talkmagic.co.uk

When you get caught out while doing a trick what is the best way to react? Whenever I have ever messed up in front of my friends I have nothing to say and I feel stupid. I can easily move onto another trick it's just that they don't seem as impressed from then on.

Thanks,
Ludders

In my opinion there are two main parts to learning a trick. You can learn the moves that make up a trick and then you can learn the presentation. Often, the temptation is to go out and perform when you have learnt the moves but this is too early and will lead to you being caught out.

Having learnt the moves, you then begin on your presentation and only when you are confident that you can perform it flawlessly, ten times out of ten should you show it to anyone else. You must resist the temptation to show too early.

However, accepting that things will go off course from time to time, the more familiar you are with how your trick works you should be able to 'bluff' your way out and still find a way to amaze a laymen.

well when i get caught AFTER a trick is done i usally here how they think i did it and even if it is correct i just say "nope thats not how i did it but its a good idea!" i find saying that makes them think i did it some other way and, just like as if i did the trick sucsessfully, they start to rack their brains trying to figure out how i did it
but as for it during a trick like if they catch me on a DL id just put the cards of top of the deck do some SoH like slipping the top card into the middle of the deck while asking them what they thing the top card is then, (or any misdirection you find useful) adn when they get it wrong they ussally feel a little stupid and shut up,

just the way i handle it, hope it helps

Ok I'm assuming you mean completely caught with no way of getting out of it. Obviously in most cases it's possible to get out of it.

It's difficult to type an answer as in cold type without personality behind it, it is just not the same but I've used various methods.

1. Hold up your hands laugh and admit it and then blow them away.
2. Man your good, no one has ever seen that before I can see I'm going to need to show you some real magic.
3. Ok that was just testing your perception skills, I can tell you that you passed with flying colours. Now let me show you ......

The main thing is not to get defensive as this encourages a defence vs attack situation all the above done propely completely disarms them.

those are not for anyone to copy as I'm sure it would be better with your own words but the real thing that makes it work is that you don't treat it like a major disaster, if it's no biggie to you, then it won't be for them and they will soon forget they figured that one trick while there mind is being blown with the next one.

Great advice from dat and the Toad, but my own personal method for getting out of a complete disaster is first of all (as Clive Dunn would say in Dads Army) Don't panic......

The minute you panic....you have lost it, the audience imediately know you have made a mistake...for all they know losing the card, if that is the problem, is all part of the trick....

So here is what I would do, and have done on occasions....ask the spectator to keep thinking of their card....and go to another spectator and ask them to choose another card, now do a fantastic trick with this new spectator and blow them away......now come back to the first spectator and blatently ask them the name or their card while looking through the deck.....say I think your card has disapeared from the deck.

Now quickly find it and cull it or get it somehow to the top of the deck....there are methods of showing it's not in the deck and I have posted this in another post but anyway...you can now palm it off if you wish and produce it from your pocket, wallet, anywhere you like in fact.

Not ideal but gets you out of a situation.

If in fact we are not talking cards here, (as there are so many possible outs with cards) then I think you will have to resort to the advice of dat and practice, practice and more practice until the possibility of failure is so low that it's almost impossible.... that should be the main aim anyway, with any magic you show to lay people, but that's another story...

Ah yes JB but what do you suggest when you are actually caught, ie there is no getting out of it. So for example your stealing their watch you have it half off and they catch you.

Happy Toad wrote:Ah yes JB but what do you suggest when you are actually caught.

I then take your advice and do one of your 1,2 or 3 suggestions....cause when you are caught red handed there is not a lot of out for that.

But if you practice, practice and more practice, like I said, the number of times you will be caught actually red handed, will be almost zero......I only tend to do suff on lay people that I am 100% sure of...

I practice in private, on magician friends and then on family, long before I show any new effect/sleight to the lay public....

If I have any doubts about something, I won't show it....not to a paying audience anyway.....example:

I have Splash Bottle......would love to do it at a table, have practiced it and think I do it quite well, but to me quite well is not good enough......

