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Last night I had a spec that was rather harrassing me with various genral comments about shuffling, seeing the cards, handling things, etc. As per usual, I ignored him and focussed on the remainder of the table (who incidently invited me over to their table specifically)

It go fun when I noticed the remainder of the group was getting on him a bit to "shut up" and in the middle of an effect he hollared "let me shuffle them buddy...bet you can't do it with me shuffling the cards"

As luck would have it, I had just opened a fresh deck the table before, and happened to have the remnants of the previously used deck in my pocket.

Without acknoledging his comment, I immediately moved to a charlier and with the other hand pulled out the old deck and all in one moment said "here you can play with these if you are feeling a bit left out" and proceeded to shuffle/cut one handed and continue with the routine.

He was left speechless standing their holding the deck, and everyone at the table laughed at him, all while not missing a beat in my routine.

In those noisy boisterous venues where you are bound to get cheekiness (out and back) I think I will start carrying an old deck in my pocket...it worked well.

moodini wrote:...bet you can't do it with me shuffling the cards"

I love it when they say that - it's got to be what the card to wallet was invented for

Farlsborough wrote:

moodini wrote:...bet you can't do it with me shuffling the cards"

I love it when they say that - it's got to be what the card to wallet was invented for

Tooo funny...that is exactly what I hit with evertime I get a difficult spec that I want to hit hard early so they back up. Good old wallet!

Agreed - not only is it strong, but it makes perfect sense too. "You want to bet, do you? How much?" (reaches for wallet whilst handing them the deck... and there we go )

I've had this a couple of times, I just palmed the important card off the top of the deck, let them do their shuffle and carried on as normal.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I've had this a couple of times, I just palmed the important card off the top of the deck, let them do their shuffle and carried on as normal.

Done it this way as well....but wasn't in the mood to allow this guy to take the attention he was striving for in a positive way. Some specs would shuffle then be happy that you managed to pull it off, but he was certainly one of those guys taht would have shuffled, that wouldn't have been enough, so he would have looked through the deck to ensure the card was till there, or would have taken a random card and then said something ridiculous like "make the signed card chagne places with the card in my hand then hotshot!" You know the kind of guy I am talking about....where just regular coddling won't suffice, he needs to be the star of his own show.

There's something you can do to specs like this; what i do is let them shuffle the cards as they deem appropriate and cut the deck as many times as they like. Then tell them to look me in the eye, and not to avert their gaze. I then life the cards up to their eye level, buckle them, and let them spring into their fizzog. Once they've been successfully misdirected by this manouevre, i proceed to headbutt them into a fine paste.

I then move on to another effect, and the audience is in the palm of my hand.

I hate these sorts of people, they seem to love to get one up on the magician. The last couple of times I've just looked them in the eye, put on a flat voice and said, 'well that would just mess up the trick wouldn't it'. Completely throws them off their stride and lets you carry on with the magic.