Your worst screw-ups - share your stories here!

[Jordan Lapping]

Hey folks,

I have always been interested in experiences of this field, I think it's great to listen to other peoples' stories. With that said, I will start with my own. Mine had to be the time at my father's wedding in February '06. I was doing some magic to this guest and I was in the end phase of a common Ambitious Card (where the bent card rises from the middle to the top).

She told me that she saw two bent cards, I thought to myself "oh shit..." and so I guess I didn't handle it too well. I began to proceed as I would do normally, I showed her that her card jumped to the top. I then proceeded to spread the remaining deck face up on the table to show her that no other cards had her selection and/or signature - meaning no dupes. It somewhat improved the effect in a way (for her personally) as I think it confused her even more as to what actually happened.

That was my failure -- What about yours?

Jordan



Edit: I actually have another story I'd like to share, that happened about this time a year ago.

I was performing a "mentalism effect" (actually a force) in which 20 cards are spread face-up on the table, and the spectator locks one to memory, without anyone else knowing it. The way it's accomplished is via a 'key card' which is placed in an arkward position and is then needed to be remembered beforehand.

This means the deck cannot be shuffled by the spectator. With that said, you can tell what happened... he mis-understood my signals and he shuffled the deck. At the time I can remember trying to think of outs in case it didn't work as he was shuffling, but nothing came to mind. I thought to myself "I'm screwed on this one" but, I kept my cool and procceeded as was suposed too.

So there I was, spreading the packet on the table, having him think of a card from the spread. I named one, and it turned out to be the card in which he remembered. Which, in reality, was very much a 5/100 chance as he could have remembered any one of the 20 cards that were on the table... I love happy accidents!

 

[lux-ferre]

I was performing Strange Travelers. In accidentally showed the "weird card" which made the spec react. He didn't see the whole thing though so I just covered it up and retraced my steps to continue the effect. I still got a great reaction though. Since he didn't know what he saw, he just thought I was trying to do a cheating move but failed.

 

[Studentz]

My main happy accident was almost like yours Jordan, I forced a card and give the deck to shuffle to the spectator, and a friend was talking to me during that time.
At the moment the spectator give me the deck back, impossible to remember the forced card.
I tought about a clever out wich is basically from Tommy Wonder, to resume it basically, you normally fake you're missing and go from spectacular way to reveal, to almost guessing way to reveal, ( I wanted the spectator to name his card and then I would have cull it to produce it ).
So I decide to go over a spectacular way, I do the boomerang top shot and say with a sure voice " This is your card the 6 of diamonds ! ".
And the spectator says : OH MY GOD ! DID YOU SEE THAT ?
That was my luck that the spectator shuffled his card on top of the deck.
This is one of the few trick where I fooled myself.

M.

 

[Studentz]

Sorry about the double posting.

M.

 

[Sean.Cinco]

Oh man, I always love hearing screw up stories because we all know that it's bound to happen to each and every one of us. I would also like to see how all of you were able to recover from the screw up, that way we can all learn about how to handle a screwed up performance.

Last week I went to bowling night with the Filipino Student Association here at UCF. There were some new people so I figured I would do some tricks to break the ice. I had a nice crowd...about 20 people surrounded. I proceeded to do a sandwich trick (Wave the Aces to be exact). Before I show the card in between the aces, I always ask what their card was (8D for those who want to know) and if it would be so freakin amazing if I could make it appear. As I show the card between the aces, I peek under to look at the face of the card and confirm that it's the selected card, but I don't show it. Everyone knows that gag. However, this time it wasn't the 8D. I was like "Oh (explitive)" and the guy who chose the card wanted to see. He saw the 5C. Now this crowd around me is a bunch of college kids with a handful of cocky incoming freshmen, so they were all "HA! THE MAGICIAN F-ED UP!" so had to think about how I could get out of this jam. (end the screw-up part of the story here).

I spread through the deck talking about how something went wrong. I saw the 8D and culled it to the top and told everyone that it's not even in the deck. Even the people behind me confirmed this. So I palmed it off and handed the deck to my friend to look for the 8D, but he couldn't find it either. While he was looking, I was debating where to do card to pocket, card to wallet, card to shoe, etc. But I was surrounded so really I wasn't safe planting the card on myself. Then I noticed that the guy who selected a card had a button up shirt with a breast pocket. So while my friends were looking at the deck, I reached into his shirt and pulled the 8D out of his pocket. At that point, the crowd just went wild. One of my friends taped it for me, so I'll try to have the video up once he sends it to me.

 

[Erik]

The screw ups are too many to remember, but I will share a short story from FISM. It was out very own Jordan Lapping that was Mr. Screw Up in this instance. I loved it.

The scenario: Jordan is performing to a girl, and it's the first effect he shows her.

