talkmagic.co.uk

sew... pants... sew pants! sorry, i like accidental funnies (sue?)

Once I was at a mate's brother's party and was doning some card magic. Some little kid kept trying to grab the cards and saying, they're not real, so I just gave up and as soon as he grabbed one, I just dropped the deck and walked out. All the other kids started looking at him really funny. Then I came back because it was too fun

David Ginn advocates stopping the show when that happens.

He also lays down ground rules beforehand regarding care and control of children and may other things.

(Professional magic for children)

Having talked to others regarding this topic, the majority use a container to chuck tricks after they've been done and set up 'no go' areas.

O.K. with kids, but gobby adults and people who are 'really interested' are more difficult (seen fights start with magic). Perhaps a new area of magic is needed - shotgun magic! Or have a 6foot 9 inch assistant might do the trick.

Vic

Just realised, Jay Sankey has a small trick called The Pen Is Mightier on Penguin Magic, that can be used againt grabby and annoying specs, hope it helps!

I'm new to magic & new to this site - but here is my contribution...

It obviously depends on context: are you a pro or an amateur? Do you just do a few ad hoc tricks for mates (or pretty girls in the pub!) or are you doing a proper routine? What is your relationship to your audience? What is your ability to physically or psychologically set boundaries?

Personally, I agree with the two posts that both said more or less "I just stop performing at that point". I do NOT think it is a good idea to put people down - that escalates the conflict & will probably lose you sympathy with some of your audience. I just reviewed a book called Magic in Theory (my first review!) about the psychology of magic. It says the more the specs LIKE you, the less they will see the tricks as a contest (battle of wills for them to solve your 'challenge')

If you ARE in a position to simply stop the show, I think actions speak much louder than words. Their is a school of psychology called Behaviourism that says (more or less) reward behaviour you want to encourage, punish what you want to discourage. [EG do NOT delay the start of meetings for people who are late - its tells them it is ok. But you do not need to chastise them either. They will quickly learn to be on time.] So in this context, if you simply stop the show, then everyone knows THEY have spoilt the fun, not you! This happened to me in the pub recently with a guy who turned over a card prematurely (after I did a DL). I just said 'ok mate', put the cards away and started a different conversation. Everyone including him knows he is not clever, just a clever dick.

Of course that is easy if you are just having a bit of fun like me. But if the show must go on, then you must surely be a pro or semi-pro. In which case their should be spoken or unspoken ground rules. I think this is ALL about psychology - why do these people feel they have the right to overstep these boundaries????

One final thought: I find the situation is great when people WANT to see a trick; but the vibes are all wrong when I am so excited that I force a trick on my mates when they are not interested.

bruciealmighty wrote: They will sew the pants off you!

Now that is a misspelling that worked out as a great play on words

Puntastic!

Something that I have used a handful of times, is if you have a tough customer you use the crowd against him (why is it always a him? ).

You simply say to the people that are enjoying your show that you will not continue unless this person keeps quiet or leaves. Man the guy who I did this to nearly got the sense knocked out of him!

(Obviously this only works if the crowd likes what you are doing and the person is not of great prominence to the crowd. )

Hmm well most people here seam to have a flair for the dramatic. There is a lot of advice going around in the "stop the trick/scold/embarrass categories."


General solution

I would say you should perform a non-gimmicked trick first.

In my opinion this solution is the closest to what I employ. I find that if you give the specs an opportunity early on to snoop around, and control when they are permitted to do this, you can in a sence get the snooping out of their system.

I do not mean something corny and formal like "and please shuffle through the deck and make sure all cards are normal..." that would arouse suspicion. But in truth all the people watching are wanting to investigate.

All I do is wait until they ask to snoop and allow them to, this gives off an air of control. It fills them with the idea that they can check up on things any time, but the result is that they no longer feel the need to.

As the tricks progress you can get away with more and more.

Last resort

Hmmm if some one is on the brink of spoiling your trick, DONT LET THEM. In one of blains videos he is doing ambitious card, and you can see a spec reach for the top card.

