you know we all screw up one time or another

Struggling with an effect? Any tips (without giving too much away!) you'd like to share?

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you know we all screw up one time or another

Postby GooGooDolls » Nov 30th, '06, 23:23



we all sometime or another will screw up while doing magic no matter what. Copperfields done it a little bit and also many other famous magicians have had things not go as planned. So I have posted this hoping other magicians like myself would have an outs to when you screw up an effect or something breaks and have a saying you use to win back the audience. thanks if anyone would be willing to answer this question.

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Postby Sir_Digby_Chicken_Ceaser » Nov 30th, '06, 23:36

"Bl***y tesco value magic tricks, can't argue with the price but the quality is shocking, Lets have a look how Asda Basics fairs up (pulls out different trick)

Sam :D

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Postby Figo » Nov 30th, '06, 23:42

I'm sloppy but I'm funny

hey everyone it's a floor show

is it gravity or does the earth suck

my lifes full of mistakes ,this ones keeping me company

it's all part of the show .... the part i didn't rehearse

or i'll make it look like i meant to screw up by working in another trick.

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Postby resdog » Nov 30th, '06, 23:55

There is a book out there called, the Complete Idiot's Guide to Magic. If you mess up a trick...look confused, then pull out this book and flip through a few pages. Then move on to another effect.

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Postby Mage Tyler » Dec 1st, '06, 01:22

Speaking of which, Magic for Dummies isn't a bad book for basics and beginners.

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Postby Lady of Mystery » Dec 1st, '06, 11:37

I love the idiots guide to magic book idea. I'm going to get myself a copy for that purpose. :D :D

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Postby mark lewis » Dec 1st, '06, 13:37

If you screw up doing card tricks on a regular basis then it would be incumbent upon you to beg, borrow or steal a little known volume entitled "Outs, Precautions and Challenges" by Charles Hopkins. This has every out known to man and a few more. Card tricks only though.

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Postby Jordan C » Dec 1st, '06, 13:55

My horoscopes said not to do this trick today.......

Stupid gravity :(

Now you may be thinking that I've messed up..... and you'd probably be right...... or have I done it on purpose so that you think I'm even better when I do this ...... (insert some kind of production or whatever and move on to next trick!)

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Postby BrunoAlex » Dec 2nd, '06, 18:18

It depens on the mistake.

One time I messed up a card trick and ended up revealing a 5 of clubs when the selected card was a 10. I said something like "This is the half-right trick, wanna see the full version?".

If I don't get that lucky, I just ask "What was your card?", the run through the deck and cull that card to the top or bottom (discreetly) and perform some sort of colour change, changing the wrong card into the right one. Never fails.

Also, I do a lot of tricks where I intentionally mess up, so after a few of those people assume that all my mistakes are on purpose! I then fix it up and move right along.

If I flash something that the audience is not supposed to see, like a face up card in the middle of the deck, I say something like "What's this doing here?", toss the cards out and do some other trick.

Just use your imagination :wink:

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Postby Renato » Dec 2nd, '06, 18:26

I agree. When you're put on the spot, you will - unless things have gone catastrophically wrong - find a way to get out of it. I was doing Bannon's Beyond Fabulous today, I'd obviously messed up an earlier part and failed to hit the final Ace. A little bit of work, a simple colour change and there it was, getting great reactions.

It's why a good working knowledge of the basics is so important

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Postby I.D » Dec 3rd, '06, 20:27

If they spot a card that was meant to be a reveal or lets sa, reversedin the deck, i say something like ' No way,thats the card I was thinking of.. and move onto a new trick.. you can always come back to that one later

I dont mess up often, but when I do.. often when drinkin :lol: just make a joke of it.. like said above, they will often assume that it is part of the trick.. so w while later make it work for you

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Postby Lady of Mystery » Dec 4th, '06, 11:36

I find that you can usually get away with quite serious flashes and still no one will notice. Just by keeping calm and acting like nothing has happened will often get you out of hot water.

If they do spot something, I usually have a couple of reserve tricks or alternative finishes waiting up my sleve to save the day.

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Postby GooGooDolls » Dec 4th, '06, 23:36

I know some of copperfields outs on his stuff if it goes wrong are.
if you hear an illusion fall apart you see copperfield say we are auctioning off a new illusion.

other things I have seen him do when he tripped walking down the set of steps of the stage copperfield says I can't walk down the set of steps however, i can vanish the statue of liberty.

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Postby Mage Tyler » Dec 5th, '06, 01:29

If you do any mentalism you can quickly divert attention saying "I'm getting a psychic vision - in my experience it's best to act on these immediately when they come". Move into a quick mentalism bit. If you want (or the spectators want) go back to the trick after wards, otherwise just drop that one and move on.

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Postby GooGooDolls » Dec 5th, '06, 07:33

you can always say if you screw up on a mentalism effect you could start off the effect lets try an experiement if you fail it will get them thinking you are actually reading there minds and if you miss a couple times it looks like it really is hard not to burst Craig Browning bubble :D but it could make for a good effect.

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