The effect is a basic transposition, and it has only one move, and that is a switch of some sort. I am not sure if it was because Jordan was nervous performing to a girl, but somehow he forgot the only move in the routine. The card never got changed, and the effect wasn't very amazing at all.
When he realized his screw up, he didn't play along, he said:

Oh shit... what the...oh no... I forgot the switch...AHAHAHAHA

And this quote was repeated by him several times during the evening and the day after.

Oh, thinking about it, I remember I do have a goof I can share. Jordan is once again involved (he has some weird connection to mess ups). Oh well, I was having a webcam session with Mr. Lapping, and I was practicing a specific sleight. I messed the sleight up, and dropped a card on the floor. "No worries, I'll just pick it up". Being the big belly-boy I am, bending down while sitting is not very good for the legs of the chair. One of them broke. I nearly did a backflip with my chair. Jordan laughed, and he hasn't stopped yet.

Erik Jansson

 

[Jordan Lapping]

The scenario: Jordan is performing to a girl, and it's the first effect he shows her.

The effect is a basic transposition, and it has only one move, and that is a switch of some sort. I am not sure if it was because Jordan was nervous performing to a girl, but somehow he forgot the only move in the routine. The card never got changed, and the effect wasn't very amazing at all.

WAHAHAHA, I forgot about that, but now that you mention it I remember that like it was yesterday! LOL

I don't really understand what came over me, I just completely forgot what I was doing. I remember you sitting to the right of me, watching and in the end saying "I don't get it?" directly after the effect 'happened'. It then hit me and I realized the cards didn't even switch places. I felt a twat, but I laughed like hell.

FISM was awesome.

Jordan

Edit: And yes, your Back-Flip Clip-Shit was hilarious, I can still remember it now. I saw you bending down to reach the card under the table and I heard this almighty and loud SNAP. I thought you broke your back or something. Then you said, "Dude, my chair has broken..." only to follow that with some martial-arts stunts as you plummited to the floor. WAHAHAHAHA! I bet the people on the floor below you thought it was an earth quake. Good going, Erik!

And Erik, I think it would be interesting to hear your mess-ups during actual perforances -- I remember you telling me not long ago that you were performing at some sort of party, and this woman kept distrupting the performance. Enlighten me?

 

[Djmckee]

I have to say i have been lucky o this front, not many people have ever questioned my magic. Jordan the braue popup problem 2 card bend thing happened to me before aswell but i found if you just continue they think it ends up in the middle anyway!.

My worst screw up must be the most simple trick in the world however i perform it anyway as its magical nature 'happens in the specators hands' is quite appealing to me. its very basic i belive its called 'here then there'. The effect is 2 specators chose a card they are lost by means of shuffles. One jumps to the top and handed to the spectator then the second one is found but is the card supposed to be in the spectators hand then the card in the hand is turned over and its the second card. Well to explain in the least detail they both had picked jokers! So that oh so awful scilence when i asked the spectator to turn over the card in there hand and I said "wow that joker, has.... turned.... into.... your..... Joker. haha.

 

[Turtle]

Ah, Nothing like a good screw up.

---
About 4 months ago, my sister had her birthday party. It was a 'Casino' themed party, and therefore, I was asked to perform for her friends.

I had done some stuff already, and was moving on to a triumph section. (I call it this because I perform a standard ITH triumph and afterwords, John Bannon's Play it Straight Triumph)

Anyways, somehow, I accidentally half-passed two cards.

After the 'shuffle', the real selection somehow found its way to the bottom, and another card was face down in the face up deck. I showed it with pride, not realizing what was going on.

I got a few strange looks, and I finally looked at the face of the card myself.
Luckily, I then noticed the selection.

I gave them the card and asked them if they were sure they didn't see their signature. (Jokingly of course).
While they were sarcastically looking, I copped off the selection.

I noticed a girl's purse sitting on a stool to my right, and as I went to retrieve the 'fake' selection, I planted it in there.

I said that I was joking, because I knew that there card wasn't the 6S (The 'fakie'), because the actual selection wasn't even in the deck.

I gave them the deck to look through, and finally said something about how ladies carry many things in their purses, and kind of suggestively nodded towards the purse.

I got a great reaction.

-----

(The worst part was the spec's reaction(s) while looking through the deck. Anybody who knows PLay it Straight knows what I mean.)

 

[TheNybbler]

I was performing for a guy and doing a basic transposition and ended up with a triple instead of double so needless to say when i did the transpo his King of clubs suddenly became a six of diamonds. I played along with the "where did that come from" like I'd actually meant to make a random card appear. He was still impressed that the card changed from his hand to my hand even though his card became a six of diamonds.

 

[remy]

I was showing a new kid at school some magic, cuz he said he liked it. I was working with loops. right when i got into finishing "LIFE" he was like oh nice loop there. i was like cuhrap.

 

[Jacob]

I was preforming 2 Card Monte and about halfway in to the trick I noticed that didnt have any cards.

