Misdirection is a principle that we deliberately set in place to shift the attention of our spectators in order to set up a particular future moment that cannot be done while everyone is looking right at what we are doing. Beyond that, it is also utilized to have our spectators not focus too much on a potentially questionable occurrence that may lead them to behave against your wishes. (ie. prematurely turning over a playing card)
Applying this principle properly may not come so easy for many. In order to properly utilize it, we must shift our audience’s frame of focus without them knowing that our intent is to do so. It isn’t so simple as telling your audience to look elsewhere.
Simply put, frame of focus is the space you can find that most, if not all, of your spectators have their gaze shifted towards. It is important to be able to manage where your spectators’ attention, not just to misdirect them, but also to ensure that they can understand the plot that is unfolding as well as not worry about details unnecessary to their experience of your performance. The frame of focus may be most easily understood by thinking of your audience’s unanimous gaze as the field of view in a video. There are things going on out-of-frame of the video, inevitably, and it all depends on what details the camera was recording.
On the contrary to what much of modern online magic demonstrates to us, a lot of content that we perform for real audiences may need moments here and there in which we execute a move that is not appropriate to be intently watched. Not every move can be perfectly invisible to the eye, but not every move has to be in the first place, as the illusion is not individual for each passing moment, but rather collectively to produce the end result, but I digress.
Understanding Misdirection with Frame of Focus:
- Recognize that you are the center of attention during the performance.
Understand that, at least during your performance, you are the one that dictates where your spectators look and how they behave. If we ask them to do something for the effect, they do it. This is not to be confused with the idea that your spectators consciously recognize you as an authoritative figure, but it becomes the tendency for your audience to yield to your direction.
This is also not to be confused with the idea that it’s all about us. Here are mindsets that I advise you do not adopt:
“When I perform magic, it’s all about me! Me me me me me!”
“I perform magic because I get to be the center of attention.”
“I am the most important person in the room because I am performing magic.”
Despite us being the center of focus in many regards while performing, the ideal experience we set up for our audience is for the magic to happen to them. Moreover, the moments of magic are strongest when our spectators are convinced they had a big role in making them occur, but I digress.
- Your deliberation does not call for your audience’s awareness of your intent.
Misdirection does not work if your spectators know that you are purposely trying to shift their attention away from something. Here are prime examples of what not to say:
“Billy, I’m going to need you to look over here away from what you were looking at for a second!”
“Don’t look here anymore Jane, look over there!”
“Excuse me, George and Stella, I would now like to announce that I am shifting your focus elsewhere. Please look there, instead of here now!”
“Tiberius...AH! Did I scare you? Sorry, I was attempting to misdirect your attention so I could pull off this move that you didn’t see. You didn’t see it, right?”
The change in focus must be natural and seamless in your routines. Imagine that your inner intent was not to deliberately shift your spectators’ focus. What kinds of things would you do or say that would result in them looking elsewhere? If it helps, think of regular social situations in which you are not performing magic.
What naturally occurs that has the attention shifted in groups of people? What do individuals do to have everyone else look somewhere particular? Here are some brief scenarios that hypothetically tend to shift the majority’s attention:
“Have you seen Benjamin’s new hat? Hey Benjamin, sick hat dude!” He must have spent more than a dollar on that fresh snapback.”
“Eek! A spider, over there!”
“What’s up with Rich’s new tripod? It looks like he has bunny socks on its legs! Oh, they are bunny socks??”
“Anyone got a lighter by any chance? Randy, how about you? I know you have one, you chronic chain smoker you.”
Here are a few specific tools you can use to shift your spectators’ gaze to seamlessly execute sleights and moves that require misdirection:
A. Their gaze follows suit with your’s.
One of the most common and easily reliable methods to shift frame of focus is to shift your own gaze. Try this with people, even when you aren’t performing! Show someone something on your phone, so both of you are looking down. Then, afterwards, take a minor step back and look from your phone up to his/her face to say something, such as:
“Wasn’t that cat video so cute, Melissa? I watch a lot of these whenever I can.”
“Peter, this photo is of my new pet Mr. Snuggles. I was just at that adoption center you recommended. Thanks for that!”
You will notice that both Melissa and Peter will look up to match your gaze. With this in mind, you can apply this to your performances.
B. Shift your attention from the general group to one specific individual to participate.
Audience participation is a principle I encourage every close-up performer to utilize to make magic hit harder. A huge benefit that comes along with having one of our spectators participate is enabling a moment to misdirect the general group to shift their attention from you to a spectator you select to participate.
“Hey Victoria, I’m going to need your help with this effect. Hold out your hand for me!”
As you proceed to hold Victoria’s hand and take her to ice cream place her signed card on her hand, the rest of the group will naturally look at her as you shift your attention towards her. The more you have individuals out of the group actively participate in your routines, you will find how much of an influence you have over your audience. Simply put, you act as a mirror for them.
Another nice benefit to having others participate in your performance is enabling yourself to create several opportunities to shift the focus between yourself and that spectator that is helping out. If you need more moments for misdirection, you can simply re-shift your attention back to that spectator.
What are some other ways you can appropriately and reliably shift your audience’s attention?
