Excerpts from Chicago Surprise
"Lines that make the audience think are like thrown barstools—something for them to stumble over as they chase you. This temporarily derails the train of thought. When attention is brought back to the argument, another important piece is missing, and it is difficult for them to recover it."
"The best reaction is often not to come back with a heckler stopper or clever rejoinder, but to simply react to what has been said. A smile, a laugh, an aggrieved look is usually enough of a response, often seems very clever, and it does not feed into further give and take."
"When responding to the audience, especially with a prepared ‘adlib,’ let your eyes look up to the left as you think, and then look back at the audience as you say the line. If the line is going to be an obvious lie, look up to the right and then back to the audience before you say the line."
"When a performer goes on stage he must know what he is trying to accomplish. If he intends to impress the audience with his magic—to show them that he is the greatest magician they have ever seen—he sets them up to be his critics. If he manages to convince them, they will grudgingly applaud and admit, “He’s the best I’ve ever seen.” But the applause is hollow. If he fails to convince, then they will smile in silent contempt if they are polite, and hoot him off the stage if they are not. The mistake he makes is implying that he wants approval. He has come out on stage asking the audience for something, instead of offering them something."
"All magic is based on creating a logical argument in the spectator’s mind. The argument (what logicians call a syllogism) is false. If we can get the audience to agree step by step with each premise of the argument, even the false ones, we have created a sort of illogical box or prison from which escape is difficult. Getting agreement to a premise is sometimes done verbally, through patter, sometimes visually. The magician looks up after a pass with a coin, as if to say, “You with me?” That may be all it takes to get agreement."
"I am convinced that this sort of deliberate engagement of the audience is the hallmark of well thought-out magic. John Ramsey was a master of it. Any great magician you study will display it. The professional card cheat, on whose example so much of modern card magic is derived, does not think in this way. It is the opposite of what he wants to accomplish. He doesn’t want an audience or attention. He wants to be invisible. What card magic has to do in order to become magic and not, for example, just a display of skill—in this respect—is to follow the example of the con-artist rather than the card mechanic. The Three-Card Monte thrower or the Shell Game operator has to know how to reel a crowd in and hold their attention. He uses hooks and come-ons to keep them interested. He baits them psychologically. He engages the audience in an intellectual contest and sets traps for them that will cost them more than sleep."
"I believe that magic is the creation of cognitive dissonance in the mind of the spectator. He is forced to accept two contradictory premises at once—'There is no such thing as magic/There is no other explanation.' Like a Zen koan, this boggles and shuts down the linear, logical mind, and opens up the creative processes."
"Bobby Fischer once said, “The object of chess is to crush the mind of your opponent.” In many ways, the object of magic is the same. We want to create a problem that the logical mind cannot solve. Like chess, magic is a purely cerebral art form. This does not mean that magic is without emotion. Even a chess match is filled with emotion—the joy of victory, the humiliation of defeat, and the excitement and tension of the spectators. But the object of chess is to create a winning argument, a logical answer to each of the opponent’s moves."
"Call the Card Facedown. If you were to have named the card while it was still face up—asking the audience for agreement—and then turned it over on the deck and dealt it off to set it down, the moves of the switch would look suspicious. Why are you doing such a complicated motion instead of just tossing the card facedown on the table? By getting the audience to relax attention for a second as you continue the line, and then getting them to agree that the facedown card is the chosen card, they are easily guided past the switch maneuver. You use patter to overcome the inherent weakness in the move."
--Whit Haydn
The Chicago Surprise
"The best reaction is often not to come back with a heckler stopper or clever rejoinder, but to simply react to what has been said. A smile, a laugh, an aggrieved look is usually enough of a response, often seems very clever, and it does not feed into further give and take."
"When responding to the audience, especially with a prepared ‘adlib,’ let your eyes look up to the left as you think, and then look back at the audience as you say the line. If the line is going to be an obvious lie, look up to the right and then back to the audience before you say the line."
"When a performer goes on stage he must know what he is trying to accomplish. If he intends to impress the audience with his magic—to show them that he is the greatest magician they have ever seen—he sets them up to be his critics. If he manages to convince them, they will grudgingly applaud and admit, “He’s the best I’ve ever seen.” But the applause is hollow. If he fails to convince, then they will smile in silent contempt if they are polite, and hoot him off the stage if they are not. The mistake he makes is implying that he wants approval. He has come out on stage asking the audience for something, instead of offering them something."
"All magic is based on creating a logical argument in the spectator’s mind. The argument (what logicians call a syllogism) is false. If we can get the audience to agree step by step with each premise of the argument, even the false ones, we have created a sort of illogical box or prison from which escape is difficult. Getting agreement to a premise is sometimes done verbally, through patter, sometimes visually. The magician looks up after a pass with a coin, as if to say, “You with me?” That may be all it takes to get agreement."
"I am convinced that this sort of deliberate engagement of the audience is the hallmark of well thought-out magic. John Ramsey was a master of it. Any great magician you study will display it. The professional card cheat, on whose example so much of modern card magic is derived, does not think in this way. It is the opposite of what he wants to accomplish. He doesn’t want an audience or attention. He wants to be invisible. What card magic has to do in order to become magic and not, for example, just a display of skill—in this respect—is to follow the example of the con-artist rather than the card mechanic. The Three-Card Monte thrower or the Shell Game operator has to know how to reel a crowd in and hold their attention. He uses hooks and come-ons to keep them interested. He baits them psychologically. He engages the audience in an intellectual contest and sets traps for them that will cost them more than sleep."
"I believe that magic is the creation of cognitive dissonance in the mind of the spectator. He is forced to accept two contradictory premises at once—'There is no such thing as magic/There is no other explanation.' Like a Zen koan, this boggles and shuts down the linear, logical mind, and opens up the creative processes."
"Bobby Fischer once said, “The object of chess is to crush the mind of your opponent.” In many ways, the object of magic is the same. We want to create a problem that the logical mind cannot solve. Like chess, magic is a purely cerebral art form. This does not mean that magic is without emotion. Even a chess match is filled with emotion—the joy of victory, the humiliation of defeat, and the excitement and tension of the spectators. But the object of chess is to create a winning argument, a logical answer to each of the opponent’s moves."
"Call the Card Facedown. If you were to have named the card while it was still face up—asking the audience for agreement—and then turned it over on the deck and dealt it off to set it down, the moves of the switch would look suspicious. Why are you doing such a complicated motion instead of just tossing the card facedown on the table? By getting the audience to relax attention for a second as you continue the line, and then getting them to agree that the facedown card is the chosen card, they are easily guided past the switch maneuver. You use patter to overcome the inherent weakness in the move."
--Whit Haydn
The Chicago Surprise