Misdirection & Magic

In the world of theatrical magic, misdirection can be described as an art of deceit where the performer is able to draw attention of the audience to one thing to distract it from the other. Controlling attention of the audience is the goal of every theater, and the foremost need of any magic act. If the magic is of an “pocket trick” variety or the stage is a major production, misdirection is the central key to the success. The term refers to either the effect (the the focus of the observer on an unimportant object) or the sleight of hands or the patter (the magician’s voice) which creates it.

It is difficult to say who first coined the phrase, however the first reference to misdirection appears in the writing of a renowned magician and writer, Nevil Maskelyne: Admittedly, it is a method of distracting the senses of the audience to hide from being aware of certain information for which secrecy is required. The same time, magicianand artist Harlan Tarbell noted, Nearly everything about illusion relies on this art of misdirection.

Some magicians who have studied and evolved techniques of misdirection include Jon Finch, Malini, Derren Brown, Tommy Wonder, Tamariz, Tony Slydini and Dai Vernon.

Henry Hay describes the central conjuring process as a manipulating interest.

Magicians divert attention of the audience in two primary ways. The first is to make the audience look away for a fleeting moment, so they don’t detect some trick or movement. The other approach re-frames the viewers’ perceptions, leading the audience into believing that some other factor can be a factor in the success of the trick when it really does not have any bearing on the effect at all. Fitzkee says that the true skill of the magician is the ability he exhibits in influencing the minds of the viewers. Additionally, sometimes a prop like magic wands aids in misdirection.

Unless the magician use

Misdirection makes use of the limitations of the human mind to give the wrong picture and memory. The mind of a typical spectator can only focus on one thing at the time. The magician uses this technique to alter the audience’s ideas or perceptions of sensory input, leading them to false conclusion.

A few magicians have debated the use of the term, misdirection, creating a great deal of discussion regarding what it is and how it operates. The superb illusionist Jon Finch made a distinction between misdirection and direction. One being a negative term, and the other positive. In the end, he considers the two as the same thing. If a performer some method, has influenced the thoughts of his audience to conclude that he’s done something that he’s not done, he’s wrongly directed them into this belief; hence, misdirection.

Tommy Wonder has pointed out that it is much more effective, from the magician’s perspectiveto focus on the positive aim of directing the audience’s attention. He writes that misdirection suggests wrong direction. It suggests that attention is diverted from something. When we keep using this termthe idea eventually becomes embedded in our minds that we begin to see misdirection as taking attention away from rather than towards something.

Tony Slydini said that if the magician believe that, the public will believe it, and magicians are something that they cannot see. It is true that people believe in what the magician is doing and follow the magician. reference to misdirection