What the frick (Magic Tricks)

[Tawmis]

What the heck?

[Rath Darkblade]

Yep. As they used to say in olden times: "What the Sam Hill?" or "What in Tarnation?!"

Or, of course, What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-going on here?

I watched about 2.5 minutes of it until they gave him a standing ovation for mixing up the rubic's cube to match the colours on Simon's cube. It's not magic; it's mathematics, a good patter manner, nimble fingers, and good eye-sight to see the colours on the top line of Simon's cube.

A rubic's cube face has 9 squares, and the camera focused on Simon covering up the face and leaving the top three squares exposed. Once you have one of the faces on a rubic's cube set up the way you want, the other five faces will line up - everyone knows, or should know, this.

Now, okay - it's a pretty good trick that he aligned the face on his own rubic's cube with that of Simon's, given that all he could see was the top row. How did he guess the other two rows? Possibly distracting Simon with his patter and getting a glimpse of the other two rows. Either way, there must be a perfectly logical explanation for this trick.

Granted, he has good patter (similar to any good salesman), and he knows how to put on a show. That's essential on a show like this. I'm inclined to give him a pass just for that. I've developed the same skills while being on stage for 7 years, doing light opera with other people - so perhaps to me, this isn't so amazing. But then, I've witnessed artists behind the scenes, honing their craft, learning their lines, getting them wrong and doing it again until they got them right, and then practicing again and again until they could do this act almost without thinking.

It reminds me of a good quote on this subject: "Ninety per cent of most magic merely consists of knowing one extra fact." (Terry Pratchett, Night Watch (2002)).

[BBP]

There is a perfectly logical explanation for ANY magic trick.

In the case of the Rubik's cube, it's even easier. The side he uses is the one that was at the bottom of the glass box - he's put a sticker there to force the random pattern.

[Tawmis]

There is a perfectly logical explanation for ANY magic trick.

Really?

I know there's a trick to it...

In the case of the Rubik's cube, it's even easier. The side he uses is the one that was at the bottom of the glass box - he's put a sticker there to force the random pattern.

I am not sure what you mean by he put a sticker to do the forced pattern?

And what about the other tricks?

With the bag?

[adeyke]

For the first trick, he could just solve it while putting it into and pulling it out of the bag.

The second trick was hardly a trick at all. He mixed up the cube himself, handed it over for further mixing, took it back, put it into the bag, pulled it out again, and handed it over to cover it. It turns out that the judge didn't do much mixing (all the moves were on the same axis), but even if he had, there was a lot of time that the magician was able to look at the mixed cube before handing it over to be covered. And even when it was covered, parts were still visible. So the "trick" is just to arrange another cube so that it matches a known arrangement.

[BBP]

Allright here - this might ruin it for you so watch with care. There's no time for him to manipulate the cube. There are just stickers in the bottom of the box. As soon as he puts the scrambled cube in the tight-fitting box, the bottom sits on the stickers. The face he shows will always be the pattern he put at the bottom of the box.

"Force" in this case is when you make it seem like a random choice of crayon/word/cube combo/card, but it isn't. These are all "forcing" tricks.

[Rath Darkblade]

I knew it was a trick!

Of course, knowing that it's a trick doesn't ruin the enjoyment of seeing a trick done well, and he does it very well. It's like watching the three-card trick or the three-cups-and-ball trick; it's not a matter of trying to beat the magician, because we know that he has a trick up his sleeve. It's simply a matter of seeing the trick done well, and enjoying it.

I gave up on the original flick, though, when everyone gave this guy a standing ovation for something that was hardly magic at all. I don't like hype. Am I weird for not liking hype?