Looking forward to those posts, Bill!

~michael

Check out John's Book of Secrets and study ideas about "changing the moment".

the steal can happen several seconds before the magic happens. this is very powerful as there is nothing a spectator can possibly see as the item is already long gone.

use multiple techniques.
Paul Gertner utilizes one of these nicely in his dice routine.

This is a great thing to study!

Kids are brutal. They have short attention spans and directing attention is a magicians best weapon. That means working extra hard for kid spectators.

No one book or video captures everything you need to know about misdirection. But the Fitzkee book gives you a big head start.

Jules DeBarros had some great thoughts on it in Coins of Ishtar, but it was almost artificially perfect.

The best thing you can do is understand your own body movement. Then you can use your self knowledge to your advantage.

Agreed, Bill. The Fitzkee book is a great resource. Misdirection is a study unto itself, and every use of it is different, as it must be tailor-fit to the situation at hand. In certain performance arenas, the type and amount of misdirection required can even change in repeated performances of the same trick for different audiences. I have even seen instances where different types and amounts of misdirection were required to manage different spectators within the same audience.

Certain aspects of misdirection are choreographed into the basis of the routine and become much of the foundation of that routine, while others are calibrated while the machine is in motion, as they are the constantly flowing flux that moves in and out of where it is needed.

~michael

Oh, that is so how I wanted to word it, but you did it so well Bill!

And for getting busted by a 7 yr. old is no big deal...kids are smarter than we think, the whole magic thing is to be entertaining and really just gettingon the kids level without belittling them.

ain't kids great!? I had two for breakfast this morning...

johnny

johnny

"I love children ... parboiled."

W.C. Fields

This is all really interesting. I will do my best to reach the required number of posts soon so that I can read the whole thread. How many more do I need...? ;-)

QH.

21 more to go.
You can do that fairly quickly.

Just being the type of person that no one would think would pull something off on them can be a form of misdirection.

Bill, I got the Fitzkee trilogy a couple of months ago. I haven't gotten to them yet, but it was "Magic by Misdirection" that I was most interested in.

Life is too short.

The importance of those books is in this order:

1) Magic by Misdirection
2) Showmanship for Magicians
3) The Trick Brain

Most magicians actually go the opposite direction. Most of us are looking for methods, not magic. But most of us are also sorely missing out on misdirection, because we don't really understand it. I learned more about misdirection watching Dai Vernon at one of his lectures than I did in a lot of other places.

Showmanship for Magicians has often been criricised because the examples are outdated. However, if you read the introduction first (always a good idea!) you learn that Fitzkee anticipated that. For example, he discusses using Hawaiian music as your background music. He then states something to the effect that Hawaiian music was very popular when he wrote the book, but in the future, something else will be more popular and that's what should be used. He wasn't a fool. So, if you read that one with an eye to current taste, you can still apply all the principles.

The Trick Brain has many interesting methods. It gives you ways of thinking and creating. It's not a big step to realize that modern methods of projecting images, for example, will be more effective than the ones he mentions in the book. So, if you understand progress, these books are fantastic. But you have to understand what you have.

Regarding John Carney's statement about misdirection -- you have to watch John perform to understand how this applies. For example, if you are doing a retention vanish, obviously you do not need to get the people to look away from your hands at the "moment." Why? If they do, they won't see what you are supposed to be doing. The misdirection must come from other factors.

Bill, thanks for the information on the Fitzkee books. I don't think I've ever read anything about them, except by Jamie Ian Swiss, who I believe was critical of them. (Don't quote me on that though.)

With respect to introductions, George Bernard Shaw, who wrote lengthy introductions to his plays, stated that introductions were best read last! Sometimes I follow this advice, sometimes not, depending on the book (I don't just read magic books).

For kids, I can get away with two or three spongeball vanishes, but really have to make sure the moves are motivated, which means focusing their attention away from the hand in which the spongball is "placed," and to keep things moving along. Otherwise, even if you do the world's most perfect retention vanish, once they see that the ball is not there, they will immediately figure it out. And let you know about it too!

I believe that even if we do perfect retention vanishes (which I believe we should strive to do), we should direct attention to the next task because, in reality, what we just did would be no big deal.

This is true. Often we practice moves out of context. You can't do that. Once you have the basic move, then you need to practice in terms of where the hands go next.

Context is very important. I'll discuss that in the other thread.

You will probably get busted on almost every routine you do at least once. It's more common in closeup because people are near and can so easily disrupt you or look in the wrong place. There are almost no routines of mine that I can think of where at least part of it wasn't busted once.

Review those moments after the show and try to figure out why they busted you, and how you can prevent that situation in the future. Then combine those observations with what you've learned from the books and lectures, and you'll improve.

I think that I would now like to see the other thread.

QH.

I find that if you place the hand concealing the stolen ball flat on the table it helps distract the gazing eyes of Laymen. Most people don't think that a ball will flatten that much. I guess 7 year olds are an exception though!

You can place the dirty hand on your leg or on your arm, as well.

If a seven year old can figure out what you are up to it probably needs work. Adults are often too polite to point out when then they see you do something. But 7 year olds will just scream it out. No big deal just go back home video your self doing the move and see what can be improved.

Chris

I think that children, including 7 year olds, are much smarter than we tend to give them credit for. You can't take their lack of age for granted.

Being in their formative years, it's their nature to catch, or notice, a lot more than others might. They have not yet been conditioned so much to everything else to be easily distracted.

Playful? Yes. Easily fooled and entertained? Sometimes. Stupid and totally gullible? Absolutely not.

Mark.

I've been performing sponge balls for kids for years. You shouldn't get busted on it no matter how young they are. Break out the video camera, positioning it where the kid's eyes will be and start rehearsing. Study the playback and make changes. In time, you should be able to remedy the deficits.