WEBVTT - Magicology: The Science of Magic 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:16.760 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.400 do you remember the Math Magician from Breaking the Magician's Code, 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:25.520 Magic's biggest secrets finally revealed? Oh yeah, you don't, well, 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:27.600 this was this was on TV all the time back 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.400 in the day. Um particularly, this was like especially and 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.239 probably you know reruns thereafter, but it was this this 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.559 magician and he wore this mask because he was he 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.720 was like a rogue illusionist that was that on the 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.000 on this this particular show, he was gonna come on, 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.600 he was gonna do uh, sort of a staple magic 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:48.800 trick and then he was going to expose how it 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:50.800 was done. And he was having to hide his identity 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.200 so that the Magician's Guild wouldn't you know, fire him 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.360 and destroy him, lock him in a cast, getting sinking 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.360 into the ocean kind of a deal. But but I 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.440 remember and then thinking this guy was kind of a jerk, 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.840 and you know, because he's coming along and he's like like, oh, 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.480 you think it is magic, I'm going to kill the 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.360 magic for you. And I could easily imagine him showing 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.120 up in his mask at other events to to destroy 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:16.480 the magic of other things, like you know, he could 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.000 do you know, a whole series of specials where it's 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:23.200 like breaking the puppeteers code, puppet tearings, biggest secrets finally revealed, 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.720 you know, and just going down through through the list, 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:33.080 they sit on tiny stools. They're wearing all black. But 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.760 but no, that that was the first thing that came 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.319 to mind when we were talking about doing an episode 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.120 on magic, on the science of believing, well, that there 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.560 are people who say, let's not reveal the magic. And 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.039 in fact, Um, one the reasons why we're talking about 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:48.600 this is because there was a great article that came 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:52.600 out talking about Teller of pen and Teller and Um 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:57.040 and his pen is the quiet one. That's what I mean. Yeah, 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.320 Tell was the quiet one, the loud one, and and 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:04.360 he has been lately, Um, he has been talking about 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.240 these secrets Um that they employed. But the thing here 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.680 is that I think of it as meta magic. I mean, 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.560 they have always been pretty forthright with their audience, like 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.960 we are telling you the secrets kind what we're doing, 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.200 and yet we are still going to fool you we 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.760 are still going to pull this magic trick off and 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.280 you're not going to really now. Yeah, I do like 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.239 the way that Penn and Teller tend to handle it, because, 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.080 first of all, it's not a oh, I'm gonna totally 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.560 expose the magic here, some secrets about to be revealed, 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.120 prepared to have your your dreams crushed. Like it's not 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:34.720 it's not about that, like they're they're really bringing And 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:36.680 it's also not a sense of in the case of 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:38.920 the mass magician. You don't get the sense that it's 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.480 like a magician that had some bills to pay and 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:43.040 was like, all right, this is the gimmick. I'm gonna 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.280 do like Penn and tell her all about really explaining 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.440 how magic works, because they love magic, because there is 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:53.480 there's some really amazing stuff going on beneath the surface 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:55.640 of the illusion. Not only is the illusion amazing, but 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.880 the way the the the illusion toys with our perception 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.960 reality that's amazing too, And they're all about sharing that. 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:05.600 But then at the same time they're all about using 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.000 this these secrets that they share as in midirection in 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.040 a magic trick. So yeah, it gets really met up 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.519 really fast. Yeah, because they're basically saying we're totally to 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:15.960 flu and this is how we're going to fool you, 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.400 and yet this is still going to happen. Um. And 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.600 for people who are who don't know Penn and Teller, 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.480 um me describe them. Pen As, you say, is the 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:29.320 one who speaks, he's uh, kind of you know Audashas. 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.480 He's six ft seven. He went to clowning school, by 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.640 the way. Yeah, um, and he is usually the person 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.200 who's talking about what sort of trick they're going to 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.520 do and sort of ushering that in, while Teller usually 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.280 executes the trick and is the quiet one. He never talked. 