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I have been reading a little about misdirection of late, and arrived upon the concept of the on/off-beat. I understand the concept in itself, however I was wondering if anyone had any tips on creating an on-beat which can then be followed by a moment of relaxation or an off-beat as it were.

Some ideas I had were things like leaning forward to spread through the cards, showing the spectator that they are all different - which would then give you a moment to lean back in relaxation afterwards, in which a move could be performed as you idly ask a question or something.

I'd like some more ideas for how to create an on-beat though because I'd imagine that doing that every time you wish to perform a move would soon wind up with you being caught out.

Maybe also some different ideas about how you define the on-beat would be useful. From my understanding, it is a moment of tension/concentration in which you hold the spectators attention - and as you release this tension and relax your spectator will also - which gives you an opportune moment to catch them unawares (the off-beat). I'd appreciate any refinement/correction of my understanding.

Thanks

Laurens

There are endless examples of the clever use of misdirection. The most basic is the one I use most frequently and that is eye contact. If you ask someone a question and look at them then they will naturally look straight back at you. If you are dealing with a group then that group will naturally look to this person to hear their answer. At this very short but obvious moment no-one in the group should be looking at your hands. Bare in mind also that the eye is drawn to movement so anything you do should be done casually. If you use palming or any form of classic pass then this form of misdirection is not only advisable but essential - particularly if your pass is like mine!!!

Also you'll notice by looking at people's eyes when you ask them certain types of question that you may get a longer moment of misdirection. Questions involving immediate recall will be answered fairly quickly. Questions involving recalling a particular aspect of a past memory will see the spec staring into space for a wee bit longer. Eg asking for a number between one and five is different to asking what the spec was wearing on his wedding day.

This is the most basic form, there are far more advanced methods woven into the books and routines of great magicians and mentalism alike. But you have to spend a princely sum and spend a large amount of time reading in order to fathom them out.

K

kevmundo wrote:There are endless examples of the clever use of misdirection. The most basic is the one I use most frequently and that is eye contact. If you ask someone a question and look at them then they will naturally look straight back at you. If you are dealing with a group then that group will naturally look to this person to hear their answer. At this very short but obvious moment no-one in the group should be looking at your hands. Bare in mind also that the eye is drawn to movement so anything you do should be done casually. If you use palming or any form of classic pass then this form of misdirection is not only advisable but essential - particularly if your pass is like mine!!!

Also you'll notice by looking at people's eyes when you ask them certain types of question that you may get a longer moment of misdirection. Questions involving immediate recall will be answered fairly quickly. Questions involving recalling a particular aspect of a past memory will see the spec staring into space for a wee bit longer. Eg asking for a number between one and five is different to asking what the spec was wearing on his wedding day.

This is the most basic form, there are far more advanced methods woven into the books and routines of great magicians and mentalism alike. But you have to spend a princely sum and spend a large amount of time reading in order to fathom them out.

K

Thanks for the input. I've already seen the use of asking things like 'do you remember what your card is?' or 'are you satisfied that these cards are shuffled?', and as you say it doesn't buy a great deal of time. So it would be quite useful to think of relevant questions that might call upon past memory. I'm not the sort of person who would ask someone personal questions such as the example you provided - so it might not fit in with who I am - which I understand is an important part of misdirection (making sure it is consistent with my character).

Would something like "have you seen anyone do card tricks for you before?" or "have you ever heard of such and such a magician (or trick)?" call upon their past memory sufficiently? I'm guessing things which can also be followed by more questions would be useful, so in the first example I used I might follow that up with "were you impressed with it?" and so on.

Laurens

You're right in that its all down to personal character, setting and also the characters of your audience. The moment also has to be contextually relevant and natural. For things like basic card sleights you don't need to over think anything too complicated. Simply asking 'do you think I influenced you in any way with your choice?'is more than enough to maintain eye contact and allow you to complete whatever needs to be done. Provided everything you do is natural then you'll have more than enough time.

If you work on the principle that your spec has no idea what you're about to do, then you can alleviate the magicians guilt that we sometimes feel. No-one has a clue you're about to perform a sleight, which is to your advantage. A quick relevant question will be more than sufficient. After all, you could be about to find their card, make it appear in a lemon, stick it to ceiling, read their mind or whatever. They don't know so you're always one step ahead, and they're always one step behind. It's difficult to go into too much detail without revealing what are properly regarded as secrets. But the more routing you see and do, the more you pick it up.

You'd be surprised what people don't see when you perform. You can always get away with a lot more than you think.

