The Power of Shifting Power
/Here’s a simple experiment you can try to test the impact that comes from shifting the power behind an effect from yourself to someone else. (What I call a “3rd Party” type of presentation.)
Test #1
Give someone a marked deck. Have them shuffle it and remove one card and look at it. Hold your hand a few inches over the card and tell them what color it is. Do it again, but this time reveal the whole card.
The person you’re performing for may be mildly impressed.
But if you ask them how they thought you did it it, the majority of people will suggest maybe the cards are marked.
Test #2
When someone is at your home, pretend to take a phone call. At some point, say something like this…
“Okay, I’ll let you know about Friday, that would be fun.
“Huh?
“Oh, yeah, my friend is over…
“Uhm, probably…let me see.”
From the other room you turn and ask your friend, “Hey Nina, is there a deck of cards near you. Can you grab it?
“Okay, she has one… what do you want her to do?”
Through the supposed person on the other end of the phone, you have your friend shuffle and select a card. Don’t have her look at it just yet.
“Okay, yeah, she did that. What now?”
You listen for a moment, then turn to your friend.
“Okay, he wants you to put your left hand on the card…[listening] Now extend your right index finger… and touch my finger.”
You extend your left finger for her to touch.
“Okay, now what?" Listening some more. To Nina, “Okay… he says the card you’re touching is red. Let’s see.”
She turns over the card. He’s right.
“Haha. Okay. Nice. Is it just a guess?” You pause and listen for a bit. “No,” you say, “That’s not possible…. Okay…Yeah, she can.”
To Nina, “He wants you to slide out another card.”
You go through the finger touching process again.
Listening on the phone, you then say, “No way. Seriously, I’m going to vomit if that’s right. He says it’s the King of Diamonds.”
She turns over the card and he’s right again.
Toss your phone over into a chair. “What the hell? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Go grab your phone and continue your “conversation” with the person on the phone. “Seriously… how did you do that? That was awesome.” For the next few minutes after getting off the phone, act a little stunned, as if your mind is racing.
You will likely find your friend to be far more amazed and impressed than the person for whom you performed Test #1.
And if you ask them if they have any idea how he did it, they are very unlikely to suggest the deck is marked.
Shifting the power from myself usually leads to reactions that are considerably more intense and longer-lasting. Why? I think these are the two biggest reasons.
Because I myself get to act so amazed, they feel open to feeling the amazement as well. They don’t have to feel self-conscious or stupid that they might have missed something obvious.
When I show someone a trick where I’m the “magician,” they can easily categorize that interaction. “Well, that was Andy showing me a trick. I don’t know how it’s done. But… it’s just a trick, of course.” Just a trick is the ultimate “Easy Answer” people come up with. But if I’m not the person behind the trick, it becomes harder to categorize. Especially when I’m there complicating the issue. “How could he have… I mean…it has to be just a trick, right? But I’ve studied all sorts of ways of doing that, and I can’t even begin to imagine how he could have done that.”
People are so sure that magic is about making yourself look clever, that you can often fool them badly with something simple, just because they’re not prepared for you to be “in” on something where you’re not the star.