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:47.480 He's just kind of a mining in that style. Yeah yeah, um, 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.160 And I guess you can call it kind of highbrow 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.040 magic in the way that they really are sort of 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:55.160 asking you to um. They're they're trying to they're asking 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.200 you to be critical, to be analytical, and yet they 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.880 are obstucating your um critical thinking very much in the 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.600 in the vein of the amazing Randy Um who, of course, 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:08.400 in addition to being the madition, has the you know, 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:12.160 the this whole organization is built up. They have the 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.920 prize that the I think it's like a million dollars 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.320 could be wrong on that, but a huge cash prize 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.200 for people who can who can prove that they have 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:24.080 psychic abilities. And uh in Randy to a large extent 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.719 also falls on the footsteps of Fudini, who, in addition 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:31.040 to being an accomplished illusionist, was also really into exposing 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.800 uh frauds who were who were taking advantage of people 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.760 who had lost loved ones. And we're using like seance 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.920 environments and in various tricks to toy with people's emotions 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.520 and loosen their purse strings. So so yeah, that's kind 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.359 of the the mold of of these guys as well, 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:53.120 because they have that long running show UH we Can't 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:57.280 Bullplop uh to uhus, the censored version, where they would 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.600 talk about various things, often controversial things. X. Yeah, there 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.120 their skeptics, and they bring that that skeptic viewpoint into 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:06.839 analyzing all these topics when they also bring a fun 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.280 skepticism into their magic. Yeah, and so we're gonna talk 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.720 about how we can break down the magic here a 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:13.599 little bit with science and how they actually do that 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.200 as well, particularly Teller. Again, he wrote an article for 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:21.120 Smithsonian Magazine telling people how he does it and we're 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.200 gonna talk about why magicians are like camouflage designers of 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.120 the mind. We talked about camouflage and some of the 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:31.599 same uh sub diffusions going on in camouflage patterns as 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:36.240 as the magic acts. But first, let's uh let's talk 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:40.400 about the New York Times article Science of Illusion by 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:44.640 Alex Stone. He ushers in the article by talking about 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.200 a coin trick, a really simple coin trick. So he says, Okay, 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.880 pinch a coin at its edge between thumb and first 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.640 fingers of your right hand and begin to place it 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.160 in your left palm of letting go doing that now, Okay, 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.120 begin to close the fingers at the left hand. Okay, 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:04.240 the instant the coin is out of sight, extend the 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.520 last three digits of your right hand and secretly retract 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.200 the coin. Presumably that means like put it in a 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.680 little into The last three are kind of they're they're 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:19.440 kind of serving as a cover, like a shield, right right. Well, also, 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:21.320 it's making it look like it's drap in your like 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.600 your freeing your fingers from the coin at the same 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:29.479 time you're depositing that coin, let's say, right inside your sleeve. Um. 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:34.240 And then he says, um, secretly retract the coin, make 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.360 a fist with your left hand as if holding the coin, 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.000 as your right hand palms the coin and drops to 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.159 the side. Okay, and then you're going to reproduce that 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.000 coin later, all right. What they say in this article 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.360 is that this is a great example of something called 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.640 retention vanish. This is the illusion of a false transfer, 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.720 and it happens when there's a lag in the brain's 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.880 perception of motion called persistence of vision. So the audience 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.040 will actually see this is the crazy thing. The audience 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:03.039 will actually see the coin and left palm for a 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:07.120 split second after the hands separate. And this is because 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.440 your visual neurons don't stop firing once a given stimulus. Here, 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.520 the coin is no longer present to your brain. Again, 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.960 we talked about this. This this great pattern recognition machine 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.560 makes that coin appear because you have the visual neurons 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:26.160 still being stimulated. So what they're saying is that our 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:30.680 perception of reality lags behind reality about one of a second. 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.400 And this is what magicians are exploiting. Wow, it's it's 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.440 really interesting, and that we u We also recorded an 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.440 episode today on Camouflage, which either just came out before 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.080 this one, or will come out next. And there's a 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:47.040 lot of overlap between these two topics. And camouflage, you 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.320 are toying with pattern recognition a lot of the time 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:54.720 and using distraction and misdirection to ful like potential enemy. 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.480 And in in magic we see a similar thing. Here 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.000 we're exploiting pattern recognition where we're we're exploiting the lag 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.120 in perception and reality. Yeah, and this is where the 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.640 cognitive bias comes in, right, um. And we can say 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.680 that cognitive cognitive bias can be traced to evolution to 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.560 our ancestors because missing a pattern was much more dangerous 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.840 than seeing a pattern that wasn't their right, So that's 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.480 kind of why we're hardwired like that. Um. So if 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:25.400 magician magicians can tweak the patterns enough, then you can 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.560 lead the brain to cognitive bias. And that's where we're 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.520 constructing this false logic for ourselves. And as you say, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.720 they're employing um, not just the um you know, a 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.319 pattern sort of falling into the background in us accepting 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.560 that the coin has been transferred, but also this idea 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:46.880 of dazzle as well, and this idea of distraction. Okay, 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:51.679 so um, absurdism, humor always comes into play with magicians 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.560 for a really good reason. Yeah. I found this really 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.360 fascinating because, I mean, on one hand, I mean it's 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.800 it's pretty obvious. You're you're gonna use basic misdirection. You're 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.439 you're not looking you're not looking at the coin. You're 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:08.040 gonna look at the assistant skimpy outfit, or you're not 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.800 looking at the allowed, you know, at at the thing 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:12.880 that's about to disappear. You're looking at the elaborate prop. