Magical Misdirections | StarTalk

there’s the traditional magic trick of
pulling the rabbit out of a hat and
these and card tricks and generally we
think of our attention being sort of
misdirected and rather than there being
an illusion and so Suzanna tell me about
the kinds of misdirection that exists
well we tend to think that what
magicians do is they distract us from
the things that they don’t want us to
see and and this is not correct with
magicians rather than the structure with
the magicians do is they’re extremely
good at directing your attention to the
places and the moments in time where
they want you to be paying attention to
and then your brain through breakage the
magician’s best accomplish because
whenever you’re paying attention to
something your brain just suppresses
everything else so paying attention is
not enhancing what you’re paying
attention to is blocking everything else
that is not relevant it’s quite a show
and of course teller doesn’t speak in my
interview here nor does he speak on
stage and so I just I had to complement
the show that I saw I was very impressed
and I seen them on TV and this but to
say it’s got to be in real life to
really believe the illusion you know to
see what what’s what’s really going down
so so I gave them you know I
complimented them on their work and and
let’s just see their reaction he is so
good you work you are so I can talk to
him oh yeah
no you’re so good with your body
language and your facial expressions we
all knew exactly what you were thinking
and saying or at least wanted us to
think you were thinking fascinate with
the idea of being able to lie without
speaking you know and none of the things
you learn most in magic there’s no
better lie than why you tell yourselves
now in Vegas we end the show with the
bullet catch which is I’ve seen that
done on a cruise ship yeah well you
catch it in your teeth right but not
know you don’t but that’s what it looks
like but our version is a little more
complex this is the clarify so there’s a
gun behind a glass yeah and the magician
of the other side are there the bullets
signed
the bullet in a way he’s never signed
right and and it is goes through the
breaks the glass and he recalls his head
and he pulls it out in there it is and
it has it’s a it’s it’s an interesting
trick because at least 15 people have
died on stage doing it it’s the most
dangerous trick in show business really
and we do a version that we believe is
safe we would not do it because it would
be immoral to do it if it were not safe
but the bullet catch now if I say to you
you know we’re gonna catch a bullet in
our teeth you say no you’re not yeah of
course so we never ever say we’re gonna
catch a bullet in our teeth who’s ever
gonna move the bullet from this side of
the stage to that side of the stage
using this magic wand holding up a gun
now what you do is you don’t give the
audience a sentence that they can say no
to and let them fill in the blanks so
after the show they say that trick were
you caught the bullet in your teeth is
great but I never said it so when you
say something so when teller doesn’t
speak on stage and he just allows you to
make all these assumptions he is
functioning as he’s fooling you with
lies you’re telling yourself