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With an ID in my hand, I handed a regular deck to a friend and asked him to select a card. He selected the 3C, which prompted me to say: "please choose another card; I've been trying a lot of stuff with the 3C and I don't want you to think this was one of those cases; here, I'll show you, I even have a 3C in my wallet!"

And that's when it hit me: I should have performed a card to wallet instead and saved the ID for another trick!!!

Now, I know we do learn from mistakes, but I also know I prefer to learn from other people's mistakes, so I thought I'd ask: have you ever experienced this feeling of a missed opportunity in different conditions? Would you care to describe what happened?

Oddly enough I had a missed opportunity last night. I asked a friend who asked me to do a trick to think of a card. I went for the Queen of Hearts (coz...you know....) and she said the Jack of Hearts. She was still impressed that I was, in the words of Kenton, off by one.

I then asked her to think of a second one, whilst loading the 4 of Clubs on to the top of the deck.

I then started almost fishing saying "You went for a high red one, so now you'll go for a low black one" and said it was probably the 3 or 4 of Clubs. She reacted strongly and said it was the 4 of Clubs after which I turned over the top card which put fuel to the fire of her reaction.

Now, how much stronger would it have been to have asked her to think of a second card, then just hand her the 4 of Clubs but tell her not to look at it.

Then get her to say what card she was thinking of.

Then ask her to turn the card over.

Then revel in the majesty of being a psychic.

Live and learn. Bet it doesn't work the next time...

Well, if you had given her the card and then you were not even close then its not as easy to brush off. I would do it the same way again. Just keep it on the top and get them to turn it over.

Agreed Kev. With the card on the top you have the option to show it if you hit. As soon as you give the card away, you lose your out. If she says the seven of hearts then you're miles off and you have no way of explaining why you gave her the card.

Back on topic, something really interesting happened last week for me - not a missed opportunity, but worth mentioning. I had someone select a card, and they said something like- you're probably psychic and already know what it is. Jokingly, I said, yes it's the ace of spades, isn't it? Thinking they'd know I was joking about being psychic, and that this would re-enforce the fact that their card was a random, free choice (which it was). She turned the card over and it was the ace of spades. I managed to smile inwardly and pretend that this wasn't probably the best co-incidence I'd ever experienced!

I had had a missed opportunity at an acting audition from my agency. They were looking for people who can do these various characters.

I got through to the final process and some people were doing backflips as they were ex gymnasts, some people did some freestyle football skills etc. I was asked if I had a talent. I was shocked as it was not part of the audition process but I said Cardistry and Magic. But I was so nervous, I was too shaky to perform and was eventually dropped from the audition.

This audition I was told was later was known to be Skins. Anyone who doesn't know it, it was a UK drama and one of the character profiles was JJ (A shy magician).

Gutted I was, but it inspired me to get some confidence.