In his Books of Wonder, Tommy Wonder writes extensively to caution his readers on the negative impact on the participants of effects which lead the participants to think that the magician has made a mistake such as revealing his secret move or having failed to perform his secret move correctly. He refers to such effects as "failureffects", and categorizes 4 kinds of such effects. In this categorization, the one that is most damaging to the response from the participants is the one in which the magician not only leads the participants to believe that they have seen his secret move but also leads them to think that he has failed to make that move successfully (first type, under Tommy Wonder's categorization).
Consistently, in his Visions of Wonder DVD (produced after the Books), he indicates that he is not too happy with the start of his cups of balls routine which involves having the participants conclude on their own that they have seen him take the ball from each cup but he is not trying to get them to think so (second type). The remarks in the DVD are consistent with the writing in the book.
The book starts the description of the routine "Here and Not" as follows:
Having discussed the difficulty of presenting failureffects properly, I will now give an example of a routine I used to do that contains elements of faux faux pas. I have, with some reluctance, abandoned this routine in recent years, finding that there are still some neggative aspects to the presentation that I have not been able to circumnavigate without scraping the presentational bottom. I am describing the routine, nevertheless, with the hope that it contains some interesting features and the possibility for a presentational solution for another performer. It also serves as a good example of how one constructs a presentation capable of achieving a believable failureeffect. The construction here does not of course eliminate the need for convincing acting. However, good construction is vital in creating a believable environment that fosters credible acting, as I hope to show.
The DVD has a presentation and explanation of "Here and Not". In the explanation, Tommy Wonder talks about what it takes to convincingly present a failureeffect. However, in the DVD, he -- strangely -- does not make any cautionary comments about failureeffects.
Questions: In explaining "Here and Not", why did Tommy Wonder omit all of his cautionary comments on failureeffects? Had Tommy Wonder changed his views on failureffects? Had he brought back "Here and Not" into his active repertoire?