Curtis Kam's Judo Switch
/Curtis Kam shared this idea with me a couple of days ago, and I like it a lot. The psychology of the switch is similar to a switch I put in a book a couple of years ago called the Can’t Touch This Switch. Similar in motivation, at least. It also has a similar feel to the Munchhausen switch I mentioned in this post. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other precedents as well, I just don’t know enough about coin magic to say.
Curtis wrote me after last Thursday’s post on using the shuttle pass to clean up at the end of a coin routine. I don’t believe this fools people for the reasons stated in that post.
Now, when it comes to handing out items for examination, Curtis and I have different philosophies. He tells me: “I physically cringe when I see a magician end a trick by shoving the props into everyone’s hands.”
He also writes; “Sure, we know they want to examine the coin, but they also know, or at least feel, that if you are thrusting something into their hands and insisting that they examine it, it’s probably okay (and therefore you’ve switched it).”
While I understand what he’s getting at, in a casual magic situation, handing out an item for examination is the most natural thing you can do at the end of a trick.
Imagine someone found a rock that changes color when you shake it. It’s not a magic trick. It’s a real color changing rock. They shake the rock and it changes color. Now, can you image a situation where they do anything other than drop that rock into your hands to look at? What if they showed you this rock and then… put it in their pocket(?!) like a fucking psychopath
So, while I agree you should never be forcing someone to examine something (and should probably never be using the word “examine” for that matter) I also believe that ending the trick with the items in the spectator’s hands is the most natural way for a trick to end.
But I also agree with Curtis that unless the object is going directly into their hands, they’re going to assume it was switched. (Hence my issue with the shuttle pass as a clean-up.)
The Judo Switch
This is the name I’m giving to the switch because, like in my posts on “Examination Judo” linked above, the idea is to turn their suspicion against them. The more suspicious someone is, the more this will fool them. Similar to how you might turn someone’s advantages against them in judo.
The problem with the Shuttle Pass as a clean-up isn’t that you place the coin from one hand into the other. It’s that you place the coin from one hand into the other in order to hand it to the person. That’s the suspicious part.
Here’s an example of how the Judo Switch leverages suspicion for our own purposes. Let’s say that you finish the trick with the object in your right hand. You shuttle pass it for an examinable object in your left hand, as you set it off to your left out of the way.
So now you’re transferring the object from one hand to the other in order to set it somewhere on that side of you. That’s natural enough to be essentially forgotten.
And the fact that you’re not giving them the object to look at means their suspicion is still fully focused on that examinable object sitting on the table. They won’t believe it was switched because why would you switch it to not let them see it?
They want to see that coin (or whatever the object is). But they may or may not ask to see it, depending on how much they care about potentially “embarrassing” you by finding out you’re using a trick coin. If they don’t outright ask, you’ll need to engineer an opportunity for them to look at it. Maybe get up and go to the bathroom so they’re alone with the coin. Or “accidentally” knock it off the table where they can pick it up for you.
This doesn’t have to be done with coins and shuttle passes. It can be done with any object and any type of switch.
The ideal switch has continuity. We usually want a visual continuity: I see the quarter the entire time from when the cigarette goes through it until it gets handed to me. In the Judo Switch, their own suspicion provides the continuity. There’s some level of suspicion on the object while it’s involved in the trick, and that suspicion is maintained and increased as you set the object aside afterward, and the suspicion continues for the object now resting on the table. It’s one unbroken chain of suspicion, which subtly suggests there is only this one object in play.
Here was Curtis’ original description, which condenses what I’m saying down to a few sentences.
[Referring to the cigarette through coin.] I did this trick a lot when cigarettes were everywhere, and more recently with a pen in strolling gigs. Along the way, I discovered a solution with two requirements: 1) have a decent switch; and 2) put the coin down on the table, near you, don’t hand it to them. Try a little too hard to direct their attentions to the cigarette or the pen.
Turns out, if they think examining the coin is their idea, they are much less likely to think you switched it out.