Rule 13: Garden Path

In 1911 Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant, two of the premier magicians of the day, published Our Magic. In the first section, The Art in Magic, Maskelyne outlines 20 rules for magic performance. After well over 100 years, are these rules still relevant, and do they apply to more than magic?

Rule 13: The simultaneous presentation of two independent feats is permissible when one of them is associated with cumulative effect and the other results in a final surprise.

When you combine Rule 11 - surprise, with Rule 12 - repetition, you develop one of the magician’s most powerful tools: misdirection. This isn’t the only way we do it, but it certainly is one of the most popular.

The way it works is very simple. Human beings love patterns. We look for them in everything. It’s why we have constellations, why people are constantly seeing Jesus in their food - a phenomenon known as face pareidolia - and why comedy comes in threes. Your audience are going to look for a pattern, and so subverting it will make an impact. As an example, here is one of my favourite moments from one of my favourite shows of all time.

Before I go any further, I’ve no idea where Toby gets the term ‘floating opposite’ from. What he’s describing is a ‘chiasmus’, a powerful but desperately overused device. Unless you want to end up sounding like The Sphinx in Mystery Men or your friend on Facebook who posts too many motivational images, please try to avoid it unless you’re really sure about your language. #Bugbear

Getting back on track, in this clip Toby uses and names both repetition and surprise. Okay, so he calls surprise ‘the one that's not like the others’, but hopefully you understand the point. The repetition builds a rhythm but also expectation. The one that isn’t like the others confounds that expectation and so we want to know more about it. This allows Toby to explain how free trade can bring about world peace, even to people who don’t agree with him.

Practice these two techniques together. I think you’ll find them to be a potent combination.

TFT

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