Bit of an epic answer here, hope you take this as constructive advice not any sort of insult.
dup wrote: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.
This is where you should have stopped. You had the upper hand, cutting him off with the natural break of the people entering.
dup wrote: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.
Again, you had the upper hand as you were performing to other people who were responding well. This has obviously annoyed him as he feels he wants some share of the spotlight to boost his ego.
You should have stopped it here - ending on a high, with people wanting to see more.
Without directly blaming him, if you say something like
'ok guys, you've seen my best stuff...!' <Im going to stop now>
*turn to person near to you* <diffuse the attention from you to someone else>
'so, what do you do for a hobby...?' <transition into another topic>
You will achieve a couple of things; you will have left them wanting more -always preferable to them wishing you would stop.
By diverting the 'social spotlight' from you, onto someone else, if he then tries to interrupt again, hes now being insulting to not just you, but the group of people you are now talking to - which will mean there are more people likely to wade in and tell him to shut up.
Also, it makes the heckler look more of an ass because they will know its more likely youre stopping because hes being disruptive. Then they will be on your side as they may not have wanted you to stop and so will be annoyed at the heckler for forcing you to end early. You will have converted them into 'brand evangelists' - i.e. if he starts going on aobut you being bad or using gaff cards, they will support you and shut the heckler down saying they though you were pretty good etc.
dup wrote: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!
Again, wrong move. You know he wants to steal your spotlight, so your move is to go closer to him riffling the cards...?! Thats pretty much akin to waving a red flag at a bull - there is only ever going to be one outcome - he will want to rise to your challenge.
I would suggest that you should have engaged him first and handed him the deck to do a trick. By doing this, you look like the magnanimous performer who isnt scared to share the spotlight.
dup wrote:...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.
Here is where your situational value as a 'magician' plummets. You look as childish as he is and the few people who may have slightly cared and wanted to see more of your tricks now lose interest as youre behaving in a pretty embarrassing way which makes those around you feel uncomfortable.
dup wrote:I turn to his girlfriend and try to hindu-force the card on the bottom. BIG MISTAKE.
The big mistake here is that youre trying to outshine this already hostile guy to his girlfriend! If there is literally one thing you can do to push this guy over the edge, this would be it.
dup wrote:He still wants the deck. I give it to him...
Fail.
You missed the chance to 'give' him the cards, he has pretty much bullied you into giving them to him and by doing so, youre effectively showing that you cannot maintain a solid frame and hecklers can sense that a mile off and will destroy you for it.
dup wrote:How would you have handled the entire situation?
You were doing a trick to kill some time. Once it is no longer needed, you should have stopped.
If you spot guys like that who are going to mess with your magic, you need to either win them over first or just avoid performing around them.
Im sure there are guys in here who will advocate taking him on, but why bother? No one apart from you two gives a sh!t about magic or which of you is better, so why not just retire at the peak rather than descending into a childish fight over a deck of cards...?