talkmagic.co.uk

From the flourishes and fancy cuts/shuffles thread:

bmat wrote:Misdirection. This seems to be misnamed, it should be Directions. I am directing my spectators not misdirecting them. Directing is a positive statement.

This is something I hear over and over again from magicians. "Misdirection should really be called direction" seems to be almost a magic cliche.

So here's an idea of mine. Perhaps we should reconcile the word with its meaning by adapting the polite fiction that misdirection is an abbreviation of mischievous direction. That way, it refers to a positive process of directing the spectator's attention, but also alludes to the cunning that a magician requires in order to do this.

Yesno?

I agree with your idea but am afraid of change...

A clear and definite yes from me!

I think the entire argument is tiresome. It's a non-issue. If you think it should be called direction - call it that. If you think it should be called misdirection - more power to you.

Bottom line - you aren't saying EITHER while performing, so the entire argument is moot.

Is it not really still misdirection because your directing their attention away from where your attention is.
Even if your not looking at it.
They want to look at cards...you misdirect away??
Maybe Im just a fool!

TheAlkhemist07 wrote:Is it not really still misdirection because your directing their attention away from where your attention is.
Even if your not looking at it.
They want to look at cards...you misdirect away??
Maybe Im just a fool!

Usually, your attention is exactly where you want their attention.
If you want to misdirect them away from a move, you essentially have to practice the move so much that you can "forget" it and all your attention draw the spectators attention to the same issue.

The term "misdirection" is jargon and has a specific meaning among magicians, you cannot change. The Laypersons notion of misdirection is somewhat different. In the layperson view misdirection is essentially as if you say "look" and point away. The spectators look away and you load the orange.

What the layperson fail to understand is that ANY approach where it is clear for the spectator that they just looked away when something critical happened, is doomed since there is nothing magical in this.

In concrete terms: If you say "Look at the bird", and everyone look up to see the bird, while you load the orange under the cup, they might have a laugh when you reveal the orange, but ALL MAGIC HAS GONE!!!

The laypersons notion of misdirection is very different from the magicians!

I agree with .... everyone.. (very easy going chap me)

The first few pages of tommy wonders book deals with this subject where he states that he thinks it should be called direction and not misdirection for the reasons stated above.

im not sure i do either..(or i may do both!) i just give people something interesting to look at whilst im doing something else. Im not directing or misdirecting , im just being interesting!

Im also not sure if anything ive written makes any sense, or just sounds like the ramblings of the feeble minded.

TheAlkhemist07 wrote:Is it not really still misdirection because your directing their attention away from where your attention is.
Even if your not looking at it.
They want to look at cards...you misdirect away??

I'm with you on this one.

The attention is where the magic is happening, then at the critical moment you can look at it in one of two ways:

You misdirect their attention away, whilst you do do the deed .... OR ....
You direct their attention to another point, whilst the deed is done.

In my opinion, both are correct. You either, misdirect away or direct to and I'm a firm believer of, "if it ain't broke - don't fix it", so I'm quite happy with misdirection .

If your cat has kittens in the garage, you can call them cars; just don't enter them in the Indy 500.

Adrian Morgan wrote:This is something I hear over and over again from magicians. "Misdirection should really be called direction" seems to be almost a magic cliche.

So here's an idea of mine. Perhaps we should reconcile the word with its meaning by adapting the polite fiction that misdirection is an abbreviation of mischievous direction. That way, it refers to a positive process of directing the spectator's attention, but also alludes to the cunning that a magician requires in order to do this.

Yesno?

No.

Misdirection is a term used in the context of magic for directing spectator's attention where you want it to be.

It's just a word.

I don't think it's a misnomer at all. Here's a definition I found in the dictionary...

the act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something; "conjurers are experts at misdirection"

Pretty clear definition if you ask me.

Demitri wrote:I think the entire argument is tiresome. It's a non-issue.

Up to a point, I agree. It would be silly to take the argument really seriously, to treat it as important.

I don't take it very seriously; that's WHY I propose a rather whimsical compromise that leaves the word and its meaning exactly as they are, while offering a slightly novel way to think about the relationship between the two.

Here's another way to ask my original question. Imagine that a hypothetical introductory book on magic said something like, "In some ways the word 'misdirection' is a misnomer, because blah blah, but you may find it easier to understand what the word means to magicians if you think of it as short for 'mischievous direction'". Would you think that to be sensible advice?

moonbeam wrote:
You misdirect their attention away, whilst you do do the deed .... OR ....
You direct their attention to another point, whilst the deed is done.

This is what I was trying to get across.
But was clearly not paying attention when answering thread.
Sorry guys

I like the term misdirection, it's traditional, and that IS what you are doing. To direct someone could be something as simple as asking them to sit down opposite you, or to place a card back in an appropriate place, but to MISdirect someone is to intentionally draw their attention away from something you are doing. It is, if you wish to be pedantic, a subset of the Direction of the trick.

I agree with Demitri. It really doesn't matter what you call it, as long as you know how to do it properly.

Misdirection is a jargon word, qnd we all know what it means relative to our art. Similarly, the word "equivoque" does not mean to anyone else what it means to us... so what? It's a special term.

There is an element of what else is being referred to as well - in performance, you are "revolving around" the focus point of the effect, so it is more "direction". However, when you're practicing and learning, you are going through the effect with reference to the work/the gimmick/the method - so you are working out how to lead people away from it, how to misdirect.

Finally, it's just easy to say and understand in context. When explaining an effect in a book or on a DVD, magicians will often refer to "the misdirection being strong" etc - we all know it's not a matter of going, "hey, the goodyear blimp!", it's...

it's...

...doing it when they're not watching!