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Not so much a bad spectator as an irritable magician. Of course it is annoying to have someone ruin your cards but sometimes we have to suffer for our art. In other words grin and bear it.

A certain amount of sang froid is necessary for a magician.

Never pack up and leave in a huff. It means you have lost the battle. In fact there shouldn't have been a battle in the first place.

It would have been wise to continue and inform the paint spattered spectator at the end of the show that he could have the deck as a gift since they were now a trifle on the orange side.

What really got to me was the attitude more than the cards.

However, point made, point taken.

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If your performing to more than one person, sometimes its fun to tell them both different explanations.

Once I was levitating a £5 note with IT, and my colleagues were stunned, each of them later asked how I did it in private, I told one of them it was a complex array of magnets keeping it in perfect balance, and I told the other I was simply blowing and creating an air current which keeps it up.

Of course after about 10 minutes one of them decided to tell the other about how he found out the effect worked, and its incredibly fun to watch them argue.

When you are doing a routine, you can say "I can't show you how I did that trick, but I can show you how to do a different one" and launch into a "Do as I do" type effect, which seems to follow on supprisingly nicely.

If people ask you how it is done there are numerous answers you cn give without sounding like an arrogant know all. For example you can say "I promised not to tell" Naturally you don't say who you made the promise to and for some reason they never ask.

I prefer to look puzzled at the question and say "it's magic!" as if the answer was self evident.

Often I will say "I'm not sure. I suppose I had better find out"

I would have thought that if they were continually asking how it is done that would constitute a compliment rather than an irritation. However if someone insists repeatedly on knowing the secret and I am in a smart alec mood I will instruct the spectator thus:

"Would you like to know how it is done"

He says "yes" I then continue "say- please may I know how it is done?"

The spectator says the very words "please may I know how it is done?"

You then reply "No. You may not. It is secret"

You will get a laugh and the spectator will be psychologically damaged for life because you have humiliated him. However the point will be made that magicians never tell how it is done.

Unless of course they can get on TV doing so and the money is big enough.

The above subject is related to handling hecklers although I don't think anyone in the above examples was really heckling. However this is an important subject and I may pontificate on it further if I am in the mood.

I have found the best response to the " how did you do it" question is this.

well, if I told you I would be out of a job. this seems to make sense to people and they dont want me out of a job so they accept that answer.

for children, I find the funniest thing to do is to ask them how they think it was done. Then listen, shake your head and say : oh could be" or " you think?" this gets them away from the question and makes them feel justified.

I generally tell them that it would ruin the magic for them. I work mainly in restaurants and bars and fool myself that I manage to get on friendly terms with the punters during my routine. If they then ask how a particular effect happens I tell them that at one point in my career I always told people how a trick was done if they asked. This is true. I then carry on that after I told people the "secret" they always looked disappointed as they realised that it wasn't real magic, it was just a silly trick. This is also true. So ask the questioner what he/she would like to take away from the experience - a little bit of magic and awe, or the knowledge that it was actually just a silly trick. They usually nod and agree.

If however they persisit I tell them. They've has a drink and it's late. They'll have forgotten by the morning.

I recently performed for a hundred or so 15 year old chavs, waifs and strays. They were a surprisingly receptive audience, but many insisted that I told them a few "secrets". So I did. After that they held me in god like status! Not only had I amazed them, but I had taken them into my confidence and revealed some of my secrets. I guess it works both ways!