Magicians Think Differently
I honestly believe magicians think differently to the general public. As a magician you must look at the world differently, in a somewhat deceptive manner. Deception is a word with a lot of negative connotations but magicians use it for good. I call myself an honest deceiver because as a magician and mind reader I tell you I am going to deceive you and then I do it. There is a level of consent to the deception which allows the audience the feel wonder and amazement rather than feeling duped or taken advantage of. Now that we have cleared up what magicians do, lets discuss how we think.
As a magician, I look at everything as a chance to do some magic. I perform sleight of hand with popcorn in a dark cinema theatre for the amusement of just myself. Magic is created by solving a problem in a way no one has thought of; that is why it is fooling or magical.
Let’s take an example of making a coin vanish. The problem as a lot of people see it is, “how to I make a coin vanish?”, that is not the problem! The problem is how do I make it look like a coin has vanished? Reframing a problem is not always appropriate but there can be some examples of problems we experienced where magician thinking can be used. A problem a lot of people worry about is being pick pocketed, especially when visiting a large tourist attraction or busy street.
There are a lot of tips on how to avoid this such as:
1. Never put your wallet in your back pocket
2. Keep your wallet in an inside jacket pocket
3. Avoid crowded areas where people will be in your personal space.
4. Don’t pat where your wallet is as it gives it location away
These tips are very important and should 100% be followed, however depending on the circumstance you are in the pick pocket could use a con where you feel pressured into buying something or you genuinely want to buy something, either way resulting in you bring out your wallet. This gives pick pockets the location or your wallet and even an opportunity to grab the wallet while it is visible. So how do we avoid this? The tactic I use a lot is having at least 1 extra wallet. For example, when travelling I like to keep a wallet with a low amount of money in it in a more exposed pocket. This will result in any potential pick pockets targeting this wallet and not realising I have nothing of real value in it. Having a small amount of money also would allow me to buy low value items without removing my real wallet and if I feel like someone is pressuring me to buy something I can show that I can not buy it as I do not have enough money.
This is just an introduction to how a magician thinks and I would be curious if you have any problems in your life which you could fix by thinking like a magician.
Bonus Example:
Always running late? Set all of your clocks (or have a friend do this) to be 5 to 10mins fast.
