Psychology of Magic

We have a great handful of tricks on TrickMagic.com, but none of them really talk about the psychology of magic. Just performing some sleight of hand trick is not enough to really wow your audience, the conditions must be just right, and there are a lot of little things you can do to help enhance the awe-inspiring moment. So for this article, I'll provide a short list of things you can do to enhance the magic tricks that you already know.

1.) Make it look so easy it's that it will be difficult for your audience to believe that it isn't real magic. Part of this may be due to some poorly constructed routines, but whatever magic you are doing, make it look easy and smooth.

2.) Get out your video camera and actually record yourself doing the trick. You'll be the only one watching it, so why not. If you can watch yourself and pick up only one or two things that you could do better, why not do that? It'll make the trick much more powerful.

3.) Make sure that you practice enough that the difficult moments during a trick don't stand out as difficult - they should be just as natural as the rest of the trick. And the psychology behind this is everything! If you happen to slow down as you try to get your fingers to do the exact move, or if you even slightly squint your eyebrows as you have to think about what is going to happen next, or if you frown while you're doing a slight mental calculation, it lets the audience know that something... even if they don't know what it is ... is going on behind the scenes.

4.) Your voice - keep it upbeat and honest and well-paced. Think about how you speak a true statement when you are telling the truth. Your voice certainly does not get lower. It just speaks it as truth. Practice by reading the next line out loud. I know, you're home alone and you don't want to, but if you don't read it outloud you'll miss the quick lesson:

Please, take any card out of the shuffled deck.

Okay, now imagine you're actually doing a card trick where it's important that the top couple cards aren't chosen, and you don't want them to take a card at the bottom. Oh yea, and the deck has been cut, but not suffled. Now try it again.

Please, take any card out of the shuffled deck.

Okay, it's a little harder to do, isn't it? Especially when you are actually doing the trick, you naturally want to slow down over the words that you're lying about. The word "deck" is about the same both times. But "shuffled" changes slightly, because it's natural to slow down or speed up to get past the lie. First of all, the deck isn't shuffled and you don't want them to take any card. In fact, it would be ideal if they take the one that you're trying to force to them.

Now, try to add a little body language to this, to portray even more of a sense of honesty. You could slightly pout your lower lip, lift up your eyebrows and open your eyes. Look at them right in the eye. You can slightly shrug your shoulders as if it really doesn't matter. Also, make sure that your hands and arms are not in close to your body... they should be almost fully extended, and a little to the right or left. It will just appear that you have put everything out into the open, and everything is completely fair.

Maybe you didn't actually read that statement above outloud (heh, see I'm psychic) but you do understand my point of trying to portray that whatever you are doing is 100% honest... even if your audience isn't expecting it to be.

5. Smile. A lot. Then smile some more. Even if you're just doing a quick magic trick that you just learned, smile. Isn't that what magic is all about anyway. People want to see that you're happy, and they'll like you more if you smile. So do it!