Secret #2The second secret to drawing a face is sounds much more difficult than it is. If you are drawing from a photo of a face, flip the photo upside-down. Now you are looking at… A meaningless image. The face you draw when you are drawing it upside-down will look much better than the face you drew when you were drawing it right-side up. I promise.This is similar to muting a magician (or listening to the miracle man without watching). You shut off a part of your senses, and it paradoxically opens you to more information.The second secret to discerning the magic method to an effect is related to the first but is more difficult to articulate because it is mental.When a magician does something or says something (sometimes even a single word,the word choice, can make for strong magic) seemingly unimportant, that can in fact be the most important thing of all. Sometimes it happens in milliseconds, it’s impossible to notice unless you watch him with earplugs in your ears.When a layperson witnesses a magician levitate. The burning question arises, “How did he float?” This, though, is an unhelpful question.All answers to this question will be false answers. I realize it is difficult to find the right question when that first question that popped into your mind, “How did he float?” echos incessantly. But you have to ask a question.The above question carries with it the assumption that the illusionist did what he presented to do. But he is an illusionist. Remember that card trick he did?That was charming, but
that
wasn’t real magic.
If he is this miracle man who can float, float, then why is he punctuating his life with clever card tricks?
Ask yourself,
If I discovered I could levitate for real, would I waste my time learning a neat card trick?
If this magician, after mastering card magic, had somehow stumbled upon the secret to levitation along his route while reading books on card magic in the library, would he keep those card tricks in his act or discard them?
Probably he would discard them, perhaps with regret—but people would constantly ask him to do the levitation (that’s why I never start my set with any levitation and I rarely do it at all these days—the spectators can’t focus during the remainder of the performance).
what is the right question?
The right question assumes the truth, not the illusion.
But what truth can you know if you don’t already know the secret?
Siegfried & RoySecret #2 The second secret to drawing a face is sounds much more difficult than it is. If you are drawing from a photo of a face, flip the photo upside-down. Now you are looking at… A meaningless image. The face you draw when you are drawing it upside-down will look much better than the face you drew when you were drawing it right-side up. I promise. This is similar to muting a magician (or listening to the miracle man without watching). You shut off a part of your senses, and it paradoxically opens you to more information. The second secret to discerning the magic method to an effect is related to the first but is more difficult to articulate because it is mental. When a magician does something or says something (sometimes even a single word,the word choice, can make for strong magic) seemingly unimportant, that can in fact be the most important thing of all. Sometimes it happens in milliseconds, it’s impossible to notice unless you watch him with earplugs in your ears. When a layperson witnesses a magician levitate. The burning question arises, “How did he float?” This, though, is an unhelpful question. All answers to this question will be false answers. I realize it is difficult to find the right question when that first question that popped into your mind, “How did he float?” echos incessantly. But you have to ask a question. The above question carries with it the assumption that the illusionist did what he presented to do. But he is an illusionist. Remember that card trick he did? That was charming, butthatwasn’t real magic.If he is this miracle man who can float, float, then why is he punctuating his life with clever card tricks?what is the right question?Ask yourself,Probably he would discard them, perhaps with regret—but people would constantly ask him to do the levitation (that’s why I never start my set with any levitation and I rarely do it at all these days—the spectators can’t focus during the remainder of the performance).If I discovered I could levitate for real, would I waste my time learning a neat card trick?If this magician, after mastering card magic, had somehow stumbled upon the secret to levitation along his route while reading books on card magic in the library, would he keep those card tricks in his act or discard them?