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Hi Chapps,

I Thought it would be interesting to build a catalog of amusing quotes that we recieve from spectator's whilst performing.

I had this idea after chuckling at my brother watching me perform Jumping Gemini for him and his mate.

I was at the stage in the trick, just doing a fancy little Deminishing Count and got to the last card.

Brother says: "I saw that..."
I Say: "Saw what?"
Brother says: "I dont know.."
Mate says: "yeah, i saw it too .."
I Say: "saw what?"
both of them ... *blank, confused expressions ...*

Love it when they think they've caught somthing. Another favourite has to be when you're running through and ACR and place a card in the middle, and say "did you see the move?" ... to save face the spec replies "Yep, of course i did" ... you then DL and say "funny, i didnt do it yet" ehehe ... then go all Erdanase on them.

Look forward to hearing from you guys on your experiences.

Rob

Love it when they think they've caught somthing.

Personally I hate it because it usually means they saw something suspect but can't explain it, but that's another issue

I remember one night at a restaurant gig, a lady screamed really loudly when two red aces changed to two black aces in her hands. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen because everybody looked round at her, but she was too busy freaking out to notice. Her husband did go a very bright shade of pink though.

I do alot of magic in Night Clubs, so I come accross alot of "tipsy" people. I was doing my Ambitious Card routine for a particularly drunken chap and I got to the point were he places the card in the middle and then snaps his fingers over the top of the deck and then turns over the top card. His little face lit up when he saw his card back on top, it was so funny. He just fell back in his seat chuckling to himself and grinning like the Chesire Cat. I couldn't get him to do anything else and had to use somebody else. He kept nudging the girl next to him, going "did you see that!?" Very funny.

I think i'll agree with that Will,

Giggling Girls and Drunken spectators always give good reactions ... if they are Drunk and a Giggly Girl then god help you ... its going to be noisy.. a good time to perform Jay Sankey's Ear Plugs routine? eheh

Rob

Drunken spectators always give good reactions ...

Sometimes I have this internal debate with myself as to whether or not I'm taking advantage of people in their inebriated state, but then I remember why I'm there; I'm being paid to make sure people have a good time! If they're drunk and enjoying themselves, all the better for me

While we're on the subject of drunken reactions, I found something really helpful when you have rowdy drunken specators is a simple card change. This isn't a specific instance, but if you do a simple DL and then ask them what the card in their hand is, it usually catches their tongue (or too pi**ed off to talk). I know that technically you're making fun of them but I think handling it this way is justified, because all of the emphasis is on them and you're not actively mocking them. Just a thought.

GoldFish wrote:I remember one night at a restaurant gig, a lady screamed really loudly when two red aces changed to two black aces in her hands.

My auntie did that, except I changed them into Jacks. How funny is it

ace of kev wrote:

GoldFish wrote:I remember one night at a restaurant gig, a lady screamed really loudly when two red aces changed to two black aces in her hands.

My auntie did that, except I changed them into Jacks. How funny is it

Just out of interest, and totally off topic, were you doing the "2 Card Monte" effect?

I love those sort of transposition/magical change effects, especially when they happen in the spectator's hands. I think they can get some of the strongest reactions possible. It is very true that magic is strongest when it happens in the spectators' hands. Something all close up workers should bear in mind.

While performing 'spooked' to a lady she said "oohh my God, should you mess with voodoo!" (and i think she was serious as she went white!)

Oher 'Spooked' reactions have been a child claiming he can see the invisible mouse that performs 'spooked' (if you have this effect then you can guess the patter i used).

I remember a magician friend of mine was doing the pen through note thing (perfect penetration to be exact ) for this really dunk girl in a night club. After the second penetration she grabbed the fiver to have a look, then she took the pen and actually pushed a hole through the note! My friend thought he'd just give it a go though and he just pushed the paper back over the hole and blew on it aparently healing the note. The look on her face was incredible, and she just walked off holding her head Fantastic

My favorit reaction that i ever got was when i was doin a trick similar to the the hitman trick cept my ending the card changes in their hands. i did it one time and the girl completly freaked out. She screamed, jumped back and threw the card away. It was great

kemo

I just had a really interesting experience whilst performing which had nothing to do with a trick.

When I go upto a table I ask if I may join them for a few minutes and then explain that I'm the magician.

When I asked a group of girls if I could join them, one of them piped up with "What, are you some kind of pervert or something?"

From that point on I explained I was the magician and then asked if I could join them for a few minutes.

Unfortunatly Will, that's a risk your run when you forget to tuck your willy back in your trousers after a mid-act trip to the bathroom

I knew I'd forgotten something

Ha! This topic is hilarious! No, dont stop, you're killing me!

The first time i did The Biddle Trick was to my dad at our house when there were a few friends round having a few beers. When i revealed his chosen card, everybody screamed and my dad absolutel freaked and fell backwards off his chair!

I was performing a trick last nigh to a person I just met...

effect is that the card is selected and put on the side (not looked at)...then the person takes 10-20 cards off from deck and counts them at loud....I then make him/her sit on the cards...then we take a look at the slected card and I say that no matter what number is on that card that many cards will "fly" from my hands to the ones he/she is sitting on...

after I made the first card "move" I usually ask "Did you feel anything"....and here's the reaction that even got me confused....the guy said with amazement on his face and in his voice "Yes..at the moment you asked I felt something moving under my a**"....

I thought he was joking but he was 100% serious and horrified as he really DID felt something....I don't know who was more amazed..him or me...

I'm pretty un-experienced when performing to people and this "I believe 100% in magic" reaction got me really confused..is this common or?

In this day and age, there are very few people who actually believe in magic. However, as magicians, it's our job to make them believe, even if its only for a few moments. When something like that happens, the challenge for us is to take advantage of it rather than just ride along on a mutual amazement. If you can take advantage of that situation you can create miracles

Soemthing else hit me about a reaction I got on a train once. I'd just been up to MagicBox in Newcastle and I was on the train home and in a magical kind of mood. I'd been smoking pot. JOKING! Don't do drugs kids. But I had a deck of cards out and was practising to my self, just going through moves, shuffles, cuts etc. I noticed a couple directly opposite me to my left and the guy was watching me out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't realised that I'd sen him, so I started doing my fanciest cuts and shuffles, all the flourishy sort of stuff. When I got to the hotshot cut I managed to shoot the card quite high and catch it perfectly, almost without looking. From the direction of the couple I heard,

"F***ing hell! Did you see that!?"

I just grinned to my self and carried on practising.