hello my friends my name is Rick lacs
and I do not have any cool slides
prepared for you see but I am gonna try
to read your mind right now oh yeah he’s
the guy from Facebook that’s right
that’s me I’m the guy and I’m here now
but you can’t push the like button cuz
I’m just talking to you anyways ah and
if you don’t know who I am that is a
weird joke everyone imagine that we’re
going out to dinner right now okay and
now it’s time for dessert and you’re
gonna order dessert for us something
nice like ice cream or tiramisu think
about what that dessert is you got it
you got it okay now we’re gonna use that
dessert to pick a letter so think of the
last letter in the desert you’re
thinking of so if you were thinking of a
Baked Alaska
then you would have the letter A Alaska
ends with an A if you’re thinking about
it doughnut then you would be thinking
about the letter T don’t PluralEyes it
if you would doughnut don’t say
doughnuts with the S just think of the T
if you had doughnuts change so you have
something else so now everyone is
thinking of a letter the last letter in
your dessert right right good think of
try to think of a big animal whose name
begins with that letter so if you’re a
Baked Alaska
that could be an anaconda or an
alligator you’re thinking of a doughnut
that would be a Tyrannosaurus Rex
something everyone’s thinking of a big
animal okay if I can somehow guess what
your big animal is I ask that you burst
into applause and then we get the TED
talk going sound fair
well thank you and welcome to my TED
talk I’m gonna tell you a little bit by
myself then I’m gonna tell you about the
trick that I just did and how I got to
be doing it my name is Rick and oh yeah
we whispering about I’m so curious for
you saying I can’t tell cuz usually I
just perform on Facebook so I would get
to hear the conversation unless
someone’s leaving a comment telling me
to kill myself which is really common
anyway so my name is Rick I was born
here in Detroit then moved to South
field yep I lived most of my life in
West Bloomfield Michigan and then I went
to school at Michigan State yeah and
then after one year I transferred to
University of Michigan and I got out of
there
and now that I’ve offended a half the
audience I can tell you that after
school I went to Chicago for Law School
and then I became a lawyer didn’t
practice wrote some books and now I do
magic
which is weird I’ve been interested in
magic though for as long as I can
remember I remember going over to my
grandparents house this is when I was
three or four and they had the best
collection of David Copperfield VHS
tapes and I would watch with my my
grandparents and my parents who are here
somewhere
where are they just so I know they’re
right there
I know it’s adorable right so we’d go
over and I would see my grandmother just
freak out at the magic he did she was
very Ricky hotted how did he do it she
was flabbergasted and I never used the
word flabbergasted but she was and then
also I got to see a David Copperfield
perform live he would come to Michigan
and when he would perform he would
perform in this area that was okay do
you guys know that it was bi it was
literally where I’m standing right now
he would perform at the Fox Theater
standing right here and I would be where
were you guys were and so I stayed with
magic this whole time and then I just
came back to it a year ago I started
putting these magic videos online which
is why some of the people recognized me
that some of the younger people for
those of you who don’t here’s the thing
about me in the past year I have racked
up 1 billion video views which thank you
which I think and I’m open to being
corrected here but I think this makes me
the most viewed magician in the course
of human history which is very thank you
and it’s weird and it all happened in
the past year but before that I was just
creating magic for other magicians and I
love the creative process I’ve been
creating magic for so long do you guys
want to see one of the first tricks that
created all right I’m gonna do it it’s
terrible
one of the first ones I created it is
called the color-changing ball trick
which already is a problem because I
just told you what the trick is and that
kills the element of surprise so it’s
not good it’s not good you know in
advance it’s not good the red ball goes
in the hand I make a stupid magic
gesture and when I pull it out it’s
green which is not good because the
methods obvious right I’ve got a green
ball in this hand red ball in this hand
or do i if I did how is it the trick
would still work with the red ball in my
pocket yeah how could I change that red
ball into a green ball and show you my
other hand empty I’ll tell you how
because I know there’s some confusion
here start the trick I
kept this hand closed that was
misdirection I wanted you to think there
was an extra ball in this hand there’s
not show the ham stayed closed when I
put the ball in stupid magic gesture
pulled it out but there’s no ball in the
hand the truth is I’ve just got one ball
it’s made out of unicorns though that’s
the secret and so the moral of the story
is when a magician’s giving a TED talk
saying he will reveal how a trick is
done
he is probably lying and setting up the
