Naturalness

So here goes the first "proper" post on the blog.

Naturalness

Too often when watching magic, magicians give off tells, hinting at a sleight. For example watch magicians deal cards onto the table, and then ask them to second deal. The majority of magicians while change their deal. Whether they change grip, speed up the deals, etc. Eliminating this is simple. Watch yourself dealing normally then watch yourself second dealing, and spot the differences.

This is what you should strive to achieve with every move. Spectators aren't as stupid as magician's believe. A lot of lay people are just too polite to say anything and magicians are the same way. If I show a magician a move I want their honest opinion. If its shite tell me it is and tell me how to improve it. You aren't going to upset me, if I show you something I want honest feedback. I feel that this is something most magicians are guilty of. Being to polite to each other and not wanting to criticise. It shouldn't be taken as an offense, infact it should be welcomed as that's the kind of advice we need.

Anyway, getting back to naturalness, naturalness doesn't necessarily mean uniform. Go grab a deck of cards and start dealing as if you were dealing to a game of poker, or whatever. Each deal is different. Some may be faster, some slower. There may be sleight pauses inbetween the deals, maybe you place the cards down, maybe you throw them, maybe you drop them. There are many different variables that should also be applied to sleights. Don't act like a robot and make everything uniform. Speed up the deals and slow them down, have different gaps between deals. The main aim is to make second dealing look like a single deal.

This doesn't just apply to second dealing, it should apply to every move. Make every move look as natural as possible. Nobody wants to see your invisible pass if it looks like you are doing a move. If you shake the deck and it looks like you did nothing (i.e Clipshift, pass, etc) immediately lay people and magicians know that you did something. They maybe don't know what you did but they know that you did something and that is good enough for most lay people.