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.640 You're not looking at the handcuffs on the guy. You're 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.040 looking at this enormous vat of water that they're being 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.000 immersed to. So you end up focusing on the spectacle 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.960 and not necessarily on the small detail upon which the 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:29.480 entire trick hinges. And uh. And you know, so you're 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.920 you're taking in this an environment, You're you're working it 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:33.800 out in your head, what's about to happen. You're you 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.400 have expectations of what's going to happen. Throw in some absurdity, 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:40.400 throw in some humor. And they find that laughter disables 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.840 your ability to think critically for at least a moment um. 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.480 And I've I've been observing this recently. Um playing this uh, 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.679 this card game called Cabo. Um, we'll pull us out 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.040 with friends, and it's a very simple memory game. Um, 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.080 you can look it up online. It's like like I 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:57.719 think they used to sell it on Etsy. It's like 0:09:58.080 --> 0:09:59.920 it's got like one of the cards has a rainbow 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.600 as a unicorn puking a rainbow. So it's that kind 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.679 of fun little game. But you end up having several 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.880 people set around and you're you don't know what your 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.000 cards are. Necessarily you get peaks of them and you 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.280 have to memorize it. Other people are memorizing their cards, 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.239 trying to keep track of cards that are moving, and inevitably, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.760 if you have some fun people playing, somebody's gonna crack 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.720 a joke, somebody's gonna say something amusing, or something's gonna happen, 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.640 and then you totally don't remember where anything is right 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.480 the distraction there, So throw that out on a magic trick. 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:30.480 So it's like people think they're smart, Oh, I wonder 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.880 where that coin is. Then they throw in a fart 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.440 joke and you're good. You're good to go, like reset 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.400 the entire memory well, and Teller says that they all 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.040 immediately follow a trick with a joke every single time. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.920 And that's exactly because they're manipulating that part of your brain. Um. 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.920 I want to go down real quick. His his seven 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:54.079 things that he does um to to defraud an audience. UM. 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:58.280 One which we already talked about. Exploit pattern recognition to 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.720 make the secret a lot more troublesome than the trick 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:07.439 seems worth. Complex trick, Yeah, Like for instance, he said that, uh, 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.360 for an appearance on David Letterman, for two weeks, they 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.480 trained themselves to work with these cockroaches two hundred of them, 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:16.920 really slow moving so that they would not you know, 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.880 skiter off um when they got their camera time. They 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.959 created some styrofoam thing that um that works really well 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.760 with roaches to crawl on, and then they inserted it 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.959 into this hat. And I mean really seriously, and all 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:32.560 we need said that, you know, they worked with an 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.120 animal trainer or this entomologist you know, day after day 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:37.960 so that they wouldn't scream like little girls when they 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:42.480 had to handle the roaches his words, um, And so 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:47.000 you know that is a lot of trouble for that trick, right, Okay. So, 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.360 and the reason is because he says, you have to 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.760 create some sort of simular Akham of reality that people 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.800 can buy into. Uh. Number three, he says, which, by 0:11:57.800 --> 0:11:59.880 the way, that kind of ties into our discussions of 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.280 action in reality, the idea of it. You have a 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.760 scene where something fantastic is going to happen, say James 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.280 Bond wrestles the squid, but earlier in the book he's 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.720 making coffee or he's having a steak. Right, you're setting 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.240 up the this this illusion of reality that and again 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.400 the buying into thing, this, this idea, this narrative that 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.199 we're buying into. Number three, you get hard to think 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.360 critically if you're laughing. For keep the trickery outside the frame. