talkmagic.co.uk

Just thought I'd post here about how my first few public tricks went. Been practising heavily for 5 - 6 months, bought hundreds of pounds worth of gear & have decided I like card stuff best.
As I DJ I have a good oppurunity to foist myself on punters & for the first time tonight I strolled around the tables doing some tricks.

(Being a DJ I'm not shy at gigs but surprisingly felt shy approaching tables & asking if they wanted to see a trick.)

Anyway the first trick, Eliminator. This is supposed to be done in the punters hands while the magis back is turned. Doing this trick on family has proved no way, so I kept an eye on the punters dealing the cards out & they all cocked up splendidly.
One woman lost count around 5 cards in, (due to the nature of the trick it had to be reset in front of the table whilst not looking like it was being reset, ouch!)
One chap decided to deal the cards face down in two piles
Another asked if he could shuffle the deck
Luckily I managed to intervene immediatly on these errors & pulled the trick off on all occasions & was greeted with a table full of applause on 3 occasions. Good start.

Had one woman, thought I'd cocked up with my personal handling of the cards & then to make it worse this woman decided to pretend that the card I revealed wasn't hers. Was about to make a dignified exit when she admitted her LIES

Also did the Los Angeles Open on one woman & was greeted with a silent stare at the end with a whispered "That is freaky"

Cool stuff!!! Had fun. It went better than I expected, what about you guys & gals (any gals?) here, how did yours first performance to laymen go?

Classic punter!
Me: Think of a number between 1 - 52. Then deal the cards face down onto the table & look at & remember the card at that position.
Punter does this, deals down 18 cards, looks at 18th card & shakes her head.
Me: What's wrong?
Punter: Well I thought of the No 18, dealt down 18 cards, looked at it but it's a 3 of hearts.
Me: Well your not meant to tell me the card but what's wrong with the 3 hearts?
Punter: Well the card should be an 18!!!
She thinks about it & shuts up

how about some stuff you can do right up on stage like linking rings and fire to cane, dove pans etc.

as i do both i often slip in some stage magic stuff as openers to the magic later on, you also might want to check out shoots cultural xchange dvds revied elseware on this forum.

Well done m8.

Personally though I do think eliminator is a very clever method, I don't think it's very workable in the real world because specs just don't seem capable of following simple instructions. So unless you watch them which robs the effect of much of it's power, you are taking quite a risk every time you turn around. Then of course you get the specs that purposely don't follow the instructions and for example add a quick shuffle for good measure.

For your woman liar I suggest you carry an Invisable deck, if she had continued with her lie this would have been a perfect get out. If she admits her lie you can even show that not only did you know her card but you knew the one she would pretend it was and just to prove it before we began etc etc

I agree with Happy Toad, some specs really don't know their ar*e from their elbow when it comes to carrying out simple instructions. Maybe it's the alcohol, maybe they're concentrating more about not looking too silly in front of everyone else than the cards.

I did ask someone to think of a black suited card (free choice) the other day and they came back with "heart's". The important thing is to learn from everything you experience and you will soon devise your own solutions to the problems that you face. Use your confidence as in my own experience, at the stage where everything goes wrong, that's what will get you out safely.

I think it's important to have get out's for each trick, more so with cards than with other forms of magic. I like your ID suggestion and I'm sure that others will have their own get out which they will hopefully share.

Congratulations on getting out and doing your stuff for the public. This is where you honestly learn your trade. Magic is a performance art and without anyone to perform for, there is little reason for its existence. You will also learn more from a difficult audience than you will from an audience that politely sits and watches.

I'm going to disagree with the previous posts on stupid spectators. If a spectator cannot follow your directions, then that is your fault as the magician. If you are using a relatively stupid spectator that cannot follow even the simplest of instruction, then you shouldn't be presenting an effect that requires a more intelligent spectator - poor audience control and poor assistant selection on the part of the magician. However, don't blame your spectators since they weren't salivating and begging for you to show them magic. You offered, they accepted.

The fact of the matter is, you are going to come into contact with all kinds of people, with all kinds of intelligence levels and all kinds of attitudes. Your job is to figure out who is who and treat them accordingly. But, as a general rule, if you cannot get a spectator to follow directions properly, then you need to look at your directions and not push the blame off on the spectators. And, if in general you cannot get spectators to properly follow directions of a specific effect, then maybe it is time to cut that effect out of your act, no matter how much YOU like the effect. One problem that is prevalent in this industry is the amount of magicians who show stuff that they themselves like, whether their spectators like it or not.

Case in point, Joshua Jay. Don't get me wrong, he is a highly talented young magician with some very good ideas. However, he is a bit boring and many of his effects are convoluted. For sleight of hand, he is the tops and he impresses the hell out of magicians, but, again, the general rule these days is that magicians are trying to do stuff that makes them happy and not the layaudience (which, the spectators are really our reason for doing what we do).

So, again, congratulations on getting your feet wet and keep up the good work!

