Magic, Mathematics and Messi

Magic, Mathematics and Messi.

I love watching magic, or rather, I love watching people watching magic. Many years ago, the supremely knowledgeable Scottish magician and magic consultant Pat Page gave me some very useful advice. He taught me that watching people watching magic can be incredibly valuable for our development. We see how much people react, when they react, and what parts of their body they react with.

Observing is such a vital skill in magic, and one that is all too frequently neglected. Those magicians who take the time to observe their audiences often do so to seek validation, rather than as research. We can get too involved in a move or a moment, and switch off our radars at just the wrong moment. In the process, we miss small but vital signals from our audiences – a shift in someone’s weight, a slight turn of a person’s head, a change in a someone’s breathing.

The hard part for magicians is ensuring that the vitally important process of observing spectators goes undetected. When audience members feel they are being watched, they shut down their natural reactions, and instead give cues they think we want to see. If we want to maximise our intelligence gathering, we need to develop our peripheral vision and hearing as much as possible.

I have always been fascinated by looking outside magic, and to see if the maths (I’m British, and we put an ‘s’ on the end of it…) that make magic work are also seen in other disciplines. This practice can reinforce our thinking, or, even better, make us reflect and consider other ways of achieving our goal. These strategies may be more effective than what we are used to, and therefore memorable.

Which brings me to Messi.

For anyone reading this who is not into sport, or football in particular (‘soccer’ to my American audience), Lionel Messi is widely considered to be the greatest player of his generation, and probably of all time. Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, whose analysis of Messi I’ve linked below, is possibly the deepest thinker in world football and the most creative coach of the last thirty years.

Messi is often referred to as a magician – the same term used in the lengthier video from which the clip below is taken – because of his ability to create space, produce the most devastating passes from seemingly impossible angles and score an extraordinary number of unbelievable goals.

What I love about Messi, and why I believe what he does is of value to magicians, close-up performers in particular, is how much he analyses his surroundings, and the people within them, so that he can have the maximum impact. Many commentators have mentioned how little Messi runs on the pitch, and that he spends much of his time looking around himself.

As Guardiola notes, ‘He’s not running, but he’s always watching what happens. […] After five or ten minutes, he has the map, in his eyes and his brain, to know […] the space and the panorama.’

Over the years, I have worked at many events with close-up magicians. Usually, magicians and their audiences in these settings keep their heads down. In football terms, they are ‘watching the ball’. Very few people take in what is really happening within their immediate group or beyond.

The next time you perform, take a lesson from Messi. See if you can keep your head up a little more. Absorb all the details of what is actually happening around you. Try not to put any judgments on what you see. Just observe. This will enrich your understanding of your spectators and increase their empathy towards you and what you are doing. It will bring you greater insight into the timing and beats of what you present and will help you to give your audiences the best experience possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJoF7dGEFvo

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