K

There´s a concept in Ascanio´s books called "Pregunta obnubilante" (Obnibilating Question). He uses these questions to get eye contact to create on beat moment followed by offbeat moment. The "Pregunta obnubilante" is a question that make the spectator think, something he can´t answer by reflex. Not something like his name o if he remembers the card. One example could be: Do you prefer red or black? (Anyone who performs Reset would know that the spectator always hesitate before answer). The rest of the audience are waiting for the answer so they are also missdirected, with they attention focused on him.

Now I´m translating John Bannons Dear Mr. Fantasy into Spanish and he introduces in tha book one moment more: the no beat moment. The effect is a little earlier tha it was thought to be, so gets the spectator by surprise. After that you will have a big off beat moment.

I hope you understand what I wrote, since I´m Spanish I don´t know if anything I write in English got sense.

Ricardo, your english is perfectly fine and makes perfect sense. No need to worry at all.

Laurens - The off-beat is a term we use to describe what is essentially a dip in concentration. When someone watches a "trick", their concentration isn't on the same constant level throughout, but fluctuates from high to low and various levels in between. These highs and lows, once understood, can be manipulated and woven into a performance as a sort of psycological misdirection.

The off-beat is when attention drops significantly, so allowing for a secret move to pass undetected. One of the strongest off-beats is created immediately after something magical occurs. This is because of the release of the tension that should have been built up prior to the magical happening. Immediately before the magic happens should be when the audiences attention peaks - your script (silent or spoken), gaze, attention and attitude should be directing and guiding the audience to expect something to happen. This causes their interest and concentration to peak (tension). This tension is released when something magical happens (the card changes, the hand opens and the coin is gone etc), and the attention then drops creating our off-beat. This is an ideal moment to perform some move.

A simple example would be - A card is selected and returned, the audience attention level will start to rise (is the card really lost, I wonder what he's going to do). The joker is removed and placed carefully face up onto the deck. The spectators are told not to take their eyes off the card as he slowly waves his hand over it - they move in close, knowing something is going to happen, but not quite sure what - their attention has peaked. Suddenly the magician flicks the joker and it transforms into the selection - tension is released, in the spectators mind the magic part is over an they can now relax and react (very often by looking at one another. The magician then slaps the deck and opens his hands, all that's left is the single joker which is given to the spectator, the deck has vanished.

The off-beat created by the building of tension and the subsequent release caused by the transformation makes possible (if orcestrated properly) the pocketing/top**ting of the deck (apart from the joker), which sets you up for the ending.
Not a great example but you should get the drift.

Jim

kevmundo wrote:You'd be surprised what people don't see when you perform. You can always get away with a lot more than you think.

K

Indeed I mean even as someone relatively "in the know" with regards to what kinds of sleights there are, and the effects that can be produced by them. I still find myself going 'what the hell did they do and when?'

I guess I need to remember that more often, because I often get anxious about little things like that. It doesn't help that my girlfriend insists upon burning my hands incessantly whenever I do a trick for her - good practise though, because I'm sure some people would be doing the same thing! Now I've been acquainting myself with a few principles of misdirection I'll see if I can get her to look away more often

jim ferguson wrote:Ricardo, your english is perfectly fine and makes perfect sense. No need to worry at all.

Laurens - The off-beat is a term we use to describe what is essentially a dip in concentration. When someone watches a "trick", their concentration isn't on the same constant level throughout, but fluctuates from high to low and various levels in between. These highs and lows, once understood, can be manipulated and woven into a performance as a sort of psycological misdirection.

The off-beat is when attention drops significantly, so allowing for a secret move to pass undetected. One of the strongest off-beats is created immediately after something magical occurs. This is because of the release of the tension that should have been built up prior to the magical happening. Immediately before the magic happens should be when the audiences attention peaks - your script (silent or spoken), gaze, attention and attitude should be directing and guiding the audience to expect something to happen. This causes their interest and concentration to peak (tension). This tension is released when something magical happens (the card changes, the hand opens and the coin is gone etc), and the attention then drops creating our off-beat. This is an ideal moment to perform some move.

A simple example would be - A card is selected and returned, the audience attention level will start to rise (is the card really lost, I wonder what he's going to do). The joker is removed and placed carefully face up onto the deck. The spectators are told not to take their eyes off the card as he slowly waves his hand over it - they move in close, knowing something is going to happen, but not quite sure what - their attention has peaked. Suddenly the magician flicks the joker and it transforms into the selection - tension is released, in the spectators mind the magic part is over an they can now relax and react (very often by looking at one another. The magician then slaps the deck and opens his hands, all that's left is the single joker which is given to the spectator, the deck has vanished.

The off-beat created by the building of tension and the subsequent release caused by the transformation makes possible (if orcestrated properly) the pocketing/top**ting of the deck (apart from the joker), which sets you up for the ending.
Not a great example but you should get the drift.

Jim

I thought it was a really useful example thanks.

