talkmagic.co.uk

for the first time ever, i decided to bring a deck of cards into school.....

ive done coins before but never cards (excluding ID which did work! ) and everyone knows its very hard to impress your peers....

anyway i was performing mercury aces, and after the second card turned over, some pr!ck (pardon the french) decided to slap all my aces and started laughing hysterically.... now obviously anyone who knows the secret knows what cards ended up on the floor and how the trick was ruined.....

after this my confidence went right down but i thought to myself ill perform a simple card trick to make sure something went right.... anyway i performed 'quick trick!' which involves them choosing any card and it 'popping' out of the deck...

now i hadnt perfected this trick as i learnt it the day before but it worked incredibly on my dad so i thought what the hell! anyway i performed it and it went down really well with 1 or 2 people...

anyway 5 mins later the people who originally saw it tell me to perform it to some other people... so i do and i get caught out doing the spread call by someone who was grilling my hands.... needless to say at this point i was pi**ed...

well i thought to myself i need a simple, killer trick to really show them i can do it....

anyway i performed a riffle force which went smoothly and unnoticed by people grilling my hands and showed them 'their card' without looking...then i let them shuffle the deck, then i then shuffled the deck and forced it to the top....
i then did something a little different by doing an erdanese colour change while the deck was face down.... so all it looked like was that i was rubbing the deck... at this point people had very little expectations and so although they refused to look at my face and grilled my hands, they werent expecting much....

right i then took off the top card and layed it on the table.... face down and asked them to turn it over.... as they did this i obtained a break....

as they turned it over to show a different card everyone roared with laughter at my failure, and i to joined in the act by looking pi**ed... i then layed it face up on top of the deck and went 'oh yeh i forgot its the seven of diamonds' suddenly everyone went silent.... i then performed shapeshifter flawlessly, laying the 7 on top of the deck, sliding it off and leaving everyone speechless.....

i then asked someone to sign the card and check there was nothing wrong with it.... as they did this i went into my bag and put the rest of that cards away and secretly got setup for mindbender *trying not to reveal* i then explained since they chose that card and it jumped to the top of the deck that it has special powers... i layed it on the back of my hand it started to bend... by this point about 20 people in my class were watching silently... at one point sum idiot started saying 'oh look hes using his thumb. oh look hes using his knuckles to bend it. oh yeh hes got a magnet in his hand and one in the card' he then got told by several people in the crowd to shut the hell up... i then finished the bend, asked him to lay out his hand and while he did i performed the second bend... i then layed it flat on his hand, 'rubbed' it some more and walked away telling him he could keep it.... and for the rest of the day no one stopped asking me how it was done.... priceless..

now im no big fan of ellusionist but they helped me pull through today and they do produce effects that work in real life situations....

joecarr14

Ellusionist may have got you out of this jam but at the end of the day what you got you through was persistence.... if you keep making them you're c*** (not the best) (I know this wasn't intentional) you can then as you did under pressure call from your memory something that will really blow them away.... after which you say.... I was just toying with you beforehand!!

EDIT: you should always have a couple of killer effects that you can perform with your eyes closed so that you can finish the most awkward of situs. My killer getout is HEIRLOOM.... no matter how bad I perform to my peers if all else fails I kill em dead with it.... I've even got a couple of my mates two or three separate times and they still don't twig... (they are of the lesser spotted dumber variety tho PMSL)

Basically what you've done is cope under pressure

hahaa yeh i know its my fallback trick as usually its used when people think you can do anything and then it will blow them away, whereas if i use it stright off it makes the other effects i have look boring, so i used it as a last resort and pulled it off....

anyway ive polished off my 2 card monte now and im going to perform that tommorow if i get asked... surely nothing can go wrong.... can it?

Nice one mate, that sounds like a good deal of pressure to be dealing with, to continue with some perfect moves and a killer ending. Erdnase colour change and shapeshifter are two of my favourites (although I've yet to perform them properly).

I've had that kind of reaction a couple of times and it makes all the practice all the more pleasureable.

Again, respect due.

DT

Mid-teenagers are my least favourite type of audience by a long way, and at least I can get the upper hand by impressing them with my ability to drive and buy beer. As you're the same age I'd say you did very well. However you've learnt an important lesson, never use anything tricky or angly as an opener for spotty oiks, no matter how confident you are.

yeh i thought to myself i had nothing to lose so i might aswell go for it.... payed off thanks and if this has happened to anyone else they can feel free to say! anyway im just glad i didnt look like a real loser.... it was hard at first because all i ever did at school was a few coin tricks like retentions, muscle passes, coin through windows (muscle pass), and little tricks with coin rolls to keep people amused... and so i thought everyone will be so impressed when i do these card tricks....

i was going to give up but im glad i didnt!!

it was so hard to perform as they had no respect and just ignored my instructions so yeh maybe next time ill act a little differently....

im still worried about doing 2 card monte because i know some kid is just gonna turn the cards over before the trick is done....

oh and also i forgot to mention before when i forced a card to someone and had them take it and memorise it and put it back in the deck with my back turned, they put it in their pocket and when i said i was going to shuffle it to the top it obviously wasnt there.... but i found out and said 'well thats clever you have the 3 of diamonds in your pocket' he of course didnt care i knew his card, but found it hilarious that my trick didnt work.... :/

Repeating a trick is not a good idea as most magic books will tell you.

