"Spectators do the darndest things"

Jan 2, 2016
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California
I know I post a lot of questions like this on here but I'm genuinely curious about other peoples experiences performing, especially because I have had way too many strange things happen when performing.

Anyway, this question comes from something that happened to me the other day when I was trying to do Shuffling Lesson for a spectator. I got to the end where the spectator deals down 4 piles of cards and for some reason, the guy started dealing them from the bottom. He wasn't trying to mess with me and I don't think he misunderstood me. Apparently, that's just how he dealt cards. I'm not sure how common this is but I've never seen anyone do this before. It got me thinking about other times odd things like this have happened though...

I remember this one time where a guy insisted on shuffling the deck, and I let him as it wouldn't mess up the effect. He proceeded to do an overhand shuffle but I noticed that the way he shuffled didn't change the order of the deck whatsoever which I thought was pretty funny, especially because he requested to shuffle.

I think I've also mentioned the time I asked a girl to name any card and she said "13 of stars".
I've also heard "jack of kings" and "queen of kings" before.

Anyway, I guess my question is, have you ever had a spectator do something odd like this, but not because they were purposely trying to mess up the trick. If that makes sense lol.
 
Aug 6, 2017
253
158
I know I post a lot of questions like this on here but I'm genuinely curious about other peoples experiences performing, especially because I have had way too many strange things happen when performing.

Anyway, this question comes from something that happened to me the other day when I was trying to do Shuffling Lesson for a spectator. I got to the end where the spectator deals down 4 piles of cards and for some reason, the guy started dealing them from the bottom. He wasn't trying to mess with me and I don't think he misunderstood me. Apparently, that's just how he dealt cards. I'm not sure how common this is but I've never seen anyone do this before. It got me thinking about other times odd things like this have happened though...

I remember this one time where a guy insisted on shuffling the deck, and I let him as it wouldn't mess up the effect. He proceeded to do an overhand shuffle but I noticed that the way he shuffled didn't change the order of the deck whatsoever which I thought was pretty funny, especially because he requested to shuffle.

I think I've also mentioned the time I asked a girl to name any card and she said "13 of stars".
I've also heard "jack of kings" and "queen of kings" before.

Anyway, I guess my question is, have you ever had a spectator do something odd like this, but not because they were purposely trying to mess up the trick. If that makes sense lol.


13 of stars is a strange one lol. I can't think of anything like that off the top of my head. I guess I hang around with boring people!
 
Jul 26, 2016
571
795
It has been years since I have had a card selected by spreading or fanning the deck and asking the spectator to pick a card. I remember the night and the event when I stopped doing it once and for all. I was performing at this private club in Palm Beach, Florida. Lots of "fancy," well-dressed, sophisticated people - multimillionaires. I went over to perform for the guy i knew was the host of the party. I shuffled, then spread the deck, asking him to please pick a card. He looked at me and said, "I've seen that one," and he abruptly walked away.
 
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Jan 2, 2016
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It has been years since I have had a card selected by spreading or fanning the deck and asking the spectator to pick a card. I remember the night and the event when I stopped doing it once and for all. I was performing at this private club in Palm Beach, Florida. Lots of "fancy," well-dressed, sophisticated people - multimillionaires. I went over to perform for the guy i knew was the host of the party. I shuffled, then spread the deck, asking him to please pick a card. He looked at me and said, "I've seen that one," and he abruptly walked away.
I think we've all gotten this at some point. We all know there are dozens of card trick types but most people are only familiar with the "pick a card..was this your card" plot. So having them pick a card seems like the same trick to them.

I wanted to do the Invisible Deck for these kids and as soon as I pulled out the deck, he goes "I've seen this one".
Recently, I had someone pick a card the traditional way and a kid goes "I know this one! He's gonna take out 21 cards and..." which was also pretty funny.
 
Aug 6, 2017
253
158
I think we've all gotten this at some point. We all know there are dozens of card trick types but most people are only familiar with the "pick a card..was this your card" plot. So having them pick a card seems like the same trick to them.

