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Just wondered what examples people on here have got for seeing their specs so engrossed in the tricks they see that for a split second at least they actually beleive it's magic. I only ask because this afternoon I've tried a new start to my ACR, where the specs chosen card appears at a numbered location in the deck chosen by them.

As part of this trick, and then on into my ACR, I explain that the spec has to merely click their fingers, once they have established a connection with their card, and it will always come to them. This, I explain, is how magicians perform their most impressive tricks.

After showing this to a colleague this afternoon, I left the room, and when I returned he had the deck of cards in his hand, and he was clicking his fingers trying to get his card to appear. Now if this was a 12 year old boy, or a, how do I put it, slightly 'slower' member of the community, then fine, but this is a respectable middle aged man in a well paid job!

I've also seen people blow a five pound note in their hands and try to make it vanish, and try and bite a coin in the past

I've had someone stare at their watch for two hours, trying to get it to stop after I have told them I merely think 'stop' and it's a case of mind over matter, similar to techniques used by Shaolin Monks to perform their feats of endurance.
It's astonishing how many people believe these things. Which is why patter is so important and the ability to say things with conviction and answer all their questions in a (to their mind) satisfactory way.
I find that people from cultures which believe in black magic or 'holy men' tend to think you have magic powers first before even thinking there may be trickery involved.

I've had a guy tell me that I'm a Mistress of the black arts, before turning tail and pretty much running out of the pub I was in. That's the strongest reaction I've ever had and if I remember correctly it was from a book test.

I've also had people blowing on a sponge ball to get it to multiply.

I do that old self-working "shuffle the aces" trick as a phoney explanation to a poker routine where I stack the deck for whatever hand they want. I tell them that all they have to do is go through this process (cut the cards, move four from the top to the bottom, put one on every other pile, ad infinitum) and they'll be able to reproduce the trick. I wish I had a dollar for every time I had a spec come back to me days, weeks, or even months later telling me they couldn't get it to work.

I think that, while we're at it, we should tell the audience we're the Queen. They'll believe anything, won't they?

When I've mentioned hypnosis, I've had people cover their eyes and run away!

I only got my 4 years old daughter to snap her fingers to make the Ambitous Card pop up It's not much, but I just started you know. Hehehehehe.

Lord Freddie wrote:When I've mentioned hypnosis, I've had people cover their eyes and run away!

People seem much more likely to believe anything if you hint that there might be hypnosis, suggestion or psychology involved.

I do a find the lady type effect where I get the spec to hide the lady somewhere in 4 other cards and use 'psychology' to find it every time. More people than not totally believe what I'm telling them.

I had a grown man run away into the corner or the room and crawl under the table and hold his head in his hands over a balducci levetation

And this girl shaking rather scarily and completely loosing a normal speech pattern after the reveal in to card monte.. when I showed her signed card in wallet during ACR, one of the few times I ever had a spec sign a card, she looked like she might need to go to hospital.. she was paler than Michael jackson I thought she was going to be sick

i kind of feel bad if a speccy is emotionally discturbed by magic

There are a couple of ways of looking at this and the most important is which style of magic you are doing; Mentalism and Bizarre Magick both had a natural psychology that invokes belief when they are done properly. This is very different form traditional magic where you get them playing with your sponge balls or cups trying to find the secret panels, etc.

I've had people break down crying, begging me to stop during my Seance acts and literally had more than a few wet themselves. To me, this is a higher sort of kudo than mere applause... it means I'm doing my job right.

One of the reasons most of us got into magic was to evoke this sense of wander from people so they see us as being more than mere mortals.

I was sitting at dinner in a resturant with a group of fellow martial artists, all of whom have many years in the martial arts and all know that I'm a magician. I began to do a little PK type movement with the silverware, one of the other guy's glasses, the waiter's pen, etc. using an I.T. Loop. They all believed it was Chi being used and that I was some super great master who had learned to so focus chi. They all wanted to know how to develop this power. So I made up some c**k and bull story about some exercise for an hour a day standing squat like ur straddle a motorcycle, that was about 2 years ago. Those guys are still standing like they are on a motorcycle every day.

I think exploitation of others' naiveness has a line that's too ambiguous. It's different for every person. I did "Improv Screwed Deck" By Paul Harris for a friend of mine once. He's the type of person who's genuinely intelligent and (more or less) rational, but whose ego slightly precedes them. He was floored. His usually somber expression broke into one of astonishment. He didn't change a bit, though.
To me, that is the ideal reaction. If anyone has good reason to think (or know) otherwise, I would honestly love to hear it. I like having my POV change.

I have had two reactions that come under this category, but for different reasons.

Firstly I did a simple TT vanish of a silk and then reappeared it. The wife of a colleague who was watching picked up the silk and spent a good hour stuffing it in to her left hand and opening her hand expecting it to have disappered. I think this was simply a matter of her thinking the silk was some kind of gimmick which would just work for anyone.

The other experience I had was doing the basic ESP pack trick of giving my niece 5 cards, getting her to lay them out in a line and then I laid out my five cards to match hers. It was months after when I slightly screwed up another mentalism piece with somebody at a new years eve party that she referred back to it and said that I should have used her for the effect because she knew I could read her mind. She was dead serious about it and that was rather spooky.

I was doing bip book once and when it came to the reveal I forgot the shape in the middle so I guessed and got it wrong but she said she was thinking of the wrong shape {the one I guessed} to try and put me off but I ended up freaking her out even more and she run screaming outside and didn't come back.

slightly similar to photius, i was performing for two guys (steady!), one used to box, another kick boxes, i used to box, and study wado-ryu...

anyway, i was doing some pure suggestion work with them...i had the kick boxing guy push as hard as he could with both hands into my one hand and he couldnt move my hand one inch, i took his strength away all kinds of things...it was great fun...

i'd dressed it up as a form of chi energy...he freaked, he wanted to learn it, and he mentioned it to his sensai too, who immediately invited me down to his dojo to discuss it all...loved that reaction...

i didnt go though incase he whacked me with a bo staff or something to test me...