Spectator's Who Think Far Too Logically

Michael Kras · Spectator's Who Think Far Too Logically

Ever run into spectators like this? Those who make a general assumption based on logic?

For example, performing Sankey's Bigger Finish effect (ending with the jumbo Ten of Hearts), my spectator said, "Well, obviously there's some way you make it always be the Ten of Hearts."

Or, the same spectator, I did Jay Sankey's impromptu Colour Monte, ending with the money card appearing reversed in the center of the deck impossibly. At the end, he said "The Money Card was probably not even there to begin with". See what I'm getting at here?

That sort of thinking ruins the experience. It's pretty much people who are only set out to figure out a logical (yet frequently very general) method for what you are doing. What do you do when you run into these sorts of people? Any specific tpye of effect you use to avoid any logical assumptions such as that noted above?

teddy

Michael, they're hecklers. What else can we do but punch them?

Liam

Micheal close talks abit about this on the ultimate workers
i'm totally going to butcher this seeing as i watched this part at the beggining of the summer
their are three levels, one of wich i cant remember Razz

-assumption
-something
-belief

if you do a french drop, they will assume its in your right hand, when its not they will go back and test this assumption. and find it as false

if you do a really good retention vanish, they will really think its there. when it vanishes, they think it was in the right hand, but then they
assume it couldnt have been, even though it looked like it.

if you put the coin in their hand and it vanishes, they beleive it was in their hand, it was in their hand! and they cant go to anywhere.

So this is why bigger finish didnt work
they assumed they had a free choice, but then when it gets big, they know you dont have 52 different cards like this.
So they return to this assumption and proove to themself it must be wrong.
obviously your force isnt sufficiant to make them truely beleive it was a free choice

Michael Kras

True, but the thought that I had The Bigger Finish gaff in the deck from the start shouldn't have even criossed the spectator's mind.

Liam

well did they think that?
or did they just know you forced the card?

Michael Kras

Why would they know I forced a card? I don't use any forces that are the least bit transparent.

Liam

"Well, obviously there's some way you make it always be the Ten of Hearts."
seems to be laymens terms for a card force
because your force didnt make them truely beleive that it was a free choice, once they saw the huge ten of diamonds they assumed that that couldnt have happened with anycard so they run through the effect as they saw it

i chose a card
that card was a big gimmick

so then they assume it cant be done with anycard, so you must have made them choose it
even if they dont know how, they know you must have

but, if you had done a perfect force, and reinforced the idea of a free choice many times throughout the effect when the mind recapped the effect the fact that they might not have had a free choice wont be their
then they will assume you have 52 of those gimmicks, provided they dont beleive that either they will be left with one explaination wich is magic.

now what this started as was you complaining about a type of spectator, but in my opinion, anyone who went back in this effect to try and figure it out would probably reach the same conclusion. just the spectator you're talking about spoke his mind when it came into his head.

there is another effect like this
its called the frog prince
in this effect, a card is folded into a card, and then the folded card switches places with a selection.
now to acheive this you dont need anything to hard... really its accomplished with two sleights.
but the way the routine is structured, always calling the frog the "jack of hearts" even though in the end it isnt, and asking atleast three times wether or not it was a free choice.
if the spectator truely beleives it was a free choice you can ask them wether it was a free choice and they will lie very convincingly

this effect is so strong not because not only is the method 100% invisble and the presentation repeats false statements so often no one will go back and see anything funny

Michael Kras

Michael Kras

I've been thinking on this topic a lot, and here are some performance factors (different ones for different effects) that I think influence the manner in which the spectator thinks after the effect has been performed.

1. Allowing each magical moment to sink in AS a magical moment, not a puzzling one. Showing a magic moment briefly and then "tossing it aside" to get to the big climax, in essence.

2. Emphasizing the main and fair points of each effect as you go along, without sounding insecure. This, I believe, helps the spectator to remember the effect as being so much more magical because they "had an absolutely free choice of card" or "were holding on to the piece of sponge really tightly in their closed fist the entire time".

This is just my analysis. Correct me if I'm wrong.