EXAMINABLE
By Richard Robinson

Magicians and magic dealers make a very big deal out of tricks that can be examined. To some extent this is because inexperienced magicians often hope the trick will work itself and protect them from needing skill or rehearsal or personality. Those who do magic for a living know that most people aren't all that interested in examining the props, unless of course the prop is so outlandish looking they're curious what in the world it might be.

Certainly working close up or one on one, there are times when an onlooker may be so surprised by what has happened that curiosity will get the better of him and he'll reach out to take hold of the object involved for a closer look. It is in this situation that performing experience is invaluable: if the magician knows something like this may happen he must manage the unfolding of events so the object in question isn't available to be grabbed.

Offering an object for examination is a questionable business in any magic show, unless the magician is planning to hand out all his props for inspection, since it suggests to the spectators that some things can be examined and some can't. The spectators can be given a prop and won't spend as much time as another magician might looking for the secret compartment, but that's generally because the spectators don't really care.

Although few magicians are aware of it, there are times when it is important that a spectator handle an object. This isn't the same as offering it for examination, but it is infinitely more effective in creating the illusion of magic. If you ask a spectator to pick up something from a table and hand it to you; or hold something for a moment; or help you arrange an something in a certain manner, then the spectators will assume the innocence of the object without the ideas of 'ordinary, unprepared, no secret compartments' coming to mind.

So some magicians will just hand a spectator one of more rings from the linking ring set while other magicians will ask the spectators to make sure there are no breaks, trap doors, and so forth. The former is more convincing. The same is true with the cups used in the cups and balls. If the spectator is asked to hold a cup while you drop a ball into it, that's all you need to convince everyone in the room that a cup is a cup.

A favorite dodges is to ask a spectator to hold a box or container then take something out of it. The box can be fraught with traps and load chambers and the like, but the spectator will just do as asked and everyone else will assume the box must be empty since the spectator just took whatever was in it out of it.

A magic show is about illusion and illusion is best enjoyed by being experienced without being examined too closely. The spectators already know that, but quite a few would-be magicians have yet to figure it out.