main thing is that the spec doesn't know what you're going to do so doens't really know what to look for until it's all over.

Lady of Mystery wrote:People know certain things but on the whole I find that they do tend to assume that things like decks of cards, coins ect are exactly what they seem to be. The main thing is that the spec doesn't know what you're going to do so doens't really know what to look for until it's all over.

Yes - which is exactly why you don't do a trick twice. Magic lesson No.1!

I occasionally come across people who know about the TT and also TWriters

Heat apparently its all done with heat, somehow it make the cards change (this is on of my favourites)

Lee Smith wrote:Heat apparently its all done with heat, somehow it make the cards change (this is on of my favourites)

Also heat makes coins bend aswell!

TheStoner wrote:I think everyone has heard of "a marked deck"...

That may be true, but with the correct presentation your spectator will never, ever get a whiff of a suspicion that you are using a marked deck. I use my marked decks a lot and cannot remember the last time I was caught out. Kirk Charles's book on the subject is superb and contains lots of quality material to try out. Look it up in the book index if marked decks is your thing.

Generally speaking, your average layman may be aware of the existence of, say, a TT or swami gimmick, or whatever, but to a large extent your performance will determine whether or not they get that nagging doubt in their mind and whether they pull you up on it or not. Picture the scene...

Two magicians/mentalists doing exactly the same effect using the same gimmick or gaff. One of them is doing a "trick", just going through the motions. The other is making a performance of it and drawing the audience in on an emotional level. Guess who runs the higher risk of getting caught out?

I'm no expert (far from it) but that's my take on things. Makes sense to me, anyway.

Totally Mental wrote:I am getting a little wary of using a one way force deck

I would also be wary of using a one-way force deck - without first showing it to be normal first e.g. do something with a regular-looking deck and switch to the one-way after.

You don't have to do anything very sleighty. You've casually demonstrated that the deck has different faces and then done something amazing. Switch again before another effect (or ditch the deck in the pocket containing the first deck) and you're pretty well set up if someone asks to see the cards again.

The ideal, I think, is to understand what method the audience is likely to think of and eliminate that possibilty (whether or not it's the truth) without necessarily drawing any kind of direct attention to it. TotallyMental's bottom card flash is a great example of this. I have an effect with Zener cards that is largely made up of understated touches disguising what is really a very obvious method indeed; to my mind it's the touches that are doing the work of the effect rather than the main part of the method.

Recently bought Get Nyman. He explains that performing at a particular venue he was, behind the curtain, about a foot away from the audience, and could hear much of the conversation that would follow his act. This meant he was acutely aware that people are generally much more advanced in their analysis of an act's effects and are naturally going to go after the method. His advice is to embrace that fact, to use the dynamic to further your own presentations and effects (and to steal a method volunteered by a member of the audience, if it's a good one!).

I've sometimes had people ask "Is that a marked deck?". The way to get round this is to say "No it isn't". Suprisingly that usually does the trick!

I have encountered specs who have heard of double lifts palms and false shuffles before, but for some reason even though they knew of these things, they never caught me doing them

I use marked decks all the time (as Replicant knows!). But no-one ever suspects. The reason being I put so much emotion between me and the cards that no-one would dare think for a moment that the deck was marked without feeling they were debasing my skills. I've also spent literally years learning how to read them at a distance, in half-light and in a fraction of a second.

Presentation, as we keep banging on about, is all.

An acquintance of mine was entertained by a close up act in a hotel while on holidays in Jersey some years ago. However, the "poor" magician seemed to have a prosthetic thumb, poor chap, "didn't know they made them that small"


TI

I'd be interested to know the experiences people have had with the average spec knowing about various things

I have a theory.

If you start out by thinking that the audiences know how everything is done, ( and indeed they all do deep down) you become a better performer.

why?


because then, you set up each effect in a different way, almost daring the audience to catch you out.
another side effect of this, will be that your presentations become more entertaining .