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Maybe this is another reason why sponge balls are better than cards :p

kartoffelngeist wrote:Maybe this is another reason why sponge balls are better than cards :p

Because no-one asks if they can shuffle your balls?

...I'll get me coat.

I would either let them shuffle & then go into a different effect which doesn't require any cards to be at a particular place in the deck or one handed top palm their card as you hand the deck over, let them shuffle, take it back, add their card on top, do a DL to show an indifferent card & then make their card rise to the top in their hands, take the applause & walk away king.

CArlight1958 wrote:... In fact I now begin all of my routines, where by the spectator
shuffles the deck to begin with. After two or three inpromptu tricks , they no longer
want to shuffle the deck, they just want to see more magic.
I will then put the deck in my pocket, maybe mess a little with "Strike2" or some packet trick.
Then switch in another deck, for a deck which may have been stacked.
I think this is one of the reasons why it's important to have quite a bit of inpromptu magic in your armoury.

Failing that, you could always give them a slap, & say no....

CArl...

I agreee with Carl. Do a trick or two were the spectators get to shuffle the cards, then switch-in the other deck. Ideally, I'd also switch the decks back at some point later in the act. This is what I do in my own act to switch in/ out an ID and a SiSteb steck. As alluded to by Carl, reaching into a pocket to retrieve an item (pen, money, whatever) with the deck in-hand is a simple and effective way of ringing in a cooler.

It's rare but it does happen. As others have said, you just need to change your planned routine.

I'd also bear in mind that if someone has asked to shuffle the cards then they are in "challenge" mode, which is far from ideal. They'll be far from shy about asking to examine your Himber wallet, every coin you bring into play and so on.

If they are friends then all you can do is a few tricks and then get the next round in. If these are strangers then move on ASAP to less proactive groups.

T.

EDIT: I once made the mistake of attempting to perform while a relative was in attendance. This person accepted *nothing* as being what it seemed. They questioned all small details, quite forensically. It was a bore and I just stopped because it wasn't entertaining for anyone. I doubt (hope!) that there are many regular punters like that. It's why performing for friends and family is such a challenge - they have no respect for you!

This has more to do with your attitude with the cards or coins, then anything else. If you tend to cradle the deck like a new born baby and hold it too tightly, people will end up picking up on that feeling and getting suspicious. You should be holding the deck like it's really nothing and just shuffling the cards or holding the coins like they are really nothing special (even if the props are gimmick ed or not.)

"sure, but it's going to become a really s**t trick if you do"

Or, just palm the controlled cards off and add them back when they have shuffled.

Mark Waddington wrote:"sure, but it's going to become a really s**t trick if you do"

That really is a rather good line if I've ever seen one. I'd imagine it'd take the wind out of their sails straight away.

Oh, or say yes and then after they've shuffled them ask them which trick they're doing.

When they flounder, go into a trick like this http://www.goodtricks.net/magician-card-trick.html

I'd bet they won't ask again.

Hmm, some interesting suggestions. I think it sort of depends on the way in which they ask it. If they are questioning everything and it becomes irritating then asking them to do a trick might be ok, but if they ask fairly and just out of curiosity then maybe it would cause some resentment. I think I might try palming them off and then getting them to shuffle. I once learnt a trick which required a stack of 20 or so cards, which meant they couldnt shuffle, but I did the dr. daley packet switch used in Derren Brown's 'Pleraphoria' so they could at least fairly shuffle some of the cards. However, I think some of the spectators might have thought I did something a bit dodgy, otherwise I would have let them shuffle all the cards together. So maybe I should just have just false shuffled myself. I dont know.

Thanks for the suggestions anyway. Maybe I should just perform magic for more trusting and honourable people

Dr Percival RP Pound wrote:

Mark Waddington wrote:"sure, but it's going to become a really s**t trick if you do"

That really is a rather good line if I've ever seen one. I'd imagine it'd take the wind out of their sails straight away.

It's a perfectly dreadful line. I abhor the present trend for so-called "magicians" to use profanity in their performances. Particularly the young ones. As soon as you talk like that you are no longer a magician as far as I am concerned. In any case it is an admission of defeat and gives the game away there is something iffy going on.

I find I'm never asked this.If you make people laugh and have fun with your magic you will find that they dont care about trying to figure it out.The only real people who want to shuffle the deck are family members sometimes but that's just testing material.