thank you so that’s that’s what I did
for a while and now I started performing
tricks as I said and I if some of you
guys recognized me you know there’s just
a ton of comments that I get on these
videos I do where I do the tricks like
that but I do it on Facebook 80% of the
comments are positive 20% are negative
facebook allows me to filter out the
negative comments so you don’t get to
see many of them but they’re really
bothersome the one that bothers me the
most is when people say anyone who falls
for this guy’s tricks is an idiot I hate
it when people say that because I use
all my brainpower to come up with
deceptive magic and so it’s fine if you
fall for a trick I also realized that
some of you might not fall for it maybe
you know how the dessert trick was done
maybe you know how the ball trick was
done that doesn’t bother me because it’s
a magician you guys know that I’m trying
to trick you that’s the whole point of
doing magic it’s so much easier to trick
someone if you’re in sales person you’re
in business if you’re running to be
President of the United States
they’ve got it so easy compared to me
really any other profession if you’re a
mechanic or if you’re in hospitality if
you’re in the gaming industry in Vegas
it’s so easy to trick someone because
the other people don’t see it coming
there’s a quote that I love from George
Bernard Shaw he says that every
profession is a conspiracy against the
laity every profession is a conspiracy
against the lady and I know that that’s
true because when you’re not doing magic
it is so easy to trick someone and the
proof of that is that quote did not come
from George Bernard Shaw I just lied to
you guys and there’s the easiest thing
ever when I do the magic very hard to
trick you but if I’m just during the
talk portion of the TED talk I can just
say this quote came from him no it’s a
Mark Twain quote and if you knew about
literature you would know that Twain
said it all the time Shaw would never
say anything like that so it’s just so
easy to trick someone and I know I’m
Billy abbring the point but to prove
that it’s not even a Mark Twain quote I
just made it up and made it sound
old-timey because it fit the point I was
trying to make so the point is super
easy to trick someone so what do you
guys do if you don’t want to be tricked
right here’s one solution never believe
anything that anyone says ever yeah
you’re laughing because it’s a bad
solution so when the weatherman says
it’s gonna rain bring an umbrella when
the doctor says you’ve got strep throat
take this medication when your
grandparents say I love you
these are not the right times for
skepticism some of the skeptics they
have an answer they say look for proof
look for evidence but again if when the
grandparents say they love you this
isn’t the right time to whip out the
polygraph machine also even if you’re
looking for evidence you can still be
tricked you can be looking right at it
I’ll ask you about the identities of
these cards try to remember the suits
first one is Spade everyone remember
Spade second one is heart everyone
remember heart third one is club
everyone remember club last one is
diamond everyone remember diamonds
all right some of you remember the order
some of you don’t I don’t care about the
order of the suits though here’s the
question are these cards Jax or are they
Kings hmm
King some say Kings we’re not quite sure
because we weren’t paying attention
you’re paying attention to the wrong
thing and that’s how I got them to all
be eight I know I know
so that’s a case where you were all
looking for the proof but still I was
able to deceive you so what do you do
even looking for proof evidence that
doesn’t do it here’s my solution be open
to the possibility that you could be
wrong be open to the possibility that
you could be wrong if you live your life
with this mindset then you get to follow
your beliefs you get to act on them
passionately but also in the rare cases
that you’re wrong you’ll never have that
feeling of getting the rug pulled out
from under you and I think that’s where
a lot of people go wrong that’s where a
lot of people quit that they found out
their whole belief system is messed up
so as long as you stay open to the idea
that you could be wrong
I believe you can accomplish anything
your childhood dreams you can make them
come true here’s just one example I
talked about David Copperfield a couple
minutes ago talked about seeing him with
my grandparents seeing him here on stage
and now I’m proud to say that I work
with David creating magic for him trying
to inspire the next generation of
and I got there by by working hard but I
was following my beliefs but by staying
open to the idea that I might be wrong
and I know that I even though I’m a
master of deception and and all this I
know that I could be wrong because it’s
just so easy to be wrong and then the
proof of that and this is the final time
I’m gonna mention this the proof of that
is that the quote in fact did come from
George Bernard Shaw as I first said and
I will ask at this time you google that
you fact check me but please only do so
after I thank you for your time bow and
exit the stage to thunderous applause
thank you [Applause]