magicdiscoman wrote:its not your fault at all its the venue, in the pub setting there mostly there to relax and drink not to get excited.
the patter suggestion is just there to get them to interact with you and prompt them that you expect a reaction.
understanding what to expect from a situation is the part magicians can only learn on the job, for example if you were presenting your a game to the emperor of japan in feudal times and you new you were absolutely killing it, the best you could expect would be for the emperor to take his feet out of his syrups...... if you got pay'ed and left with your head that would just be a bonus.
patter is great but always leave yourself some flexibility depending on the situation, sometimes you literally have to tell them to laugh /react at the point of the magic "and this is the point here when you gasp and they laugh", I did a luncheon, luncheon should tell you there going to be a stayed bunch straight away, at a Botox party..... can you see were this is going.
so the most I got all night was little claps and jolly goods..... but I did manage to crow bar in the immortal lines "are you happy"....... " can you let your face know"
Actually, it is your fault. However there is nothing wrong with that. Magic like almost everything else has a learning curve. Not every trick works in every venue, however most do, and it is your presentation for that venue that has to change. Usually not by much. And it can really only be learned by going out and performing. Reading the books, watching the video's chatting on here, non of that will actually help when it comes down to just getting out there and performing. Making those 'mistakes' and enjoying the successes. The beauty is the more you perform the more you will find the success than the failures.
I understand what disco man is trying to say when he say's it is not your fault, you really didn't do anything wrong. You are learning to perform. Stuff happens. But the reality is in order to learn from our mistakes we have to own the mistakes, own the mishaps or whatever you want to call them. (I'm having trouble calling them mistakes because really they are not). If we don't own up to our issues we cannot move forward. It is too easy to say it is the venue. It is the audience. It is never the venue or the audience. Part of being a performer is also knowing when not to perform, or what to perform. And that only comes with experience. It is always the performer.
One can argue, 'well if the spectator doesn't like magic that is not the fault of the magician' true, but if somebody doesn't like magic then the magician should not be peforming for that person. And of course there is no way to please everyone all the time.
The main thing is you are going out and performing. Everything else will fall into place.