I have just launched a new experiment on magic – if you have 2 minutes it would be great if you could take part. Details here.
I am a big fan of the The Flying Karamazov Brothers, and so thought it would be great to make a fun psychology with them. We had about 2 hours to rehearse and film, and this is what we created…..
If you know about these types of videos then I suspect it may not fool you but hope that you enjoy the idea and wonderful juggling. If you are in or near London in the next few months, catch their great show!
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June 28, 2011 at 7:26 am |
On any other website you would see that coming. I was watching for the horrible to walk past.
June 28, 2011 at 7:28 am
Speelcheck sux.
Would not see it coming.
And
Waiting for a gorilla.
June 28, 2011 at 7:28 am |
Yes. They were rather obvious I thought.
June 28, 2011 at 7:55 am |
the problem is they don’t pass the redclub nearly often enough. you figure out straight away how long you have before it gets passed so you get bored and watch the other parts.
doesn’t help that it says “psychological test” and most people have seen the gorilla video
June 28, 2011 at 2:17 pm
My thoughts really. The gorilla video didn’t just work because it was new (at least to the internet at large), but because you were kept very busy doing the actual task at hand; in this video the passing only happens a handful of times and it’s easy to look away, especially as it gets passed back and forth in the same pattern!
June 28, 2011 at 8:20 am |
Missed one : (
June 28, 2011 at 9:06 am |
It was very obvious I thought.
I think Nina hit on the reason; the gorilla video and versions of it have been seen by so many people now that the reveal isn’t a shock anymore. As soon as I see a video that tells you to ‘pay attention/count one thing’ while a lot of action is happening it instantly makes me try to be aware of everything that is happening in the video not just the thing I have been asked to concentrate on.
June 28, 2011 at 9:52 am |
My thought was “Why are these men wearing skirts?” Now, while it’s not WRONG for men to wear skirts it is UNUSUAL so my attention was drawn to their lower-half clothing right from the start. If they’d changed their shoes, for example, without their shoes being made special at the start then perhaps the swap would have been less obvious maybe.
June 28, 2011 at 10:07 am
As you say, a less obvious costume change (e.g. changing their kilts or waistcoats to a different style / length / colour – either of which could have been done in a few seconds with an off-screen helper) would probably have been more effective.
June 28, 2011 at 9:58 am |
I purposely didn’t concentrate too hard on the red club – instead watching what was going on elsewhere, i.e. the jugglers on the right periodically dropping out then returning wearing a tutu.
In the first segment I was half-expecting something unusual to turn up (e.g. a gorilla), during the second segment I was half-expecting one of the jugglers to walk off with the red club or introduce another colour.
June 28, 2011 at 11:02 am |
The readership may be especially alert because Dan Simon, who created the original invisible-gorilla-amidst-basketball-passers, recently hosted a charity fund raiser.
June 28, 2011 at 1:15 pm |
I missed a pass. But did you all see the gorilla?
June 28, 2011 at 3:13 pm |
Ach, I watched this at work with the sound off and didn’t realize I was supposed to be counting the passes of the red club in the first place, so I noticed all of the tutu changes immediately.
June 28, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Well that reply was supposed to be me, but gravatar messed it up. Anyway.
June 28, 2011 at 3:31 pm |
Yeah this was pretty bad. Agreed, more passes need to be made. Also the bright skirts were incredibly obvious.
June 28, 2011 at 8:08 pm |
I actually counted 10 passes of the red one because I also counted when it was passed to a new person, not just across the stage. I also noticed the tutu’s.
June 28, 2011 at 8:18 pm |
Agree it was bad. With three of them standing in a line on the right, I had to really focus there to see which of them actually had the red club — so many arms moving at once. So it was really obvious when somebody moved offscreen, and when one of them had a different uniform than the others.
June 29, 2011 at 2:17 am |
I like The Red Club.
June 29, 2011 at 8:08 am |
I counted 10 passes (I think I was fooled by people changing places on the right while not passing) and yes I noticed the tutus appear. But then I knew about the basketball/gorilla thing, so I was more than half expecting something of the sort. Fun though.
June 29, 2011 at 10:03 am |
It was too obvious. I noticed something wrong the instant one person moved off the screen. Also the tutus covered a lot more area on the screen, so the difference to the previous outfit was very easy to spot.
June 29, 2011 at 3:55 pm |
There should be a video for all those who know “the gorilla” already. If there had been actually a gorilla in this video, no one would’ve seen the tutus appearing! Sorry for the bad english.
June 30, 2011 at 1:27 am |
Foreknowledge of the type of trick this was going to be made it easy to spot the changes, though I did find myself wondering about the yellow handle which kept appearing and disappearing, which I now believe was just a yellow spot shining down on the far right of frame and not intended to be part of the illusion.
June 30, 2011 at 1:51 pm |
Another one that counted 10 passes between people (8 across the stage) and the tutus were blindingly obvious. Easy to notice that one person moved out and then came back wearing an enormous tutu. It wasn’t a subtle change like a change of colour of kilt/waistcoat would have been.
June 30, 2011 at 2:05 pm |
Yes, I noticed the tutus as they arrived in view. Also counted the 8 passes of the red club. Sorry!
June 30, 2011 at 5:04 pm |
[...] Source : Richard Wiseman [...]
June 30, 2011 at 5:16 pm |
I was waiting for the gorilla…. sorry.
July 1, 2011 at 12:35 pm |
I think I’m the only one who didn’t notice the tutu change, until the end of course as I was really concentrating on the number of passes on the left side of the screen and not the right.
July 4, 2011 at 2:30 pm |
[...] great variation on the gorilla in the basketball game: The Red Club Richard Wiseman's Blog ~~ [...]
July 4, 2011 at 11:40 pm |
I counted 8 passes, I didn’t notice the tutus, I haven’t seen the gorilla video.
July 5, 2011 at 5:57 pm |
The first 10-15 comments after any blog on this site always seem to be from world-weary nerds who are almost visibly yawning at the tiresome lack of complexity of it all. I counted the passes. I didn’t spot the tutus. It amused me. Surely that’s the point ?
July 13, 2011 at 1:26 am |
I counted 10 passes and i didnt notice the tutus but i did wonder why they kept dissapearing off stage lol
July 15, 2011 at 11:39 pm |
I counted 7. Maybe I missed the eighth because I was concentrating too hard on the tutus…
February 5, 2012 at 7:47 pm |
32 Red Online Review…
[...]The Red Club « Richard Wiseman[...]…