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I'm coming to the defense of Sankey. I once asked him how much of his published material he actually uses. His response was straight up. He said that he gives his material to Richard Kaufman, everything is true and tried. Kaufman then decides what is going into the book (This was back in the mid 90's) and while he has audience tested everything he ever submitted he freely admited that he does not perform most of what goes into those books on a regular basis. I think you would find that true of most in his situation. He is a creator, writer innovater. There is simply too much material to keep in his repetoir. And yes, all that patter about this being my favourite etc sells.

My answer to the original question is first you have to decide if the audience knows you messed up. Most of the time they are clueless about what is supposed to happen. However if it is blatent like your zombie falls and splits in two and you are left holding the (blank, blank) then just laugh it off and move along.

Can I add another question to the topic? How do people handle things when the spectator DELIBERATELY doesn't follow instructions and effectively messes up the trick? This happened to me recently when my spectator starting dealing from the bottom of the deck instead of the top. When I asked her to deal from the top her reply was "No, I want to deal from the bottom - I'm smarter than you aren't I". How I laughed

cragglecat wrote:Can I add another question to the topic? How do people handle things when the spectator DELIBERATELY doesn't follow instructions and effectively messes up the trick?

I think there are two aspects to this. First, there's the opportunity to redesign the trick later to remove the point that a spec can muck it up for you on purpose. The second is handling the spec's expectation. My general method is to be seem disappointed that they'd be deliberately difficult, while not drawing any attention to what it is they did. To do that, I try to make it look like I've rumbled them before they mucked anything up and ask why they asked to see something interesting if they're only going to try to make a mess of it.

Actually, there's a third, much more preferable aspect: avoiding the situation in the first place!

"That isn't your card????? Really????.....my mother didn't raise a quitter, so lets do that one 51 more times and it is bound to be right eventually.....go ahead and pick another card"

From there start a new trick and you have acknowledged it, they get a laugh at selecting another card and away you go to the races....if the card was signed and I can casually locate and control it while performing the next couple effects, I will do something with it.

I like to mercury it and put it into my pocket....then have it show up as my final cup and ball load....then I can say...."well now that is why the first one didn't work....it was under the cup all along!"

Can almost give the impression that you must have been play acting the first time around....and it was all part of the routine.

Have also done it to my wallet, shoe, just about anyplace......doesn't always work out to be possible, but when it works to reproduce the card later why not improvise.....have a card folded in a paper clip on the talbe throughout the performance - sort of sankey Paperclipped style - you can possibly control and mercury to paperclip....just another thought.

I tend to go with something along the lines of

"Hang on a second, this is all trickery! This guy's not a wizard at all!"

That tends to work as long as your audience isn't too young...

Elliot the Hawk had me in stitches, seriously funny stuff. The missing joker to dove production at the end was inspired.

The vid clip was quite funny......anyone know for sure if this was intended to be comedy/magic or was it his way of using comedy to cover the slip?

Looked like a tightly rehearsed but excellently acted routine to me.

Thanks for your great responses. A few days ago I messed up on a trick and everyone saw it, I simply said, "Well I guess you now know how that trick works." I felt so stupid because of how bad I messed up but these will really help at least the spectators to get a laugh out of the mess up. The only one I could think of was, "Oops now I look like david blaine." (I have noticed a lot of people i have performed to like to make fun of him and criss angle,most of them think they have some dumb tricks. Personally I love some of there tricks but I am just saying this to make the spec laugh).

Brandon

(when dropping cards/coins/... on the floor:)

"Oh, sorry, last time I performed on the International Space Station - I've got so used to a non-gravity environment..."

Then do a levitation/IT effect for proof.


Another standard way to recover if you're not sure whether you just did a DL or accidentally a triple one (happened to me before):
"This isn't your card, is it?" - if "yes", then you're safe, if "no", then go "See, I told you it isn't, now, that's 51 to go."


Another idea is something like this: Say you messed up a cf and the person points to the card one to the left. Just go "Why?" in a very serious and concerned tone as if something was wrong with their choice, this completely throws the spectator, they'll look at you with a questioning face at which point you apologise "Sorry, just joking, take it" and thereby dropping the right card on the table.

Messed up last night.
My spectator was supposed to hold a cup up high and pour salt from it (david williams style)
Dropped the cup,, and lost the salt.

Simply took the cup from the spectator, poured some coffee, and thanked them for making sure it was empty and clean, and took a coffee break!(coffee did taste a bit salty though)