Magical Reflections #23 · 22/09
You don’t have to answer questions that the audience hasn’t asked yet.
There’s something we magicians do that fascinates me.
We don’t trust the audience.
We show them something. They see it. They understand it.
And we think:
“Well, maybe they didn’t get it.”
So we show it to them again. And again. And just in case… one more time. 😂
A normal deck of cards.
“As you can see, all the cards are different.”
Perfect. They’ve seen it.
“You can check.”
They check it.
Perfect.
And then we do something I love:
we show it to them again.
Why?
Because we’re a bunch of fucking doubters.
We think that if we don’t repeat a condition three times, the audience hasn’t understood it.
And usually, the exact opposite happens.
The more you insist on proving that something is normal… the more suspicious it starts to look.
Imagine someone says to you:
“This box is empty.”
Okay. You look at it. It’s empty.
“Are you sure you saw it properly?”
Yes.
“Look again.”
Well…
“I just want you to be absolutely sure it’s empty.”
At this point, you start thinking:
“What the hell is in that box?”
Magic works exactly the same way.
The audience doesn’t need you to explain a condition until they can recite it from memory.
They need to understand it.
And there’s a huge difference.
One thing is making a condition clear.
Another is trying to convince the audience that it’s clear.
The first is magic.
The second smells like fear.
And very often, that fear comes from us.
Because we know what’s going to happen. We know where the secret is. We know what the spectator might think.
And then we try to cover every possible doubt before it even appears.
Wrong.
You don’t have to answer questions the audience hasn’t asked yet.
Let them look. Let them understand. And move on.
If something impossible happens afterwards…
it will be much stronger.
Because they can think:
“I saw it.”
Not:
“He showed me that five times to make sure I had seen it.”
So the next time you’re about to repeat a condition…
stop for a second.
And ask yourself:
Does the audience need to see it again?
Or are you the one who needs to see it again?
If it’s the second one…
take one out.
And if it still works…
take another one out.
Because maybe your magic doesn’t need more explanations.
Maybe it needs you to stop distrusting the audience.
And, above all…
stop distrusting your own magic.
Pd: Look up
Magical reflections #23