I’m not a big magic trick fan. I believe most magic tricks are designed in a way that the audience wouldn’t, and shouldn’t, be able to see the the 2nd step in the trick, the turn.
For those who aren’t familiar with the 3 steps in a magic trick, I would suggest renting the movie, “The Prestige” or even reading the book. The movie stars Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as two rival magicians trying to better each others trick.
Before we get too carried away in what I thought was a brilliant movie, lets put focus on this trick at hand. There’s many versions of this trick floating around the internet but follow the same foundation. Lets take aside a passerby who happened to stumble upon this trick.
Step 1 - The Pledge
In front of you are 6 face cards. Each one being different from the rest.
The audience is asked to simply pick one card from the bunch, to memorize it, just that one card. The card they have chosen will be the one to disappear.
Step 2 - The Turn
At this point of the trick, the audience would be trying to memorize the card they have chosen, possibly repeating it over in their head a couple times.
This is the stage of the trick where the audience is anxious for the card to disappear. Now even though this trick is being played out online, the audience must have a way to interact with the process of the turn. Perhaps a simple link to a new page would do.
Perhaps there is also another page to insure the audience to keep memorizing the card.
Step 3 - The Prestige
It is here where the success of the trick takes place. The stage where the card has disappeared into thin air, or possibly in the page load.
Wow! How did I do that?! How did I know which card you picked?!
Well…it’s quite simple. Try to sync up the cards from both images. You’ll then see that none of the cards before hand appear in the later image. Just think. There are 12 face cards in a deck of cards. 6 are presented to you at the start. That leaves the remaining 6 cards. All the trick needs is to simple swap out all cards. But how do you do that without the audience knowing? Well, it’s simple, you keep telling them to focus on one card. Eventually the audience will be compelled to just focus on that one card and to disregard remembering the rest of them. By removing 1 card in the prestige, it gives the effect that a card has been removed.
Like stated before, this trick has rehashed versions around the internet but they all work of the exact same principals. But if you are one of those suckers that would fall for such a trick, take a closer look next time.
If you’re wondering, http://www.zeek.co.uk/ was the place I got the trick and the images. Nothing wrong with displaying a simple magic trick. It’s the people you catch by surprised is what builds onto a magicians reputation. Besides, what’s life without having a couple aces up your sleeve?
You raise an interesting topic of “Fake Magic Trick - So fake it’s real.” From the website where the trick is hosted it seems many people have viewed that same trick and were amused by the use of misdirection in the graphics to create the illusion that the card chosen has disappeared. But I think the many people who were amused temporarily as well as myself would never take the trick for “real magic.”
The trick is like most things we enjoy in today’s society like special effects in movies, slick animations of watches that look real (Rolex site), actors pretending to be magicians (”The Prestige”), and so on. They all require a temporary suspension of our logical senses which are based on reality, so that we can be amused, fascinated, and amazed by an illusion.
I think artists, ever since the renaissance or even further back have tried to create illusions of reality in paintings, drawings, etc. for amusement, fascination in order to stretch our minds which are sometimes locked in reality.
Not too long ago I saw “300″ at the movie theatre. My wife didn’t think it was that great and said it was all “fake.†Me, I had a great time watching the Spartans fight trash their enemy even though in the back of my mind I always know they’re in front of a green screen made to look fantastic with computer graphics.
And each time I watch any of the Star Wars movies again on TV, the wife sort of cringes, but I can’t help but get a kick out of George Lucas’s dazzling effects and storytelling.
You’re right, I am one of those “suckers” who likes to fall for those visual tricks whether on the internet, animations, movies, special effects, or video games for some amusement and fun.
Of course should I ever start saying I can use the “Force” from Star Wars to move some cards, I would say I’m not a sucker. I just lost all my marbles.
Hey check out this critic, John Simon. He definitely isn’t amused by any special effects or visual trickery in movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB3V3qyZiFM
It’s almost funny trying to view the world through this critic’s eyes.
magic trick
noun
an illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers
I remember when I first saw this magic trick, and I’m sure I’m not the first or only one to notice the flaw right off the bat.
Fortunately, and I do mean this with all do respect to everyone that deals with magic tricks in general, this isn’t the type of trick that scam people, it could…but it doesn’t. My lack of love towards magic, particularly street magic, comes to the fact that there are some out there to scam people of their money.
Though I should have mentioned it, this one time, I saw this one guy make over $100 in a matter of 15 minutes. 15 minutes! And I don’t think anyone else was seeing how th card trick was performed. When I approached him questioning his methods, he rather all of a sudden was in a hurry to leave.
Now, I personally put special effects in a different category. The effects need to be fake. You don’t want to be actually put someone’s life in danger without proper procedures to keep them safe. That is why CG special effects, stunt actors, makeup artist, and so forth, are expert in their field to present an illusion that may or may not be possible in reality. But most of that is solely for entertainment. And so is magic.
I’ve just seen too many scam artist using magic tricks to lure the unexpected. And really, I just feel I don’t really have much of a choice but to watch helplessly. Who am I to judge one’s behavior?
With all do respect Peter, I didn’t mean to offend you in my post, and I sincerely apologize if I did. You know I don’t mean no harm with my words
I have been visiting this site a lot lately, so i thought it is a good idea to show my appreciation with a comment.
Thanks,
Jim Mirkalami
OK! Now that you have explained this trick I feel really stupid! LOL! Now if you can only explain how this one works:
http://www.milaadesign.com/wizardy.swf
Hello Tina.
It’s quite simple. It’s just a math formula. All it comes down to is your number, with the formula, ending up to be a multiple number of 9. And it’s also flash. Choose the number 9 each time…look at the other symbols that are multiples of 9…so 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81. They’re all the same symbol.
They add in all those other ones to confuse you, and the change it up to string you along with the illusion.
Click here to see what I mean…
You cannot believe how long ive been googling for something like this. Through 6 pages of Yahoo results without finding anything. Very first page on Bing. There you are!…. Really have to start using it more often!
thats not realy and aloso do not sell that crap to people.com
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im pretty impressed with your website here, i’ll have to bookmark this to steal some ideas later:)
I still don’t know how to do that