Mike.

if you need to do a trick were the lay of the cards aree so important then try to start with a few less complicated follow me tricks to gear the audiance into following you.
failing that get yourself a marked deck or if your a bit of a purist a stacked one then if they mess up your instructions you can lead them down the garden patha nd make it up as you go along as the outcome will be asured.

a classic with this set up is to leave them with three cards and have the mark give each card to a spec to put in there pocket, from your pocket you then get your notebook that has a band sealing it and have the mark open it to reveal you predicted that j would be given the 6spades etc.
all you need is a pocket writer and a pad with thoughs elastc sealers like the police use, which are avalable from woolies and other stationers.

hope this helps.

I have to say that Michael Jay has made some good and valid points in his post that I hadn't considered.

Whilst there are some specs that you just can't figure out in advance, I agree that all to often it's the tricks that the magician likes that get into the performance.

This is one of the reasons that I ALWAYS ask for feedback and watch the reactions and of course, you can only do this through going out and doing your stuff.

I have two gigs this week and will be trying out a few new tricks and will be closely watching the reactions to see what does and doesn't cut it for the second show..

I'm going to disagree with the previous posts on stupid spectators. If a spectator cannot follow your directions, then that is your fault as the magician.

Not my experience with eliminator. For example on numerous occasions I've had specs mis-count, so for example they are supposed to be counting down 19 cards and they count 20. I usually assume my adult spectators can count to 20, however possibly because they are nervous or for whatever other reason it is not unusual for them to mis-count. I've also had them forget they were supposed to think of an odd number and instead do an even number. Again one would imagine that an adult would know the difference.

Any effect where you rely on your spectators correctly following instructions while your back is turned is wide open to problems.

I've had specs mis-count, so for example they are supposed to be counting down 19 cards and they count 20

For me the answer is to get the first person to think of an even number & then I count down to that number. This demonstrates exactly how to do it. Then for the 2nd person I'll say something like, "tell you what, I won't touch the cards, you do it."

I won't turn my back though, they can't be trusted. Then even if the 2nd person cocks up big time I can point out there mistake, forget their part of the trick & reveal for the first person.

Which just proves my point.

Though if you need to do all that you suggest, I'd say there are much better effects than the one your left with.

Funny, I think it proves my point - if you have an effect that spectators cannot generally follow the directions on, then it is time to find a new effect.

Okay, you can tell me what a good effect it is and how it simply kills. I say, how can it be so great when you have to tell the spectator what a moron they are that they can't count to twenty (you might not call them a moron, but I see very few ways of telling someone they screwed up by miscounting without making them feel that way).

Furthermore, if I goofed up the count and a magician pointed out to me that I had screwed it up, my first impression would be, "You're a magician, fix it Mr. Magic."

Mike.

I agree with Michael Jay’s point of view regarding stupid spectators. We cannot put every spectator in the same basket, and say a particular trick is not suitable to be performed ETC. Sometimes spectators cannot follow instructions due to the way we explained what they have to do. This is not the spectators fault but ours. Sometimes we do choose to perform an effect that is very difficult to follow, so again this is not the spectators fault. We will always come across spectators that find it difficult to follow basic instructions, unfortunately it comes as part of the territory.

Here is a perfect example, I have been performing the Incredible traffic lights effect for the past 4 weeks, and probably performed it to no less than 150 spectators. It worked perfectly with no problems 100%. Well this weekend it was a different matter. I performed it to 2 particular people and instead of them remembering they chose the colour Green, they were saying a different colour. This is my point. If these spectators were around the first day I was performing the effect, would it be justifiable to say that this effect is not suitable for laypeople? Well the answer is no.

Here is a perfect example, I have been performing the Incredible traffic lights effect for the past 4 weeks, and probably performed it to no less than 150 spectators. It worked perfectly with no problems 100%. Well this weekend it was a different matter. I performed it to 2 particular people and instead of them remembering they chose the colour Green, they were saying a different colour. This is my point. If these spectators were around the first day I was performing the effect, would it be justifiable to say that this effect is not suitable for laypeople? Well the answer is no.

There is a bit of a difference between the traffic lights trick and the eliminator. It sounds like the spectators you had were just being difficult (which happens) hwoever, fotr the most part that effect will work fine. In my experience with eliminator, you are in danger every time you perform the effect. I can comunicate to spectators what I want them to do very well and perform a number of routines which require the spectator to follow insitruction, however, the eliminator is the one effect that I feel really worried that something is going to go wrong as soon as I turn my back. I have performed it many times and I have couldn't begin to count the amount of times something has gone wrong because the spectator cannot understand the difference between odd and even or some other reason. Many times it is not because the spectator is being difficult (as in the above example) but because they really have trouble. Eliminator is not a commerical routine, the effect relies too much on faith rather than the performer being in control.

Just a thought

Not to be a nudge (I nudged) but I have found that when I'm the only one who wants to show a trick, the spec often feels irritated, forced, or challenged. Eventually, I started working on talking with specs about magic, and listening to them as they talk about it. This has helped me to either wait for them to want it, or influence the crowd toward a happier, more light hearted attitude where it was just a fun cooperative venture. At the very least, I got better at judging, who's into it, and who's more likely to wreck it. (hope that didn't sound too pompous ... on the other hand, how popmpous is pompous enough ?). In the end, The spec, always has the power that we give them. We can't control what they do with it 100%, so I really like the earlier comment about, always having an out.