 

[remy]

I was preforming 2 Card Monte and about halfway in to the trick I noticed that didnt have any cards.

Tragic. Just tragic.

 

[Jacob]

Tragic. Just tragic.

I know! I asked him where he thinks the queen of hearts is and I noticed that never had a deck of cards in the first place.

I was humiliated.

 

[Austin Fields]

Anyone ever done where they hold the deck between fingers and you hit it, and it leaves just one card in their fingers (their selected card)

Well I was performing for my dad's boss's daughter, and I did that trick, and at the end, I hit the cards, which made her jump, so she let go, and the cards went EVERYWHERE, and it was a picnic, so not only did half the cards blow away, the trick was ruined and I had to pull out another deck to save the performance, leaving the other cards to be picked up by people who realized an ace was in their drink.

~Beans

 

[magison83]

Here a crazy story. I was doing a street show at the beach last summer.

I was doing a basic sponge ball routine. Very simple. The same routine you get

with the package of sponge balls. This is the crazy part I had just loaded the

giant sponge in to this womens hand when she shoves it in to her top, and

says "try and cheat now magic man your never getting these back and she

turns and starts to walk away." I am like oh man I am up the creek on

this one, I take a deep breath and clap my and say ok but your going to miss

the fun take it out. Bam gaint sponge in her face. That was crazy.

 

[Austin Fields]

Hahaha, sponge ball one is classic.

I remember another one, where I crashed and burned on a ACR routine, basically flashed, but when I went to save it my friend (who was filming) got really mad at the kid, and the kid pushed another kid into my friend, and the kid he pushed turned around and tried to fight the kid who had seen me flash on the acr

so my routine went from bad and save-able to worse and a smoldering wreck that was unrecognizeable.

~Beans

 

[harapanong]

I was sitting in my school's student lounge, practising some of my card stuff on the table.

All of a sudden, my 2 friends brought this group of girls along and sat around me. "Hey Harapan, show something for our friends here!"

I began performing.

Every trick I did screwed up somehow, even those that I had done many times before and always suceeded. Forces didn't work, didn't get the correct card, didn't catch the card flying out, screwed up my flourishes... plus the girls were all hecklers.

Finally, I managed to sort of nail them with a sandwich routine of mine, which went well. They were amazed at how their card, the King of Hearts, managed to appear between the 2 black Aces everytime. Phew.

I decided to end this whole thing off with a trick I knew I would NEVER screw up: a standard Triumph effect. King of Hearts lost in the deck, and the trick went on seemingly well, until the last part...

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, all the cards turn over by themselves, all except for - "

There were THREE FACE DOWN CARDS among the face-up deck, and they were in different parts of the deck. (Till today, I never knew how I did that.)

I immediately reeled back in shock, and pretended nothing happened. "except for 3 cards!" Took them out, hands shaking in fear. I knew one of them was their card, but I didn't know which one. So I decided (for some reason) to quickly do an impromptu Magician's Choice to make them pick their own card out of the 3.

I secretly peeked at all 3 cards. And I breathed a sigh of relief, because...

"Like I told you, just like the previous trick, your card the King of Hearts, will always be..." Flip over the King in the middle of the 3. "Between the 2, black, Aces." Reveal the 2 Aces, trapping the King again.

The 3 cards happened to be those very 3 cards used in the previous sandwich routine.

Everyone went wild, my 2 friends breathed a sigh of relief too (as they had thought I really screwed up) and congratulated me on another successful trick.

Whatever.

- harapan. magic!

 

[Mshade]

I was doing stigmata for my gym class. I forced the 2 of diamonds and everything went right. Then when I rubbed my arm nothing showed up. There was about 30 people just standing there. I was so embarassed.

 

[Chris Hestnes]

The screw ups are too many to remember, but I will share a short story from FISM. It was out very own Jordan Lapping that was Mr. Screw Up in this instance. I loved it.

The scenario: Jordan is performing to a girl, and it's the first effect he shows her.

The effect is a basic transposition, and it has only one move, and that is a switch of some sort. I am not sure if it was because Jordan was nervous performing to a girl, but somehow he forgot the only move in the routine. The card never got changed, and the effect wasn't very amazing at all.
When he realized his screw up, he didn't play along, he said:



And this quote was repeated by him several times during the evening and the day after.

Oh, thinking about it, I remember I do have a goof I can share. Jordan is once again involved (he has some weird connection to mess ups). Oh well, I was having a webcam session with Mr. Lapping, and I was practicing a specific sleight. I messed the sleight up, and dropped a card on the floor. "No worries, I'll just pick it up". Being the big belly-boy I am, bending down while sitting is not very good for the legs of the chair. One of them broke. I nearly did a backflip with my chair. Jordan laughed, and he hasn't stopped yet.

Erik Jansson

Ahahaha, the memories =D

The screw-ups for me are too many to be remembered. And that aint good, not good at all.