Last September we had the pleasure of listening to two well respected master
card magicians speak. Both of them touched on the topic of
practise.
-
Magician A suggested that reviewing video recording of one's performance was
optimal because among other things, magicians are unlikely to catch a poorly
performed sleight in the mirror.*
-
Magician B suggested that performing in front of a mirror was the way to go,
because you need to learn how to adjust in real time, if something goes
wrong in the execution of a move.
They both raised valid points. We got to wondering how you, dear
readers, practise?
In October, we asked the following on
Facebook
and
Instagram:
What do you do when you practise? Do you:
A. Use a
mirror
B. Video record the session
C. Both of the
above
D. None of the above
E. I don’t practise
Seven people replied. Two were 3-way mirror responses, two were video
responses, we had two responses from those who do neither, and one of you have
a very thoughtful practise involving both mirrors and video.
The practise preference was divided along social media platforms.
- Facebook preferred video,
- Instagram favours mirrors or neither.
(With N=7 it's difficult to draw meaningful inferences. We found
it interesting nonetheless.)
From the April 27th Instagram post
@CanadasMagicDotCom:
A thought from the pro-video camp:
-
Chris Yuill wrote:
" If you use a mirror but look down to look at the props you
miss seeing what happened at that moment. Just my opinion.
"PS if
you video yourself to post on social media, watch the video first before
posting. See too many crappy videos of crappy done magic on FB and the
gram."
A very thorough and insightful answer from
Eric Bedard, who kindly took the time on October 2nd to write [emphasis added]:
"Mirror at home when first learning a new sleight or routine (3 mirrors
one head on, two at 45 degrees on each side), also practice facing the mirror,
then turn right angle to one side so you can see what people see over your
shoulder or looking behind you, then repeat on the other side - when you are
satisfied that you do not flash, then record at home several times
while tweaking, adjusting blocking, checking script and timing, etc. and then
definitely record the first time if it is a stand up routine. Close-up if you
do all of the above, you should be bullet proof when you perform. However, you
will continue to make adjustments and improvements once you have performed the
first 100 times - in Martial arts it is said that you must do a move 10,000
times before you can start to really learn it - in Magic it is not 10,00 but
definitely after you have field tested a routine, trick or sleight a minimum
of 100 times, you can start to really understand the subtleties involved.
Real world practice is best, just make sure you are bullet proof before
you perform out in the world or you make us all look bad. Carry
on......"
We have nothing to add to Eric's excellent answer. It seems that the
method of practise is often presented as a false dichotomy. One or the
other. In reality, a blend of both may be the recipe for optimal
results.
In the comments, let us know whether you use mirrors or video or both in your
practise!
--
* We have heard it said that when practising in front of a mirror, magicians
are more likely to blink while performing the sleight, and therefore will be
unable to see themselves flash or make a mistake. We wondered if there
was any literature to back this claim. This is what we found:
-
From a 2022 paper by Anthony Barnhart [emphasis added]:
"Indeed,
magicians were more likely to blink when engaging in deceptive action than
when not, and blinking was more prevalent when performing more difficult
sleights.
However, this tactical blinking was only evident in the performance
setting." [1]
-
A quote from Anthony from a September 2022 article [emphasis added]:
"'While
my magician participants were
more likely to blink their eyes when carrying out deceptive action than
when not, this tendency was increased in a performance setting without a
mirror compared to a rehearsal setting with a mirror,' Barnhart explained to PsyPost. 'This was surprising and didn’t match the
predictions from the world of magic.'" [2]
Other thoughts about practising in front of a mirror:
-
"Do not watch yourself in a mirror as you practise. You cannot perform the
action naturally if you divide your attention between what you do and how it
looks. Moreover, mirror watching has a tendency to cause the eyes to widen;
this is not attractive and can become a fixed habit." [3]
References:
-
Barnhart, A. S., Richardson, K., & Eric, S. (2022). Tactical blinking
in magicians: A tool for self-and other-deception. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 9(3), 257. DOI:10.1037/cns0000321
-
Ellwood, B. (2022). Study suggests magicians unconsciously blink their eyes
to manipulate the audience during difficult tricks.
PsyPost.
https://www.psypost.org/study-suggests-magicians-unconsciously-blink-their-eyes-to-manipulate-the-audience-during-difficult-tricks/
-
Hugard, J, Braue, F. (1948). The Royal Road to Card Magic. pg
358
