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Hey, I'm beginning to get hecklers with the tricks I do and would like your opinions on ways to deal with them.

Basically..I'll do a trick with normal cards....they'll claim them to be trick cards, then after examming they'll say it's secretly marked cards, then upon closer inspection claim I've switched the deck....etc etc


Basically, you could make blackpool tower vanish before their eyes and they'd still demand you empty your pockets in case you palmed it






Is there anyway I can have my revenge on them? Is there a way to make a trick out of them that stops them being mr smarty alec?

Don't try to get revenge. Don't give anyone reason to doubt your integrity from the word go and things will get a lot easier. For instance, never hold your deck up and say "This is an ordinary deck of cards". There are plenty of threads already about this topic.

My first concern would be the type of audience you're performing to. Drunken eejits don't make good audiences for magic. Especially young male drunken eejits.

The other thing I'd suggest is to look at your chosen presentational style and see if there's a way of making it less about the trick and more about fun, entertainment and mystery. That doesn't mean doing fewer tricks, just shifting the focus and changing the point of the routine. If you can make your routines about the spectator, so much the better, as that puts them in the spotlight, and they don't need to heckle you to get there.

Just a thought,

Pete

It all depends on who the audience is and where you're performing. If it's close up magic you're doing just shrug and walk away. Don't turn it into a conflict, that'll just make them worse.

If they're just wanting to put you down and not enjoy what you're doing then just don't perform for them.

I always choose my specs very carefully when I'm doing any closeup. Drunken lads rarely make a good audience, although the comments I get are probabaly different from what you get.

Couples are usually a very good audience, as are girls or mixed groups who are obviously having a good night out.

It's also well worth looking at how you're putting yourself across, if you're presenting your magic in a way that it comes across as a challenge you're much more likely to get a problem than if you present it as a bit of fun.

I also think it has lots to do with how you present yourself. Which one you think get more hecklers, Jay Sankey, or Brian Tudor? For chirst sakes the winner even has a video dedicated how to deal with hecklers with obnoxiusly arrogant card tricks

Maybe time to do tricks involving sharp objects where the trick can go wrong

All of the above but I'd like to add. Learn from the hecklers, or at least the experience.

Rather than making it a conflict by throwing insults or put downs back at them, I will say, I see that you are a bit skeptical, and I turn my attention to them and do one of my best effects (AC). When he can't figure it out and everyone else is aware that he can't, they will stop heckling and enjoy the show. They really don't want all your attention on them, they just want others to think they are smarter than you. Hecklers can be fun sometimes when you join in and say, Your absolutely right, I can't pull one over on you. Then you do something in their hands and you blow them away. You've turned the tables on them and they will want to see more. As the others have said, it comes down to presentation, your skill and audience management. Don't let them get to you and keep performing. You will gain the confidence to handle these people.
Cheers
Al

Correct me if I'm wrong but I assume you're doing tricks at school? If so you're in a very good environment to learn fast about the presentation of what you do, or to put it another way your peers at school are little bast*rds. In an environment crammed with teenagers, particularly if girls are around, hormone levels are through the roof and anything remotely challenging (which is the first thing most people see magic as) will be torn apart and dissected unless it's perfect.

When I perform to teenage guys I find them to be a great audience once they're on your side. However I'm a bit older and I've got hair on my face and I drive a car and I've, like, touched more than a couple of girls. In real life. So there's a little bit of inherent respect built into the interaction from the start but if you're on a level with them socially you'll find it pretty hard work and probably encounter a much higher percentage of heckling than the rest of us. Such is life but it'll make you bigger and better and stronger in the end. In fact it looks as if you're doing ok already, you're not getting caught with sloppy moves but rather presenting an effect that has no apparent explanation so your hecklers are falling back on their little layperson mental 'magic methods' libraries in their search for what happened. When one answer isn't right they search for another ad infinitum. Don't worry about it.

If you're not actually at school then my apologies and forget the above.

Probably the best protection against the heckler is your own competence. After all, if you do your stuff well there is less opportunity for interruption. If you perform fluently and as if you know what you are doing it will tend ot dissuade the pest from tormenting you. Everyone likes to see a master at work, even the heckler. If you are exciting and entertaining this will often be enough to quell mutinous spectators. On the other hand, if you are ill at ease and awkward, not only will you cause the audience to experience the same feelings, you will be inviting trouble as sure as the sun rises in the east.

