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Magic and the Brain: Teller Reveals the Neuroscience of Illusion

The silent man of Penn and Teller, discusses how magic is all about exploiting the gaps in human perception, in this fascinating Wired article by Jonah Lehrer. Filmmakers should take note.

…One of the first tricks in Penn and Teller’s Las Vegas show begins when Teller—the short, quiet one—strolls onstage with a lit cigarette, inhales, drops it to the floor, and stamps it out. Then he takes another cigarette from his suit pocket and lights it.

No magic there, right? But then Teller pivots so the audience can see him from the other side. He goes through the same set of motions, except this time everything is different: Much of what just transpired, the audience now perceives, was a charade, a carefully orchestrated stack of lies. He doesn’t stamp out the first cigarette—he palms it, then puts it in his ear. There is no second cigarette; it’s a pencil stub. The smoke from the first butt is real, but the lighter used on the pencil is actually a flashlight. Yet the illusion is executed so perfectly that every step looks real, even when you’re shown that it is not.

— Wired | Read The Full Article

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Tags | General, Off Topic, Penn and Teller, Science, Wired