There are those that believe they cannot be a good magician because they lack the necessary dexterity to perform certain sleights that others might find simple. And in contrast, there are those that believe they are good magicians because they have the agility to perform magic that requires sleight of hand. The following is an excerpt from Dariel Fitzkee’s Magic By Misdirection found in chapter 1 page 13 for consideration.

“The true skill of the magician is the skill he exhibits in influencing the spectator’s mind. This is not a thing of mechanics. It is not a thing of digital dexterity. It is entirely a thing of psychological attack. It is completely a thing of controlling the spectator’s thinking. Control of the perceptive faculties has nothing whatever to do with it. Convincingly interpreting, to the spectator, what the senses bring to him, in such a way that the magicians objectives are accomplished, is the true skill of the skilled magician………

The real secrets of magic are those whereby the magician is able to influence the mind of the spectator, even in the face of that spectator’s definite knowledge that the magician is absolutely unable to do what that spectator ultimately must admit he does do.

Here is the secret.

The skilled magician is adept at disguise and attention control. He employs physical disguise with his apparatus. He employs psychological disguise-simulation, dissimulation, maneuver, ruse, suggestion and inducement. He exercises absolute control over the attention of the spectator by forestalling it, by catching it relaxed, by dulling it, by scattering it, by diverting it, by distracting it, and by openly moving it away.

He cleverly, skillfully and dexterously mixes the true with the false. With equal facility he convincingly interprets matters to accomplish his own ends. He contrives to so influence the things the spectator perceives that the latter is aware of them as the magician desires. All is built upon an unshakable foundation of naturalness, plausibility and conviction."