The Surprise Fizzle

Today I’m going to share something you hardly ever see captured on camera.

Last year around this time I did a seven part series about concepts I use to generate the strongest possible magic.

In the first of those posts I introduced the idea of “Contrecoup Astonishment.” That is, the residual astonishment that is there after the spectator has had a moment to absorb the initial surprise.

I also talked about a spectator’s response to a trick going through three phases.

Surprise: Immediately after the climax of the trick.

Astonishment: If they’re still fooled after they’ve had a moment to process the initial surprise.

Mystery: If the astonishment doesn’t dissipate over time because there are no solutions to be found. Mystery isn’t an immediate feeling, it builds in the long-term when the spectator can uncover no satisfying answer for what they saw.

Think of an averagely executed french drop. There may be a moment of surprise when you open your hand to show there is no coin, but within seconds the audience will often focus on the dirty hand that holds the coin and realize that’s where it must be. The surprise doesn’t turn into astonishment.

Now think of the recently released Metal Phone trick. A card penetrates through a phone which turns out to be a solid block of metal. That will generate surprise. Without any immediate “easy answers” that surprise may morph into astonishment. But in the long-term, it can’t become a true mystery because when the spectator googles the only possible thing they could google after seeing that trick—metal phone magic—it leads them directly to where they can buy the trick. Mystery eliminated. I’m not suggesting they would buy the trick to find out the secret, but knowing they could buy the trick to figure out the secret is enough to destroy the mystery.

(And as I said in the last newsletter: “Yes, with certain effects you can get your audience to be so charmed that they won’t want to spoil the magic [buy googling it]. But, ‘I can shove a credit card through my metal phone,’ is not the sort of premise that is going to charm anyone.” That’s strictly puzzle magic. And what you don’t want is a puzzle magic trick that can be uncovered with the most obvious google search.)

But let’s go back to the initial response to an effect. The path from Surprise to Astonishment. Today I want to show you a video of the most pure example of a trick failing to make that leap. You will see the Surprise hit hard, and then you will see it fizzle out in the moments right after the trick. You rarely see this captured on film, because most people recording a performance of magic would cut it after the initial strong reaction.

This comes from Justin Flom’s Magic Mixtape, which I’ve mentioned in the past.

Here we see him vanish a coin for his daughter. Look at the Surprise on her face.

If this was a demo for a magic product, that is where they would cut the clip. And magicians would be fooled. “Hey, this gets great reactions. I need to get it.”

It’s not just an issue with demo videos. A lot of magicians—even when performing a trick themselves—block out anything after the initial moment of surprise. If a trick gets a gasp, they’ll ignore the spectator’s reaction seconds later. It’s a form of self-preservation because often the spectator’s demeanor towards an effect is significantly diminished within moments.

But to create really strong magic, it’s those moments after the Surprise that you need to pay attention to.

Often, the way it plays out is like this:

Now, with any luck, Justin spanked her very hard and she learned a lesson about respecting Daddy and his magic tricks.

But for the rest of us—a lot of the time—we don’t have the luxury to be able to spank our spectators to get them in line. And with an adult, the way surprise fizzles is usually much more subtle. They probably won’t just reach over and expose your trick like some naughty little girl. They’re more likely to just give you an initial “Wow,” and then relatively quickly they’ll switch their focus to something else. That’s why it’s important to not tune out and be satisfied with the “wow.” Instead, watch to see if the reaction lingers.

A couple years back I was dating this girl. She liked to see tricks, but even more-so she liked to watch me perform for others and watch their reactions. She worked in theater/performing so she had a good eye for that sort of thing and I would ask for her input from time to time. She once said something like, “I can tell which tricks are are the strongest by how people are reacting 30 seconds after the trick.” Meaning, that first moment of surprise doesn’t tell you too much. It’s only when you get a sense that the surprise has taken root that you get a real feel for how the trick will impact them.

With the exception of quick, off-hand visual moments of magic, the rule I use now is this: If I don’t get the sense that they’re still processing the trick a minute after I show it to them, then it either didn’t fool them or didn’t interest them (or both), and it needs to be worked on or discarded.

Check out the posts from last year—June 24th to July 8th—if you want to delve deeper into exactly how I suggest you construct a trick and presentation in a way to make that moment of surprise last long enough to transform into Astonishment and, eventually, Mystery.