Anybody but a Magician? Simon Henderson November 2019 Version 1.2
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Anybody But A Magician? Simon Henderson November 2019 Version 1.2 © 2020 Simon Henderson deceptionbydesign.com Anybody But A Magician? Acknowledgements boxes. However, he warns you that the work is incredibly risky. If the unit gets A version of this article first appeared in things wrong based on your advice, people Volume 2 ofThe Shift(2020) by Ben Earl, might die. His undercover officers, his published bystudio52magic.com . informers inside the organisation, the trafficking victims, and even members of Original cover photo by Kranich17 (edited). the trafficking organisation itself could all pixabay.com/photos/hare-hat-cylinder- be at risk. conjure-4103102/ Should you, could you, and would you accept Tom’s request to act as deception Introduction consultant? What concerns might you have? What questions would you ask? “To be aware of limitations is already And do you believe that you could to be beyond them.” genuinely help? Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, In: Davis (1989, p. 18) This example is fictitious, but such situations do occur in real-life. Indeed, At one of your performances, sitting close there is a long history of magicians working to the front of the audience, a middle-aged with organisations such as the military, man watches your every move intently police, and intelligence services to assist while periodically scribbling in a notebook. them with their deceptive activities. After the show, he approaches you, and Magicians hold names like Jean Robert introduces himself as Tom. He tells you Houdin, Houdini, C.R. Winnington, John how much he enjoyed your show. Then, Mullholland, and Jasper Maskelyne in high after some obligatory small talk, he informs regard for their contributions outside of you that he’s a police officer and that he magic (despite such regard sometimes needs your help. being misplaced – a topic I shall return to in a future article). The deception expert Tom leads a unit that is working on a Barton Whaley (whom I shall also discuss particularly challenging problem – in a future article) drew from magic infiltrating and disrupting a major people throughout his military and intelligence trafficking and modern slavery operation. careers, writing several books that have The unit’s challenge involves detecting and since become standard references in the understanding the covert logistics network magic community (e.g. Whaley, 1990; and strategies used by an international Whaley et al., 1991; Whaley, 2001). He also criminal organisation to hide and transport worked with several notable magicians, vulnerable individuals across borders and publicly acknowledging his collaborations through checkpoints using a variety of with Martin Gardner and Jeff Busby; and he different routes, vehicles, safe houses, and successfully used magic as the basis for associated smuggling strategies. His unit developing counter-deception training for wishes to infiltrate the network, placing an the US Navy (Whaley & Busby, 2002). undercover officer inside the organisation so they can report back on what is And yet, whenever such organisations happening. They also want to turn and approach me about employing magicians, I recruit several members from inside the always urge caution. In this article, I will organisation, to provide information on its explain why. people, methods and operations. The military and magicians perhaps seem Tom says he was blown away by your like natural bedfellows (especially from skills, and he would like to use you to assist each other’s perspectives!). However, this his unit with designing their operation. In view may, in part reflect the Dunning- particular, he is keen to use your abilities to Kruger Effect, a phenomenon identified in manipulate others psychologically into research by Kruger and Dunning (Kruger & doing what you want, to read their Dunning, 1999; Dunning, 2014) which thoughts, to predict their behaviour, and to suggests that: make people vanish from the inside of Page 1 Anybody But A Magician? “… people who don’t know much Magic entertains and provides its about a given set of cognitive, target (i.e. audience) with a technical, or social skills tend to positive experience. grossly overestimate their prowess and performance…”. The ultimate goal of magic is to entertain (Kruger & Dunning, 1999) an audience. While other domains of deceptive practice share this goal (such as In simple terms, one needs to know a lot movie special effects, narrative fiction, about a given topic to realise that one theatre, etc.), it does not transfer to many hardly knows anything. The more you learn, other fields of deceptive practice. In such the more you discover there is still to learn. domains, entertainment serves no function, the deception does not result in a positive Consequently, when military commanders experience for the target, and the engage with magicians (say, as a result of a deception may deliberately deprive the commander seeing a magician table- target of value (for example, police hopping in a restaurant), a significant gap in