talkmagic.co.uk

So recently I was visited by a friend of mine who is quite far along the autistic spectrum, and I decided to show her a little magic.

And it went astonishingly badly. I had always overlooked the fact that she never made eye contact or spotted non verbal cues, but suddenly when the entire routine required her to look away from my hands for a moment, no amount of motion or patter could draw her away. It was like being constantly heavily scrutinised.

My usual sure fire effects (rubber bands and ropes) fell totally flat as she would point out exactly where the bands or ropes were outside of her field of vision or obfuscated by my hands and from that infer where the twists or knots were.

I later tried something which I thought would work for sure, requiring virtually no misdirection at all : Biddle trick.

And after shwoing that the cards were shuffled and were all the same length, and she checked to make sure they werent marked or sticky, it did work. To a point. However as soon as I revealed that I had vanished her card, I asked her to spread the deck, which would have revealed her card face up. Instead she deftly went for the place the deck had been cut and plucked her card out from the middle, having simply worked out that's where it would be.

It was a little infuriating at first but after a while it felt a bit like social anthropology. She didn't react in any of the normal ways you'd expect from a spectator.

Has anyone else ever found themselves performing to a spectator like this? I'd really like to be able to impress her with something (anything really next time I see her.

-Stacy

Some time back we had a lady member by username of AJ82 who was autistic to a certain extent but used magic as a therapy. She had several rather nifty ideas about effects so I guess autism, as such, will mean different reactions from different people. Just like non autistic spectators, really.

It sounds like your friend's attention focuses very well on what she believes to be important (in card tricks, her card). If this is the case, I would do a DL or top change to switch a signed card for an indifferent card and meticulously place the card on the ground. If her eyes follow the card to the floor, slowly cover it with your foot to step on it. A mercury card fold or palm should be possible then. Personally, I would do a mouth load, but you can have the card reappear anywhere you think you can get away with. With her, it sounds like you need a lot of spatial distance between method and effect, and a burn-proof switch seems to be the way to go.

Mandrake wrote:Some time back we had a lady member by username of AJ82 who was autistic to a certain extent but used magic as a therapy. She had several rather nifty ideas about effects so I guess autism, as such, will mean different reactions from different people. Just like non autistic spectators, really.

Whatever happened to her? She wrote a genuinely insightful essay about what it was to be autistic.

Got a link Tomo?
I've tried searching but can't find it (I assume it was on here anyway).
The search terms I've been trying only pull up this thread.

Found it! ftopic12025.php

I have a friend with asbergers, and it is alot of fun performing to him. He is very clever so can almost always think it out and work out a way for it to be done but he is always amazed with my skill with cards. I tried once to do a trick which needed a CP and he was glued to my hands. I humourously moved them under the table... He got me...

Tjex

Tjex1 wrote:I have a friend with asbergers, and it is alot of fun performing to him. He is very clever so can almost always think it out and work out a way for it to be done but he is always amazed with my skill with cards. I tried once to do a trick which needed a CP and he was glued to my hands. I humourously moved them under the table... He got me...

Tjex

I was once sat at a pub table with some friends one Saturday lunchtime, and absent-mindedly bringing the AS to the top of a Ghost stripper deck as we chatted. A friend (well, someone I don't seem to be able to shake off) was burning my hands. He's the sort who dismisses magic with a hand wave (a real "Sheldon Cooper" - he's just too clever to allow his assumptions to actually be wrong in his eyes), but he couldn't see what I was doing. It REALLY got to him. I really wish they'd broadcast The Big Bang Theory back then so I could say "Believe in magic, you Muggle!!!"

I've had a lot of experience performing to people with aspergers syndrome. The one trick that truly brought delight (rather than "fooling" them - obviously, delight is what we aim to bring" was the sponge balls. Nothing got a better reaction than the sponge balls

Cheers for the link, Tomo - apparently I'm "not allowed to view" that part of the site though.
I'm guessing it's in the rerstricted area, to which I've yet to be deemed worthy of access.

I've bookmarked the link though, so if ever I do something special enough to get me in, I'll read it then.

That was an interesting read. I'm at the high functioning end of the Aspy spectrum, so a lot of her symptoms do not apply to me, but I can empathise with most of them to a certain degree.

One thing I found that I was really good at (and now, later, can attribute to Asperger's) is watching something and almost immediately knowing what is going on. This has downsides; in the last twenty years I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've been 'fooled' by a trick, which does limit the enjoyment somewhat. When it happens, however, I'm in hog heaven

I've done magic for other Aspies and found that it's not really that different from other people, but once you get further into the Autistic end of the spectrum things get more challenging!

Tomo wrote:Found it! ftopic12025.php" target="_blank

You are not authorised to read this forum.

My autistic nephew (8 years old) absolutely loves cups and balls. He giggled his head off wondering how balls were disappearing/appearing and enjoyed lifting the cups to find out what had changed.

Long time no see!

Someone told me I had been mentioned so I thought I would have a look!

I have Autism Im sure you have seen the post Tomo found the link to.

Magic is amazing its a real release and for me its a form of communication. I love seeing the expressions on peoples faces.

The tricks I can do (and I cant do loads) are all set in my mind. I know what to say and how. I hate and cannot always cope with or understand general chit chat so this is a way for me to talk but almost not talk.

I love tricks that involve no talking. Hard impact visual stuff. Lights or under UV lights glowing cups and balls. Simple but visual sensory.

My life has changed a lot since I last came on here. I now live alone, independent apart from my support workers I have about 40 hours a week in total.

I work! I work for a care company not caring for people, Im not the best at looking after myself so I cant look after others but I do lots of other things. Activity plans and visual aids for the clients they support. Organise community events for the disabled community.

As for magic I still love it dont do so much of it but I guess thats my confidence again which comes and goes. Maybe the email I got about this thread is the push I need to get back doing more and coming on here. I don't have a social life really off the internet so things like this I miss a lot! I guess after not coming on for a while I was scared to come back.

Hi all my old friends and hi to everyone who is new.