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I don't know if this has ever happened to anyone, but lately, I've been receiving 'guidance' on what trick I should be buying from spectators. This has happened several times to me. Basically, I show some people what I consider to be my most awesome material, and they appear to like it. Then someone says, "I once saw a magician take a ring, and he made it disappear, then it reappeared in his back pocket. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen." Fair enough. I'll buy a RFR and see if I can get similar reactions. To be fair, I showed The exact same effect to a nice family last week. They were sore amazed. One family member even said, "that's amazing!'

"Awesome" I thought. Until one of the group said, "I once saw a magician put two coins in my friends hands, and when he opened them, there was only one coin. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen." Now I could rush out and buy a gimmicked coin to perform what is essentially, a very simple trick, but I'm scared that if I do so, I will show it to someone, and they'll say - "That was good, but I once saw a magician....." And then I will be stuck in a never ending cycle of buying things I don't want or need.

So, the next time someone says to me, "I once saw a magician.." I'm going to put my fingers in my ears and go "lalalala" until they stop.

If this has happened to you then you have my sympathy. I just thought I'd throw it out there as I'm staring into space at work!

K

This happens all the time, You will have to get used to it as a working magician. You will just to to impress them more. If a magician is good they always remember the last one they saw as the best magician they have seen.

Hopefully, someone, somewhere is telling a magician about how they saw me bend a coin whilst they were holding it - and it was the most amazing thing they'd ever seen!!

I've had this plenty of times. To be honest, I've never really thought about it too much and never taken too much notice.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I've had this plenty of times. To be honest, I've never really thought about it too much and never taken too much notice.

Best way. It happens nearly every gig.

The more unique and in line with my character my tricks became, the less i got this, and now i rarely do.

That statement is an statement which is actually UNDERMINING your performance. Once someone feels fooled, the way to one-up you after is to story top you. They humble you by making it seem like they've seen something more awesome.

This is SO common.

Take solace in the fact that the next magician they seee... they will say the same thing to them, and will be talking about you.

Also, if you are finding you're being told this a lot, thats fine, why not spend your next window of time thinking of responses with your actions or words? Best thing about performing is the same comments come up time and again, and each time we can think of a better answer until people are actually fooled into thinking we are genuinely funny/clever.

There's also the possibility that the specs misremember the other performer's routine and expand it into something it never was -such things as forgetting that the magish handled the props and assure everyone that 'he never went near them'!

Mandrake wrote:There's also the possibility that the specs misremember the other performer's routine and expand it into something it never was -such things as forgetting that the magish handled the props and assure everyone that 'he never went near them'!

I do hope that's the case!!! I also think maybe I'm hanging around too long of they've got time to think about another magician. I might try shorter sets!?!?!?!?

K

My response is usually, "Oh yes, that's a good one."

kevmundo wrote:Until one of the group said, "I once saw a magician put two coins in my friends hands, and when he opened them, there was only one coin. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen."

I have seen this effect on a demo somewhere, but the name of the effect completely escapes me. I appreciate this post misses the point of the thread, but I really love the simplicity of this effect. I once had Signed by Mariano Goni, but it was not as direct and clean as this effect. It has a name: I will recognise it if I saw it again. It is as clean as placing two coins in spectator's hands and them closing their hand only for one coin to disappear.

Haha I would like to think that a spectator recalling the time a magician bent their signed coin in their hands was me!

Since this is revived, one should take a lesson from such comments. Obviously the spectator is thinking of other performances during your performance. This isn't a wonderful thing. What it should teach you is that you need to engage your audience more. Get them thinking in the now, not the past. At worst what you want to hear is, "Wow that was amazing, much better than that magician I saw last time".

It is never the effect. It is the peformer.

bmat wrote:Since this is revived, one should take a lesson from such comments. Obviously the spectator is thinking of other performances during your performance. This isn't a wonderful thing. What it should teach you is that you need to engage your audience more. Get them thinking in the now, not the past. At worst what you want to hear is, "Wow that was amazing, much better than that magician I saw last time".

It is never the effect. It is the peformer.

I disagree. The comments have only happened whenever I've been chatting about magic 'after' a performance. Not during it. If someone starting talking about other effects whilst I was performing I would be worried!

K

I have to say I have never got this reaction. Ideally your performances should not invite comparisons.

I agree with jing, it's happened to me a few times, I just say "yeah that's a good one" I like shuffles advice , if somethings keeps being said repeatedly after a performance, then we have plenty of notice that it may be said ,and can prepare to be witty and clever.

also you do not need to keep buying new tricks because it was someones favorite, perfect what you do and have a nice routine and some things you do will be many other peoples favorite. I'm working on different types of presentations for tricks I've done for years, presently I'm putting an Irish accent on my patter and talking in poetic rhyme as I present my old effect in a new way. The effect is good on it's own, but added with the character, the verbal accent, and the poetry makes for a better presentation and therfore a better trick. sometimes even a lesser of a WOW trick is just as impressive as a major WOW trick if it's presented splendidly. Not that I present everything splendidly, but I'm working on it