infiltrating a violent criminal organisation to their shared understanding about gather evidence to enable arrest and deception most likely exists, that may not prosecution). Magic is ill-equipped to be immediately apparent. However, such address the multitude of issues that arise differences soon become apparent once from these kinds of environments, including they begin working together. As a result, concerns about risk, ethics, legality, while the military and other organisations accountability, auditability, etc. have previously approached magicians to support them, these relationships rarely The audience at a magic show seem to be sustained beyond an initial always knows when deception engagement. has occurred. In this article, I shall explore in more detail Magic always necessitates a reveal that this relationship, and illustrate how some of informs the spectator (i.e. target) that the the limitations and gaps in deception within magic (i.e. deception) has taken place. For magic compromise its ability to generalise example, the magician vanishes the coin, and transfer to other domains. The article locates the selected card, or reveals the intends to encourage magicians to spectator’s thought of PIN code, etc. In consider how an understanding of broader many applications, there must be no reveal aspects of deception that usually sit - indeed, deception is only effective if it is outside of their craft, might inform and never suspected, let alone detected. This improve it (as per the opening quotation situation would be similar to a magician from Hegel). Later in the article, I will performing a show that no audience ever consider where magiccan make a valuable sees, hears about, or acknowledges in any contribution to other domains and offer way. some suggestions for how you might learn from other deceptive practices. Magic inevitably prompts questioning of the method. Things About Magic The moment of revelation in magic That Do Not Translate precipitates a process of backtracking (and potentially, reverse engineering) as the Well into Other Domains audience attempts to unpick how the effect worked. This moment occurs irrespective of Deceptive Practice of how immersed they were in the narrative. And while magicians often seek explicitly to Magic has a broad set of orientations, divorce method from effect, backtracking intentions and other characteristics that nonetheless occurs. In other domains, the limit the transfer of its principles and target must never initiate this process, or methods to other domains. The following develop any awareness of the deceptive examples exemplify these issues. method employed (for example, if the Page 2 Anybody But A Magician? deception has employed covert experts on magic theory are not necessarily capabilities). good performers. Consequently, when transferring magic theory to another Magic exploits the audience’s domain, a lack of practical execution naivety about the domain. experience is likely to hamper the effectiveness of both transfer and Most audience members at a magic show execution. Lack of practical experience know nothing about the deceptive means means that there is no basis for anticipating used by the magician to achieve his or her possible problems, which increases effects. Members of the public are not operational risk significantly (as it is not familiar with sleights, gaffs, misdirection, or feasible to develop mitigation and any other technical aspect of magic. contingency strategies). If you were hiring However, in many other domains, a somebody to advise you on performing a deceiver has to fool targets who are song in public, would you hire the themselves experts in both the domain and songwriter or the seasoned professional deception itself (e.g. in military deception, singer? casino cheating, financial fraud, art fraud, sports, etc.). Magic creators and performers do not necessarily make good magic Magic performers are not teachers. necessarily magic creators. Knowing how to design and or perform Many magicians construct their shows magic does not necessarily mean that you based on both classic effects and plots, can teach others about how to design or and on routines that they have learned from perform it. And nor does it mean that you other published performers. For example, a can teach others about deception. performer may base his ambitious card Magicians are often good at describing routine on one performer’s core plot what is happening in front of their eyes but elements and sleights, with new sleights usually are not good at explaining what is added from a range of other sources. The happening behind them. As a result, they process of learning, practising and may struggle to explain the cognitive performing other performer’s routines and processes involved in designing and moves is an entirely valid and practical performing magic, which may limit any basis for entertaining an audience. transfer achieved. Teaching requires a set However, this form of professional practice of skills that are different from the skills is markedly quite different from the process involved in designing and performing ofcreating original effects or sleights.