3 ways to use distraction in mentalism and mind reading tricks

Before I give you the top 3 ways to use distraction in mind reading and mentalism tricks, let’s get the definition of distraction from Wikipedia:

“Misdirection is a form of deception in which an audience’s attention is focused on one thing in order to distract their attention from another.

Misdirection takes advantage of the limits of the human mind to give a wrong image and memory of a mentalism mind reading trick. The mind can focus on only one thing at a time.”

This is a very concise definition of misdirection and it basically says what it is. But how can you use misdirection in your magic tricks?

The mentalist/mind reader can use this to their advantage in a variety of different ways. I have listed the 3 main ways.

1. To cover a move – For one on one mind reading tricks, this is really easy as you only have to distract one person. This can be achieved by asking them a question, the question should be built into the effect and be relevant to their mind reading skills. The reason for asking a question is that the volunteer has to ‘go into’ your mind to retrieve the answer. This is what will momentarily distract their attention where you can casually make a ‘move’. Most mind reading tricks work on their own and are based on pure showmanship and have very few moves, so asking a question is usually all that is needed as the move is usually built into the trick. to keep it informal and “make sense”. For example, a body language “mind reader” might ask the volunteer: “In his mind, when he recalls past events in his life, do you see his memories primarily in color or black and white? ” This will make them “enter” his mind and they probably won’t know the answer. This distraction will give you the opportunity to make a “move.”
2. To hide the method – You can use a form of distraction whereby you give a false explanation to the phenomena that you are apparently witnessing. This false explanation is very important in mentalism and mind reading magic tricks as it takes you away from the actual method you are using. TV mentalists have built careers on bogus explanations: Derren Brown, David Blaine, and Criss Angel all use bogus explanations in almost all of their stunts, whether they say it’s real magic, conversational hypnosis, or weird body language reading skills.
3. To give them a false memory of the trick – This is a more advanced form of distraction and is used by professionals. All the professionals write their tricks and know almost word for word what they are going to say. The reason is that they are carefully written to build suspense and also to leave the viewer with a false memory of what really happened. It usually involves talking about what happened, but changing one small detail. A basic version of this is to ask the spectator to cut the cards, but a bit later in the effect you’ll say, “Ok, so you shuffled the cards…”, then repeat what happened but change it to “then you shuffled.” the cards”. This is just a basic overview and requires proper trick writing and trial and error on what works and what doesn’t. That’s why the real magic is in the acting.