talkmagic.co.uk

Well I was doing magic today and everybody was enjoying it. Then I got some jerk from out of nowhere and he was like ooooooh that was so bunk I so that. I did the snap change and I didnt see he was on the side because he came from behind me. He was like oooh this guy is horrible. I couldnt believe it. It took the fun out of it for me and everybody els. So my question is what do you say to people like that???

There are standard responses to this depending on the situation and those involved.

e.g you stop what you're doing, hand them the deck and and say 'tell you what, as you're such an expert, you have a go?'

Obviously this is a reasonably harsh response so will depend on your performing style and the how 'unhelpful' the person has been.

Personally I would have said this in the situation you recently encountered!

Another would be 'OK, for my next trick I'm going to make HIM/HER vanish' etc

Always better to get a laugh to difuse the situation if possible.

Like naughty children, ingnore them ...

Piers.

Piers wrote:Like naughty children, ingnore them ...

Piers.

Or take your belt off and give them a good lashing!

Rob

I agree with piers Ignore them or involve them in the magic somehow as they are just after attention and if you give it to them you will often find that they behave much better afterwards.

If not use the contact poison coated cards that you carry with you and ask them to shuffle the deck

Dean

As the MightyNubbin and Dorian said it is dependent on the situation. If your audience is with the heckler (they find him funnier, or more entertaining) then its time to ditch. If the audience is with you, then you can attempt to tackle the individual. Heres a possible method you may want to try.

I always carry an ID which I use as a standby out. It has the benefit of being a very short but strong effect and very few laymen will be capable of discovering the method. At this point you can either run through a modified ID routine, "here you go then, if your so clever lets see you do a trick with my ID, go on give it a shuffle." This brings them into the limelight, which is what their after anyway.

Now I dont usually do this effect in this way, I just start out with "wait, your thinking of a card aren't you" type introduction. However, there is huge potential for extending the routine with a follow the leader XCM routine prior to the ID revelation at the end. Do an illogical cut with your real deck and get the heckler to follow you with their ID, and so on. Don't underestimate this, it can be hilarious, and its the heckler who gets the chance to be funny, although you can help him pick up any cards that theyve dropped. Note the cunning ploy here; their fully involved in an effect, without handling any of your props.

If that doesnt calm them down and bring them onside then spring the cards into their face and run away.

Does anyone else have a heckler out?

Does anyone else have a heckler out?

Before inundating this thread with replies, check the Search function as this topic has been discussed at length quite recently and there were a lot of hints and tips given at the time.

shouting "C##K" at them quite loudly is never the way

I tend to just hand the deck to them and ask them to do something for me seeing as theyre so great at it! Most of the time they just look at the cards, some try to make up a random trick on the spot. Some throw the cards in the air yelling '52 card-pick up, fool!'. If that is the case i just either take another pack out and start performing for somebody else, or just walk off and leave the cards there.

The only problem with giving the deck out is that you may occassionally come accross somebody who knows magic and starts to push you out of your own performance.

if i ever run into a person who knows some magic tricks, i just start talking to them about magic and stuff and have a show down to some degree he'll do a trick then ill do one and we'll just be like "do you know this one?" and such even if the guy was a jerk we end up getting along and laughing as we just play with the spectators heads and help each other out on some tricks for great effects.

kemo

thats a nice clean way of dealing with them i think. Well done.

TylerD writes: ". . .what do you say to people like that???"

Probably nothing. Just stop performing and, assuming you're good, the audience will side with you and turn on him.

Even if you aren't any good, if the audience likes you better, they will do that.

Never hand him the cards, though. What happens if he is good; so good, in fact, that he is better than you?

And never try to "one up" that person. He or she simply doesn't know when the game has been lost and will keep slagging you.

BUT -- and this is a VERY big but -- first of all, make sure that this person is a real heckler. You'll find they are fairly rare. This person may only be trying to help you out, thinking that your act isn't funny enough and he or she can help make it funnier. To attack someone under those circumstances will lose you the audience, because that person is a member of the audience -- one of them -- at that point.

I've made this point several times but it always bears repeating.

.. or just leave the gig, saying "well, since there already is an entertainer here, I'll leave you with him/her"....

Peter Marucci wrote:
Never hand him the cards, though. What happens if he is good; so good, in fact, that he is better than you?

I disagree - there are situations where this worked for me - it totally depends on the crowd and your judgement of it. Obviously if the guy is going 'I saw your double' or 'Nice tenkai' then you wouldn't risk it but 99% of the time I'm performing for complete laymen and this is good proven way of shutting them up.

As I said earlier it's pretty much a last resort option though, ignoring them works most of the time.

I had a really drunk guy at a party a few months ago who simply wouldn't put his card back on the top of the deck. He wanted to slide it in amongst the others and it was going to be difficult to force the issue. So, I let him do aso then asked him to pick another card. Once he was memorising it, I bowed the deck. He once again wanted to put the damned thing in a random place, but now it was the only unbowed one. I found it, which was good in itself, made sure he knew it was his card without me peeking at it, explained that this is the top of the deck, and carried on.