So for example an opportune moment for a glimpse say, is as you take the cards out of the box - because nothing has even begun yet - there is essentially no tension.

Conversely a really bad moment to do a glimpse is after you've made the cut to put their card in the centre of the deck.

I'm starting to get more of an idea of this concept, thanks guys!

I highly recommend you get yourself a copy of Expert Card Technique by Jean Hugard. They sell for around a tenner at most magic shops/sites. At the back of the book there is a chapter dedicated to misdirection, and one on presentation - these are worth more than the price of the book.

I'm not sure if its your cup of tea, but a study of the Cups and Balls teaches the off-beat concept and also misdirection. In fact a study of the cups teaches far more than the actual effect, things that can then be applied in other areas aswell.

Remember that the idea of the off-beat is only one small (but important) part of misdirection as a whole. There are different types of misdirection and quite often we are using more than one at the same time. Things like the spoken word (or script), time, gaze, and finger fixidness (I think that's what its called), and even attitude are all technically misdirection. When we lie through our teeth, or act as if the coin is tightly held in our hand we are misdirecting our audience. Anything we do that leads (or directs) the spectator to an intended false assumption, is misdirection.

Jim

jim ferguson wrote:I highly recommend you get yourself a copy of Expert Card Technique by Jean Hugard. They sell for around a tenner at most magic shops/sites. At the back of the book there is a chapter dedicated to misdirection, and one on presentation - these are worth more than the price of the book.

I'm not sure if its your cup of tea, but a study of the Cups and Balls teaches the off-beat concept and also misdirection. In fact a study of the cups teaches far more than the actual effect, things that can then be applied in other areas aswell.

Remember that the idea of the off-beat is only one small (but important) part of misdirection as a whole. There are different types of misdirection and quite often we are using more than one at the same time. Things like the spoken word (or script), time, gaze, and finger fixidness (I think that's what its called), and even attitude are all technically misdirection. When we lie through our teeth, or act as if the coin is tightly held in our hand we are misdirecting our audience. Anything we do that leads (or directs) the spectator to an intended false assumption, is misdirection.

Jim

I do have that book, but I feel a bit daunted about how to approach reading it. Would you recommend reading the misdirection and performance sections on their own, or will it be more valuable after progressing through the whole book?

I am not sure whether its a book to work through from the first page to the last, or whether it is one I can just pick and choose from.

Laurens

I highly recomend the Magic of Ascanio Volume 1. It is one of the best theory books I´ve ever read. It deals a lot with concepts of missdirection and perception, also about time missdirection and what happens when time delays affect negatively.

Also, when talking about creating offbeats and working with attention, The Anotated Magic of Slydini. So much to dig there.

The misderiction and presentation sections can certainly be read on their own, you don't have to read anything else in the book first.

The first sections (sleights then effects) aren't really intended for the absolute beginner, but is more for advancing a basic knowledge of sleight of hand. Depending on where you are at the moment you may want to start off with the more basic sleights first before moving on to the book - Royal Road for example.

If you're ready for the sleights in the book I don't recommend trying to learn every move. Pick a couple of each of the important sleights - false shuffles and cut sequences, a good DL, top change, a couple of controls, a top and bottom palm and things like that. Then use the book as a reference as you progress. Sometimes you'll find you have an idea or routine that requires a certain move which can then be learned as required. This approach means you are not wasting time learning stuff you're not going to use.

Don't overwhelm yourself with too much info though as this will hamper your progression. Pick two or three effects you enjoy and work on them. After a while you'll be ready to add other effects, one at a time. While this is going on its wise to have some seperate time to study theory and other aspects of performance.

Watching your favourite performers can be inspirational as well. When you watch them don't try to work out the effects, study their actual performance. What gets them those great reactions ? What makes it so magical ? How is the routine structured ? Why is it structured that way ? These are the kind of things you should be asking yourself and looking for, this is where the real value of studying these performances lies.

Jim

There is nothing I can really add to this that hasn't been said except. Study human behaviour. This on/off beat is not exclusive to magic or entertainment. It is the rhythm of life. A simple, "Hi, How are you" followed by a firm handshake and a smile and then a breath. A touch to the arm and then a laugh. having a card selected and put back in the deck and shuffled and then a knowing glance. Four coins trapped in a hand, suddenly it is three and the fourth is revealed in the other hand, then a collective sigh only to happen again a moment later. The monster outside turning out to be a branch rubbing against the roof, a sigh of relief. The sudden bump, the friendly smile and an apology in which time the wallet has been lifted.

All that is really required is to take advantage of the moments.

Just wanted to say thanks. What a thoughtful and helpful series of posts. Love to see magic being thought about at this level. I hope we all aim for this level of thought in our performances...