I remember a magician talking about a particular routine where he did everything, but when the spectators later retold it, they felt like they did it (eg: "I to

I remember a magician talking about a particular routine where he did everything, but when the spectators later retold it, they felt like they did it (eg: "I took a card and then..." when in reality the magician gave them the card, something like that anyway). I started reading the book "Sleights of Mind"[1] a while back, I need to go back and finish it. It talks about this subject in depth. I performed a simple trick for a friend once and then, maybe an hour later, another friend arrived so I performed it for him too. The trick involved swapping something out and doing some very basic sleights to hide the fact that it was swapped. My first friend was watching, knowing the outcome, trying to figure out at what point I swapped, but he didn't spot it. He later asked me "did you swap it before or after X", which I found interesting, because all of the work was done long before X. I love the tricks where the trickery gets done early on and then its just theatrics before the reveal. It really makes it hard for spectators to piece together the events. :) [1] "Sleights of Mind: What the neuroscience of magic reveals about our brains" -- http://www.sleightsofmind.com/ http://www.sleightsofmind.com/