Audience Misdirection in Magic Acts

Audience Misdirection in Magic Acts For hundreds of years, magicians have performed acts which are perceived to be impossible, causing the viewer to question how the act was performed. The viewer would generally know that act performed by the magician will use some sort of trickery or illusion, but still viewers are usually unable to detect the change when it occurs, even when the trick is in full view of the audience. Sometimes when a magician performs a magic trick, he uses misdirection to trick the audience. The magician would usually draw your attention elsewhere while the trick is being performed to stop the audience seeing how it is done (Kuhn, Amlani lasting only 15 seconds, where the magician was to drop a lighter and cigarette into his lap without the audience seeing, causing the audience to think the items had magically disappeared. First the magician removes the cigarette from the packet and deliberately puts it in his mouth the wrong way round. He then pretends to light the cigarette, which enhances the a udience’s interest in the mouth/cigarette region. Both magician and the audience then realise the mistake, and the magician turns the cigarette around with his left hand while keeping his gaze fixed on his hand and cigarette. During this time the magician drops the lighter into his lap, which is in his right hand. He then causes attention to go to the disappearance of the lighter by attempting to light the cigarette. When he is unable to light the cigarette, he looks to his right hand, snaps his fingers and waves his hand; pulling the audiences’ attention to his right hand. While the audience are looking at the disappearance of the lighter in the right hand, the magician drops the cigarette from a height of around 15cm. He then turns his gaze to his left hand, and opens it to show that the cigarette is also disappeared. The magician uses gaze direction to disguise his actions while performing the trick (Tatler however the dropping of the cigarette was done in full vie w of the audience, from about 15cm above the table top, but this action is also not usually detected, usually due to gaze misdirection. This shows that the magician successfully misdirected the audience’s overt and covert attention at the correct time during the trick, right when the disappearance occurs.