The Sly Art of Misdirection

Tim David has made a set of videos on Misdirection, and he sells them over at The Magic College. Tim kindly let me watch these videos for free, and they were worth every penny. You don’t buy this course for the production value. It isn’t exactly high; Flat lighting, terrible sound mixing where the music is much louder than the voice, some distracting light spill and a far-away microphone (although he can easily be heard, so it’s not a huge problem). The videos contain every available video transition in the editing software, and they sometimes get in the way of the info.

All this would easily be excused if the material was super strong. But I’m afraid it’s not. Lots of talking, with info that has been better explained in books before. A few of the practical examples do work well on video, but some not, and then Tim tells us that in real life, they work much better.

Very few credits are given. Well, Slydini and Sylvester are mentioned a couple of times, but a lot of the techniques are not credited at all.

All this being said, watching a video on your computer at your own pace whenever you want is an easy way to learn stuff. And Tim has collected a wide range of techniques from different sources. If you're new to magic, this will get you quickly up to speed on Misdirection, but if you've read a book or two on the topic you'll find very little new.

Maybe the best way to watch this would be on your iPod or cell phone; I could think of worse ways to kill a few minutes on the bus. But as far as I know there’s no option for podcast format downloads.

The Magic College is a very good idea, but it doesn’t feel professional at the moment. I get the same feeling when I watch these videos. Magicians need a good video course on Misdirection, but I’m afraid this is not it.

Content

Part 1

Physical Misdirection. Very basic.

Part 2

Some good advice for verbal Misdirection.

Part 3

Timing techniques.

Part 4

Second Tier Misdirection. (Tim’s own expression).

Bonus video

Some practical techniques and examples.

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