talkmagic.co.uk

Well, I've been performing for the public a lot more than usual lately. One of the positives about this is my shakey hands are getting less and less shakey, and I'm getting a lot more confidence.

However, today I performed my handling of Chicago Opener for a friendly customer at the shop who wanted to see something. You know what's coming: I messed it up.

The final reveal of the face-down red back didn'tmatch my specs card. I laughed it off, asked him what his card was and then found it and went directly into another effect using his selection, so it wasn't too terrible, but at the time I was gobsmacked because I had no idea how it was possible to screw that effect up!

I can do it with 100% accuracy in my sleep but apparently not quite so well awake!

After he left I reverse-engineered everything I'd done and realised that I must have culled the card below the red back instead of above (which is how I set the deck up using my own handling) so I deserve a good kick up the *rse, which I've given myself. What an idiot.

I will never make that mistake again but I suppose the good news is that people learn from their mistakes, so I've probably learned something today. Hooray for stupidity!

Thats great.

I dont know why you claim to have a confidence issue while performing when you can spontaneously change the routine where necessary.

Im no magician but isnt that what being a performer is all about? Improvising.

You say Whoopsie, I say 'Well Done'.


Also, a lesson for me for the future. Always have a back-up plan for this kind of incident. One or two tricks that you can easily turn to on the fly.

you should be stupid more often kate when you start off...you learn far more than being spot on really...

and it takes the edge of the nerves, which eventually becomes agony because you start considering more things like working out how different audiences react to different effects...and how to handle people in different settings...(if that goes into innuendo bingo - very poor)...

anyway, well done on messing up!

Magic is really hard to do, especially in front of people! Sorry I forget who said it first.

I quite like messing up a little bit near the start. Well, I don't want to mess up obviously, but once you've done it, it kind of takes the nerves off a bit, for me at least, becasue I've just done the very thing I didn't want to do. I also think that because I don't get paid to do magic, messing up is not too important i.e. My reputation as a magician is not particularly valuable.

Obviously if you were buggering it up all the time, it's an issue but the occasional slip up is fine. Sometiems I actually find it hard to convince them that I have actually messed up and I ususally have to say "no, seriously, I have genuinly got that wrong", I guess they are familiar with the 'success from failure' idea

Sounds like you recovered well, don't sweat it.

queen of clubs wrote:a friendly customer at the shop

Which shop? Assuming its in Leeds due to your location



(Im nosy like that you see)


Mark

Sorry to hear you screwed up, but congrats on turning it around. I too think it's a great way to learn some spontaneity.
Whenever I screw up I ask them what their card was, then show them that it's the only card missing from the deck
and produce it from my pocket, or their pocket, or sometimes what I do is I throw the deck at them and run like hell.

The Magic Herring wrote:Sorry to hear you screwed up, but congrats on turning it around. I too think it's a great way to learn some spontaneity.
Whenever I screw up I ask them what their card was, then show them that it's the only card missing from the deck
and produce it from my pocket, or their pocket, or sometimes what I do is I throw the deck at them and run like hell.

That's a fair point, but I couldn't really do anything like that after the final reveal of Chicago Opener.

From the spec's POV I'd made his first selection become red backed and tabled it. Then I'd failed to find his second selection, and made a big deal of turning over the tabled first selection which then obviously turned out to be just some other random card.

Congratulations Queenie on messing up
Me too! I've been slowly performing a bit more here and there and totally fluffed up a couple of things last night but what I liked about the experience is that I wasn't so hard on myself. It's not THAT important. I am currently inspired by Paul Daniels and feel compelled to share this youtube video that I love of him with Shirley Bassey. How he handles the situation where she drops all the cards she's meant to be shuffling is just awe-inspiring.. and actually enhances the routine! Messing up can be entertaining and can even ADD something and not the end of the world if it's handled well.. and it's always an experience that we learn and grow from... well that's what I have to tell myself so that I push through my learning curve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgNRdxZUUZ8

ps isn't it hot!

I'm very tired from entertaining the great unwashed, so sorry if I don't make sense or ramble on...but I just wanted to say well done Queen of Clubs. You're out there, doing it for real people in a real life situation. The only person who doesn't screw up is the person who doesn't do anything (cue Eye of the Tiger). You know what I mean. Well done - and good news about the hands. It's all good!

There used to be a wonderful little book that was out of print for ages. It was called "Outs, Precautions and Challenges" by Charles Hopkins. It is now in print again and selling for some ridiculously low price. It used to be a hard backed book but is now soft cover.

Beg, buy, borrow or steal this if you do card tricks. It is utterly invaluable. You will never worry about doing a card trick wrong again.

well done with the mess up

Well all do it from time to time, the est thing to do is exactly what you did. Laugh it off and carry on. I messed my a lovely trick that I do all the time the other night. The part I messed up involves tossing a 3 coins from one hand to the other, but at the same time performing a utility switch with a victorian penny. Somehow I'd managed to palm a 2 shilling in the other hand instead of the duplicate penny causing the penny to magically change into 2 shillings and totally messing up my routine.

If you never mess up, you will never learn and improve yourself. In that case, I should be the best magician in the world!

I remember in a thread I made about outs a wile ago, you (queen) told me that you always used an ID as an out. This wouldn't apply for the trick you were doing, but it made me think that the brainwave deck could have worked.

Also, in that same thread I made, the same book was recommended. I bought it, and it was worth way more then I paid for. Good stuff.

Where can said book be found?