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I know we don't like to talk about this but i think we have to talk about it more. I'm sure that 99.9 percent of you guys once screwed up during a magic routine. So tell us what happend and how you handeld it.

greetings

I recall messing up big time whilst performing the mis made lady illusion when I was a resident entertainer in Jersey back in the early '90's.

My assistant at the time was a lovely young lady who was blessed with a wonderfully voluptous figure. Early in the day I checked over the illusion and noticed that the lower box needed a repair. Short of the right equipement and small screws I decided to use a 5" wood screw. It not only secured the lower box back together but protuded into the box about 4".

I forgot to tell the asistant before we went on about my quick fix.

The show went as planned until the final bit where I presented the mis made trick. The assistant stepped into the box and 'assumed the correct position'. Over the small band playing the sabre dance I could hear a muffled yelp from inside the box - I then realised my mistake.

Still, it was too late as I had taken the boxes apart. I continued on and ta da my assistant stepped out and we took our bows. As we came off stage she slapped me and stormed off. As she walked away I notice the blood pouring from her upper thigh.

She was left with a four inch gash that needed stiching at the local hospital. Ouch

I'll follow that bloody story with another bloody story. I was about seventeen and entering a competition for the first time. There were four very strong acts, a few bluffers, and myself.
I was duing an effect in which I needed to cut a rope. As I was leaving the house I couldn't find a scissors, so I took a very sharp vegetable knife.
During my performance I took out the rope (precut and held together by magnets) and slashed it with the knife. It looked for all the world as if I had cut the rope with the knife.
I proceeded with the trick and wondered why the audience were watching me with a horrified fascination. Eventually I looked down and saw that my pristine white shirt was scarlett. I had nicked an artery in my wrist with the knife, and it was gushing.
Eejit that I was, I put my hand behind my back and tried to continue one-handed, my fingers sticky with blood. A bad night.
On another night I was doing my Russian Roulette with exploding toilets in a hotel. I decided to set up the stage pyros at home beforehand, instead of at the venue.
As I was walking into the venue with one of the toilets, and all the pyros, one went off right against my bare arm. I suffered serious burns from my wrist to my elbow, and there was a glorious smell of barbecued pork. The burn was so bad it looked as if my skin had melted, revealing the raw red muscle beneath. It was oozing and very painful.
I had to dress it as best I could and go on. My first effect was a straitjacket escape, which was excruitiating. The night was one of the worst I have ever put down.
When I got home I had to tell my then wife that I had tripped and dropped my hand into the hotel's deep fat fryer, or she would have banned the Russian Roulette immediately. My burns were so bad she believed me.

Thx for the shares guys, Keep em comming

Oh it's happened to me plenty of times - it's some of the best education you can get, especially early on when you really kid yourself about what spectators can and cannot see. But I've been very lucky in that I've never made serious screw-ups in front of paying audiences, it's always been around my mates when demoing new stuff. Worst was when I first got the Super Sharpie and I was dead excited about it, offered to do the "change in the pocket" bit and was rumbled immediately by the perfectly logical demand to see the prediction before the cash is counted. That's the kind of thing you fix with pacing and scripting though.

There was also this one time I was performing a standard riffle pass and I accidentally punched the spectator unconscious. Honest mistake, happens to us all.

Famuus wrote:Thx for the shares guys, Keep em comming

How about you tell us about your screw up first?

I never screw up, I'm perfect !!!! No that's a joke.

My story isn't that long and specia, but that's mainly because I'm not into magic for a long time. I do it about a year.
I was at a family BBQ (hmmmmm) drinking some bacon, eating some beer when i suddenly got asked to do some magic. I was 10 meters from the toilet so i told them, 'sure wy not but i realy need to go and take a leek' So i went in and dit my preperations for the trick 'laced'.
I started off by doing some standard stuff like melting 2 rubber bands trough each other. changing 2 red aces into 2 black ones in spectator hands. And then i decided to do LACED (a tied shoelace has penetrated a selected card). I did my story and they were all expecting something realy cool as instead NOTHING happend. I trew the deck at my shoe and NOTHING happend. I was like 'oops'.
Knowing that i don't see my family very often, it realy sucks.

greetings from belgium