Humor and Misdirection

i notice this site covers pretty much every major type of magic. but in most tricks misdirection can help greatly (as most of u know) and i also like to use humor. Humor is a great way to use misdirection and just make the act more believable. so here u can post some helpful misdirection tips or some one liners u use during your act ill post some now and some more later when i think of some more.

Misdirection:
the phrases i use most often to make eye conact with someone probably are,
"you still remember your card right" (while raising my right empty hand up so there eyes go to mine)
"you agee that you could have chosen any card"
"what are the odds that i could find your card, 1 in 52 correct or 1 in 54 with the jokers"

many more will post more later

Humor/one liners during act:
(if u drop a card while shuffling) "thats not your card is it, that would make the trick really hard if it was"
(after fanning the deck) "pick a card any card...except that one"
(if a spectator asks if they can look at their card) "no dont look at it, its much easier to find if neither or us know it."
(when i do bill switches i say) "would u like to know how to double your money (fold bill in half) see it doubled over, would u like to know how to increase your money (fold again) see, its increases, in creases get it" (quote idea from Ben Salinas)

Thanks for this greatly needed post Bill. I think I'm going to ask Admin for a section dedicated to misdirection and the other, less mechanical parts of magical performances. Thanks again.

I have to say the what are the odds of this card from another deck being your card? 1 in 52, 54 with the jokers.

so simple and yet can be such a great misdirection. also I like this one, although I dont do it often.

What are the odds? how many cards are in a deck. They reply 30? Then I say oh look the short bus, climb aboard.

That always gets a laugh from atleast one person, and everyones eyes come up to yours, no more focus on the deck/whatever.

Use those lines when doing paperclipped, it really helps.

Thanks for those helpful suggestions Cheapy!

another thing ill do is if i make something vanish ill say it didnt really vanish its just up there (and i point up) they will more times than not look up for even just a second giving u time to pocket anything u had finger palmed or w.e. and everyone will laugh after they actaully look cause u can say somethng like "how the hell would it have been up there man are u serious"

Also, for like silver dream, the first sleeve when you retention, say now just wait as you bring your hand up and sleeve, this shift in the eye motion, frameshift I guess is perfect cause they miss the sleeve by a lot. the second one use the line not only will you see it go, then leeve the coin, then say but you'll also hear it go. some reason it works well, and the last one after you pocket the coin say I did say this was the hardest one, do the fingernail snapping noise, and your good to go.

thanks void, yeah this is a very important part of magic.

one of the other funny things that i like to do is if someone asks to see a trick or jsut at any point in my routine i wil say this trick definatly proves the the hand is faster than the eye (i then dramaticly and slowly raise my hands to my eyes one hand on each side of my eyes, and then i open and close my hands really quickly hitting my forefingers against my thumbs and blinking my eyes really fast) it gets a laugh every time

You guys all have excellent tips. We really do need to create a forum to share these ideas.

yeah me and cheaptrick are very good at misdirection and sometimes its something so simple and so quick, maybe just a half second of eye contact and its all u need, its hard to explain u kind of just have to play with it. its almost hard to talk too much during a trick. i like this quote alot.


Believe only half of what you see, and nothing of what you hear.

VOID wrote:

You guys all have excellent tips. We really do need to create a forum to share these ideas.

When the admin comes on we can talk to him about it

ImpossiBill wrote:

yeah me and cheaptrick are very good at misdirection and sometimes its something so simple and so quick, maybe just a half second of eye contact and its all u need, its hard to explain u kind of just have to play with it. its almost hard to talk too much during a trick. i like this quote alot.


Believe only half of what you see, and nothing of what you hear.

Where do you two perform? Together?

VOID wrote:

ImpossiBill wrote:

yeah me and cheaptrick are very good at misdirection and sometimes its something so simple and so quick, maybe just a half second of eye contact and its all u need, its hard to explain u kind of just have to play with it. its almost hard to talk too much during a trick. i like this quote alot.


Believe only half of what you see, and nothing of what you hear.

Where do you two perform? Together?

we both at school, we only have two classes together, so the other classes with spare time and after school we perform, sometimes both of us together, sometimesa going loner, and when I go somewhere I bring my normal stuff I do and perfrom for random people, idk if bill does a lot of street magic(like in terms of random people), I know he performed a lot when he went on his family cruise.

WOW u guys are in school together???That has to be awesome i wish i had a magician friend at school it gets kind of lonely to not have a person to share secrets with that will take u seriously and help u grow in magic

The Joker wrote:

WOW u guys are in school together???That has to be awesome i wish i had a magician friend at school it gets kind of lonely to not have a person to share secrets with that will take u seriously and help u grow in magic

true, this way we can see each others performances and see the flaws, flashes, and what we need to work on.

yeah its great. seeings how mine and his style are somewhat different its a very nice mixture and i feel it helps us both. and if he learns a new trick i feel compelled to learn a new one . and yeah i have at minimum a deck of cards in my pocket everywhere i go sometimes spongeballs thumb tips silk sharpies a water bottle for sealed in lol. dont get me wrong i can definatly do magic with things that my spectators have in their pockets which i think every magician should be able to.

when it warms up i will do alot more street magic i dont feel like goin out when it is -10 degrees F lol. but i do inside of stores now and then and i did a ton on that cruise like u said

You two should put together a Penn and Teller type act!

we do alot of tricks together, as in we perform side by side alot taking turns, we havent done many tricks where we r both in on it (we have done some). but alot of the time i have had him rig a deck for me while i talk to my spectator and then i ask to borrow his deck to do a trick. and we have a deck switch that we have performed together before that is pretty cool.

Cool! I wish I had a magic buddy!

it does help, plus this way it flows, one person gets done, then the other is right there to perform another trick

yeah and while he is performing i can rig up my deck or think of my next trick while he is misdirecting them, and your spectators are continuously amazed u dont have to pause to think of your next trick

also another great thing is when i am doing an angle restricted trick ben will stand in the spot where the trick is revealed, we use eachother as blockades to keep people from standing in the wrong spot. this really isnt a misdirection tool so much as it is a crowd management tip, which crowd management is also very important

misdirection is very important..but there are different types of misdirection..

1.Misdirection in the usual sense....doing funny stuff when the spectator is offgaurd
2.Misdirection : when the move is done right under their noses...thats what i like.
3.Misdirections : Move made right under their noses but they think its part of the trick.

comin to think of it there are tons of them.

very true. i love doing a move right infront of them and they cant catch it. daniel garcia on his trick ego if u watch the video on youtube he tells the camera the moves he is gonna do right infront of his spectator and still gets him it was funny. he was like first i will do an ego force and then the ego change and this guy has no idea what im talkin about .

ImpossiBill wrote:

also another great thing is when i am doing an angle restricted trick ben will stand in the spot where the trick is revealed, we use eachother as blockades to keep people from standing in the wrong spot. this really isnt a misdirection tool so much as it is a crowd management tip, which crowd management is also very important

That's an awesome way of really using everything you have to its fullest.

yeah like a few times when cheaptrick did sealed in he would have a wall to one side of him and i would stand on the other and pretend to be examining the bottle (even tho i can see the hidden coin) and the crowd is forced to stand in the center where the trick works