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Practise Practise Practise
we all know that.
one thing i don't understand though is how is it possible to practise misdircetion. a lot of effects require misdirection and if the planned method doesn't work i find myself either screwed or making it up.
how do other people practise misdirection and is there any decent literature devoted to this?

Huge can of worms being opened here! Everyone will have their own ideas about misdirection/redirection/direction - call it whatever you like. Simply looking in one direction usually means the specs will follow your gaze so you can do the biz in the other direction. Looking at your closed right hand elevated and held out to one side is almost certain to ensure that the specs will look at it as well so your left hand can get up to all sorts of jiggery pokery if required.

Stand by for hundreds of different opinions and some very useful advice because, whatever it is, if it means the specs don’t see the 'moves' it's good advice!

PS have a look at http://www.leirpoll.com/misdirection/misdirection.htm for some info.

Eye contact is a very powerful form of misdirection, i think i had a book on this, i will check and if no one has answered you then i will let you know what it was.

First off for Mandrake - what a fascinating web site and one that I'll have to give a much closer look. Thanks for the link!

Misdirection takes many different shapes and forms. We all know the old trick of reaching around and tapping someone on the opposite shoulder to the one that you're standing at and laughing when they look away from you. People fall for this simple misdirection time and time again as it plays on people's sub conbscious reactions.

As to how to practice, my personal view is that this is dependant on what type of misdirection you are trying to use. If it's a cups and balls load then you must practice the moves knowing the the misdirection is sort of 'built in'. One sort of goes with the other, as long as you do the first properly.

Misdirection with cards can vary too but I think that it's more in the presentation than in the moves, accepting that the moves are of course also importantl Example, you can cut a few cards away from the top, gesture and talk and then place back on the bottom. The misdicrection of people concentrating on what you're saying, if presented well and everything looks and sounds natural will be invisible.

All of these types of misdirection you can practice just by performing the fullroutines to yourself. Video record yourself if you can and watch the recording to pick up on areas for improvement. You will know that's going on of course, but can you spot the moves.

I feel that the hardest to practice is misdirection based on what you say, and which doesn't involve any moves. You micght just need to get out there and do it!

I feel the best misdirection with cards, is as follows..

Just BEFORE you do a pass, ask them "Did you see it go?"... the question should draw their gaze to yours, having also lulled them into a false sense of security that the "move" has been done already. Usually ample time for even the slowest hands to do a pass!

I think it was Oz Pearlman in Born To Perform that mentioned questions being "instant eye contact"...

~Sym~

Misdirection can be practised wherever you are, whenever you want.

In everyday situations, try and point people's direction where you want it to go. Simply by taking a look at something in a room you're in, you'll notice how someone else will have a look at what you're looking at too. Do this in secret and look at the results. Try using your hands and other gestures, using speech and the direction of your gaze and you'll see how easy it is to make someone's attention move from one point to another.

I remember on the Faking It magician special, the guy was told to walk across in front of a group of people walking along and suddeny point to the sky as though he had seen something. Doing it with confidence meant that eventually the whole group of people were looking at what he was pointing at, despite there being nothing there!

Misdirection can be practised quite easily, and you'll find that results happen quickly, too.

Maybe buy yourself a book on performance pickpocketing - that, along with cups and balls and being able to perform a top change have got to be the best examples of using pure misdirection.

Of course, if you know any thieves, they'd be able to help you out too...

Perhaps (Symtal's post)

I read something, somewhere that suggested that the best form of visual misdirection is to ask a question that doen;t prompt a yes or no answer. Closed questions provoking a yes or no answer were far more likely to result in the spec keeping their eyes peeled on you hands whereas open questions, requiring an answer other than a simple yes or no were saignificanly more likely to distract the person for the moment that you need, without them realising that they had momentarily looked away.

Example, ask someone their name and they tend to look yo in the eye as they answer.

Big Dan & others.
Go to the first?? big book on misdirection, (copywright 1975. Re printed in 1987) It is magic By Misdirection by Dariel Fitzkee. 227 pages and still obtainable at £19. Then there is a small booklet issued by Pat Page, PP on Misdirection.issued as a supplement to his lecture. It applies Misdirection to about 11 tricks. There is some worthwhile advice in the Andrew Galloway books on the work of John Ramsay, and see Andrew 2 tapes on Ramsay magic (International Magic, London). I was lucky to be given a couple of lessons by JR in my teens. His main maxims are, 1. Where you look, the audience looks (any trained actor will tell you this) 2. Ignore the 'hiding place' so no attention is drawn to it.3. He loved tpo 'Hold & Hide'. In others words cop soething and forget about it. 4. Take not put with vanishes. I have always(in my lectures) warned magicians about 'telegraphing the move' either with stiff handling, rigid movements bad timing, or even a fixed eye look. The worst way to practise is in front of a mirror because you are watching for that something. Get a magician pal to check you out. Misdirection is brought about by lots of things: Eye directiion, Body direction, pace and choice of words in patter, awkward moves of any kind. Keep at it.
Allen Tipton

LARGER MOTION COVERS SMALLER MOTION

Very important. If you are playing with cards, and you want to do a sleight in one hand, you might be showing a card with the other hand. While you show that card, emphasize on that card and bring your other hand back to perform the sleight. That's one form of the many types of misdirection.

Sometimes, I would bring the deck of cards up to my face which draws them to look at your face but doing it casually. Then bring the deck back down to your side and you can do the sleights while pattering. This one always works!

StEvEbO!

I am sure I will become a bore saying this but Oz Pearlmans Born To Perform is strong on misdirection (amongst many other things). He talks about it, demonstrates it and shows how people react to it.

Johnny,

Most magicians will talk about misdirection on their DVD's to some extent and Oz is no exception. However, if you're just starting out take note that what Oz, and most others cover on their DVD's in the way of misdirection is very often only the tip of the iceberg. Usually what's included is just what's needed to learn the tricks that they're teaching.

Thanks for that. I am pretty new to all of this and Born To Perform is my first DVD so I was easily impressed!!

My worst experience of misdirection to date is making a gesture with the pack in my left hand and throwing all of the cards away. It certainly misdirected people but didn't add a lot to the trick!

the secret of misdirection is.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................palm...






























































































































































Making you look where i want you to look. Like i have just done .

the secret of misdirection is..........

You had me there. I tried keeping my eye on the top line, i really did, but at one point it just vanished out of site as I was drawn to what was happening at the bottom of the post. Man you're good. Ever thought about doing magic professionally?

ah ha!
You missed the palm didnt you