Natural Misdirection: Explained
Enhance your tricks with this type of misdirection
One of the great things about One Ahead as a publication is that we get to go in-depth in our teachings of principles and magic subtleties.
While magic shops could easily get torn apart in the reviews section if they ever released a product that relies heavily on misdirection — our readers understand that many of the best magicians in the world have entire illusions and tricks that depend on misdirection as the only method.
When we think about misdirection, a term used beyond magic, we often think of the obvious “look the other way” idea. In cartoon form, that’s a person literally pointing in the opposite direction. In the stereotypical magic form, it’s a glittery dancer shimmying around on the other side of the stage.
In reality, great misdirection ends up being much more straightforward. The mist instinctive it is for the audience, the better. And instinctive things tend to be very very simple.
What most magicians don’t consider when they hear the term misdirection thrown around in an occasional magic tutorial is that there are many types of misdirection. One straightforward variation is called time misdirection, in which the performer simply puts time between two actions. If you have ever performed the cross-cut playing card force, then you have practiced time misdirection. I’m sure Gaia Elisa Rossi will write about effective psychological misdirection for One Ahead someday – another incredible type of misdirection. I remember being delighted when I discovered that audiences naturally look where you look, so if you want to stop them from watching your hand, stop looking at your hands and look them in the eyes — your spectator will do the same.