Now, had the spec turned it over, he and Dave would have been very disappointed. But Dave did what he could. He says very sternly, "Wait," and then pushes the man's hand away, and then very plainly says, "Here is the move," and executed rist flick, and reveals the signed card with the DL. Disaster averted.

It's all about damage control.

Obviously no-one wants conflict when you're performing but you can't let the specs disrupt your performance otherwise they will just continue, particularly as most of us perform to people who've had a drink or two.

Some people just don't realise when enough is enough and often an audience will look to you to control that person, even if they are part of their group.

Some people won't take kindly to being shown up and some will tone down their behaviour and if you can include them in the trick then even better. Things seem more magical then. It takes experience to spot which person is which and to then handle them effectively. Personally, I think that if you put your toys away in the pram and wander off, then you will be perceived as being the spoil sport, no matter how good your magic is.

You need to judge each situation differently using your skills and experience. It's not a matter of one solution fitting all.

I do not do magic professionally. (I run training courses for a living but I sometimes get similar-ish situations with delegates who hold up progress etc) I have to agree with the previous post - The audience looks to YOU to control the situation. You must exercise some authority. The Blaine example is great - he just says in effect: No, you're not allowed to do that.
Hopefully this kind of situation can be pre-empted by establishing your authority up-front? Maybe one could just say "if anyone knows this one, please keep quiet". This would hopefully create a situation in which those who think they are clever (ie in the know) will get their ego-boost from watching in smug silence rather than apoiling things. IE you are psychologically recruiting them to your team.

I was working last night and had the worst case of a grabby spectator that I've come across

After asking and then telling her not to grab the cards she just ignored what I said and continued trying to grab at every opportunity. She was about 17 and worse the wear after a few alco pops and I just had to move onto another table after just two tricks.

Annoying but there you go.............

I also had the 17 year old lad (also half cut) who's friend is in the magic circle and he knows how every trick was done and was keen to tell everyone that he knew. He refused the opportunity to do a card trick himself.

I'm pleased to say that everything else went fantasticaly well and I had great feedback from everyone else. You just have to stick at it and work through those 'challenging' moments and never show that you're annoyed, even though you are.

I seen a cute solution the other day........the perfomer palmed in a special card when the spec got grabby. You performed what appeared to be the most obvious move (looked like he totally got busted) tabled the "special card" neer the grabby spec, obviously knowing he was going to grab it. When he grabbed in and had a peek, it was a blank card (with a handwritten note) "One step ahead of you......." The guy shut up, and sat still the entire time.......he was embarrassed to no end, and was scared to say or do anything afterwards!

Ooh...I do believe Kenton has this covered (or in part, at least) somewhere in his Wonder Words series - Volume 2 - called the "Duh Factor" - or so says Luke Jermay in his 7 Deceptions, anyways (I'm still waiting to get the WW series).

Obviously I'm not going to tell you what this is, but there's a source for you anyway.

I would say you should perform a non-gimmicked trick first.

....or you could only perform non-gimmicked tricks!

I have the advantage of being 6'8" tall and slightly insane. Which means that they (more often than not) dont try to grab my cards! But in those rare cases when they do, i either grab their hand before they touch the cards and do a little dance with them, or i keel over on the floor pretending that they really hurt me, or i pretend i've got some kind of mental condition and start screaming like the guy off Rain Man whenever they come near me and try to touch either me or the cards. Or if its a guy that is getting grabby, i put on a gay voice and saying how much i like to be touched like that.

They seem to work for me

It may stop people looking at your cards, but surely that suggests that you are using special cards? There needs to be a logical motivation - the Blaine example above is a good example.

Still, if it works for you then that's great.

Oh yeah i forgot to mention that i always hand out the cards after anyway!

Ah, okay then. Still, might seem a tad suspicious at the time. I think how you get out of it all depends on who your audience is and what they're like. Work to the traits of your audience, in other words. No matter how much you plan in advance the only real way to learn is to get out there and do it!