Misdirection

Trust lessons from a professional fraudster

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Several times in this newsletter, I’ve mentioned a tiny book I’ve been reading, Leading With Your Head, by Gary Kurz. Really, it’s a pamphlet more than book, just 40-odd pages. But I’m still not done with it.

Leading With Your Head talks about the misdirection part of magic, all the other psychological stuff besides the sleight-of-hand. ​​How to focus the attention of your audience. How to direct that attention. How to make people believe and trust you, even though you are known to be a professional fraudster whose job it is to mislead and trick them.

So how do you do it? Lotsa techniques. Here’s one:

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One of John Ramsey’s favorite techniques for creating the moment was to create suspicion and then dispel it. The audience’s surprise that their suspicions were unfounded created the moment he needed to do the move for real.

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I don’t know who John Ramsey is. But I do know something else — and that’s the value of reading widely.

Now at this point, you might expect me to launch into a mentalist-like pitch for my Insights & More Book Club. But no. I would never.

Instead, I just want to give you a real example, right here, for free, of the value of reading widely. Here’s an effective opening and an interesting fact I found by reading a newsletter called Contemplations On The Tree Of Woe:

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The Chinese curse their enemies with the phrase “may you live in interesting times.”

Or, rather, Americans think that Chinese curse their enemies like that; according to Infogalactic, “despite being widely attributed as a Chinese curse, there is no equivalent expression in Chinese.”

Fortunately, there’s an actual Chinese phrase that’s much more interesting. It’s found in a 1627 short story collection…

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And now in this brief moment, let me slide my Insights & More Book Club into view.

This elite club is open to a select, small group of new members right now. But the heavy front doors of the club will be sealed again soon, on Sunday, April 30, at 12 midnight PST.

If you’re curious to find out more about this club, or even to join, then the first step is to get on my email list. That’s the only place I recruit members. To take that first step, click here and fill out the application form that appears.

One thing Bencivenga got right

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If you go on YouTube right now, you can see how magic is done at the very highest level — I mean really see it, the trick behind the trick.

Frankly, it will seem preposterous.

A few weeks ago, a friend (hi Marci) clued me into an old but mind-opening video. The video shows one of the greatest magicians of all time, Tony Slydini, performing his “paper balls over head” trick on the Dick Cavett Show.

The unique thing is that this trick is done so it’s completely transparent to the audience. The audience can see all parts of Slydini’s trick in action. And it doesn’t seem like any trick at all.

But there’s a volunteer on stage, who Slydini focuses on.

The volunteer is determined to spot how Slydini makes a bunch of paper balls disappear. And yet, as the crowd laughs louder and louder with each new disappearing paper ball — it’s so obvious to be stupid — the poor guy on stage can’t ever spot the trick.

The volunteer goes from smiling and confident and sure of his own eyes at the start of the trick, to walking off the stage just a few minutes later, staring at the ground and shaking his head a little. “WTF just happened?”

What happened is misdirection.

I’m reading a book about misdirection right now. It’s called Leading With Your Head. The book gives specifics about movement and position and cues for actual stage magicians. But at the heart of it all, the book tells you, misdirection is not distraction. It is focused attention.

Copywriters do misdirection, too. Well, not all copywriters. Copywriters at the very highest level.

For example, I’ve spotted misdirection multiple times in Gary Bencivenga’s “Job Interviews” ad. That ad came pretty late in Gary’s career, after he had been writing sales copy for several decades. I didn’t find any examples of misdirection in Gary’s earlier sales letters, even if they were successful. It seems it took a while for him to get it right.

And in case you’re wondering:

You won’t spot the misdirection by looking at Gary’s ad. That’s like being the guy on stage during the “paper balls over head” trick. The Great Bencivenga will focus your attention where he wants you to look, and you will miss his sleight of hand.

But you can see how Gary’s magic works if you can find the book Gary was selling through that interviews ad. This brings up an important point.

I enjoy watching magic, and I enjoy being fooled by magicians. I enjoy it so much that I don’t want to find out how the trick is done, not really. I won’t ever perform magic, so why ruin the show for myself?

Maybe you feel something similar about sales letters. That might sound preposterous, but it’s very possible.

When you read a sales letter like Gary’s interviews ad — you’re likely to be amazed, astounded, to wonder at the impossible promises he is making you, which somehow still seem credible.

How is he doing it? Could Gary’s promises really be real? It’s possible to enjoy racking your brain over this in a bit of pleasurable uncertainty, as you try to resolve the mysteries Gary is setting out before you.

But once you see the actual “secrets” behind Gary’s copywriting tricks, the illusion vanishes like a cloud of smoke. And gone along with it is that enjoyable sense of wonder, of possible impossibility.

The only reason you might want to ruin the show for yourself is that you yourself want to perform sales magic — writing actual copy, which focuses people’s attention where you want it to go, all the way down to the order form where they put in their credit card information, and the big red button that says, “Buy NOW.”

It’s your decision. Amazed spectator shaking his head in wonder… or sly and knowing performer, controlling attention and doing magic.

If you decide you want the second, you can find Gary’s copy misdirection revealed inside Copy Riddles, specifically rounds 2, 6, and 17. For that show, step right up:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

Misdirection is not illegal

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Last autumn, a conservative writer named Alexander Macris wrote about Florida governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis was planning a new state militia and he was facing a lot of blowback.

To which, Macris had this bit to say:

“If state defense forces are both constitutional and common, why the outrage? Part of the outrage is simply partisan, of course. If Ron DeSantis walked on water like Jesus to save a drowning child, the Daily Beast would report it as ‘DeSantis refuses to get wet to save drowning child.'”

I found that made-up Daily Beast headline funny and clever. It got me wondering why. So I put my finger on the page and traced out exactly what’s going on.

Here’s what I figured:
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Macris brings your attention to an unimportant detail (what De Santis wouldn’t or didn’t do)… to keep your attention from the actual, important, big thing (that he “walked on water like Jesus to save a drowning child”).

There’s a name for this type of thing. It’s called misdirection.

“Magic is misdirection. And misdirection is getting people to look at the wrong place at the right time.”

That’s a line from the 1978 movie Magic. I don’t know much about magic, though I love it. But I have heard pro magicians say that yes, magic is at core misdirection.

And it’s not just magic where misdirection has value. Writing too, like that fake Ron DeSantis headline above.

​​And if you’ve gone through my Copy Riddles program, then you’ve also seen A-list copywriters use misdirection to create intrigue and make sales. Like Gary Bencivenga did with this intriguing warning:

“If you’re a man, do you know why you should never wear a gold bracelet to a job interview?”

Well, do you? If not, I’ll tell you in a second how you can find out.

For now, my point is that misdirection is not just tricky, but it can be valuable, too. So keep an eye on it.

Or keep an eye on me. I’ve started collecting examples of misdirection. And maybe one day I will put them together into a little presentation, and show you how you can misdirect people’s attention, in your writing, with the snap of your fingers, for your benefit and maybe theirs.

You can help me get this done sooner. If you have any good examples of misdirection, anything that comes to mind, whether from magic, design, political PR, tabloid journalism, thriller novels, con artistry, standup comedy, or persuasive and influential writing, then send them my way.

In exchange, I’ll tell you the secret to Gary’s bullet above, in case you don’t know it already.

Oh, and sign up for my email newsletter. Bet you didn’t see that coming.