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Serious amateur magician here (magician member of the Magic Castle). Note that the trick done for the monkeys is not done the way that a real magician would do
by lisper 3y ago
Serious amateur magician here (magician member of the Magic Castle). Note that the trick done for the monkeys is not done the way that a real magician would do the trick to fool a human. The French Drop actually can have surprisingly deep subtleties. To fool a human, you would hold the coin between your thumb and forefinger so that there is a visible gap between the bottom of the coin and the palm of the hand holding it into which it will be dropped. Then the hand that grabs the coin is moved into place in a smooth continuous motion, covering this gap very briefly, during which time the coin is dropped. The key is that the gap is visible during most of this motion, after which the grasping hand pauses briefly before closing the thumb and forefingers to "grasp" the (now missing) coin. The key to making it convincing is that the trick actually happens before the dramatic pause before grasping the coin, but the pause focuses the spectator's attention on the fact that during the pause the gap is visible, making it "impossible" for the coin to be dropped without being seen. It's considered one of the most elementary of tricks, but it's actually quite challenging to do properly. In the hands of a skilled magician it can be very convincing even when you know how it's done.
Magic is an art with vastly more subtlety and attention to detail than it generally appreciated by muggles.
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- thunderbong 3y agoThat was wonderfully explained! Do you know of any video which shows this in a close up?
- CSSer 3y agohttps://youtube.com/watch?v=EZ0C2wh5IyE https://youtube.com/watch?v=EZ0C2wh5IyE
- cmdialog 3y agoA lisper and a CSSer workting together towards a common goal. I love to see it
- lisper 3y agoThat's a great video, but note that it demonstrates a slightly different technique than the one I described. Still a very good video, and also a good illustration of the range of subtlety in even a very simple trick.
- dylan604 3y agoso are you now going to lose your membership for giving away the secret? ;-) on one of the nights out, there was a magician that would just walk around the club to do a couple of tricks to groups just hanging out as part of the entertainment. i think i must be the perfect mark, since i'm convinced if i watch close enough i'll prevent myself from getting fooled. which is precisely the thing i'm guessing makes me the perfect mark!
- empath75 3y agoThere's some core moves like the "French drop" and "double lift" and "pass" that are well out of the bag right now, and tons and tons of youtube videos on how to do them.
- schwartzworld 3y agoAdditionally, well-performed basic slight of hand like this is still magical even when you know how it's done.
- lisper 3y agoThis is true, but one of the things I never appreciated about magic before I started hanging out at the Castle and learning from actual humans was how little the "moves" actually matter. Magic is a performing art, and it's much more about the details of the performance than the "moves". I learned the "moves" as a kid, but I was a horrible performer [1] until someone started drawing my attention to all the other little details. It's the difference between playing the notes and what someone like Yo Yo Ma does. [1] I'm actually still not all that great, but at least now I know why!
- lisper 3y ago> i'm convinced if i watch close enough i'll prevent myself from getting fooled Yep, we magicians love people like you. :-)
- gretch 3y agoOne time I actually did watch close enough and saw something I wasn’t supposed to see - the magician somehow flicked a card flat into his inside front jacket pocket. Even after I saw it I couldn’t believe my eyes. Like, how could you flick it like that with such high precision.
- 6510 3y agoThe one I do with dogs, cats and babies is much less sophisticated but works well. The left hand with the food is flat and open you pretend to pick it up with the tips of your fingers and move towards the spectator. Simply close the left hand and turn it over.
- schwartzworld 3y agoI do a great french drop. I don't know much other magic, but I can really vanish a quarter or other similarly sized object. My kids love it, so I still practice a fair amount. The drop itself is a very unnatural way to transfer a coin from one hand to the other, so the first step for me to doing it well was to practice actually transferring the coin without the vanish. Something about this process really blew my mind and changed the way I thought about learning new skills. It's a lot of work and effort to make something look casual and easy like that, and until you get to that level of comfort, it's honestly not even worth showing anybody.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoMuggle here. Ever incorporated Lisp into one of your magic tricks(pick a parenthesis...)?
- lisper 3y agoNo, but it's an interesting idea. There are magicians who specialize in mathematical magic. Arthur Benjamin is the best known: https://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_a_performance_of_mathemagic https://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_a_performance_of_m...
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoI just realised, you're Ron Garret, I had no idea! In that case, if we extend the definition of magic to include the SICP definition, I would say your work at JPL counts :D
- lisper 3y ago> I had no idea! Shhh... it's a secret! ;-)