3 Ways Magicians Can Use A Dual Force

I think a lot about One Ahead's weekly newsletter format. The question becomes, how can we provide value in ways that other magic brands/projects cannot? There are certain benefits to the newsletter format that make it uniquely positioned.

The first value proposition is a little obvious: topical news stories. I'll always strive to get one of our writers to share the latest big news stories. If you read One Ahead, then you can rest assured that you will stay One Ahead.

The second way to provide value is magic insights and stories from the best names in magic. Busy magic consultants and performers who might not have the time to write an entire magic book – well, they might let us pay them to write a 1,500 article packed with value.

These insights intrigue me. It's because so much of our industry and community is defined by tricks that can easily be packaged up and sold for $39.95. Magic, in general, mostly exists in the intersection between tricks that shops can make for $1 in small quantities and tricks magicians genuinely find value in performing.

The ring flight trick Ellusionist released not long ago is a perfect example of that. It's a small, reliable prop that actually works well and fools audiences.

The industry spends all year buying the latest props and hoping to get out maybe three tricks as good as that throughout the year.

Successful magicians are able to do two things that set them ahead of the rest. The first is that they have the funds to create their own tricks. These might be big, expensive props or even small tricks that only exist thanks to well-paid magic consultants. The trick David Blaine performs in which someone springs cards at him and he catches the chosen card is an absolute miracle of a trick with such a devilishly simple method, but it exists, and it is his because of his creative team.

What always amazes me about successful magicians is how often they perform very simple, tried and tested principles.

It's amusing to me because most magicians reading this will have never heard about a dumb force, the never-change principle, funnel forces, or dual forces. And the only reason they won't know about them is because magic principles like these are hard to package up and sell commercially for $39.95.

This is where One Ahead comes back into the picture. You lovely lot who pay to read these love to learn about these sorts of secret principles that all the big-name magicians and their consultants use all of the time. So, let's get into it and take another look at the dual-force today. We'll recap what it is exactly and look at three ways you might want to use it to enhance your magic performances.

What is a dual force?

Dual forces combine dual reality with forces. So, let's break those down. A force is when what appears to be a free choice for the spectator is not at all. You might force the spectator to choose a specific playing card in a deck of cards. Dual-reality is a principle in magic in which two sets of spectators experience two different tricks. Usually, the larger set of spectators experiences a better version of the trick.

The most popular example of dual-reality that comes to mind is a PK touch routine in which one spectator feels when a second spectator is touched by the magician. The dual reality comes in the fact that the audience believes the spectator is feeling each individual touch when they're actually only being touched at one time.

Three ways magicians can use a dual force

Alright, let's break these down into the three main use types with an example for each. I'll try my best to explain them as clearly as possible. For the sake of these examples, let's assume you're using a forcing pad for each, like a Sven Pad.

Oh, and you can combine some of these use cases if you wish.

Hard-Line

You show the audience that every page on the pad has a different category or theme that the spectator on stage will think of. One page says "Pop Stars", another says "Animals", and one says "Famous Films."

When the spectator on stage opens the force pad at a random page, it simply says "Taylor Swift." The spectator on stage believes they randomly chose Taylor Swift. But for the audience at large, they'll believe that the spectator landed on a page that said something like "Pop Stars" and that the choice of pop star was not forced.

For hard lines, you're giving the illusion of an extra layer of free choice for the larger audience, but you're actually drawing a hard line for the hero spectator. You must be careful about your wording and audience management, but when performed correctly, this is a firecracker of a miracle.

Additional Info

Imagine you show the audience that each page has the name of a different celebrity on it. Names like "Neil Patrick Harris", "Tom Crusie", and "Cameron Diaz".

When the spectator on stage opens the force pad at a random page, it says, "Adele in Melbourne". The spectator on stage believes they randomly chose this page and might assume all of the pages have celebrities and locations on them. But for the audience at large, they'll believe the spectator landed on a page that said "Adele" and no additional information.

Now, when the magician reads the mind of the spectator on stage, they can add an additional layer of mind reading. "Don't tell me where, but when you were picturing Adele in your mind, was she in a particular place or city?" They'll say yes, and then you can read their mind and reveal Melbourne as the city.

Adele in Melbourne might not be the best example. The additional information could be the room in her house she's in, the song she's singing, or the colour of her dress. These pieces of information feel very natural, but you could also go really out there. It could say "Adele on holiday in Naples" or "Adele with a pet Zebra."

"Random question," you ask, "If you imagine this celebrity had a pet, can you imagine the pet they'd have?" The spectator on stage nods, "Oh my god, you're thinking of a zebra," you say. "You're thinking of Adele with a pet Zebra."

For the audience who assumes all the force pad said was "Adele", this is a pretty impressive additional reveal and a great example of dual reality.

Multiple Outs

The audience at large is shown that each page of the pad had a celebrity name on it. But when the spectator on stage opens the page, they're given a choice. "If X think of Taylor Swift, if X think of Tom Cruise."

So, what could the X be in that example?

It could refer to prediction envelopes, and your spectator is doing the heavy lifting for you. When they arrived on stage, you might have given them the choice of a blue or red envelope. So when it gets to this stage of the routine with force, it might say to think of Taylor Swift if they chose the red envelope or Tom Cruise if they chose the blue envelope.

It still feels like a free choice to them, but now you're in a good position to open the blue envelope and show the audience they almost chose Tom Cruise. Then reveal the envelope they chose correctly predicted the celeb they thought of.

Another option for X in the example would be a decision that helps you glimpse more information. For example, they might have made a free choice already. They might have imagined they flipped a coin in their head or maybe rolling a dice. If the page says to think of Taylor Swift if Heads and Tom Cruise if Tails – then if you get them to say the name of the celebrity aloud, they're also telling you which of heads or tails they chose.

You might have two spectators on stage; one of them is wearing glasses, and the other is not. You can now use the force pad to force the same two spectators – "If you're wearing glasses, think of Taylor Swift. If you're not wearing glasses, think of Tom Cruise."

The simplest way to summarise a multiple outs use case is that your force has an element of multiple choice to it, which the larger audience is unaware of, and you use the multiple choice element to your advantage.

So the next time you build a force into your show, ask yourself whether it could benefit by adding additional information to it or by creating the illusion of extra choice for the audience at large.

It's the use of principles like this that set shows performed by people like Asi Wind, David Copperfield and Derren Brown well ahead of the rest.