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I was performing Director's Cut at work yesterday (Coppola's Calling) and just as I was working on the reveal for the last film, Pretty Woman, guess what song started playing on the radio? Yep, Roy Orbison with Pretty Woman! I couldn't believe my ears. The timing was perfect. It took a few seconds for it to hit the participant and he was absolutely gobsmacked.

That has to be the best magical coincidence I have ever experienced.

Very cool indeed!

Sounds like it might be something to work on happening with a little more regularity (where circumstances permit). Seven (eight at a push) of the original DC cards have songs/themes that would be easily recognised.

I love coincidences like that

I was doing a kids show one Christmas, and it was a very stormy day. I walked in front of the kids, stretched out my arms, and said: I'd like to show you something really cool.
With that the wind blew in the French doors of the hotel functionroom, shattering them.
I couldn't have planned it better.
Unfortunately the organisers didn't have me back the next year.

you could easily download a fair few songs onto your mobile phone and set one as your ringtone or alarm...

then if you do any forcing, just have the alarm timed to go off a minute or two into your reveal...

Good thinking IAIN.

My funny coincidence was, I was doing magic at the launch of the last Harry Potter book in a local book store which was packed out onto the streets.

They requested that I only do a half hour in the lead up to midnight... Being the clever guy I was I didn't bring enough material suitable for the view the crowd had, so I just said... "I want everyone to get a random card in their head and think of it without saying it"... and this kid high up on a stairs locked eyes with me and I just said "Your card is black, its a number card.... 6 of clubs?".... He screamed.

Of course I had no idea what his card was, I was trying to fill time and was expecting to be wrong, and if I was wrong I was going to say the classic line "now someday that'll work and you'll all spend the rest of your lives wondering how" as a type of gag. I didn't have to as it turned out, and I amazed myself more than anyone else that night I think.

Sometimes it seems that we, instead of our audiences, get to experience real magic and gain the real entertainment of our performances

Last Saturday I performed keep it dark by Punx, well my twist on it anyway someone picked a card and didn't look at it and another spec named it right, it looks really nice. Someone in the audience came up in interval and said she'd named it before spec on stage did. Very strange

The Magi's story reminded me of the biggest co-incidence I have ever experienced in my life. I was in college and working in the USA as a camp counsellor and magician at one of the swanky New England summer camps. The Harlem Wizards were visiting the camp to play a game against the camp counsellors. The Wizards are part of the Harlem Globtrotters outfit. They travel to the smaller venues, while the Globetrotters do the big venues.
For those who haven't seen the Wizards/Globetrotters, it is a dazzling mix of circus, comedy, panto and gymnastics, and has very little to do with basketball. At one point the Wizards got a penalty. The guy talking it knelt down on the far side of the hall, facing away from the hoop. He threw the ball over his shoulders, and, blind, he managed to throw it three quarters of the length of the court, and scored.
A few days later one of the kids threw me a ball and asked me could I do what the Wizard did. Going along with the joke I knelt down with the ball and threw it over my shoulder like the Wizard. It was the first time in my life that I had ever handled a basketball. Unbelievably it flew right across the court and I scored.
Needless to say I never entered a basketball court again. I will never be able to repeat that.

Replicant wrote:I was performing Director's Cut at work yesterday (Coppola's Calling) and just as I was working on the reveal for the last film, Pretty Woman, ......That has to be the best magical coincidence I have ever experienced.

I was performing Hollywood or Bust using my stealth wallet and a lady watching challenged me to do it on her without the wallet so I asked her to think of a film star and a film. I said she was thinking of a woman and she was, I said the name began with a J and it did so I went for it....Julia Roberts and Pretty Woman. It was, she freaked and told everyone at the wedding how amazing I was

I was performing my Cluedo routine a while back, the idea of the routine is that the spec picks a character, room and weapon card, I then mentally walk through the house describing their character, the room and the murder weapon.

I managed to mess this up and didn't have a clue what the room was so I thought that I'd just play it out and take a guess at the room (afterall two out of three isn't that bad). One of the spes friends on the table seemed very interested and siad after both the reveal of the character and weapon 'wow I was getting those too', so I decided to play on that and let her name the room, Dining Room she said and was spot on.

I was perfroming mcdonalds aces on the street and a lad said I know what you done he grabbed the cards out of my hand to inspect them....at this point I was like s*** im busted but then he turned them over to see 4 cards that where not an ace and he was so bemused that he just gave them back without a full inspection.

I was working in one of my restaurants when the phone rang. Now, I've been there 3 years and I've NEVER answered the phone - understandably, it's not my job! However on this occasion the restaurant was really busy and they were short staffed so the manager asked me to answer the phone. I did. The voice on the other end said "Hi, I was just wondering if you still had a magician performing in the restaurant?" I don't think she believed me when I said "Yes, it's me".
Turns out she had seen me weeks earlier and wanted to book me for a party. Of course, I let on that I knew she was calling for me and that's why I answered. Funny stuff.