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.319 So he's talking about, um, you know, if he's you 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.360 pick a card out of a fifty two deck or 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.640 a fifty two card deck. Um, if he's taking off 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.560 his his jacket and throwing it outside the frame of 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.839 what's going on, that's diverting your attention because he's doing something, right, 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.880 then write some sort of flight of hand. Um. Five, 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.240 to fool the mind, combine at least two tricks. We'll 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.760 talk about that a little bit. And uh, he says, 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:51.640 Number six, nothing fools you better than the lie you 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:55.720 tell yourself. Um. And this is something that he means 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:57.960 that you come to discover on your own. The magician 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.199 lets you discover a truth on your own. Plants that 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:03.880 really number seven. If you're given a choice, you believe 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.319 you have acted freely. That I think it's fascinating. We'll 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.560 talk about that too. Um, but that that's kind of 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.240 how he goes about these tricks. And um, that's when 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.440 we talk about cognitive bias happening. And that's because your 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:20.360 brain is telling you all these things, it's making up 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:24.480 a story, it's creating the pattern, and misdirection becomes a 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.120 really key item for a magician. Yeah, Like I said, 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:33.720 misdirection is all about diverting the viewers attention from the 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.880 often trivial looking things that are the small detail upon 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:41.720 which the entire uh trick or illusion rather is is hinging. 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.160 So again, that's that's why you have I mean, I mean, 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.360 part of it, of course is its performance, and performance 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.960 needs to be visually amusing. But you have all these 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.360 elements in a magic trick that that are distracting. You 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.520 have a beautiful assistant that's skimply addressed. You have magnificent props, 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:02.600 you have uh explosions and fire and uh and slashing 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:07.880 swords and musical accompaniment and lighting effects. Um. It reminds 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.680 me a lot too of how of how a really 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.400 um well done haunted houses put together, because even that 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.000 is about the scares there are about misdirection if they're 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.840 done right, It's about let's get you looking over here 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:24.400 and then something will come from this direction. Let's have 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.520 you thinking about what the place sounds like, and then 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:29.480 we'll shock you with what the place feels like. That 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:31.800 kind of thing. I have a good real life example 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:36.080 of this. It was I guess inadvertent magic trick, and 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.320 it was how do you hide a half naked woman 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:45.280 in plain view? Okay, so will science Festival. I'm walking 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.600 down to a whole years. Yeah, I'm going to one 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.080 of the venues, and I'm passing in front of this 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.840 church or I'm approaching church on my left. Wedding party 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.120 is on the stairs of the church. On the right 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:58.360 of the sidewalk, the bride is about to get out 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:02.520 of the car. Coming forward is a woman in jean 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.600 shorts and no shirt or brawn, just just walking down 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:07.560 the street. Because it's in New York. Can people do that? Right? 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.680 And what I found amazing and made me feel completely insane, 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:14.520 like I was the only person I think actually who 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.240 noticed is that as she is crossing in front of 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:19.600 the wedding party on the stairs, none of them look 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.720 at her because they're all looking at the bride coming 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.480 out of the car. And I'm thinking about this, did 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.680 they not see this half naked woman passed right in 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.200 front of them? And that is how this this is 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.280 very similar to a magic trick, right that how could 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.680 you hide this, you know, thing that should be really 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:43.200 obvious and it's that misdirection. Huh. Anyway, well, it makes 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.200 me that I feel like, um, there have been some 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.600 some like bank heist movies where where they've used that 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:50.480 where it's like, let's have a sexy lady over here 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:52.240 and then the guy, you know, the guard doesn't notice 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.760 and they slipped by them. And it also ties into 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.680 my my longstanding theory that you could potentially rob a 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.560 bank with a basket of kittens, like if you were 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:02.560 just bring them in and like place them on the 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:04.560 table and people are gonna be transfixed by the kittens 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:06.080 and then be like, oh my goodness, and then they'll 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:08.320 touch the kittens like they're so soft, I can feel 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.920 their heart and then you just slip by and the heart, 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:13.760 you know, how do you do? You feel them? They're 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.920 so warm, they're like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.080 but no, you can you could totally rob a banquet 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:22.720 that's mine. I just did something horrible happening to the kittens. 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.080 I have to say in that scenario, No, you can't 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.040 bring a basketful of kittens into a robbery scenario. You 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.520 do not expect one of them to be splatter. The 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:32.840 only downside I see is that eventually that basket of 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.240 kittens will have to testify in court, so they'll be like, 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.040 up on this witness stand will be a basket of 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.040 kittens and uh, you know, really abusive lawyers coming in 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:41.760 and really trying to grill them on the stand, and 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.360 they're just they're kitten, so they're they're just completely out 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.760 of it. And there's your next Pixar film, Yeah, the 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:53.040 Bandit kittens. All right. So, Um, one of the things 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.360 that Teller was talking about is to fool the mind 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.920 combined at least two tricks. I wanted to talk about 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.600 that because he says that, Um, every night, Las Vegas, 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.320 I make a children's ball come to life like a 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.280 trained dog. My method. The thing that fools your eyes 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.240 is to puppeteer the ball with a thread too fine 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.479 to be seen from the audience. But during the routine 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.040 the ball jumped through a wooden hoop several times, and 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.439 that seems to rule out the possibility of a thread. