Worst heckler ever. Plus - what would you do?

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Re: Worst heckler ever. Plus - what would you do?

Postby mobi » May 13th, '11, 11:57



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...?

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Postby Starving Stu » May 13th, '11, 12:48

As has been stated in the above posts I'm a bit perplexed why you performed magic tricks when you were judging a magic competition? Behind the scenes or not.

Magicians make the worst hecklers. Lets be honest here. We all have egos. We all want to be centre of attention. If we didn't have that aspect in our personalities we wouldn't be performers. Some magicians take this too far. You can see them tense and worked up when watching another magician perform. As soon as the effect is done they leap forward and try to perform, to be able to show they are better. So it's very rare I perform in front of magicians outside my shop, I only show anything if I am asked or doing a dealer dem, etc.

You should have stopped doing magic to this magician when he put that card in the middle right at the start of the evening. That should have told you everything you needed to know about his wonderfully egocentric personality.

On Monday I judged 3SM's (lovely magic club by the way) stage competition with two other judges. Not once did I do any magic, nor the other judges. And we all got on better for it :)

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Postby mark lewis » May 13th, '11, 13:20

If you are clever about it then you can make the heckler your biggest booster. Any fool can manipulate cards, coins etc; It is far more important to manipulate the people. And hecklers are easily manipulated.

The clever way of going about things is to get them on your side. Not easy for the average magician but there are ways.......................

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Postby BrucUK » May 13th, '11, 14:44

Any fool can manipulate cards, coins etc; It is far more important to manipulate the people.

I hate to admit it, but.........100% agree, (though I would use the words "command control over people" rather than "manipulate". (Much more assertive and less aggressive don't 'ya think?)
Anyway....a lot of wisdom in that, a lot of truth indeed.
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Postby dup » May 13th, '11, 16:06

I guess I wasn't clear enough in my description of the event. It was NOT a magic competition. It was a science presentation competition, FameLab if you're familiar with the name. Somewhat similar to American Idol, except with scientists as competitors. No relation to magic whatsoever.

Mobi -
I think the recurring message you're advocating is that I should have just stopped as soon as possible. You're right. I should have indeed, and next time I'll know to recognize the signs a bit better. Thank you for the effort in writing such a detailed analysis.

BrucUK -
When I was bringin the deck of cards to him with the gaff in it, my idea was that he would do the last bit of the magic, so as to bolster his ego. Unfortunately, he began getting physical before I even offered him the chance.

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Postby mark lewis » May 13th, '11, 17:46

I think "command control over people" is a rather unfortunate phrase. It implies aggressiveness and openly bending people to your will. Not subtle enough. Manipulating people is far more sneaky because they don't know they are being manipulated. If you control and command people they know they are being "controlled and commanded" and it is not as effective.

In a close up impromptu situation I will allow a spectator to bully me a little then I put the knife in. He doesn't know what has hit him. I act all innocent and humble. I let him underestimate me and when he realises he has been outfoxed he has no choice but to praise me to the skies in order to protect his own ego.

I have done this hundreds of times. You give the chap a lot of rope and with it he hangs himself. His embarrasment is multiplied a thousandfold and far stronger than if you try to fight him.

This technique works for impromptu close up magic only. For the stage or a formal show you need to use different rules.

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Postby spooneythegoon » May 13th, '11, 17:50

mark lewis wrote:I think "command control over people" is a rather unfortunate phrase. It implies aggressiveness and openly bending people to your will. Not subtle enough. Manipulating people is far more sneaky because they don't know they are being manipulated. If you control and command people they know they are being "controlled and commanded" and it is not as effective.


I assume nobody tells the audience "I am am now going to manipulate/ command control over you", so why does the choice of wording matter? (Althought admittedly I prefer manipulating :wink: )

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Postby mark lewis » May 13th, '11, 17:55

They can tell if they are being commanded. They can not tell if they are being manipulated.

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Postby Randy » May 13th, '11, 21:08

essentially what you failed to realize is that you really shouldn't have brought your deck of cards with you to fiddle with. There are easier and better ways to break the ice with people and really ALL you would have had to do back stage is just chat with people like a normal person and none of this would have happened.

Like the others have mentioned, you kept setting yourself up for failure.

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Postby claypole » May 14th, '11, 10:06

i did a small party for a family member and their friends, and i discovered a gobby heckler. after a few minutes of his fun, i decided enough was enough, so i waited for my moment and turned to him with a devious smile and said, i've got a trick you will know i can make my foot disappear, can you guess where it will be. i found that shut him up and made everybody laugh. i find humour with a hint of fo will do the trick. no pun intended.

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Postby mark lewis » May 14th, '11, 11:18

It is a pity there wasn't a banana at the table. Or perhaps there was. You only do this one with the most evil of all hecklers. Have him select a card and replace it anwhere he likes. He can shuffle the cards to his heart's content and be as awkward as he wants.

Inform him that the selected card will appear in the banana. Have him unpeel the banana and of course there will be no card there. However, you continue by informing him that if he breaks the banana in half the card will be in the centre. Alas however, it won't be.

But you are not finished yet. Look suitably mysterious and ask him to choose either half. You can pretend to be doing a magicians choice if you like to those who have a bit of knowledge about these things. You now ask him to break the chosen half in two and the card will be inside. Of course, it won't be.

Do not look perturbed but ask him to squash the remaining piece between his fingers and assure him the card will be there. When his hand is all messy and banana material is squishing from his fingers you ask if the card is there. It won't be.

Now look crestfallen and say, "Oh I'm sorry. The trick didn't work"

Do not offer him a tissue to clean his hand.

It may be advisable at this point to run like hell.

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