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Magic Tips: Technique
"Magic
is not as hard as you think!!"
Practise,
practise and then practise some more!!
The "Three P's" of magic
that you will find in any instructions
or books worth their sort!
Anyway, let's assume you are already
doing that. There are two main areas
to technique. The actual sleights (or
secret moves) and the ability to get
away with them!! The first area really
just boils down to learning the trick
so you can perform it without actually
concentrating on the moves. The second
area is that of controlling your
audience, and this is known as
misdirection.
Misdirection is actually as important
as the physical moves of the trick as
it actually causes your audience to
look at something other than the hand
that is doing the move. This can be
achieved using a number of methods. I
think I should mention, at this point,
that I am not going to be revealing
the secrets held within the magical
fraternity on the Internet, but I will
give you a couple of misdirection
techniques to help you perform your
magic! This site is intended to help
people new to world of magic perform,
not to reveal secrets to people who
simply have to know everything!!
Magic Room does however give full
instruction with all tricks sold in
the shop, many tricks being
accompanied by free on-line video
instruction where we think it is
useful. This takes you through every
aspect of the trick, including the
physical technique and the
misdirection you can use to turn this
trick into a magical mystery. If you
are new to magic, it is highly
recommended that you begin with one of
these tricks!
Anyway, advert aside, here are a
couple of misdirection techniques:
Eye Contact
A spectator will generally look where
you look! Therefore, when doing a move
you should never look at your hands.
It is a good idea to look into the
spectators eyes, whilst doing a secret
move. This is better still, if you can
say something to them at the same
time, a funny line, perhaps! When you
look directly at somebody, they will
generally look back at you. If,
however, they are determined to stare
at your hands, they will still divide
their focus between your hands and
your eyes.... it's only polite,
besides they can't actually help
themselves, it's human nature!
Movement
Another method of misdirection used is
movement. There is an old saying in
magic "A large movement covers a
small movement". If you are
performing a trick that requires you
to make a small mechanical move, do it
as you are moving the magical item
towards the spectator or putting it
down on the table. This
"large" movement of moving
the object, will make to smaller
movement of your fingers invisible. Be
aware that this need not be done
quickly, in actual fact, this large
movement makes such good misdirection
that it can, and should, be done at a
natural pace. Try it with one of your
tricks, and watch the move become
invisible yourself!
One last
thing!
Remember, it is more important to
entertain than to baffle your
audience! The more interested they are
in you, the less interested they are
in trying to spot your secret moves or
making you fail. If they like YOU,
your job is much, much easier! |
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