I was thinking today while practicing the heinstene shuffle, why is it that so many magicians act only as if they are telling their audiences "hey i fooled you!" Instead of presenting the effect as magic. I think what some magicians need to realize is that we need to think ... "if this were really magic, what would it look like, what moves wouldn't i do, and how can i change the effect to obtain a more 'magical appeal'". Instead of focusing on the trick, we should be really be focusing on making the effect magical for the audience through patter and less... haha i fooled you type wordings.

Just an observation on my part....

I think that the "haha i fooled you" attitude is more attributed to the younger school aged kids that think it's cool to "fool" thier friends and classmates.

They don't seem to have a grip yet on what the magical appeal and entertainment aspects are intended to do for thier audiences. But they can learn that through experience.

I aim to amaze and entertain.

ditto edluty.......i do it to entertain, as well as amaze. and i agree with frigidpink....the "haha i fooled you" is like something my 12 year old brother would do.

At first I just wanted to buy stuff to fool people, but now I want to fool people and amaze them at the same time. I have realized that you don't want to make people look stupid, but you want to have fun when perfoming for them and let them have fun with it. Ryan

Why would I want to fool someone? Would that just be a way of making myself feel good about something someone else can't do or understand? LOL. I remember when I was younger...I got all high and mighty and "fooled" this guy who was getting on my nerves. After getting very proud to have fooled this guy, my attitude must have been sensed by the guy, because he just shrugged and told me:

"Isn't kinda dumb that your so happy about it...you obviously have too much time on your hands. Some of us have better things to do with our lives."


Kinda put things into perspective for me. When I think about it, its really stupid to spend all this time and money, chillin at home by yourself, just to "fool" someone. Spells out one thing to me: N-E-R-D-O

I strive to entertain and amaze people now. Make people happy by what I do, not to prove that I can do something that they cannot. And at least I have a good reason to spend all the time playing with cards and learning new moves...something better than "I spend hours and hours of my life by myself playing with toys so I can go out and fool people."



I will admit though, when I do get that one spectator who thinks he knows it all...who sits there and tries to act that he knows whats going on when its obvious he doesn't....yeah, sometimes, I'll sometimes find myself fooling the guy in front of all of his buddies. It's just something that happens every now and then, unintentionally of course.

I try to amaze or entertain unless its a heckler

Im 13 and have done magic since i was 10 (i think) but i do it to amaze and entertain (and always have)!

But it is quite funny when you compleatly muck it up and they dont realise!

tom