Gabi Pareras' Waiter Theory for Magic Tricks

One of the most beautiful things about magic performance is that it doesn’t end when the trick ends. You know this very well: if you became a magician, it’s because at some point you saw something wonderful that stuck with you so deeply it made you want to start doing it yourself—to share that feeling with others.

Likewise, it’s a lovely thought to imagine people leaving a magic show and, on their way home, talking to each other about the experience they’ve just had—trying to figure out the methods, pondering the message behind the performance.

The magician’s task, then, isn’t just to perform the routines in the moment. It also involves considering how we want people to remember the performance after it’s over. A particularly sneaky technique in this regard is the creation of false memories, which we've already explored on One Ahead.

But there’s also a fundamental and accessible element: the waiter theory. This principle was popularised by Gabi Pareras, one of the most influential card magicians of recent times. After his passing, the Cosas De Gabi project was created to preserve and share his contributions with the wider magic community. From that project, we take the definition of the waiter theory:

And while it’s true that most of Pareras’ writings are difficult to access, we can still draw some original reflections from his theory to understand how it applies to the kind of magic we experience and perform every day.

First of all, why is it called the waiter theory? The explanation might make you smile. The name comes from the ability of certain waiters to reconstruct what a table ordered just by looking at what’s left behind—the plates, the glasses, their arrangement, and so on.

In practice, by observing that snapshot, they can extract the details needed to deduce what was there before. Apparently, in some parts of Spain, it's actually common practice not to clear the table until the bill has been paid—because that final image is essential for calculating the total.

In magic, this translates to creating final images for our routines that summarise what has just happened in the effect. This image serves both to highlight the elements that make an effect fooling and to help the audience create a precise memory of the effect itself.

It’s a fascinating idea—one that also promises to bring more clarity to what we do. And, as is often the case, it doesn’t require major changes in methods or techniques—just a bit of extra thought.

The first element to consider when trying to apply the waiter theory in practical terms is this: the magician must have a clear image in mind that can summarise the effect. That’s not a given—could you summarize your own effects with a single image? It’s a stimulating exercise, and not at all an easy one.

If the magician doesn’t have a clear image to convey to the spectator, the audience certainly won’t receive one. A good way to find it is to work backward: What is the effect? How does it end? It’s always useful to start from the ending to understand how to stage—and slowly build—that final image throughout the routine.

One example discussed in Cosas De Gabi involves a routine like cutting to the four Aces. In a routine like this, the best image to summarise the effect is the four Aces on top of the four packets: it’s a snapshot that clearly tells the story of the deck being cut into four positions—and the Aces appearing at those positions.

That the Aces may have come from other parts of the deck (for method-related reasons) doesn’t matter: the final image actually helps conceal the method itself.

Assigning a “key” image to every effect is also a great way to reveal weak routines or routines with weak spots. Often, routines lacking clear images are ones with confusing or weak plots.

In other cases, when several routines all seem to end with the same image, that’s a clue that your audience may, unfortunately, perceive them as very similar. Often the distinctions we perceive come from the method, not the effect—reflecting on these aspects helps reveal that issue.