I never wanted to be a magician, but... I am

“Francisco… can you come into my office, please?” my manager says. 

Oh crap. 

It’s my first night as a bartender at Fabric, a huge nightclub in London. I’ve just finished my shift, and I think I’m about to get busted. 

“We have a problem. Your cash register is short”. 

Damn. I didn’t think he’d actually check. 

I’m really broke, that’s the only reason I did what I did. I knew it was wrong, but I just couldn’t take any chances.

Maybe I can still argue or beg my way out of this, I really need this job. 

“Short? By how much?”

“100 pounds.”

“What? That can’t be right.” 

“I counted the money twice. There’s an exact 100 missing.”

“Listen, I might have made some mistakes, but there’s no way it was that much, or a perfect round number, that’s crazy!”

“Yes, that does sound hard to believe,” he says, and keeps staring at me. 

“Wait, you think I stole it? Come on, mate, how stupid would I have to be to steal exactly 100 quid and hope no one would notice?? You’re free to check all my pockets and my backpack if you want, I didn’t take it.”

I know they won’t find the money on me. 

“Well, if the cash doesn’t show up by the time we have to close, we’ll have to call the police.”

He walks away, and I stay in that tiny room behind the bar, and now I’m worried. 

If he calls the police, I’m screwed. 

Because I haven’t been completely honest. 

Here’s the thing: bartending here is really hard. Everything happens so fast you just don’t have time to wait for the register to add up the drink prices, so you have to do it all the calculations in your head: 

1,70 for a shot, 2,70 for a beer, 3,50 for a mixed drink. It's not easy math.

So I thought that if I sold a handful of drinks, didn’t ring them up and put the money in the register, I’d have a bit of a cushion for anything I got wrong. 

Then either my till would end up with extra money, which would just go into everyone’s tips, or it would leave me short by only a few pounds, so nothing too serious. 

I have absolutely no idea how exactly 100 pounds could’ve disappeared! 

But if the police come, they might not believe I didn’t steal the money. They might figure out what I was doing with those drinks. 

And if they look into me, there’s just no way they won’t spot that my CV was fake. 

Or that I was working all the way through last year when my visa didn’t allow for that.  

Any of those things will get me fired, and if I lose this job… I don’t think I can afford to stay. And I can’t go back home. I just can’t. 

An hour goes by. I haven’t got much time left. 

I come out of the room, and a few of my colleagues try to be supportive, but they’re not going to put themselves on the line for someone they barely know. 

I see my manager coming back. He makes a straight line for me. 

“Francisco, about that 100 quid–“

“I didn’t take the money, I swear!”

“I know.”

“You… do?”

“Yes. I bumped into Kelly just now. She needed to make change for the upstairs bar, so she took the 100 and forgot to let you know. You’re good. Sorry for that.”

“Oh. Ok. Thanks.”

He pats me on the back and walks away.

I just stand there, a huge weight off my shoulders.

But I can’t help feeling I’ve just got away with something.

Look here… 

I’ve recently read a book called The Housemaid. It sold millions of copies and it’s all the rage here in Spain. The sequels are also in the bestseller lists. 

There’s nothing particularly brilliant about the story, except for one thing: the author is a master at misdirection. You think one character is good, but they’re evil. Then you think another one is evil, and they’re good. You believe you cracked the mystery, but you’re completely off. And when you finally think you figured out where the plot is going, it twists away from you. 

It’s fun to read or watch stories like that, but it can also be great fun to tell them. 

…Now look right over there

Here are a few ways you can do it:

• Tell the audience something will happen (“I’m about to get busted”) without telling them why (so they assume the wrong reason)

• Say something true that “proves” your guilt (“I know they won’t find the money on me”) but that actually means something else

• Say something that sounds contradictory or confusing based on what you led the audience to believe so far (“Because I haven’t been completely honest”) 

If you play it right, you keep them guessing all the way through. You make the twist later even more satisfying. And, if you set up your motivations well, that’s a double-win, because they’ll feel sympathetic for you while at the same time believing you’ve done something wrong–which is the formula for great anti-hero shows like Breaking Bad or The Sopranos. 

I could never do card tricks or pull a rabbit out of the hat (I leave that to my partner-in-crime Brian Miller.) 

But when I pull off a story like this…

It really feels like magic 🤘

-Francisco 

Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Getting clarity through your story to stand out from all the other coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs out there 

2. If you dream of speaking on the Red Dot, take this Scorecard and instantly discover how likely your idea is to be accepted by a TED-style organizing committee

3. If you (or your team) got any storytelling challenges, I’m sure there’s something we can do together ;-)

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