Lets imagine that you practiced sleights to the point of perfection. Angle-proof and nothing to see. You have the mentality that no one will ever suspect anything that you did. Can the spectator still sense that you did something “fishy”? Think about it. Magicians always stress the perfection of sleights to the point that they don’t see any finger flashes, adjustments of the hand during the move. I agree with this 100%. There is something else that is just as important.
Speed of your actions.
What do I mean? When people do something that is bad, they tend to hide it. Either by doing it when no one is looking or trying to get the action over as fast as possible. The sleight of hand is suppose to withstand careful eyes, but we as human beings still do the same tendencies as if doing something dirty even though its hidden through the construction of the sleight. So you always see magicians change speed during moments of the move.
A very obvious example of this when false dealing cards. When you deal a 5 handed game and during the bottom deals you had to slow down to do the move, even though they don’t see the move, they sense the rhythm is off. Another example is during a pass. Your handling of the cards is so smooth and nice and then during the pass you have a fast jerk of the cards. Then all of a sudden, you are back your old nice ways. They can sense it. Trust me.
Now I am faulty for doing this, it is one of those things that you don’t notice until someone tells you. So I’m telling you. Figure out a speed that you are confortable performing at and try to stick to it throughout the trick. A big negative thing that people say about Aaron Fisher’s Gravity Pass is that it takes too long. It’s the same when going too slow. All of the sudden the spectator sees you “frozen” in time then resume.
Don’t take this for granted. You must take your performance speed with as much detail as you do about sleights and patter. When you watch videos of performances see if you can spot these speed changes.
MichaelFeldman
I agree that video is the best way to fix this. Even watching in the mirror, it is hard to sense a change in your own speed. I personally need to be much more detached to notice speed changes in my own work, and the only way I can see it myself is through video.
Clearly if you handle cards/coins/etc too fast or too slow at a certain moment it is a giveaway, but one thing I see a lot of new people fall prey too is slowing down their speech. Many magicians have to think so hard about the move, that they can’t continue pattering at the same speed, and the audience can tell that your mind must be preoccupied by a move because you stopped talking.
THis can be solved either by learning the sleight cold, so you can talk over it, or by scripting the magic so you don’t have to talk over moves that require a lot of mental effort.
Gary Au
On the other hand, I think having the exact same speed throughout everything to be a bit odd, or even boring. I think we thrive to see changes in pace and stuff to retain interest. Imagine watching a movie or a book that keeps the same exact pace through every single page. We get bored of it easily. Just think of a textbook.
If you’re doing an effect and it’s a part you really want them to focus on something, you may slow down, talk slower, be extra careful with the cards, showing how “fair” everything is. If you then relax (and kind speed up to your “normal” rate) at this moment, they relax as well. It could even have a comical effect.
We give things more attention, and therefore, usually slow down, when we deem it’s important to the spectator’s appreciation of the effect. When we want them to believe things are unimportant (when in fact, it may be the very method), I think it’s okay to speed up as long as it’s to your normal/everyday/natural speed.
I think the important thing is if you change your pace, don’t do so so abruptly, or have a reason (changing gears), or just make it natural. We’re not robots! Everything has a good context.
Eric
I agree with Gary that there should be some variation in speed, but there is a big difference in naturally performing and using various speeds to add to the effect, and blatantly speeding up your movements to cover a sleight.
MichaelFeldman
I agree eric.
It’s not that timing variation isn’t important, it’s just that suddenly moving much faster (or slower) can be a giveaway if it is centered around a move. As can suddenly stopping your patter to concentrate on replacing a card in the deck (I would think that’s a dead giveaway)
We should be conscious of changes in tempo, but use it purposefully to create interest rather than to hide a move. Yes?