It sounds like lack of confidence and practise and the things you have practised the most are the ones that won them over. The most mediocre effect, slickly performed with style, can slay the layman.

wello done for getting out of a tight spot but all of the effects that you mentionned were around a long time before Ellusionist. All they have done is to repackage old material in a new box

Ellusionist may have gotten you out...but always important to ask what got you in? Once you figure out what got you in to trouble you can decide what - in anything - you could have handled differently to avoid getting into the bind in the first place. We all have "off times" and I had one the other night....an honest assesment and I realized that some of the things that happened spiraled the wrong way because I led them that way early....just food for thought.

Good recovery and composure thought....but remember the best way out of a bind is to not get into one in the first place.

From what you've said, it seems like you're playing to a tough audience, for which there's no real cure. It's part of being that age, and it's difficult for everyone, especially the parents! However, don't be worried if some fool spoils a trick. Chances are they're just attention seeking morons who feel threatened by bright or skilled people, and react badly to cover their own insecurities (feel free to use that as a put down).

The best reaction, is not to react. If they run away laughing, then "good riddance". Chances are they're the only one laughing, which you can use. Just try not to fly off the handle with direct comments like "think you're funny? well no one else seems to think so!" as that'll just give em cause to bash you. Stay calm and use the moment to show off some of your professonalism. Turn to someone else in the group and make some off hand remark to make them laugh instead, which in turn'll make the spoiler feel/look stupider.

Also, don't rise to people demanding the same trick again. The best trick is to know when to quit - which is odd as it's probably when your audience is most keen. If they want to see a trick again, they only want to try to catch you out. If someone's burning your hands, ask them a question to get them to look at you. Of course if you need to look at your hands whilst performing, then you probably need to practise a bit more.

Lastly, never perform a sensitive trick with someone with an ego. There's a reason why women are picked from the audience, as they don't have anything to prove by messing about and showing off. As a general rule of thumb, ask men to examine things, women to hold things. I think that's mentioned somewhere todo with performing with sponge rabbits, but it's a good one to remember.

Good luck!

Well done Joe. That initial confidence knocker is a real killer, isn't it?! Makes you wish you'd never bothered sometimes, and it takes a lot of guts to soldier on. Heck, it takes a lot of guts to take out a deck of cards in front of a group of vultures and deign to "show them some magic"!

The "growing group" is a really tough nut, because they will inevitably beg you to perform it again for that friend who was across the room during the first performance. Hopefully your experience will have taught you... steadfastly refuse! Start with the "No, but I'll show you something else", then use "sorry, it's the magician's code never to repeat a trick", and if necessary progress to the "I'm not doing that f*cking trick again, alright?!", but in all but the most dire of situations, do not do the same trick if there are people from the same audience present. They WILL catch you out, simple as that - it's nothing to do with your technique, it's the fact that they refuse to be misdirected and remember the exact points at which you might have had the chance to do something funny. And once that single person spots something going on, the whole trick is ruined for the whole crowd. And there is little satisfaction for a magician in smiling weakly, saying, "heh, well... it fooled you the first time..."

It's like drugs... "kids, just say no!"

But well done in bringing it back from the brink, I know the exact feeling you will have had in your stomach! I'd now suggest building a reasonable repertoire of effects which are bulletproof in their construction. I'm very much of the opinion that even "small" effects can be very powerful if they seem truly impossible. Sometimes, you don't need to pull an elephant holding a signed bill out of a satsuma, you just need to find their card or vanish a coin leaving them NO CLUE as to how it was done. If you have a few simple "go to" effects that you are confident will not be rumbled, you'll be ready for this situation before it even happens

thanks again everyone, im not going to blame it all on the audience but it wasnt enjoyable.... anyway i know ellusionist just re-packaged those effects i was just saying despite how much people may dislike them for what they do, their effects do work in real life situations....

now im off to practise....

The advice from tiw regarding specs is solid. When you do a transpostition effect, men are more likely to look at the card to check it's the same one whereas women tend not to.

It seems that women have a far better imagination and sense of wonder overall and are more inclined to go along with the unbelievable, hence most of the clients I receive for tarot readings are female.

It's a relief when you get out of a tricky situation and well done for doing so. It's part of the learning process. When I'm performing for people that seem 'tough' I perform tried and tested effects I have done countless times before which I know the workings of inside out and therefore leaves me plenty of room for misdirection and patter.
When they are impressed by the initial effects and you have won them over they'll tend to want to see more and like you and are much less likely to hinder things as they want to be entertained.

People judge you from the first few minutes, so if they are unimpressed it's hard to win them back. It's often good to start with a short, sharp quickie which will 'win them over' and then you can go onto effects that need more co-operation on their part.

I'm not sure about that Freddie, particularly with women. Whenever I've opened with a short sharp quickie they've generally gone right off me.