::scr hacking in life

[Chris Devers]

On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Piers Cawley wrote:

> It's also, at some level, how magic works. The barefaced lie (with
> supporting 'cues') is a remarkably powerful tool.

I'm pretty sure that Penn & Teller see themselves as professional liars
first, professional magicians second :). Watch them perform, or read one
of their books, and they give it all away & still make it fun. Basically
there seem to be two kinds of magic tricks, for cards anyway, but I think
more generally too: one where the trick is set up for you ("pick a card,
any card") and the magician, by great mental & physical effort, figures
out what you picked. The other type -- the one P&T specialize in, and most
of you probably do too in one way or another -- is to have it all be a
setup in advance ("pick a card, any card [as long as it's the three of
clubs]"). After that, it's all just theatre... :)




--
Chris Devers

"Okay, Gene... so, -1 x -1 should equal what?" "A South American!"    
[....] "no human can understand the Timecube" and Gene responded
 without missing a beat "Yeah.  I'm not human."