Examining Everyday Objects

Let’s talk about examinability and a little rule I try and follow when doing tricks with (apparently) normal objects.

That rule is this:

Everyday objects should be examined after the effect.

(I say “everyday” here to differentiate from the times when you’re introducing something exotic, like a time-reversing moon rock. That’s going to have different rules for when it should be examined. Here I’m talking about a bottle cap, a coin, a piece of string, or something.)

Of course, in a perfect world, everything you use would be able to be examined whenever the spectator shows an interest. But in the real world, that’s not often possible.

An example

I hand you a pen and a dollar bill to inspect. I take them back and push the pen through the bill. Then I show that the bill is fully restored.

This isn’t ideal. Because now—after the magic—is when you want to see the objects. Not before, when you didn’t know what to look for.

It’s almost unnatural to invite examination of a normal object before doing something extraordinary with it. It’s like asking someone to lick the raw ingredients before you bake them into a cake.

Pay attention. What happens when you ask people to examine a normal object at the start of the trick? They hold it awkwardly. Shrug. Say, “Uhm…yeah… okay.”

What does “examine” even mean at this point before you’ve done anything? Are they supposed to go CSI: Office Equipment mode and break out a jeweler’s loupe and a black light?

No. They do a casual once-over and hand it back.

And a “casual once-over “doesn’t help reduce suspicion once the trick is done. At the end, they don’t think, “Well, I looked at it beforehand, so I know it’s normal.” They think, “Wait… I didn’t look closely enough. I want to get my hands on that now.” And if they can’t, they’ll confidently decide it was a trick pen or a gimmicked bill, and they just didn’t know how to spot it. Because they weren’t in detective mode at the start.

On the other hand, if you don’t let them examine the pen and the bill beforehand, but then hand them out afterward, you are weaponizing their suspicion against them.

They will watch the trick, thinking there is obviously something special about the pen or bill. So when you hand the objects out afterward, they are doubly-fooled.

In fact, with a normal object, I usually choose not to hand it out before the trick even if I can, just to build a little tension and heat on it. That way, when it’s examined at the end, that suspicion feeds into the astonishment.