I didn't see you there I'm magician Robert strong and I'm going
to share with you the anatomy of a magic trick now all magic tricks have five
parts first the assumption I understand the assumptions you'll make about an art
pad that it is flat has many pages and weighs about two pounds next I know the
assumptions you'll make about a magic marker it has a cap ink and has a strong
smell together I know the assumptions you'd expect that a marker would do to
an art pad it would leave a few marks maybe even a circle now the third part
is the conceal I hide the secret in plain sight the fourth part is the
reinforce I strengthen the incorrect story that you create in your mind the
fifth and final part is the magic that is the moment when your brain struggles
with the wrong assumptions and the new reality that is revealed
that was awesome when that bowling ball hit the ground you jumped out of your
seat just a little now for those of you who are paying very close attention I
only listed four the five parts I left out the very top secret misdirect which
I'll get to in precisely 60 seconds so the first slide we're going to talk
about our assumptions your brain is very powerful and it's constantly making
assumptions about the world around you it does that through millions of years
of evolution your instincts are very strong you don't have to test every step
you take before you take the step to confirm that the ground is gonna hold
your weight and don't reach out to people and grab them and touch their
body parts and make sure that all I don't know real body parts and not fake
body parts that'd be awkward I'm so magicians exploit these assumptions
these instincts to create illusions tricks
now speaking of assumptions you probably all have already made a few assumptions
today for example these glasses are real and that they have lenses in them but
they don't you probably assumed that that watch
that I referred to 60 seconds ago is not blue painters tape you probably assumed
that this microphone is real and not the shabari 3000
it's a spot massager now you can get overnighted from Amazon for 38 dollars
and 37 cents you probably also assume that my body parts are real and not fake
body parts made of plastic now the brain works in mysterious ways now I've
scrambled the letters and because the brain is a program to make sense out of
nonsense to make connections that are not always necessarily there to kind of
live in the future and predict what comes next it's very easy because the
context of TEDx San Francisco you know that was supposed to say there - no
speaking of predictions you saw in the front row the guy who jumped it what is
your name Patrick I have a prediction a jumbo playing card over there would you
name a playing card out loud six of diamonds that's interesting because on
the other side of this jumbo playing card Patrick I have the six of diamonds
right about there
now that is an anti-magic trick the context of seeing a magician you kind of
expected that the six of diamonds would be the only card on the other side that
was an amazing magic trick but this bowling ball that was awesome
that was amazing that trick will get that out of the way now the next slide
we're going to talk about is the third part of a magic trick which is the
misdirection please raise your hand if you can read the words on this card
that's just about most of you now speaking of attention please bring your
attention to the six of diamonds it is the only one that's drawn on there
because the other cards are actually stuck on there let me help
ladies and gentlemen Theron is a great speaker a great magician and today a
great misdirect Thank You Theron and now ladies and gentlemen the conceal I won't
spend a lot of time on this because magicians hate when you talk about the
conceal in concept it's the secret of the magic trick that's hidden in plain
sight you don't know to look for it because you don't know what you're
looking for there's actually a real dog in the middle of those stuffed animals
and once you see it it's difficult to unsee just like when a magician watches
another magicians magic show if he knows the method it's really difficult for him
to unsee it and now ladies and gentlemen the reinforce the reinforce this is
interesting it's the psychology of magic it's when you get what's called time
misdirection that's more time and space from the secret and you also give extra
information that guides you away from the truth and moves you towards that
that false story that was creating the brain like when I wrote the words
bowling ball on the art pad that kind of REE it reinforced that it was a real art
pad in a real magic marker so that I can make a real bowling ball
up here which brings me to the last part the magic moment
the magic moment ladies and gentlemen that moment where your brain struggles
with a false reality that was creating your mind and the truth has revealed I
will end with a quote from a magician who lived about two generations before I
got into magic Geri Andrews and he was known to say I can fool you because
you're a human you have a wonderful human mind that's no different from my
human mind usually when the mind is fooled it didn't make a mistake it came
to the wrong conclusion for the right reasons
you