talkmagic.co.uk

A topic I wanted to throw out to you all that I thought might be quite interesting...
What are the most interesting bogus explanations/rationalisations you get from laymen for your effects?

For example I was thinking about how recently I've had a spate of laymen asking if my deck of cards is a stripper deck (not exactly in those words), whereas when I first started they frequently asked if it was a svengali (yet again not in those words). The point being I rarely (if ever) use either, they've just assumed that they're gaffed when I produce a pack of cards (before I've even done an effect).

My real favourite rationalisation though has to be one I get when I change a card that the speccy is holding for another card (maybe using a dl), and they confidently declare that the heat of their hand has changed the card (ie heat sensitive ink).

So I was wondering what are the wildest explanations you get? Alternatively have you noticed explanations change as you've progressed (ie svengali to stripper)?

Just a random thread and apologies if this has been covered before (I've always wanted to achieve some sinbin infamy)...

I did the color changing deck for my mother. After the decks changed color she bellowed out:

"YOU CHEATED!"

Which left me sitting there lost for words really. After a few seconds past all I could come up with was:

"Mum... it's a magic trick"

On saturday night I was accused of having cards printed with special ink, as you mentioned, this guy thought the ink was moveable!!! it made me chuckle and I said Ok you caught me!! so I took the card and put it right by rubbing it on his head then showed him it was back to normal. He spent 10 minuites trying to move the ink around the card!

What seriously freaked me out about a year ago was when I performed something for a new magician. I laid four cards out in a row, got the person to think of any card and then turn over any of the cards laid out. It was using two psychological forces and was obviously risky. Well anyway - the card he thought of was the card he turned over - and there seriously wasn't any sleight of hand etc. I was thrilled. He said "Oh, I know - you're using a stripper deck!" - I hadn't even touched the cards
One of the reasons I gave up on cards..

I hate the person who invented the Stripper deck ! Now the Svengali deck is another story, as without it we would not have the Mental Photography Deck and Kids Kards which are two wonderful effects !

After using the ID two consecutive times for the same spectator I was told that I have the ability to locate and spin the selected card around quicker than the human eye can detect! What a super sleight that would be! I guess I could take that as a compliment !

When I do rope magic for kids and I change the rope into an endless loop they have accused me on a number of occasions for throwing glue on the ends of the rope to make them stick together. I tell you the kids of today are such sceptics !

the worst rationalisation I've ever had was the bloody woman last year who insisted that I was psychic, I just didn't know it, even after I told her I wasn't. Not even the marked deck I used to "read her mind" was psychic, but would she listen...?

Tomo wrote:the worst rationalisation I've ever had was the bloody woman last year who insisted that I was psychic

Hmm let's see - I've had surgery to put magnets in my fingers, and my favourite - "You're just using your eyes to make it bend!"

taneous wrote:Hmm let's see - I've had surgery to put magnets in my fingers, and my favourite - "You're just using your eyes to make it bend!"

That is priceless!!!

When I was at primary school, someone tried to tell me about David Nixon having surgery to install a skin pocket in his hand!

Brilliant!

That's actually what gets me the most, when people rationalise what you're doing with some completely unbelievable explanation!

(obviously I'm not talking about your eyes Taneous, even the ones on your avatar make my fillings fall out)

"obviously I'm not talking about your eyes Taneous, even the ones on your avatar make my fillings fall out"

is that a euphamism Flash?

A strange one i had wasn't a comment, but she got up and started looking for mirrors all around her...aha - it was my trusty Thought Transmitter...

I've had a few of the psychic ones. But my favourites are:

- Doing MR with a woman's hand resting on the back of my hand. She says I do it by feeling her pulse change. Er how exactly?

- Doing a swami to get the name of a lady's first guniea pig when she was a kid. She says "Jim must have told you". Oh sure, Jim and I talk of little else but guinea pig names.

- Doing a swami for a number, like 6372. She says - Does eveyone choose that number? What????

abraxus wrote:is that a euphamism Flash?

