talkmagic.co.uk

Bonjourno,
For about a month I hardly performed.. I did not even touch any playing cards.. and I didn't read anything magic/ mentalism based.. (and now I'm back for vengence.. )

In the meantime however, I studied acting and drama and read up on other less esoteric fields somehow related to mentalism in obscure and interesting ways.. Unfortunatley, the lack of practicing performing did not do me well, and today, feeling my normal self once more, I decided to pull out the cards and do some performing
It was fun, and I got a few beautiful reactions, but still getting into the swing of things I decided to attempt a routine I had strung together from a few others for the first time.. and, well, all went well, but the reaction was... quite frankly sh*t. They just sat there. Silent.
Of course, it would be quite an abstract question to ask how to get good reactions, and I shall rethink the routining and presentation of that effect..

But my question is then, what are you supposed to do when you get a 'meh..' reaction. It was quite strange, because at least with a group you get inflated reactions, but when it's just one person there was a very arkward silence. Funnily enough, I have never had it before, but ever wanting to better myself (now that really would be impossible *flutters eyelids and fails* ) I'm not really sure what would have been an appropriate way to respond.
So first of all, have you ever suffered this arkward silence of an apathetic, indifferent spectator? If so how did you respond..
And how do you think you would if you did?
But what should be done- just sit there yourself, ask them why one is not amused, laugh and try and elicit some reaction by reacting yourself... not sure..

Do what I do, do cold readings and then cry blood from your eyes. That gets them reacting.

Or better yet, making them cry blood as punishment for me being so terrible.
Which might I add is not what I am talking about, yes, I was terrible, my presentation was incoherent, boring c*** (not the best) and the effects I chose were alright I suppose, nothing 'Oh my God he just made me cr*p out my own card'.. Remedying this terrible-ness is something which is spoken about all the time and relativley easy to cure, mainly by doing some work and not being a lazy so and so. However, I was just curious about when it does fail and when you do mess up.. which let's face it, we all do.

Urgh, I hate it when that happens. There's no real, tried and true method of getting out of it either. I just try to be sarcastic about it and say something like "Wow, I must be doing great tonight, stunned silence!"

Even then, its embarassing as hell. Just move the hell on as quick as possible.

Matthius88 wrote:"Wow, I must be doing great tonight, stunned silence!"

I find those sorts of comments sound negative and makes people question you further. Pointing out your own flaws is never good for a performance when you are meant to be the professional. You can never go wrong with flattering the crowd by something along the lines of "Hey, I think you might be 1 step ahead of here. Shell we try something a bit different? Yeah?" and move on naturally with a prompt to get some rapport going and get them intent again.

If I mess up I just carry on with something else, no quips or gags or anything. I'd rather my audience didn't remember me as the magician that was really funny when he screwed up.

I think it depends whether they were lost or just not impressed.

If they are not impressed, you need to get them on your side and the way to do that is to get chatty and fun with them. There is no point in doing more tricks for them if they despondent. Getting someone to respond positively to a question is a good psychological step forward to achieving their trust.

SamGurney wrote:the reaction was... quite frankly sh*t. They just sat there. Silent.

It sounds like they were sat silently during, as well as after, your performance. If you engage them, rather than displaying your talents as if to an empty room, they will not be silent. That said, everyone has a bad day and next time will most likely be better.

if an effect bombs, it bombs. I just shrug it off, and pass comment to show i knew it was bad.

The thing is though, my light slightly camp performance style will allow this.


I have never had an entire act go down the tube.

Will it ever happen? Maybe.


Just hope it doesnt happen at the smithfield gig in August.
That's unknown teritory that.

Ted wrote:

SamGurney wrote:the reaction was... quite frankly sh*t. They just sat there. Silent.

It sounds like they were sat silently during, as well as after, your performance. If you engage them, rather than displaying your talents as if to an empty room, they will not be silent. That said, everyone has a bad day and next time will most likely be better.

Yeah, that was the thing- I know it was quite a bad performance, and that's all part of the journey, looking back and analysing what went wrong and how to make your performance better next time. If not depressing, it is certainly beneficial and unavoidable- because we never stop trying to improve.
I've worked out the things that went wrong so that I can avoid them in the future, but nonetheless I'd be lying if I said I didn't think I was going to ever mess up again.
At the moment if I mess up I just laugh it off, even though afterwards I feel terrible. I suppose I have a charming cheekiness which allows me to get away with it.. at least if I'm open about being mischeivous then I have nothing to lose and cannot be accused of 'cheating'. I've always loved that though, how on earth can you cheat at magic?
Anyhow, merci bocoup for the responses.. and as they say in some country somewhere: 'An ounce of preventing is worth a ton of cure' or something like that.

"I'm reading your collective conciousness right now..you thought it was sh1t didnt you...c'mon, hands up..."

"shall i just dance for you instead, would you prefer that?"

"WHAT'S THE F****** MATTER WITH YOU LOT? CAN'T YOU SEE CLASS IF ITS INFRONT OF YOU?"

or, you could make Elshy cry blood...

IAIN wrote:"I'm reading your collective conciousness right now..you thought it was sh1t didnt you...c'mon, hands up..."

"shall i just dance for you instead, would you prefer that?"

"WHAT'S THE F****** MATTER WITH YOU LOT? CAN'T YOU SEE CLASS IF ITS INFRONT OF YOU?"

or, you could make Elshy cry blood...

That last option's tempting at times

Let's not forget that some people just react differently to others and to different things.

I have one effect I just LOVE performing, it's a completely impromptu card prediction. With the same delivery each time I've had a multitude of different responses ranging from a quiet "Ha, that's really clever" through to the more common "Wow, how did you do that?" and at the other end left a girl visibly shaken that I'd got into her head so easily.

The point is if an effect 'bombs' I just shrug it off as 'not their thing/tough crowd' - move right on along with something a bit different.

Flexibility is also important. Some people will cry with boredom if you try and slip in a Brechtian social commentary, others will find it interesting and it will generate great rapport and conversation.
Some people will resent someone else being 'in the spotlight' so its best to have routines which make them look clever- having them seemingly memorise a deck, for example, rather than 'look at me memorising a deck, clever me'. Others will find it facinating to be in the company of such a supposedly extraordinary mind.. flexibility is very important.