Trick or Effect

Been very slack on blog post recently but this one in inspired by comments on Twitter. You can follow me there by the way my user name is Mick375.

Magicians use this term "effect" . Its almost become magicians term for Trick. I think it's used by some as they think trick is a dirty word which conjures up images of deceit and downright lies. Also those marketing effects use the term as its more elegant and also they can't really tell you what the trick is before you pony up the cash.

I was listening to Penn's Sunday school Pod cast this week and Teller gave a definition of magic as "re-creation of an impossible/improbable event" - (This is paraphrased , cant remember exactly) . This to me seems like the perfect definition of Effect.

Take for example The ambitious card routine. The effect is that the card even when placed in the centre of the deck under the fairest of conditions will be found at the top of the deck. The Trick is how that is accomplished.

When buying new products its worth bearing all this in mind I find. Sometimes you're buying into the trick even if you haven't considered what the Effect is. The trick is/should be invisible to spectators and the effect should suit your character.

This all seems a bit like semantics now I've typed this out but it does make me consider the importance of the words we use when performing. Once we've bought the trick we need to put that to the back of our minds and sell the effect to our audience.