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Whats your favourite put down line?

"Save your breathe, you'll need it later to blow up your girlfriend"

can anyone beat that?

Woah! Firstly there have been several threads on this sort of thing before and secondly put-down lines aren't the best way of winning around hecklers.

Seconded Cardza. I prefer not to alienate my audiences either!

I agree with Cardza and Tomo, not a good thing to do.

If you happen to be 6ft 7" tall like me - how about F*** off or I'll deck ya

Always seems to work wonders for me

I agree with Cardza,Tomo and stepehmagic, we are magicians, we are supposed to entertain people not to laugh at them.

dat, there's some exceptions

I understand what you are all saying but there are times to use them so I still feel the post is relevant.

dat8962 wrote:If you happen to be 6ft 7" tall like me - how about F*** off or I'll deck ya

Always seems to work wonders for me

what if they heckle your hamster

I agree with tomo.

Peter Crouch is 6 foot 7.
I hope im that tall one day...

Peter Crouch is a bean pole though

Heckle the Hamster and that WILL upset me ( because it upsets my daughter)

On a serious note - it's never worth putting someone down. It's your own reputation that will ultimately suffer. When you perform - that's your shop window and you're not only entertaining for the person that's paying you, you're entertaining a whole room of potential future clients. If the person that you put down goes and tells dozens of people that you're a poor magician then who's the one who ultimately suffers?

I would avise that if the worst comes to the worst and you just can't shake a person off who's heckling you when you're performing, ask to have a word with him/her or tell the person that booked you and let them have a word.

You just have to be polite and say that you're working and trying to entertain people and that their behaviour is spoiling it for everyone. If that fails then pack up and go home and you've got every reason to still claim your fee.

We are not paid to take abuse.

i have on the very rare occasion used a harry hill line:

"you may heckle me now, but im safe in the knowledge that when i get home i have a lovely roast chicken in the oven..."

and that was to a drunken by-stander not people i was performing for...the only other time i just stopped doing what i as doing and asked everyone to turn round and listen to him babble, which we all did in complete silence...

then you can just say "have you finished now? good..." and carry on as normal...smile, still be nice, thank him for his comments...

I find that most hecklers are not trying to spoil your act. In fact if you get somebody shout out it is probably because you have made them feel part of the show. In which case welcome the heckle and have fun with it. I find that most hecklers are just after attention, to deal with this I have 2 or 3 routines I keep in my pocket on stage, just in case. The routines make the heckler part of the show, in fact for five minutes they will be the star! This wins the audience over and the heckler will be no problem.

In the event that you get a nasty heckler (one that's sole job is to ruin the show), remember that the audience will be on your side. The first time they call out I would pause, shug my shoulders, look at the audience, raise an eyebrow and carry on with my act.

I would repeat the above step on the second heckle and on the third heckle I would ask for him to be removed before the show continue.

The reason for this is that with this type of heckler any type of response will give him fuel to respond back to you. The audience will not like you as much if you throw "heckler stoppers" at him. Rather than just leaving the stage, you are giving the organiser the choice of the showing continuing by stating that if the show is to continue the heckler must be removed.

Please note that in most cases you will just get a heckler that wants to be part of the show and will be thrilled to star in their own trick for 5 minutes on stage. Also I have never had to result in giving the booker an ultimatum on stage, because I guess if the audience like you then they probably won't be nasty.

Dealing with hecklers is a very subjective act. It all depends on situations.

In 'the old days' I found it hard sometimes to bite my tongue and act the diplomat, but occasionally upon losing my patience I was totally guilty of making someone look a right plonker purely for self-satisfaction.

Probably why I never got too far as a performance artist !!!

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