We see deception and get fooled by magic tricks but the same techniques and principles are

applied in many other activities such as sports and daily life.

Us as humans rarely ever want to get fooled, but at times we don’t mind getting fooled.
We wouldn’t mind getting fooled for entertainment purposes because we get adrenaline and
excitement of the unknown and unpredictability. For example most of us watch sports and most
of us who watch football have heard the saying “Any given Sunday” which means you can’t
predict who’s going to win the game. We like watching sports because we like the
competitiveness and the unpredictability of it. It’s like a rollercoaster wanting to see players
pull off impossible comebacks or plays. These are the most exciting things in sports, it relates to
people wanting to be fooled in magic because in magic we want to see impossible tricks be
pulled off. The unpredictability of sports gives us wonder which relates to magic according to
Kuhn, “The second involves the nature of those effects that magic is uniquely suited for, such
as the sense of wonder induced by an apparently impossible event.” (Kuhn pg.1-2). Kuhn
argues that wonder is caused by impossible events, but he is not the only who thinks that, In the
In Prison, Learning Magic by Mail NYT article, Torre states ““Magicians sometimes talk about
the moment right after they pull off a trick, before the rational mind sets in, and the viewer is
transported, briefly, out of reality. “You make them for a few seconds believe you’re doing the
impossible. And for me, for a magician, you see that look on their face — ” Torre paused. “I
can’t equate it to anything else.” Us humans like to watch impossible events happen whether it
be watching sports or watching magic because they cause us to think and wonder.

We do not like to get fooled when there are actual adverse impacts that become serious
and are realized. For example, we would dislike getting fooled if someone pickpocketed you or
robbed you of all your money. In sports we do not like to get fooled if we can adversely affect
the team. For example, in football if a cornerback is fooled by a play action pass and the
opposing team throws an easy touchdown that won them the game. That player is going to feel
terrible that he let down the team. We do not like to get fooled when stakes are high. In the
Oliver and Randi videos televangelists and psychics fooled and took advantage of desperate
people by deceiving their clients that they could do impossible stuff like talk to the dead or cure
their cancer. They used techniques used by magicians.

Magicians use various techniques to fool us. The magician Teller tells us the secret of magic in
“Teller’s seven laws of magic”, specifically law number 4 “Keep the trickery outside the frame” is
a common law that many magicians and pickpocketer’s use. This is basically misdirection to
make us look away and blinded from the trick. There is misdirection in football such as when
receivers go in motion causing the defense to take their eyes off the ball. Another one of
Teller’s laws that relates to sports is Teller’s 1 law “Exploit pattern recognition”, for example in
baseball if a pitcher struck out the previous 2 batters with just fastballs and your in a 0-2 count,
due to the pattern you would expect a fastball but the pitcher surprised you and threw you a
curveball and struck you out. Another example in sports is if a football team lines up in a run
heavy formation with no wide receivers and then throws it catching the other team off guard
because the pattern and usual outcome of that formation is a running play. Many methods and
techniques used by magicians are also used in sports.

Overall, i think you’ve chosen and interesting topic and I think the way you connected magic to
sports is very unique. Definitely makes your essay stand out in a positive way. I like your thesis
statement, but I definitely think you could work on the wording to make it more clear. Your
individual paragraphs have good sources, and are well supported, but I think that your structure
hinders you. Constantly going back and forth takes away from the importance of your points. I
think that you could restructure the way you’ve presented your paragraphs, it would do you a lot
of good: i suggest starting with a clear discussion of certain methods magicians use in your first
paragraph, and your next paragraphs coud each explore how each different aspect relates to
events in our daily lives. I also think your language could be streamlined overall. An essay plan
seems like it’d be very helpful to you for structure and clarity. I hope that this is helpful! -Muna :)

I think this needs an external source or two about the sports. It would be great to have
something else in here to anchor your reasoning when you apply the concepts of magic to
sports. Right now it is a bit vague. - Cooper :)