Your attitude is all important; if you are humble you will tend to make people like you, and the more people like you the less heckling you will experience. Conversely if you are arrogant and superior when you work, you will attract confrontation like a magnet and well will you will deserve it. Contrary to what you might expect, a little heckling is good for you. It keeps you alert, on your toes and teaches you not to be too complacent. It will encourage you to pratice; when the loudmouth says, "I saw you switch that card!" he's actually doing you a favour. Maybe you'll practice so hard that next time he won't see you switch it.

Incidentally if you are doing close up magic and you get a heckler you have a wonderful trump card. Use it only after repeated heckling and when you see the whites of their eyes. A sucker trick usually a card trick!
You can really turn things around with that.

I have written extensively on heckling in a book I wrote on card tricks but as yet unpublished. I can provide some extracts if anyone wants. It applies to close up magic. Working on stage requires different rules.

One thing I'd like to add.

Few times this has happened. I have approached table with lets say, 3 females, and one older man. Man is quite toxicated, and because the women are interested on my magic tricks, the dudes alpha-male-status at that table is somewhat threatened by my performance.

The dude says : "I know how that trick works, Ive seen it before", when I know that he doesnt know anything, or just thinks he knows. I say "Well thats great, but lets not spoil the fun for the rest, okey?", and wink eye to him. That lets him maintain the status and doesnt feel threatened of me, and I get to do the tricks without any heckling.

At first when I started, I got scared that the dude could really know the trick, but as I found out, usually they dont know sh*te, they just presume and want to let everyone else know that they are not fools.

mark lewis wrote:Probably the best protection against the heckler is your own competence.

Everyone likes to see a master at work, even the heckler.

If you are exciting and entertaining this will often be enough to quell mutinous spectators.

Your attitude is all important; if you are humble you will tend to make people like you, and the more people like you the less heckling you will experience.

Incidentally if you are doing close up magic and you get a heckler you have a wonderful trump card.....

I hate to admit this, but I completely agree with Mr. Lewis on this one. All statements are spot on. All me add that it sometimes is possible to use the presence of a heckler enhance your magic!

If I encounter at heckler I prefer to address it straight on.

That interesting! I am not sure you know, but there have been written many books about you - books about the difficult spectator. Quite a fascinating topic...

It is important you have a confident but disarming and friendly attitude.

I then explain what kind of things difficult spectators would do. I usually include a few very quick demonstrations or examples. Now the scene is set for Dai Veron's presentation of triumph - his own invention.

Dai Vernon's presentation is about a heckler he claim he once encountered. This "difficult spectator" was asked to shuffle the cards, but to Vernon's horror the spectator shufflee the cards face up into face down.....etc.

As Dai Vernon as well as Michel Amman emphase (on the Vernon tapes)
it is crucial that this story is BELIEVABLE. The presence of the heckler make this whole story appear spontaneous and I think more believable.

So far the hecklers I encountered (they were usually drunk) became very friendly and cooperative after this disarming demonstration.

Remark: When I perform I often use the lines about the difficult spectator anyway! It often gets a lot of smiles and some times laughs if you "construct" one of the spectators as a bit difficult. Whatever the spectator do, you interpret it as if the spectator is a typical example of a difficult spectator. (If the person for example pick a card in middle of the deck you claim they took your key card or what ever suits the situation..)

In short: Sometimes a heckler come in handy. With proper spectator control, confidence and competence the heckler can help make the magic more memorable!

The one time I really nailed a heckler was indeed at school and where my tricks are usually performed.

I did "Kamillion Coins" and started by making 1 green coin in 1 hand change colours with another as they were different colours on each side (part of the trick for me to be ridiculed at first) I got "Ahahaah your just changing them over in your hand"...then after I turned the pink into blue and the green into yellow on both sides and had him examine them for over a minute, he made a sharp exit

Bronz wrote:touched more than a couple of girls

More than girls?

Boys??

Soren Riis wrote:Now the scene is set for Dai Veron's presentation of triumph - his own invention.

Dai Vernon's presentation is about a heckler he claim he once encountered. This "difficult spectator" was asked to shuffle the cards, but to Vernon's horror the spectator shufflee the cards face up into face down.....etc.

As Dai Vernon as well as Michel Amman emphase (on the Vernon tapes)
it is crucial that this story is BELIEVABLE. The presence of the heckler make this whole story appear spontaneous and I think more believable.

So far the hecklers I encountered (they were usually drunk) became very friendly and cooperative after this disarming demonstration.

For this reason and the fact that it is a great effect this has to be my favourite to perform. I nearly always perform in a bar/party place so I'm always gettin some drunken loud mouth who knows the key card rule and thinks that they're David Blaine.

I usually do my 2 phase triumph routine and hopefully get the audience on my side. Sometimes you have to walk away but sometimes getting a heckler on your side will be your best spec by the end of the night.