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one and is starting out on family and friends would it be a good idea to do the watch steal trick to my family and friends or would it look like im trying to steal from them if i get caught? am i just worrying too much?

Watch steals and pick pocketing both need a lot of practice to be performed successfully. Be prepared to spend a lot of time learning! Having said that, if your 'victims' are likely to feel uncomfortable with having their watches nicked then perhaps it's best to not do it.

If you're just starting out then books such as Mark Wilson"s Encyclopedia of Magic and the Karl Fulves books will give you hundreds of effects and routines which audiences will appreciate - and they're a very low priced resource! Google will show the best options and there are reviews and mentions galore here on TM.

I always feel the Karl Fulves books of self working tricks are too cheap. They are an absolute gold mine of tricks that anyone can do & at under £5 each appear to be too good to be true.

cool answers i really want to do this someday

mrmagician1000 wrote:cool answers i really want to do this someday

If you want to do it then go and do it Mark Wilson's Complete Course is a brilliant place to get started. Grab yourself copy and work your way through from cover to cover. The book will teach you lots of different areas of magic.

Does anybody wear watches nowadays? I think I must be the only one! It is far more difficult to find someone who wears a watch because they look up the time on various technological contraptions which are beyond my understanding.

It must be quite difficult for stage pickpockets. Generally speaking they never use women on stage because they don't have as many pockets and they can't really manhandle them the same way as they do with men so that eliminates 50% of people who may be wearing a watch. The second problem I imagine they have is that hardly anyone wears a watch any more and to make things worse those that do not wear a leather band watch which are the easiest to handle. Many pickpockets avoid the metal bands as they are more difficult to remove cleanly and you can end up breaking the band.

There are still opportunities to do it close up but on stage it must be more difficult I imagine. I have no idea since I am not a pickpocket. Perhaps some who are more qualified can advise better.

Out of interest I brought myself Stealing the Show by James Freedman. It is not cheap, but does give you some idea of the work & dedication needed to achieve a reasonable level of competence.
The review on this site can be found at..
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic17862.php

mark lewis wrote: to make things worse those that do not wear a leather band watch which are the easiest to handle. Many pickpockets avoid the metal bands as they are more difficult to remove cleanly and you can end up breaking the band.

Do you really find that? I've only played around with watch stealing but found metal bands easier. I always thought that releasing the catch was quite straight forward and then a little misdirection while you slip it off. Leather straps were much more of a fiddle to undo and I never really mastered it.

Lady of Mystery wrote:

mark lewis wrote: to make things worse those that do not wear a leather band watch which are the easiest to handle. Many pickpockets avoid the metal bands as they are more difficult to remove cleanly and you can end up breaking the band.

Do you really find that? I've only played around with watch stealing but found metal bands easier. I always thought that releasing the catch was quite straight forward and then a little misdirection while you slip it off. Leather straps were much more of a fiddle to undo and I never really mastered it.

I am no expert on these matters but I understand that pickpockets prefer the leather bands with the buckle. I didn't even know there was a "catch" on the metal bands. We must be talking about some other type of metal band that I am not familiar with. The band I am talking about is the expanded metal band. You have to stretch it and take off the hand rather than the wrist.

On reflection I do remember Ricky Dunn talking about some kind of metal band with a clasp. He says that is very easy to remove. Perhaps that is the one you are referring too.

mark lewis wrote:I am no expert on these matters

Wow, is this some kind of TM first? I'm tempted to sticky this thread just for that quote!

I'd imagine that a stretchy metal band would be a nightmare. No, the ones I'm thinking about are a metal bracelet strap with is released by a catch. The catch is usually either released by pressing a couple of little buttons on the side for more expensive watches or just unclipped with the thumb nail. So simple.

Madam. May I inform you that I always state when I am not an expert on certain things. However, I also state when I am an unmitigated genius in certain areas. After all fair is fair and it is important to be truthful. I am expert in close up magic, stage hypnotism, psychic readings, children's entertainment, ripping off the undeserving public with the svengali deck, stand up magic and other kindred subjects. I am also the greatest and most entertaining card magician of all time but modesty has always inhibited me from mentioning it. Oh, and I write books too but of course am not one to brag.

However, this most wondrous genius of mine does not extend to pickpocketing although I have played with it a trifle. I do know that there are ways of removing the expanded metal bands under cover of a magic trick. Jimmy Ravel describes a good way of doing it in his book as does Ricky Dunn although the latter does say that it poses more difficulty than the leather strap which is more common. And one problem is that it can break the band if you are not careful or so I have been told. Mind you, watches seem to be less commonplace than heretofore so watch stealing may die out if things go the way they are going.

if i get caught doing the watch steal what should i say?

If you get caught you shouldn't be doing it in he first place.

thankyou guys i did my first watch steal today it was successful and loads of fun

I have a feeling that pickpockets get caught a lot more than you think but they say nothing so as not to spoil the show. A stage pickpocket once told me he gets caught 30% of the time. It seems a high percentage to me but I suppose as long as the subject doesn't say anything it is not a big deal. I have actually talked to subjects after a show and asked if they knew the watch had been taken and a surprising amount of them said "yes".