The Art of Honest Deception pt. 3

Here is part 3

~*~ FuelGirl ~*~

Misdirection is possible because of the power of suggestion. It is a psychological fact that the first impulse of people is to believe. Doubting is usually secondary. And the power of suggestion wields a tremendous influence on our lives and opinions.

An actor using suggestion can baffle trained magicians. Some years ago a group of twelve professional prestidigitators in Chicago went to see Frederick Tiden play the part of Cagliostro in the play, The Charlatan. During the performance Tiden produced flowers and silks from empty boxes. The magicians knew that no magical principle or secret known to them was being used by the actor. After the show they invited Tiden to have lunch with them.

Tiden was surprised when he learned that his tricks had fooled the wizards. He explained that the man who appeared most innocent of helping him--the villain, a skeptic who opposed Cagliostro constantly--had secretly introduced the silks and flowers into the boxes while apparently making sure they were empty. The suggestion that Cagliostro and the skeptic were bitter enemies was made so strongly throughout the play that the magicians never suspected that the villain was actually Tiden's helper and made his miracles possible.

When suggestion succeeds in misdirecting the attention of his audience, the performer is in a position to substitute one object for another, or obtain or get rid of other objects. One action can act as a distraction for another action at the same time. For example, when a magician is picking up or laying down his wand, he may be obtaining or disposing of another small object in his hand at the same time. The wand acts as a mask for the real reason he approached his table.

"Give me the full attention of a man," Harry Kellar, the famous necromancer of the last generation, used to say, "and a herd of elephants preceded by a brass band can march behind me, and he will not know it." Kellar's mastery of misdirection is still a legend in legerdemain, but nevertheless he was once fooled--very cleverly.

Handbills were left in all the New York magic stores one morning announcing that a new and unknown magician would perform the floating woman illusion at midnight that evening at Broadway and Forty-Second Streets. Apparently it was a publicity stunt by a newcomer in the profession, and Kellar flew into a rage. The floating lady mystery was the feature of his show, and he had spent $50,000 in perfecting it. To exhibit it on the street would expose its secret, and at that time he regarded the illusion as his personal property.

Shortly before midnight a large number of magicians, Kellar among them, gathered on the corner to await the show. Midnight came--and passed. The mysterious wizard did not appear. Finally an idea dawned in the mind of one of the mystics.

"What's the date?" he asked Kellar.

"March thirty-first," Kellar replied.

"But it's after midnight. This is April First. Somebody has played us for a bunch of April fools."

The joker in the pack of performers was never discovered.

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