talkmagic.co.uk

I participated in the judging team of a certain event tonight, along with three other distinguished judges. When I first met the three other judges, I was playing with my deck of cards and tried breaking the ice by doing a magic trick. I asked one of the judges (~35 years old software engineer) to take out a card and look at it, riffled the deck and told him to put the card on the top while turning my head so as not to see (old k**-c**d routine).

He promptly shoves the card IN THE MIDDLE of the deck, and smiles sweetly at me, saying he wants to make it a challenge.

Ok...

The competitors just come into the room, so I tell him we'll go on later and break off the magic. After the competition, the judges all go to dinner with their wives and girlfriends. I do some more fine magic for the other folks, and he's watching me like a hawk, yelling at some point when I lower the deck under the table.

At this point I grow tired of it, and decide to do some silly magic using a gaffed card cut in two. I put the card into the deck secretly, start riffling, go closer to him, and suddenly he says -
"Let me do some magic!"

And grabs the deck from my hands!

Now, if he takes the deck, the gaffed card will fall out immediately. So, believe it or not, I actually grapple with him over this lousy deck of cards, and we're both pulling it back and forth and bending the cards. I finally snatch it from his hands and tell him I'll do a magic trick for him, then he can do one himself. As you can probably understand, I never met such an annoying and aggresive heckler before, and had no idea how to handle him.

I turn to his girlfriend and try to hindu-force the card on the bottom. BIG MISTAKE. She's his girlfriend, and he just has to be the macho alpha showing he's smarter. He immediately yells: "if it's Three of Diamonds when he tells you to stop, don't be surprised". Obviously, he knows the hindu riffle force. So that's lost. I just tell the girl that her boyfriend doesn't realize there's more to magic than winning, and put the deck into my pocket (trying to take the gaffed card out).

He still wants the deck. I give it to him... and the cut card falls out. He sees it, makes a big deal out of it, takes the deck and does the crappiest magic trick based on the k**-c**d method, on some other spectator. I hold myself not to ruin it for him when his back is turned.

When he finishes with the trick, he picks up the deck from the floor (obviosuly he had to throw it down in the process of the trick), gives it back to me and says condescendingly,
"See, you don't need a cut card. All you need is the everyday stuff around you!"


I keep wondering: What should I have done all along? Where did my mistake begin? Should I have tried approaching his girlfriend with the magic, or was that an obvious no-no I missed? How would you have handled the entire situation?

Curious to hear your opinions...

I wouldn't have relied on anything involving spectators or risky methods (e.g. card selection, gimmicks, or key cards). Something purely in my own hands that displays both skill and impossibility. Sleeve aces comes to mind. That said, he sounds like a real prick, and at some point, I probably would have said "F this" and left.

I'd have told him that the spirit of his dead grandmother was with him and was looking over him at all times, and she says would he be so kind as to stop playing with his dick while his girlfriend is out at work.

The guys sounds like a real idiot. Best to just call it a night as quick as possible.

dup wrote:I finally snatch it from his hands and tell him I'll do a magic trick for him

I think that this is your problem. Don't engage in this kind of silliness!

How confident of a performer are you?

I always feel that lack of confidence invites hecklers.I have to be honest,very very rarely do I encounter hecklers.I come across ignorant people,people who dont like magic etc etc but not so much hecklers.

The last heckler I had was one of my friends at a friend's party who shouted out at something very innocent that I did and all my other friends told him to STFU.I then said ''Jasus Alex it's only a card trick.I'm only here 5 minutes and I'm already being attacked''.On top of that he's Russian and oh so emotionless and serious.Tough spectator.

The best thing to do is laugh it off.Normally I just get the crowd on my side and they usually shut him up.I have to say that 1-2 witty comebacks that are nothing too insulting that get a laugh will disarm a heckler and get people to like you.Anything too insulting and they will hate you,turn away,ruin the trick.I learned that the hard way as a kid

''Just put the card on top there''
''No I want to put it there''
''I don't mind I'll just f**k(go off depending on the occasion) off to the next table I'm not even getting paid for this''
This never failed me.Everyone laughs and the heckler doesn't look like an idiot and suddenly cooperates.

I think jokes like that are make or break for me.If you take you tricks too seriously then it looks stupid and people will want to destroy you.Remember that when you're doing card tricks people dont realise the amount of effort,time,sweat and blood that has gone into it.They see it as a card trick.Nothing more.Now I don't know about you but if I was a layman seeing someone get serious or angry about a card trick I would laugh my ass off and maybe even try wind the person up the type I am.

I hope this doesn't come across as condescending but this is something that I think is really important in magic.Normally I give up on these spectators anyways.They usually ruin my bloody night

Show him your bum.

Just tell him to bu**er to off.

I know exactly what is needed. Alas however I think it would take far too long to type it all out. And in fact I may have said it all before on here. If I have I will direct you to what I said. If I haven't then I will find out what I wrote about this around 35 years or so ago and all your problems will be solved.

For the moment though and from a purely technical point of view I can recommend a wonderful book called "Outs, Precautions and Challenges". It will tell you how to get out of all sorts of scrapes where card tricks are concerned. The author is Charles Hopkins. It is a very old book but they are usually the best ones.

I never read anything written after 1954.

It seems I have talked about this before. Here is the thread in question.
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic28357-0-asc-0.php

You engaged. Why did you continue to show magic tricks when he tried to mess you up in the first place?

