Magical Misdirections | StarTalk

There's the traditional magic trick of pulling the rabbit out of a hat, and these, and card tricks, and generally we think of our attention being sort of misdirected rather than there being an illusion.

So, Suzanna, tell me about the kinds of misdirection that exist. Well, we tend to think that what magicians do is they distract us from the things that they don't want us to see, and this is not correct with magicians. Rather than the structure, what the magicians do is they're extremely good at directing your attention to the places and the moments in time where they want you to be paying attention.

Then your brain, through breakage, the magician's best accomplish, because whenever you're paying attention to something, your brain just suppresses everything else. So, paying attention is not enhancing what you're paying attention to; it's blocking everything else that is not relevant. It's quite a show. Of course, Teller doesn't speak in my interview here, nor does he speak on stage, and so I just—I had to compliment the show that I saw.

I was very impressed, and I've seen them on TV, and this... but to say it's got to be in real life to really believe the illusion, you know, to see what's really going down. So, I gave them, you know, I complimented them on their work, and let's just see their reaction.

He is so good. You work, you are so... I can talk to him. Oh yeah, no, you're so good with your body language and your facial expressions. We all knew exactly what you were thinking and saying, or at least wanted us to think you were thinking. Fascinate with the idea of being able to lie without speaking, you know, and none of the things you learn most in magic—there's no better lie than what you tell yourselves.

Now, in Vegas, we end the show with the bullet catch, which is—I’ve seen that done on a cruise ship. Yeah, well, you catch it in your teeth, right? But no, you don't, but that's what it looks like. But our version is a little more complex. This is to clarify: so there's a gun behind a glass, and the magician on the other side… there the bullet is signed—the bullet in a way he's never signed, right?

And it goes through the glass, breaks the glass, and he recoils his head and he pulls it out— and there it is. It's an interesting trick because at least 15 people have died on stage doing it. It's the most dangerous trick in show business, really.

And we do a version that we believe is safe; we would not do it because it would be immoral to do it if it were not safe. But the bullet catch—now if I say to you, you know, we're gonna catch a bullet in our teeth, you say no, you're not! Yeah, of course.

So we never ever say we're gonna catch a bullet in our teeth. Who's ever gonna move the bullet from this side of the stage to that side of the stage using this magic wand, holding up a gun? Now, what you do is you don't give the audience a sentence that they can say no to and let them fill in the blanks.

So after the show, they say, "That trick where you caught the bullet in your teeth is great!" But I never said it. So when you say something, so when Teller doesn't speak on stage and he just allows you to make all these assumptions, he is functioning as—he's fooling you with lies you're telling yourself.