Magic by Misdirection

Magic by Misdirection
Image Courtesy of ProfB
Author	Dariel Fitzkee
Publisher	Saint Raphael House
Publication Date	1945
Language	English
Preceded by	The Trick Brain

Magic by Misdirection was part of a trilogy of books on the theory of magic by Dariel Fitzkee.

The other two were The Trick Brain and Showmanship for Magicians.

Reviewed in Genii 1945 December

Content

Introduction

• Which is the cart and which is the horse
• Exposing the wheels
• Made to measure tricks
• Hand-me-downs in magic
• Are the classics best?
• What makes a trick great? Life
• Seven corpses
• Peregrinating professors
• A "classic" is born
• Classics, capability and cads
• Blockbusting old ideas
• The spectator's think-tank
• Seeing and believing

Chapter I: Real Secrets of Magic

• Taking up where we left off
• New gods for old
• Exposing the exposure
• Skill or duffer
• Giving the bird to the bird cage
• Aren't we all duffers?
• Ignoring the important
• True skill
• The real secrets of magic
• False whiskers and attention
• True or false

Chapter II: The Importance of Interpretation

• More of the same
• Exposure is impossible
• Can you read a magician's mind?
• The performer paints his own picture
• Interpretation to confound
• Conviction
• By these signs ye shall know them
• Acting-Diebox deception.

Chapter III: Conviction and Naturalness

• The important ingredients
• If you believe it, it's so
• Convince yourself
• Spectator instinct
• Naturalness
• How to convince without argument
• Disguise and attention
• Attention control comes forward
• Reasons
• The importance of convincing yourself

Chapter IV: What Actually Deceives the Spectator

• Money to burn
• Marked and borrowed, but found in an impossible place
• Behind the scenes
• The plant
• Pilferage
• Disappearing rubber
• No machinery necessary
• All through psychology
• The spectator's viewpoint
• Disguise and attention
• Money cheerfully refunded

Chapter V: The Psychological Expedients

• Through the microscope
• Simulation
• Dissimulation
• Interpretation
• Maneuver
• Pretense
• Ruse
• Anticipation
• Disguise
• Diversion
• Monotony
• Premature consummation
• Confusion
• Suggestion
• Disguise plus disguise plus attention control
• And more of the same

Chapter VI: Reaching the Spectator's Mind

• The attack on the spectator's understanding
• External appearances and interpretation
• Suggestion and implication
• Danger in the direct statement
• You can't force the spectator's conclusions
• Inducement and persuasion
• Confusion with a bank note
• Deduction versus induction

Chapter VII: Processes Within the Spectator's Mind

• The spectator must be deceived
• The spectator's perceptions
• The mind, only, perceives
• The spectator's consciousness
• Magicians must attack the spectator's understanding
• Mind stimuli and idea association
• The spectator's mind is not a pushover
• He is consciously intelligent
• Details do the trick

Chapter VIII: The Importance of the Norm

• How the spectator views the performer's appearance
• The important norm
• Discord brings damaging attention
• Characteristic naturalness
• Bewilderment not deception
• Disguise
• Dice and rabbits
• Palming a card
• Diversion
• The importance of naturalness

Chapter IX: The Norm in Speech

• Speech in deception
• The norm in speech patterns
• Variations "telegraph"
• What as well as how
• Subject matter norm
• Undue emphasis
• The strength of implication
• An example with bonds
• With tubes
• The norm in attitude
• What magic really is
• Imitation magic
• Speech in attention diversion
• The scorched thumb
• Any solution destroys deception
• Things important to the magician

Chapter X: The Norm in Properties

• Properties in deception
• Familiar things accepted more quickly
• Handling for deception
• A lesson from Kellar
• Pulling the lesson apart
• Applying the Kellar lesson
• Tricky appearance destroys deception
• A general idea satisfies the spectator
• Strengthening deception by appearance of properties

Chapter XI: Disguise and Attention Control

• The magician has but two courses
• Disguise and attention control
• With a changing bag
• How important does it seem to the magician?
• Substituting a stronger interest
• Disguise in many forms
• Physical and psychological disguise
• Frames, stocks, bottles and miscellany
• The effectiveness of mixing the true with the false
• A magician's tool does not deceive
• Disguising the tool

Chapter XII: Simulation

• Harping on an old obsession
• The true spectator response
• We can only baffle
• Seeing versus thinking
• Simulation
• The necessary support to simulation
• Bowls, egg bags, cigarettes, cards, ropes, turbans, billets, rings, eggs
• Ultimately all is acting

Chapter XIII: Dissimulation

• Dissimulation
• Acting again
• Special decks
• Preparing for dissimulation
• More rising cards
• Bottles, clocks, production boxes, egg bags
• Dissimulation with cards
• Distinctions
• Many disguises

Chapter XIV: Maneuver

• Maneuver for deception
• An example with bottle
• A routined series of movements
• Maneuver with cards
• Maneuver as used by Al Baker
• The distinction

Chapter XV: Ruse

• The ruse in deception
• Purposes disguised
• With billiard balls
• With tied thumbs
• Ruse with card sleights
• In a divination effect
• Illusions, cards, silks

Chapter XVI: Suggestion and Inducement

• Disguise in many forms
• Suggestion and inducement
• Disguised force
• The hypnotic process
• In mind reading
• Breaking a pencil
• Oranges, bills, bells, beads, pegs, balls

Chapter XVII: Attention Control

• Attention control
• Misdirection
• Many forms of control
• Anticipation
• Premature consummation
• Monotony
• Confusion
• Diversion
• Specific direction
• Anticipation with cards
• Varied examples
• Tricks and illusions with attention control

Chapter XVIII: Anticipation

• Spectator attention
• The manner of controlling attention
• To accomplish interest
• Suspense
• Animation
• Detail on attention control
• Anticipating the attention
• Cups, balls, cards, running up decks
• Fire and water

Chapter XIX: Relaxation, Monotony, Confusion

• Premature consummation and Kellar's use of it
• Stephen Shepard and his bird cage
• Stripped of all illusions
• With six silk handkerchiefs
• The performer must set the pattern for the spectator
• Thought force is concrete
• The language of the mind
• Monotony
• Examples by Leslie Guest
• Confusion
• Balls, finales, rings, pellets coins
• Confusion a la Blackstone
• Keep it quiet

Chapter XX: Diversion and Distraction

• Diversion for deception
• With a handkerchief and a wine glass
• Details
• The power of suggestion
• Specific detail
• The most subtle stratagem
• Its mechanics
• Bowls, bat loads, cards, eggs, chickens
• Leslie Guest again
• With a rabbit
• Distraction
• Beware repetition
• Clocks, girls, trunks

Chapter XXI: Samples of Attention Control

• Attention control stratagems in action
• Stephen Shepard and a tall glass
• Madison with a pack of cards
• An idea from seeing Tommy Martin
• Cards to the pocket
• Levitation
• Switching the judge

Chapter XXII: Real Deception

• Real skill in magic
• Pulling levers
• Banish the goofs
• Psychology is the first requirement
• Pulling the tricks apart
• Planning the procedure
• Misdirection covers weak spots
• Misdirection aids interpretation
• Multitudes of examples
• Good deception is fundamentally good acting

Chapter XXIII: The Most Important Skill

• Strong support
• Robert-Houdin
• Why never to reveal in advance
• H J Burlingame
• Nevil Maskelyne
• Why never to repeat
• Underestimated intelligence
• Repetition
• The card sharper
• Deception for keeps
• Scarne's greatest skill
• Learn from the real masters
• The real secrets of magic

Courtesy of Doug A's Magic Book TOCs

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