Thanks to Nielsen Magic for permission to use the above image.
Another common fallacy that the general public wrongly asserts, one that actually works very much in favour of allowing conjurors (not to say, the dubious and the scam artists) to 'fool' people, is the claim that, "I am too smart to be fooled!" That is a very dangerous thought for anyone to harbour, even outside the realm of the conjuring arts. A belief like this inadvertently can cause one to relax their critical thinking skills when they may be needed to rely on those skills the most, particularly during a vulnerable time in their life. The truth of the matter is that the opposite is actually true; that is, the smarter or more intelligent a person is the easier they are to fool. At first glance, this may seem counterintuitive. It is not. Let us look more closely as to why this is, shall we?
Children, and those that unfortunately suffer mentally from developmental problems, typically are the most difficult people for any conjuror to fool. The main reason for this lies in the fact that their cognitive skills are not as developed as those of an adult. Even a simple concept like cause and effect is not readily understood by the younger set. For example, if a conjuror holds a small object in their hand and than goes through the motion as if they are going to toss that object high up into the air, and assuming the conjuror uses his head, face and eyes to follow the path of the object, most people will follow the object's rise into the air despite the fact that it was retained in the conjuror's hand. Why is that? Well, once you reach a certain age of understanding you know that when a person goes through the motion of tossing an object into the air (the cause), that at the end of their arm swing they are going to release the object from their clasp. When they do this you know that the object will go flying up into the air (the effect). Knowing that this is a natural human reaction conjuror's can use this knowledge to their advantage. Young children, on the other hand, who do not yet understand the concept of cause and effect will simply keep their eyes focussed on the object which has remained in the conjuror's hand the entire time.
Another reason that it is much easier to fool a person who is more intelligent is that these individuals will have a tendency to overthink and overcomplicate the solution. In other words, they will use their intelligence against them in trying to figure out a conjuror's effect. Ask any conjuror and they will tell you that they have experienced the following scenario on many an ocassion. An effect is performed that completely amazes the spectator. The spectator proceeds (either immediately following the performance of the effect or at some later date) to explain to their friends or to the conjuror how they believe the effect was accomplished. In listening to their explanation the conjuror soon comes to the realization that if s/he were able to perform the effect according to the spectator's methodological description that it would in fact require real magic for its accomplishment.
A good and effective piece of magic will lead a person down a logical path of thinking to an illogical conclusion. In other words, 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5, where the 1's are the steps performed to create the effect and the 5 is the magical result. Thus, when a spectator thinks back on the effect, as they reconstruct what took place so as they may attempt to discern the secret, they will find that 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 completely makes sense. However, the end result - the illogical 5 instead of the more logical 4 - doesn't. That's good and effective magic. Further, intelligent human beings attempting to figure out how an effect works - trying to make sense of the above formula - will, in many cases, completely bypass the obvious (and much simpler) solution. In fact, the obvious solution never even comes to mind. Rather, those solutions that are over-complicated are solutions that tend to be surmissed. This fact, obviously, works in favour of the conjuror.
A true modern day legend in conjuring, and a creative genius, is the American born conjuror, Paul Harris.
Paul Harris graces the June 2007 cover of MAGIC Magazine.
Paul has created countless effects, effects that have been performed by conjuror's all around the world, from the famous to the not so famous. In the following video clip we see David Copperfield in one of his early televison specials performing Paul Harris's incredible effect entitled, Immaculate Connection.
Several years ago Paul was interviewed where he was asked to share his thoughts on the art of conjuring. He said something during that interview that has stuck with me throughout the years. It is an idea I always keep in mind when either creating an effect or working on the presentation of an effect. To paraphrase Paul, he said that the best part of performing an effect is creating that sense of awe within a spectator's mind. In other words, immediately after the performance of an effect Paul likes when a spectator, just for that moment, gasps in awe as if they have just witnessed a miracle - something that cannot be explained by natural means. Quite literally, their jaw drops and their eyes widen in amazement. Paul continues by saying that after a few moments reality kicks in and that sense of awe dissipates. The spectator may still be amazed at what they witnessed/experienced, but that sense of awe is no longer present as their logic turns on and dictates that there obviously was a trick involved, eventhough they may not know what that trick (secret) is. Utilizing this moment of awe to his advantage, Paul stated that his goal in creating all of his effects was to be able to stick a crowbar in that exact moment when awe is experienced and to try and keep that moment open as long as possible.
To conclude this section I would like to direct your attention to Canadian born conjuror, and world famous skeptic, James "The Amazing" Randi. In this short video clip, taken during a lecture he gave in 2000 at a California IT Conference entitled, Chasing the Chimera, Randi effectively shows how some of the most intelligent people in the world - scientists - can be fooled by the simplest of effects. Does this mean that these scientists, many of which are PhD's, are stupid or unintelligent? Absolutely not! On the contrary, as we have just pointed out, they are simply using their intelligence against them - thanks to the workings of the conjuror, in this case, Randi - in a very human way. This presentation sums up nicely the various points that were made on this page.
