THE ART OF MAKE-BELIEVE

ACTIVITY 1
Watch a video footage of “Magic for Humans: Seeing is believing” by Justin Willman
ACTIVITY 2
After video discussion
1. Did you enjoy the video? If so, which part struck you the most? Why?
2. What do you think about the reactions both men had during the experiment?
3. Was the crowd’s performance relevant to do the magic trick?
4. Do you think the “victims” had no clue about what was going on during the trick
or the whole thing was just a sham?
5. What did Justin mean when he said: “It took a lot of work to make those guys
believers. But sometimes all it takes is a few fancy words and a breath mint”?
ACTIVITY 3
If you were to carry out the “art of make-believe” which would be the steps to
follow to make someone believe the unbelievable?
Read the following lines from the video’s script “Magic for Humans: Seeing is believing”
and try to figure out which would be the “recipe” to create a make-believe situation.
“If the tiniest bit of evidence will make us believe the unbelievable… What would I have
to show someone to make them believe the impossible?”
“To find out, I set up an experiment. First, I placed it out on Craigslist to recruit some help
and then I told them my plan.”
“I chose a few featured players. No matter what the person does this audience is gonna
pretend they cannot see them.”
“Once all the roles were signed, I put on a little magic show to attract an unsuspecting
subject. It wasn't long before we had a taker.”
“First, I had to convince him that invisibility was real.”
(after the magic trick was done) “and Jonathan is now a believer…”
“It took a lot of work to make those guys believers. But sometimes all it takes is a few
fancy words and a breath mint”

1._______________________________________________________________
2._______________________________________________________________
3._______________________________________________________________
4._______________________________________________________________
5._______________________________________________________________
6._______________________________________________________________
ACTIVITY 4
Look at the images above. Do you recognize any of them? How are they related to the
“Art of make-believe”?
A
B

BRAINSTORMING: choose one of the pictures and

write down the words and ideas that come to your
mind when you see it

__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________