How To React To the Spectator As Magician

The most difficult thing about performing a Spectator-as-Magician/Mentalist plot is giving a believably impressed, amazed, or surprised response.

It's one thing if my premise is, "I knew you'd be able to do this." But if the premise involves me being taken aback by what I'm seeing, it can be hard to play that off realistically.

"Oh my god! This is crazy! How is this happening??"

That kind of reaction can take what should be a cool moment for the spectator and turn it into a joke. It's easy for it to come across as totally fake.

So what do you say in this situation?

My current answer is this: I don't say anything.

Instead, I pose.

Usually, I'll put my hands together like I'm praying and touch them to my slightly open lips or my chin while I stare at whatever it is they're doing. This is a fairly standard look of being enraptured by something.

Other times I'll do some kind of semi-unusual action. I'll gently pinch and pull the top of my ear away from my head. Or I'll put my hand in a loose fist and scratch my forehead with the back of my thumbnail. Or I'll pick at my lips absentmindedly. During any of these, my mouth will be slightly open and I'll be staring at the cards—or whatever it might be.

These aren't gestures that you would necessarily associate with awe or amazement, but they're the sort of thing you might do if your mind was completely captured by what you were seeing. You wouldn't stand there with a wry smile and a cocked eyebrow. You'd just be distractedly doing whatever as your mind processed what it was seeing.

When the effect has concluded, I'll shake my head a little, smile slightly, maybe shrug.

When I do speak, it's not some profound declaration like: "And now you see the power of the human mind is limitless when we open ourselves up to the possibility of achieving the impossible!"

No. I just say something like, "That's wild." "I'm lost." "That's nuts."

My first full sentence will often be an attempt to dismiss what they did.

"Were you able to see the cards' reflections in the TV or something?"

I'm trying to nudge their mind into the idea that just maybe they really did something impossible. I'm not expecting them to walk away feeling like they're psychic or whatever. I just want it to feel real enough that they'll question it.

The key is remembering that underplaying beats overplaying every time. If you're not a great actor, don't try to act in this moment. Let silence and bewilderment do the heavy lifting. Then, if it makes sense, let a little skepticism creep in. Put them on the defensive—put them in a position where they're trying to convince you that something impossible really did happen.