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robstanley1 wrote:I love the way this thread is going.....'magic tricks' Vs. 'Performance':

Guess which I've got my money on?

calling Mr Brown.


I know how you feel fella, i've been in similar situations. The other night i was doing a trick at a bar and someone asked to borrow my deck and show me a trick, which was a card force and that horrible wrong way round card trick lay folk seem to know. but he was all "yeah, I'm a magician me" being all arrogant and all i was thinking was "ok, i could easily do a few tricks to outdo him, but i'll leave it be, no need to antagonising people". seems some people don't think that way. but then some people thrive on conflict.
perhaps calling him a T@@@ only served to show that you arn't all that better though ey?

I can see your point, but the only reason I did that was because he stole the spectators money to but himself a drink, which is bloody rude!!

I wasnt thinking in terms of competition, Im not like that, thats why I had suggested we just go with a few effects in each category and try and string them together to make it entertaining, he just didnt seem interested in that.

I gave him credit for every effect he performed, as dry as the performance was from my point of view and when leading into myown effects I made comments or sentences to link together what he did to what I was doing so the effects flowed.

When he took the guys money and bought a pint, my reaction was to write t**t on a card and hold it behind his head. But then what did I do? I swithced a £5 for a £10 and let him keep the change and imo, I didnt need to do that, but it kind of made the whole effect one, almost as if it was meant to happen, him going and spending his money, only for me to bring it back.

Maybe Im wrong, but from what I understand so far, if you insult a spectator, you have to make them come good in the end, so my act with the card made the guy relax, then I asked him for more money, expectations drop and he probably thought Id do something similar but I give him a £10 back!!

I thought the thinking here was pretty clever, I wasnt drawn into the whole 'conflict' I just set about making it entertaining for the specs, it was them after all that asked us to have a 'face-off'

I.D wrote:I can see your point, but the only reason I did that was because he stole the spectators money to but himself a drink, which is bloody rude!!

I thought the first rule of perfromance was to respect the audience Being a pr*ck and actually stealing from a spectator to look clever is asking for a slap. If it was my tenner and he seriously wasn't giving it back, I'd have asked for his deck to "show you a trick worth the rest of my change" and simply dropped it into my pint to make it all soggy!

So you met a kid who was pretty darn good. So he had a mouth on him I spose you are the 'umble type of performer.

Sadowitz would of done the same thing.....

I guess he didnt have any gimmicked bill effects on him.

I thought about exposing the tricks decks he was using but I would only have been shoting myself in the foot as I use these effects in future, albeit presented differently.

I didnt mind giving the speccy £5 back, I got a drink from him afterwards and a few of the others so my well being was well looked after.

And people ask me why have I taken up mentalism now days.

Markdini wrote:So you met a kid who was pretty darn good. So he had a mouth on him I spose you are the 'umble type of performer.

Sadowitz would of done the same thing.....

Mate, different strokes for different folks, I wasnt bothered about the effects he used, as I said he was ok, not anything by way of presentation but he knew his stuff. But to take someones money and blatanly go buy a drink I thought was just wrong.

Im not humble, in fact I can be quite arrogant when I want to be, but with people I dont know, especially when performing magic, you have to respect you audience. You never know, I gave out my card to a couple of people, they may call me. the other guy showed disrespect by his actions, I was thrilled when I first met him but he turned out to be a right fool.

I.D., it sounds like you handled it very well indeed!

I hope - for his audiences' sake - that he was under the influence a fair bit there and that the situation and context eased out his natural character... if he performs like that then he has no right to call himself a 'professional magician'.

I personally hate these situations, where you can tell that the other performer is the competitive type. It's very rarely conducive for a good night's entertainment.

But, as I said, you handled it very well

Yes, well done ID, he sounds like a complete ****.
Obviously he is not out to entertain people, but to prove something and make him feel some kind of self-worth.
You left with your dignity and pride intact. Nice one!