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I am looking for places and events in real life, where misdirection plays an actual and influential part in our lives.

The one example I came up with was in my honeymoon, when I was being stripped of my watch in Prague by a pickpocket who shook my left hand so vigorously I was certain I knew him from somewhere. But where from, where from... and there went my wristwatch.
Luckily, my wife (who also has some proficiency in the deft art of magic), noticed his actions. She didn't say anything outloud because my old watch is quite worthless anyway.
She did, however, pay for our lunch with the poor pickpocket's own purse.
Best. Steak. Ever.

(At least, that's the way I tell it on stage)

Any other ideas for misdirection in real life?

Espionage. The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception makes for an interesting read, but even in a non-magical sense misdirection is used a lot. Spy: A Handbook is interesting from that point of view.

Martial arts uses misdirection, as does general warcraft. Even some birds use misdirection to protect their nests, so it has a natural application in defence.

Misdirection works brilliantly when distracting naughty children, too.

T.

Ah, examples from mama nature. Now why didn't I think of that??

Absolutely brilliant. I'll put in the elephants who steal from each other and so on. Also hen that protects her youngsters by drawing attention to herself.

As for military / spy uses, I'll have to see if I can find some info about it.

Thanks!

Don't forget that some lizards shed their tails to evade capture. Some tails even continue to wiggle around so the predator concentrates on it while the living part of the animal escapes.

Some animals lie using warning colours. Wasp-coloured flies are one example. There's a harmless snake that has virtually the same set of coloured bands as a lethal one - I can't remember the name of that one, but it's orange, black and some other colours. This could be just lying rather than misdirection, though

Ted wrote:There's a harmless snake that has virtually the same set of coloured bands as a lethal one - I can't remember the name of that one

That's the coral snake and the milk snake - http://www.nachi.org/images09/CompareCoralSnake.jpg

Thank you - those are the ones I was thinking of. Basically the milk snake has ripped off the coral snake. There's a copyright/crediting issue there, I should think... (ducks for fire-proof cover).

Ted wrote:the milk snake has ripped off the coral snake. There's a copyright/crediting issue there, I should think...

This matter should be taken to court, the milk snake wouldn't have a leg to stand on..... sorry, so very, very sorry....

Mandrake wrote:

Ted wrote:the milk snake has ripped off the coral snake. There's a copyright/crediting issue there, I should think...

This matter should be taken to court, the milk snake wouldn't have a leg to stand on..... sorry, so very, very sorry....

One has to wonder if the copyright laws in Central America (where the snakes mainly live) have any teeth.

I fangk you.

All of which is an excellent example of misdirection, the last four posts have misdirected attention away from the original topic!

Ted wrote:Espionage. The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception makes for an interesting read, but even in a non-magical sense misdirection is used a lot. Spy: A Handbook is interesting from that point of view.

Martial arts uses misdirection, as does general warcraft. Even some birds use misdirection to protect their nests, so it has a natural application in defence.

Misdirection works brilliantly when distracting naughty children, too.

T.

Misdirection does play a huge role in martial arts. When engaged in combat (even if it is just light sparring practice) the mind is in overdrive, reacting the the tiniest of movements in the opponent. This means that when you feint with one hand, or even do something as subtle as shift your feet ready to strike, they react. Then what they were expecting doesnt happen and they are left vunerable. The same works in magic by giving the spectator some false clue about what is going on, then doing something different. This puts them completely off guard in my experience (e.g pretending to hide something very unnaturally in one hand while the actually dirty hand ditches. Then you show them they were wrong, they go to the other hand but both hands are clean )

Mandrake wrote:All of which is an excellent example of misdirection, the last four posts have misdirected attention away from the original topic!

What original topic?

I used to get change from a tenner out of a fiver in busy pubs in the 1980s just by demanding it. I'm not proud of it, but I do put far more into charity boxes now.

Tomo -
That's an interesting (not very moral, but interesting all the same) use of misdirection. I might actually include mention of it in the show. Thanks!

Spoony -
I never really thought about martial arts as a game of misdirection. They're a bit off my game, but I might use it as an example for people who know and practice karate and judo.

And Mandrake - thanks for the anti-misdirection

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