Why did you fight over the deck? Fighting over a deck of cards like children certainly has to be more humiliating then him finding a gaffed card?

It's just a magic effect, not the end of the world.

I'm very confused over why you still continued to perform even after you grappled with the deck? (sorry having trouble getting passed that one).

Perhaps after his first attempt to mess you up, you could have changed tactics. Perhaps you should have simply let him perform a magic trick when asked? And responded by telling him how wonderful he is and perhaps maybe you could get together with him another time so you can discuss magic and methods privatly? And then put the magic away. You don't always have to perform.

And yes you need to learn some 'outs' and there is a lot of info on them out there.

Well the first major problem was that you weren't hired their to entertain them.. Yeah I know that sounds weird, but you were hired to judge a contest or whatever. So really, you didn't NEED to perform for anybody at that point. In fact a simple way to break the ice there would have been to just introduce yourself like a normal person and then move on with the evening.

So in the grander scheme of things, you essentially set yourself up to fail from the start.

This is one of the main problems I often see people on the internet suffer from. They seem to think it's "OK" to perform for literally everybody and then end up complaining when they have to deal with somebody who doesn't want to entertained or who has better things to do.

Looks like it has all been said:
1> You forgot why you were there - judge not perform.
2> You "tried to break the ice by doing magic" and "fiddling with your cards"- perhaps a conversation was more in order?
3> He was not there to be entertained, he was there to challenge you. You bit. He was a software engineer, a problem solver. I know it's a big stereotype but that's what they do.

This failure is not about you as a magician, I am sure you are a fine magician, but you are missing the point - this is a failing of social skills, something that too many magicians have. Learn about people and how people react. Don't play the "challenge" game in the first place.

You say

and he just has to be the macho alpha

, yet you had just finished "grappling"! What the h**c do you think you were doing? THEN...you turned to his girlfriend?
You really need to get some more "people skills" I am afraid....

Sorry for being blunt but this is classic "magician" stuff, great understanding of the sleights, terrible understanding of the audience.

"Invited judge ends up in pi55ing contest with audience member". That will look great on a website along with a few card-fan pictures....

Bruce

Wow, plenty of replies. I'll try to answer to everyone.

First, let me repeat that all these affairs took place behind the scenes, obviously, and with the other judges and their wives as spectators. I did my job as a serious judge in front of the crowd and the competitors, without any linkage to my hobby of magic. Before and after the event, however, is a different matter. This is the time where the serious judges can relax and have fun with each other.

I agree that I probably should not have went on with the magic after that grappling contest, nor should I have approached the person near him - which happened to be his girlfriend. I still have much to learn about doing close-up magic, especially about dealing with hecklers. As is often the case when one faces an unexpected situation for the first time, my brain pretty much did a shut-down and I continued by rote.
Also, as Bruce put it, I probably need to improve my people skill. And I admit that I'm not a very confident performer in a close-up situation. In fact, it's a bad case of reverse 'fear of crowd'. When on the stage, in front of hundreds of people, I'm the f*cking boss and if someone tries to heckle me, I would just make them laugh, and make everyone laugh as well. In close-up situations I am much more inhibited and reserved. So yeah, I guess that does attract hecklers.

That said, I believe that close-up skills as any other skill, come mostly from trying, failing, thinking about what happened and then knowing better next time. So... This was me trying and failing. Next time would be different and better.

Thank you all for the kind advice. Some of you were more blunt than others, which is not easy to do, and I appreciate your honesty and desire to help.

Dup - as you said, you have learned.

In close-up situations I am much more inhibited and reserved. So yeah, I guess that does attract hecklers.

They smell your fear...
"Hecklers" are often just people who want to be involved. You can be combative, or involve them.
One option, after the first "insertion" into the middle, (if you really could not get to it...), I would have just checked that he REALLY remembered the card, told him we'll come back to that at the end, and moved on - usually with a good self-worker from Dai Vernon that I use at every gig.
My worst ever heckler (a young engineer as it happens...) got really embarassed when I just asked him (nicely) "Would you mind if I just completed entertaining the rest of the table before we carry on with this mental duelling contest?", (or maybe I headbutted him, I cannot remember...).
A lot of the time it's down to being a socially confident person first, and then a magician. So many people seem to take up this hobby because they think magic will help them socially and help their confidence. WRONG...

As far as social skills and confidence goes, magic will only help prepare them to:
1> Entertain the public using these skills, and they STILL have to learn the social confidence/awareness side of the business, OR
2> Prepare them for entertaining other magicians at clubs and "down the pub", where they will just be socially secure, not developing new skills, and failing to evolve socially.

In close-up you do not have the stage and the orchestra pit as a barrier.
There's another thread here on the "Support" forum http://talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic38692.php about learning to perform close-up. As I said there, one of the best (IMHO) ways to practice these skills is to go to lessons where you learn to (ballroom?) dance, with strangers. If you can learn how to walk across a room to someone you do not know, and then say, "Do you mind if I put my arm around you, and talk to you for 3 minutes in an entertaining way WHILST ALSO doing something quite technical?", then you will have conquered most of the skills you need, and being a close-up magician will seem like a breeze after that

Good luck, and remember... people, people, people, people, yourself, sleights and routines, in that order of importance.
Bruce