Ocasionally no matter how good your charms are you will find the odd person who with do all he can to interrupt the flow of your performance for the sake of his own ego.These are the suspicious type who scrutinise you so much that they are not worth wasting your time on anyways.You will find that if you do win them over they generally become your best friend.

I agree with the poster above, Flood. If the performance generally flows with all the parties getting along well, issues like this will rarely come up, except in the one in a million cases where there is a Scrooge in your crowd. In this case, I never think it's a good idea to deny this request as you may as well say "I'm sorry but if you do that, you'll mess the whole thing up". What I would do in this situation is cheerfully say "of course, let's make this as fair as possible" giving the person centre stage for a moment which is often what they want, and also appearing as a nice guy (often the other people will see this person as a heckler and so give you credit for dealing with it rather than getting annoyed). Once they are sufficiently happy with ruining the trick you was going to do, simply go into another which requires no set up. They will never know the difference. This can be annoying but is inevitably something everyone has to deal with. If however you're unlucky enough to have this question asked while in the middle of a routine which would seem suspicious if it were to suddenly change direction, then I guess you've got to weigh up your odds. This would only really happen in the middle of a routine though where this would be a problem as if it were at the start, then you could just go into something else, and as this would be during, then the odds are it's not the entire deck order you are attempting to keep, if so you're kind of screwed. If it's just a card on top, or a couple of cards. I would say to control them in some way that you could palm them off for safe keeping while the spectator does his shuffling. I have in fact done this before and it's not exactly rocket science to get away with.

Hopefully this has given some helpful ideas. Sorry if they've been said before.

With regards to hecklers, there's a great section in Eugene Burger's book, Secrets and Mysteries of Close-up Magic which deals with this. In any case, Eugene explains that it's never a good thing to become confrontational with people like that. It takes wit and intelligence to pull it off in a way which doesn't reduce the performance to a childish answer, and this skill is something most people don't have, I know I don't. I just chose to be as nice as I can. It seems to work.

I'd also add that you can use these situations to your advantage.Spectator shuffles the deck as you look puzzled taking it back while pausing for a moment''The tricks not gonna work now''.Making light of these situations and turning them into humorous ones is a challenge I enjoy.You will find that moments like this will turn out to be often better than the trick itself.

Usually when I approach a group they have their guards up.The minute you introduce yourself as a magician you will often get a ''You wont trick me remark'' before you establish your character.A simple ''I'm in trouble already,tough crowd'' with a laugh or smile generally works for me.

It's hard to convey the way in which these remarks are said with typing.They are in no way smart *rse answers just light remarks that I feel make me more likable.If you're in the right company and are getting along great with the spectator where you're laughing at one another's jokes there really is no comparing this to anything in all of magic.In my opinion it's the best possible situation to be in when performing magic.It gets to the situation where you're having so much fun that you don't even care if mess up or not

*handing over 79p deck of cards from back pocket* sure, knock yourself out.

If you have done a false shuffle of some sort, and someone wants to shuffle the cards themselves, this is an indication that they do not trust the validity of your actions, and that they feel it is their duty to ensure everything you do is ship-shape and above board. This is a trait only present in people who have no interest in actually watching magic, anybody else is happy with the fact that what they are being presented with, is a small piece of theater for their enjoyment in an intimate environment.
The first group of people, there is nothing you can do that they will be happy with, they will want to establish control over any aspect they feel that if they have a hand in, will catch you in a lie, which is their goal.
These people, I hapily respond with "No" before carrying on the scheduled entertainment. I am not there to pander to anybody who feels they need to get a one up over anybody else, I am not there to provide validity to anybody's ego, I am there to provide a rehearsed, well presented piece of fiction. If they don't want it, they don't have to watch it, though the fact that others do means I am going to do it.
If they insist on asking why, I gladly explain."This is not a game, there is no part of this where I am trying to make you feel like a failure if I manage to get to the end and you haven't worked out the solution to the puzzle, because there is no puzzle. It is merely a short play, a live movie if you like, where I provide you with the excuse to say that you were witness to something that you know is not actually possible. If you are unhappy with that notion, you don't have to watch, but to think that you owe it to the rest of these people to spoil their enjoyment of it, could come across as a little selfish."