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.040 The hoop is what magicians call misdirection. A second trick 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:22.639 that proves the first. The hoop is genuine. But the 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:27.200 deceptive choreography I took um or I used, took eighteen 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.359 months to develop. Again see number two, more trouble than 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:34.439 it's worth it. Also, I can't help but think of 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.080 a fiction in this case to take one idea that 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.439 truly cool, take another idea that's really cool, combine them, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:43.800 and if you do it in the right way, no 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.440 one will necessarily notice that all you did was say, 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:50.040 take the pacing for you know, this classic novel, and 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.760 simply infuse it with whatever this trend happens to be. Right, 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:59.639 That the idea is not to see the underpinnings bursting underneath, right. Um. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.040 Teller is also talking about independent verification, so he says 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:05.840 when he cuts the cards, he doesn't magic trick with cards. 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.240 Um I think he says, like the worst uncle magic trick. 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.080 You can imagine, Um, he says, I let you glimpse 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.160 a few faces, and then you conclude the deck contains 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.680 fifty two different cards again pattern recognition. But who's gonna 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.320 who's actually gonna sit there and look at them? Right? 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.040 I mean, well you go through. All you need is 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.440 a couple, right, you say, okay, but when in fact 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:28.480 he's actually taken those three cards and replicated a full 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.480 deck by taking eighteen different decks of cards and taking 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.119 out those three cards, or so he's always going to 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.080 get one of those three cards. Yeah. Also cases where 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.040 the magician you know, is allowing individuals who are participating 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:46.399 the trick to handle objects that are involved, to touch 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.040 the cards, to touch the hoop, to touch the wand 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:54.400 whatever is being used to verify that it is not gimmicked. Right. 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:56.880 And you think too, that you've made a choice, right, 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.680 You've made a choice. You took that card and this 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.720 this was of your you know, this fifty two different cards, um, 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.159 and this this was the decision that you made. And 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:09.760 uh so then you feel like you have some skin 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:14.320 in the game, right, And what Teller says is that 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.119 if you're given a choice, you believe you have active freely. 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.760 This is one of the darkest of all psychological secrets. 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:22.720 And he actually does a little political action and points 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.960 back to our political system and says that this idea 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.480 of having a two party system is much like having uh, 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.760 fifty two cards of the same three cards in them. 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.200 Sort of interesting, um, you know it. Also, I'm reminded 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.679 to of pickpockets here. Uh. And there's certain there's a 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.480 certain overlap here because you do see plenty of magicians, 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.520 especially slight of hand magicians that are also a skill 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:49.760 that at least performance pickpocketing pickpocketing, if not actual pickpocketing. 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:54.080 And uh and like some simple pickpocketing techniques are as 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.399 simple as, oh, I bump into you while I actually 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.520 take your wallet, because you're your distract acted by the 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.359 bump to your shoulder. You don't feel the slight um 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.280 you know, fabric movement of your wallet disappearing that kind 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.120 of thing, or or also you know, distracting by visuals. 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:14.000 You know, you're handed a baby, or or here's a 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:16.600 you know, an attractive lady, that kind of thing. You know. 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:21.359 What's uh interesting about that is that their pickpocketing. Um, 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.080 I guess you could say rules are predicated on the 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.639 way that you actually approached the wallet. And this was 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.520 from an article by Jonah Laire and Wired. It's called 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.119 magic in the brain. And apparently your eye tracks really 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.600 well when you when you's on a sort of flat plans. 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.359 If you're if your hand is just reaching across in 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.720 a horizontal line, then you're gonna be able to track 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.240 it really easily. But if you do an arc like this, 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:48.840 your your machinery is pretty flawed in that sense, and 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.480 that our our brains, our eyes aren't able to really 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:56.080 read that motion. Isn't that interesting? And it also that 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:58.239 that ties into a lot of the flourishes that you 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:02.159 see in in in magic in these performance illutions, because 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:04.680 people aren't just I'm grabbing this orange and I'm gonna 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:07.400 grab that one. No, there's a lot of flourishing and 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.280 movements of the arm. It becomes difficult to track exactly 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.000 what's going on. We are gesticulating wildly right now, as 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:19.000 we talked by the way in here. Yeah, but you're right, 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:21.440