Difference between revisions of "Magic by Misdirection"

Revision as of 21:52, 6 March 2023

Magic by Misdirection was part of a trilogy of books on the theory of magic by Dariel Fitzkee.

The other two were The Trick Brain and Showmanship for Magicians.

Reviewed in Genii 1945 December

Content

Introduction

• Which is the cart and which is the horse
• Exposing the wheels
• Made to measure tricks
• Hand-me-downs in magic
• Are the classics best?
• What makes a trick great? Life
• Seven corpses
• Peregrinating professors
• A "classic" is born
• Classics, capability and cads
• Blockbusting old ideas
• The spectator's think-tank
• Seeing and believing

Chapter I: Real Secrets of Magic

• Taking up where we left off
• New gods for old
• Exposing the exposure
• Skill or duffer
• Giving the bird to the bird cage
• Aren't we all duffers?
• Ignoring the important
• True skill
• The real secrets of magic
• False whiskers and attention
• True or false

Chapter II: The Importance of Interpretation

• More of the same
• Exposure is impossible
• Can you read a magician's mind?
• The performer paints his own picture
• Interpretation to confound
• Conviction
• By these signs ye shall know them
• Acting-Diebox deception.

Chapter III: Conviction and Naturalness

• The important ingredients
• If you believe it, it's so
• Convince yourself
• Spectator instinct
• Naturalness
• How to convince without argument
• Disguise and attention
• Attention control comes forward
• Reasons
• The importance of convincing yourself

Chapter IV: What Actually Deceives the Spectator

• Money to burn
• Marked and borrowed, but found in an impossible place
• Behind the scenes
• The plant
• Pilferage
• Disappearing rubber
• No machinery necessary
• All through psychology
• The spectator's viewpoint
• Disguise and attention
• Money cheerfully refunded

Chapter V: The Psychological Expedients

• Through the microscope
• Simulation
• Dissimulation
• Interpretation
• Maneuver
• Pretense
• Ruse
• Anticipation
• Disguise
• Diversion
• Monotony
• Premature consummation
• Confusion
• Suggestion
• Disguise plus disguise plus attention control
• And more of the same

Chapter VI: Reaching the Spectator's Mind

• The attack on the spectator's understanding
• External appearances and interpretation
• Suggestion and implication
• Danger in the direct statement
• You can't force the spectator's conclusions
• Inducement and persuasion
• Confusion with a bank note
• Deduction versus induction

Chapter VII: Processes Within the Spectator's Mind

• The spectator must be deceived
• The spectator's perceptions
• The mind, only, perceives
• The spectator's consciousness
• Magicians must attack the spectator's understanding
• Mind stimuli and idea association
• The spectator's mind is not a pushover
• He is consciously intelligent
• Details do the trick

Chapter VIII: The Importance of the Norm

• How the spectator views the performer's appearance
• The important norm
• Discord brings damaging attention
• Characteristic naturalness
• Bewilderment not deception
• Disguise
• Dice and rabbits
• Palming a card
• Diversion
• The importance of naturalness

Chapter IX: The Norm in Speech

• Speech in deception
• The norm in speech patterns
• Variations "telegraph"
• What as well as how
• Subject matter norm
• Undue emphasis
• The strength of implication
• An example with bonds
• With tubes
• The norm in attitude
• What magic really is
• Imitation magic
• Speech in attention diversion
• The scorched thumb
• Any solution destroys deception
• Things important to the magician

Chapter X: The Norm in Properties

• Properties in deception
• Familiar things accepted more quickly
• Handling for deception
• A lesson from Kellar
• Pulling the lesson apart
• Applying the Kellar lesson
• Tricky appearance destroys deception
• A general idea satisfies the spectator
• Strengthening deception by appearance of properties

Chapter XI: Disguise and Attention Control

• The magician has but two courses
• Disguise and attention control
• With a changing bag
• How important does it seem to the magician?
• Substituting a stronger interest
• Disguise in many forms
• Physical and psychological disguise
• Frames, stocks, bottles and miscellany
• The effectiveness of mixing the true with the false
• A magician's tool does not deceive
• Disguising the tool

Chapter XII: Simulation

• Harping on an old obsession
• The true spectator response
• We can only baffle
• Seeing versus thinking
• Simulation
• The necessary support to simulation
• Bowls, egg bags, cigarettes, cards, ropes, turbans, billets, rings, eggs
• Ultimately all is acting

Chapter XIII: Dissimulation

• Dissimulation
• Acting again
• Special decks
• Preparing for dissimulation
• More rising cards
• Bottles, clocks, production boxes, egg bags
• Dissimulation with cards
• Distinctions
• Many disguises

Chapter XIV: Maneuver

• Maneuver for deception
• An example with bottle
• A routined series of movements
• Maneuver with cards
• Maneuver as used by Al Baker
• The distinction

Chapter XV: Ruse

• The ruse in deception
• Purposes disguised
• With billiard balls
• With tied thumbs
• Ruse with card sleights
• In a divination effect
• Illusions, cards, silks

Chapter XVI: Suggestion and Inducement

• Disguise in many forms
• Suggestion and inducement
• Disguised force
• The hypnotic process
• In mind reading
• Breaking a pencil
• Oranges, bills, bells, beads, pegs, balls

Chapter XVII: Attention Control

• Attention control
• Misdirection
• Many forms of control
• Anticipation
• Premature consummation
• Monotony
• Confusion
• Diversion
• Specific direction
• Anticipation with cards
• Varied examples
• Tricks and illusions with attention control

Chapter XVIII: Anticipation

• Spectator attention
• The manner of controlling attention
• To accomplish interest
• Suspense
• Animation
• Detail on attention control
• Anticipating the attention
• Cups, balls, cards, running up decks
• Fire and water

Chapter XIX: Relaxation, Monotony, Confusion

• Premature consummation and Kellar's use of it
• Stephen Shepard and his bird cage
• Stripped of all illusions
• With six silk handkerchiefs
• The performer must set the pattern for the spectator
• Thought force is concrete
• The language of the mind
• Monotony
• Examples by Leslie Guest
• Confusion
• Balls, finales, rings, pellets coins
• Confusion a la Blackstone
• Keep it quiet

Chapter XX: Diversion and Distraction

• Diversion for deception
• With a handkerchief and a wine glass
• Details
• The power of suggestion
• Specific detail
• The most subtle stratagem
• Its mechanics
• Bowls, bat loads, cards, eggs, chickens
• Leslie Guest again
• With a rabbit
• Distraction
• Beware repetition
• Clocks, girls, trunks

Chapter XXI: Samples of Attention Control

• Attention control stratagems in action
• Stephen Shepard and a tall glass
• Madison with a pack of cards
• An idea from seeing Tommy Martin
• Cards to the pocket
• Levitation
• Switching the judge

Chapter XXII: Real Deception

• Real skill in magic
• Pulling levers
• Banish the goofs
• Psychology is the first requirement
• Pulling the tricks apart
• Planning the procedure
• Misdirection covers weak spots
• Misdirection aids interpretation
• Multitudes of examples
• Good deception is fundamentally good acting

Chapter XXIII: The Most Important Skill

• Strong support
• Robert-Houdin
• Why never to reveal in advance
• H J Burlingame
• Nevil Maskelyne
• Why never to repeat
• Underestimated intelligence
• Repetition
• The card sharper
• Deception for keeps
• Scarne's greatest skill
• Learn from the real masters
• The real secrets of magic

Courtesy of Doug A's Magic Book TOCs