talkmagic.co.uk

SOME adults
Does anyone here struggle with the fact that when you show people tricks the try and get you caught out and grab props.
Because were not david blaine or david copperfield do they feel they have the right to say your not magic its sleight of hand, its rigged, its not real, show me that.
Why is this????
why do they not want to sit there being amazed at what they have seen?
or is this just me???

where to start. where to start
firstly by saying you're absolutely right
then i might like to guide you towards the search function

but i will add, if anyone doesn't want to see magic, or acts in that way, gather your stuff up, turn round, and walk away. simple as that!
go amaze someone else, someone who will be amazed

if your getting paid to do table magic in a restaurant, doesn't it look bad in the way that their paying you and you just walk off?

if the individual is paying then they want to see magic.
if their boss is paying on their behalf and the person in question is being obnoxious then he (the boss) will have to accept that that's the way you work! that's the way i go; I'm payed for my time in total, not for a certain amount of time with each person, if they want to miss out then it just means other people get more.

Something i picked up the other day from ellusionist. If you respect your audience, they will respect you. Which in many cases is true. Sometimes though, like tonight when i was performing ambitious card to a little charv, he tried to grab the cards when i was doing a DL and tried to say i know how that is done. Luckily i palmed the top card to show there was only one card. This does not normally happen to me as try my best to control spectators.
If you look at blaine or any other big name, they come across as dis-arming and put the spectator in a position where they cannot jump in, or feel out of place if they do. Also, try not to battle your audience and beat them, because they will look harder and harder and try to prove you wrong.
Your best bet is to put your spectators in to the mood where they want to see something amazing. When you approach someone normally, they do not want to be fooled and this is when they get searching and hunting for mistakes.
Also, when people do start looking to hard and start snatching at your equiptment, stop. Tell them you are only trying to entertain and that if they don't want to be well so be it. Walk away. They will never be impressed with that sort of mindset. Derren Brown covers alot of this in Absolute Magic.

Hope this helps

Ben

lol, hecklers are annoying, its true, if they are doing that , dont do the trick

I was doing a trick for a lady priest on Sunday at a gig, chatting away nicely, performing the trick, ask her to place the selected card back in the pack when she suddenly tries to wrench it out of my hands! A full scale battle of wills took place, suffice to say she had god on her side and a grip of iron to boot so she won hands down!! Don't mess with the clergy on a Sunday!

Anyway I still guessed the card and completed my effect, but due to this little skirmish the happy, relaxed rapport I had going was instantly shattered. No-one else has EVER snatched cards from my hands, but if they do again I think I'll just let my precious Bikes go with a good grace and change the trick, that way at least you don't have bad feeling and you look more hard done by if it goes wrong.

I had a rather unpleasant experience whilst using a "spider pen." I proceeded to make a £5 note float and stepped back a few feet to allow the illusion to hit home. Then, out of nowhere, this rather large individual grabbed the note and ruined the whole effect (and the gimmick) in the process. Needless to say, my blood boiled. I made sure I got the spectators money back though!

Just the other day I was round a mates (who is a cool guy and loves my magic) and I was doing some tricks when his brother came in (who is not a cool guy and is a bit of a pillock really). Obviously he said he wanted to see some tricks, so warily I did a few for him too. Now he did absolutely everything in his power to mess up my tricks.

First of all in a trick which involves the location of a selected card he lied about what his card was. Thankfully my mate had also seen the card and told me I was right, hence saving the trick. Then in a DL trick, I told him to say stop during an overhand shuffle and thats where he'd put his card. He said stop, grabbed the packet in my right hand and proceeded to thrust his card into the middle of the deck. Luckily a riffle had bent the cards slightly so I could get a break and complete the trick. And finally, when I tried to do another trick he kept saying "I saw that" or "I know how you did that" when I hadn't even done anything apart from put the card back on the top of the deck etc. I completed the trick because he DIDN'T see anything so the trick ran pretty much as normal.

He asked me to do another trick and I said no. He asked why so I said something along the lines of:

"Because you make me sick. This is my hobby and you're going out of your way to make me look and feel like an idiot. It's just as bad as cutting the strngs off someones guitar just before they're about to play you a song or throwing away someones stamp collection. Just because you can't do it and refuse to enjoy does NOT mean I will dignify you by being made a fool of". Suffice to say he turned bright red, mumbled an apology and then avoided for the rest of the duration of my time at my mates house.

If people are insistent on making you feel stupid... turn the tables on them and make them feel stupid. Obviously with only having one example I cant guarantee it will work, but its a pretty safe bet

Yeah I think you did the right thing there. I'm also a hobbyist and if someone tries to mess it up then you can just stop the trick and tell them to sod off. I suppose you need to be a bit more tactful if you're getting paid

Lol yeah. I imagine your emloyer wouldn't be too impressed if at a restaurant you told a customer they were an ignorant little so and so.

That said I'd love to do it and get paid for it obviously lol.

Someone I know who did magic as a job for 2 years said the best thing to do if they deliberately tried to mess up your tricks was "just do a few tricks that doesn't involve their selected card. Make a coin disappear, push a wine glass through a table anything at all. 9 times out of 10 they'll forget about their card trick" And I suppose even if they asked where the card trick was they've a) already seen some of your magic and are therefore likely to take you more seriously and b) you can just say "oh. Yeah. Right, lets start it again" lol

EckoZero,

when he tried to catch you out by saying the wrong card, THAT was the time to stop.

Explain politely to hecklers, that you are an entertainer.
If people don't want to be entertained, then you cannot perform for them.

If you have a heckler in a crowd, perform for those that want entertaining.
Don't try to make them look silly, they will do that by themselves. Who wants to watch a magician that bad mouths or puts an audience member down?

If you do table hopping, and one table are trying to ruin things, stop, politely say you are going for a break, then take one. Even if you just go into the toilet to kill a few minutes.

When you come out, go to another table.

If you have people grabbing cards, just use your ID deck as an out, finish with that, then move on.

True, although I guess I just wanted to prove something to him maybe.

I do understand what you mean about stopping after the first trick, but having caught him out once, I figured he wouldn't try it again.

And I really have no idea why I did the third trick for him. Probably just because my mate was loving the tricks.

But yeah I see what you mean, and I possibly should have exercised a little more caution as to calling him an idiot and the like... but he's a bit of a muppet at the best of times and I was really angry lol

And one last thing... this is probably gonna sound really dumb... but I am new to magic and all... but what's an ID deck...?

EckoZero wrote:"Because you make me sick. This is my hobby and you're going out of your way to make me look and feel like an idiot. It's just as bad as cutting the strngs off someones guitar just before they're about to play you a song or throwing away someones stamp collection. Just because you can't do it and refuse to enjoy does NOT mean I will dignify you by being made a fool of".

EckoZero you are my Hero! Bravo my friend, what a top thing to say. Ten out of ten to you for stylish put downs. (by the way remind me not to p*** you off)...