The Uncooperative Spectator

[Brown]

I am hosting my parents for the holidays. As we sat down for a game of cards, I asked them whether they wanted to see some card tricks. They said they would like to see some. (I've been practicing card tricks for TAM2, but many of them are tricks that I have not yet done before an audience.)

I did what I thought was a simple trick for my dad. Basically, it is a variation of "Do As I Do," in which we each have a deck of cards and we each do the same motions and we end up choosing a matched set of cards. I perform a variation, however, in which we end up choosing two matching sets of cards, which is much more impressive.

Now, in order for the trick to work, the spectator has to follow some simple directions. My dad was not able to follow my simple directions. He's a smart guy, and he was not deliberately trying to mess me up, but he was not used to being a spectator, and he was not quite sure what he was supposed to do. In part, he didn't pay attention to what I told him to do, and in part, my delivery did not emphasize what I wanted him to do.

The first time I did the trick, I told him at one point to cut the cards (which preserves the order of the cards) in order to lose his card in the deck. He shuffled the cards instead (which can destroy the order of the cards), thinking that the point was really to lose his card in the deck. So we started again.

The second time, he couldn't find his desired card in the deck. So we started again. (Yes, his card was in there, he just couldn't find it.)

The third time, we actually got ninety percent of the way through the trick. As part of the presentation, I pretended that I had muffed the trick. My dad, thinking that I actually had muffed the trick, collected the cards from the table. So we started again.

The fourth time, I completed the trick successfully. In spite of the first few false starts, the trick was a success. My parents were completely baffled.

The moral of the story: even though you practice a trick over and over, you can gain a wealth of useful information by practicing the trick with a spectator who does not know what he is supposed to do. You can refine your delivery so that the spectator will be clear about what he needs to do.

For example, I no longer say, "Now, cut the cards to lose your card somewhere in the deck." Instead, I say, "Cut the cards," and after the spectator does so, I say, "...thereby losing your card somewhere in the deck."

[magicflute]

As you become more proficient with cards you will find it easier to find an "out" when something goes wrong. One of the ways to make it easier to find an out is never to describe what you are going to do ahead of time. If you say "I'm going to make a card disappear" then you better make it disappear, if something goes wrong then you cannot turn the trick into a spelling effect or a card change , etc. If the trick is difficult or there is an element of chance involved, i.e. the classic force; you should prepare outs ahead of time in case of a snafu. But, it does get easier as you go!
Good luck and keep practicing.

[Brown]

The prospect of "outs" is very important. One of my tricks allows the spectator free choice of several cards. The trick can go one of three ways, depending on which cards the spectator selects. When I first learned this trick, there were no "outs." You simply had to assume that the spectator didn't mess you up. I developed the "outs" on my own.

In the case of the "Do As I Do" trick, the instructions are supposed to be so clear that no "outs" are necessary. If the spectator follows the simple directions, the trick will work. In other words, when you tell the spectator to cut the cards, you assume that he really does cut the cards. If he shuffles instead of cutting, the trick still might work, but it is not sure-fire. This isn't much of an "out."

The "out" that I used is that "The trick only works if you and I do exactly the same things." So if the spectator shuffled when I told him to cut, I simply started all over again, saying "I cut but you shuffled. Let's try it again, but you do the same things that I do." This particular version of the trick requires no advance set-up, so we could go through the same motions without any difficulty. There was also something of an advantage here, as this screw-up destroyed any notion in the spectator's mind that the cards have been prearranged in any fashion.

And then, when the payoff came at the end of the trick, I stressed the fact that the spectator and I did exactly the same things, and we were very careful to do the same things (after a few false starts)!! And when we mirrored each other's actions exactly, behold, I found his chosen card as if by magic, and he found my chosen card as if by magic.

Because I've practiced the trick, I know the trick pretty well. But I sometimes forget that my spectator doesn't know the trick at all. I therefore have to be sure that I instruct him carefully. I need to show him what to do, not let him get ahead of me or go off on his own.

[Peter S.]

I had the same sort of problem with a certain card trick I like to do. The problem is that the directions, which are perfectly clear to someone with reasonable inteligence, are to complicated for the pinheads I'm often forced to perform for. I solved the problem with, of all things, a line of patter! I say this:

"I'm going to describe what I want you to do very clearly...I always try to describe what I want my volunteer to do very clearly, but still 90% of the people, for some reason, can't do it right...But I'm sure you will, (Rolls eyes)"

With that line of patter I'm able to get about 50% of my volunteers to do it right the first time.