I think that messing an effect up in the middle of a routine and/or getting caught is not as bad as it sounds. Somebody else suggested in another thread that you should not show any embarrassment and just pretend it to be part of the trick - like it doesn't work all the time. In some mentalism routines people actually fail on purpose just to increase credibility.

It is a problem with the opener and the closer, though. If you screw up the opener, it may indeed be impossible to recover since you have lost your credibility. Especially with people you have never before performed for. If you mess up the closer, people will leave with a bad impression of you. However, with the closer you can just add another effect, while there is no second chance for the openener

I certainly agree with previous posters that practice, practice, and even more practice can help you to decrease the failure rate. But a 100% success rate is impossible, so you should be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them.

Unfortunately, you cannot practice all possible outcomes at home in front of the mirror. There are literally millions of things that can go wrong in the real world which you didn't even consider while working at home.

So at the moment I try to have some backups around in case things go screwy and work on my presentation to incorporate them if necessary.

Just don't be scared and give up, that's the only sure-fire way to permanently fail

I think that messing an effect up in the middle of a routine and/or getting caught is not as bad as it sounds.

Only if you have the right attitude.

Practise is of course a major factor in reducing incedents of being caught but it's very possible to perform an effect perfectly and still be caught, where for example your using a principle that they know about. Also specs can ruin the most well thought out and practised trick by simply ignoring clear instructions or making a sudden grab. Another one is someone sneaking around behind you etc.

Very true what happy toad has said and it brings you back to the importance of managing your audience which you will only be able to do and get better at through performing.

It's worth remembering that there are many effects that rely on the misdirection that's caused by making your specs believe that you've got the trick wrong so it may be worthwhile looking at various routines where this occurs (if you have any) so that you can look at the circumstances of each, and the result. Perhaps you can then adapt to suit.

dat8962 wrote:Very true what happy toad has said and it brings you back to the importance of managing your audience which you will only be able to do and get better at through performing.

It's worth remembering that there are many effects that rely on the misdirection that's caused by making your specs believe that you've got the trick wrong so it may be worthwhile looking at various routines where this occurs

I agree that you have to get your audience management right......It hasn't happened too often, but quite recently I had a couple sneek up behind me while I was performing, I could sense someone was behind me....I just stopped performing and made way for them to move in front....they didn't say anything, they just moved in front and I carried on...

However, there has been the odd occasion in the past when I have had people get annoyed that I had caught them trying to suss me out from
behind...Has anyone got any tips on what you would say to the ones that get annoyed in this situation.....I just state that I like to see the audience I am performing to so I know who everyone is....that has seemed to work in the past.....

On sucker effects/routines.....I like them, and I perform one as an opener quite often.......

I've found people trying to watch from behind but not often. I pull the cards close to my body and then say, 'for the benefit of those watching behind' and I then turn around so that they can see the backs of the cards too.

You can comment on this to the audience and it will sometimes get a chuckle.

Wow! Thanks for all your advice. I just have to avoid panicking so I can actually concentrate on getting myself out of the problem. All you guys have been really helpful. I'm always open to more tips because I want to learn

it may sound silly but i actually like to get caught, especially if the spectator doesn't actually know what he has caught. For example, using an invible deck and accidentally you push over a card too far so they see a face down card, well, i go through in a similar manner showing that there are loads, then i say, now of allof these cards that are the wrong way, i can tell you trhat this one here is yours, and pull it out. they never have any idea of how it done after that. It may not be as impressive but it stoops me from getting too embarrassed.
Please delete this post if it is classed as exposure.

I think that this is a very riky approach that reduces the lay person's perception of skill by revealing that the trick is definately in the deck. The joy of the ID is that the eyes see a full spread deck with a single card face down. Showing many face down cards will in my opinion make the specs think that all of your remaining tricks are also 'self workers'. Not meaning to offend but there's not really an excuse for performing to an audience incorrectly with the ID and then semi exposing the secret as a get out.

When they next see another magician then their thoughts will be the same, therefore devaluing that magicians time,effort and more importantly, skill.