Dear Jerxy: The Unmoved, Part One

Dear Jerxy: Recently I've been getting a lot of mileage out of Dear Penthouse Forum [Ed. Note: This is a story deck trick from The Jerx, Volume 1] but there are three people that I regularly interact with who all said the same thing to me afterwards: that even though they handled the deck, I forced them to shuffle it exactly how I wanted, like that's a perfectly normal thing that magicians can do and their wonder sort of ends there. I don't mind them coming to the explanation that I can control every card that they shuffle, but I would hope they would just dismiss that as crazy. Apparently it's not so crazy.

I've had a similar thing with Seth Raphael's Amaze, where, despite being in another room, I've had the same people say that I made them pick a particular maze. They said it flippantly, like it was obvious. When I pressed them for answers I got "that's just what magicians do, they get inside your head and force you to do things." 

I know this is pretty much the Non-Explanation [Ed. Note: See this post for a discussion of the "Non-Explanation"] but it feels a bit different. "It's just a trick" is pretty similar to "magicians can do that sort of stuff," but they're not dismissing it as a trick, they're assuming I (and all magicians) have some ability that I don't have, and I don't want that. It feels like they just assume magicians can do anything. 

So, regarding "you're a magician you can make me do anything," (which is not an attitude I've actively tried to foster, nor one I would necessarily expect from educated, intelligent people, maybe they've watched too much Derren Brown) is this a barrier you've experienced or had any luck breaking down?

Signed,
Helpless in Halifax

Dear Helpless: First, let me say, I don't have a solution for this, but I do have some thoughts on it. 

I think the reaction you describe here is definitely related to the "non-explanation" I've talked about in the past (see the definition here). And it may be closer than you realize. "I don't know how you did it, but obviously it's a trick," and, "I don't know how you did it, but magicians have ways of doing these things," are essentially the same thing. The first is probably something you hear more with a physical magic trick, the second with a mental effect. And even if they're not the same, I think they're both symptoms of the same issues. 

The question is, what is going on when you have a good trick, the person you perform for is interested in the trick, the person is fooled by the trick, but they don't really react to the trick? We all understand why a bad trick might not get a good reaction, but why does it sometimes happen with a strong trick that fooled them?

There are two angles we need to look at this from. I'm going to look at the first issue now and the second in a future post. 

The first thing we need to look at is your audience.

Audience

I'm not sure what the actual breakdown is, but in my experience about 15% of people are truly undiscriminating about magic. They'll be into watching almost any kind of trick even if it's not that impressive or well done. 70% of people are not magic "fanatics" in that way, but they'll enjoy a good trick presented competently with an interesting premise. And the final 15% just can't let themselves get into magic on any level. They are The Unmoved. They may find certain aspects of your presentation interesting or funny, but when it comes to being moved by the "magic" of the trick, they're just not open to it. For these people, it's not a question of the quality of your effect/presentation, it's just not in their nature to allow themselves to be swept up in the experience. And, in fact, often the stronger the trick, the more they'll shut down.

Let's say you do a really good coin vanish. 85% of the world (the "reactors") will respond with "wow" or "that's awesome" or whatever. 15% (the Unmoved) will say, "Oh... it's just a trick." Both groups saw the same thing. Both groups had the same thought in their head: "He made it look like the coin vanished." The first group sees that as something to appreciate, but the second group's response seems to suggest that it's something to be dismissed if the coin didn't actually vanish.

I can't say I understand the psychology of the Unmoved. Maybe at some point in time they did truly "believe" in some trick they saw and they felt burned when they found out it was fake. Or maybe in a more general sense someone had them believing in something that wasn't true and they felt taken by the experience. Maybe they find a way to undermine anything someone does. If you were playing guitar maybe they'd say, "Yeah, but you didn't write that song." 

How do I deal with these people? I'll give some tips below, but in general I just don't perform for them.

What I consider to be one of the most useful posts I've ever written on this site—and one I reference often—is this one about my process of building up to immersive effects with people. By going through this type of progression, I'm able to weed out the Unmoved early on. And I never end up wasting a big, immersive trick on them.

Here is a truth to keep in mind that I've learned from all the performing I've done in recent years. Take this in, it will save you a lot of time and energy: If a person doesn't like a good trick, they will not like a great trick either.

If you do something that is objectively good, and they don't respond positively, don't think you can win them over with something better. You're just giving them more of something they're not into. If you meet someone who doesn't react positively to a good 1-minute shoulder rub, it's not because what they really want is an hour-long full-body massage, it's because they're just not into that type of interaction.

Is it possible to change the Unmoved?

Yes, sometimes, but it's not an effort I make. I have enough people who are enthusiastic aobut what I'm doing that I don't pursue the Unmoved. I treat them like cats. If they come to me I'll pet them, but I don't chase after them.

Again, the progression I linked to above (in the Bedrock: Outer Game post) is designed to work with magic fans as well as non-fans. If anything will coax the Unmoved into getting onboard, it will be that. 

When you start with the Peek Backstage style—when you say, "Can I get your thoughts on this trick I'm working on?"—you eliminate the response of, "That's just a trick" or "Mentalists just have a way to make you do that." It just wouldn't make sense in that context. If someone asked you to tell them if their drawing was realistic enough to pass as a photograph, it wouldn't make sense for you to respond, "Hey, that's not a photograph, it's a drawing!"

Moving into the Engagement Ceremony style allows you to shift focus off yourself and model the reaction you're looking for from your spectator. If, at this point, I get the sense the person doesn't appreciate magic, or at least the style of magic I want to perform, I just won't perform for them anymore.

If you do feel the need to try to "change" someone's response, one thing I've seen work in the past is to perform for someone who isn't into what you do along with someone who is really into what you do. Sometimes the fanatic can "infect" the Unmoved with their positive reaction to the magic. 

Sometimes though, the issue is not the audience. If, for example, they usually react very positively to your effects but for some reason they don't connect to certain tricks that you know should in theory be very strong, then there is something else going on. That is something I call The TIT. And I'll cover that in my next post on the subject.