No it's true! Really it is, my dentist thinks he's great. Does'nt that happen to everone?

(Flash frantically looks around him for mirrors and checks the keyboard for special hallucinigenic ink in the vain hope of explaining the inexplicable)

ian69 wrote:Doing a swami to get the name of a lady's first guniea pig when she was a kid. She says "Jim must have told you". Oh sure, Jim and I talk of little else but guinea pig names

mine relates to an ID.

i was actually accused of mind reading and possessing psychic powers. that of itself to make some of you laugh... but anyway.

i am on a train from HKG to China to visit some manufacturers i am working with. the length of the trip is around 3 hours. 1 hour is "within HKG and it's territories", the rest within mainland China. it's important to understand that the first 40 - 50 minutes of this trip are very intense. everyone on the phone non stop trying to finalise last minute business before you get to the China boarder at which time your HKG phone card immediately STOPS!!!

so on this particular day, i am on the train with a colleague. the train is made up of groups of 4 seats on each side of the centre isle, 2 seats facing 2 seats. the train departs and i have a problem with my cell phone. so i turn it off. i am sitting and waiting, observing. i see the girl sitting opposite me, she takes a few calls, she opens her note book to check some numbers, makes some more calls. eventually we get to the border and everything slows down. we all start to chat. my friend asks me if i have any new magic to offer, help pass the time. so i produce my I.D. it just works out better that i decide to perform the I.D on the stranger sitting opposite than my friend sitting to my left.

so i run through my usual mind manipulation routine, i can tell what kind of card you are most likely to choose, my job now is to converse with you a little and try and lead you to making the right selection... naturally everyone watching is shocked that the card she freely selected is in fact the ONLY card turned upside down in the deck.

"so how is that possible???" she says. my reply, "i can influence your thoughts, not only that i can read what you thinking..."

at this point i began to bewilder this stranger sitting opposite by "guessing" her name, what kind of business she was in, where in Hong Kong she lived, etc... i am accused of being a witch, she even asked me to read her palm, something i can not do. a true psychic she calls me, "i've heard of people like you!!! my grandfather does this type of thing as well" she says.

she could not believe it, and neither could my colleague sitting to my left. so the day is over and we are on our way back to HKG. my colleague says to me, "i have been puzzling all day about how you did that, how you could know so much about that girl... and i know what you did!"

i smile expecting my colleague has twigged to the fact that every bit of info i gleaned was "given" to me unwittingly by the stranger in the first hour or so of our journey.

so how did my colleague decide i performed these feats of psychic amazement? simple... she says, "you arranged for that girl to be sitting there in advance! it was a total set up and you knew her all along".

Colour Monte
This one happened to me very recently:

Whilst performing the 'Colour Monte', I kept getting the usual jibe about there being more than three cards from the speccy (which, personally, I think ruins the story if they say this pre-climactically).

At the end, when I triumphantly showed there were in fact only three cards, I got accused of using special cards with mini LCD screens on them ?!?!?!?!

When I actually stated that the material objects of the effect were worth about £1, and actually GAVE them the cards, I got some form of recognition for the skills involved to perform the trick.

Spongeball routine
Another favourite was earlier in the year, when I had the pleasure of performing at a friend's wedding anniversary...

I was performing a spongeball routine (which is very close to Eugene Burger's excellent routine using mini spongeballs) which I had done hundreds of times... based on simple vanishes, productions and multiplications.

At the end of the effect, one guy (who was as nissed as a pewt and quite obnoxious) decided to try and explain how I'd managed to vanish and produce the balls...

He *told* (not asked) me that I was using 'one of those thumb thingys'. Now, I can only assume he meant a you-know-what.

And it was a pleasure to disprove that theory.

THEN! his explanation became even more convoluted and bizarre...

"The balls expand with moisture, I've seen them before... they start as little dots you could have up your nails"

Right? What?

Anyway, to his embarrasment, it fizzled out.

genius...sponge-nailed *issed-pants...