I wanted to do the Invisible Deck for these kids and as soon as I pulled out the deck, he goes "I've seen this one".
Recently, I had someone pick a card the traditional way and a kid goes "I know this one! He's gonna take out 21 cards and..." which was also pretty funny.

I love that he thought you would do the 21 card trick. I have had someone say to me after I did a pick a card trick they thought I was going to make their card be the only one face down. I think the element of surprise is good. They have expectations of something they seen and then you blow their minds.
 
Jan 2, 2016
1,092
881
24
California
I love that he thought you would do the 21 card trick. I have had someone say to me after I did a pick a card trick they thought I was going to make their card be the only one face down. I think the element of surprise is good. They have expectations of something they seen and then you blow their minds.
I’ve also just said “pick a card” and had people say “oh I know how this works. You just remember the card above it”.

I was setting up McDonald’s Aces and as soon as I removed the 4 aces a person goes “oh is this the 4 robbers one”.
I was like “yea something like that”.

And yea its actually kind of a good think that people think it’s gonna be the simple trick they learned as a kid. Makes the actual effect all the more mindblowing as its very likely they’ve never seen anything like it before.
 
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RickEverhart

forum moderator / t11
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Sep 14, 2008
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Unfortunately this is the nature of the beast sometimes. Many spectators have been through the select a card, find the card plot and they haven't been exposed to all the other types of card effects. Immediately their brain tells them, "Oh..I am going to chose a card, it will be lost and then he will find it."

This is precisely why I chose to only put one or two card tricks in my strolling set.

As far as strange things spectators have done...I could seriously write a book from things that have occurred over the past 19 years of performing semi-professionally.
 
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Jan 2, 2016
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Unfortunately this is the nature of the beast sometimes. Many spectators have been through the select a card, find the card plot and they haven't been exposed to all the other types of card effects. Immediately their brain tells them, "Oh..I am going to chose a card, it will be lost and then he will find it."

This is precisely why I chose to only put one or two card tricks in my strolling set.

As far as strange things spectators have done...I could seriously write a book from things that have occurred over the past 19 years of performing semi-professionally.
Got any incidents that stand out? I'd love to hear one/some.
 
Sep 26, 2015
70
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I can't think of a time where a spectator did anything strange.

There was a time, though, where I was surprised by the end result of a spectator's riffle shuffle. I was performing a trick I had been working on for the first time. It requires a riffle shuffle with half of the cards face up and the other half face down. I decided to let the spectator do the shuffling. He plays card games often so I figured I would let him shuffle. Once he was finished, I spread the cards on the table and he somehow clumped about 12 face down cards together in the middle of the deck. Considering the face down pile was about 26 cards and he plays card games often, I was surprised to see that many cards clumped together right in the center of the deck.Where the large clump of cards were was the exact location of the final reveal. Even though it didn't mess up the trick, a more evenly distributed face up and face down pattern would have made the end result little more deceptive.

It just caught me off guard that there was that many cards in a row facing one direction. Since that was where the attention needed to be at the end, I was going to acknowledge the face up and face down pattern which, obviously, I couldn't because of the clump.
 
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RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
"I've seen that one."

Me: I want you to take any card from the deck
[Kid #1 Takes Card]
Kid#2: I know this one.
Me: [Looking dejected] You do?
Kid #2: I do.
Me: OK, Can I have the card back. [Reinserts card in deck, looking totally defeated].
Me: Let's try a different trick
Me: [After thinking for a moment to come up with a different trick and then looking at Kid #1] I want you to take any card from the deck....
 
Jan 2, 2016
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California
Me: I want you to take any card from the deck
[Kid #1 Takes Card]
Kid#2: I know this one.
Me: [Looking dejected] You do?
Kid #2: I do.
Me: OK, Can I have the card back. [Reinserts card in deck, looking totally defeated].
Me: Let's try a different trick
Me: [After thinking for a moment to come up with a different trick and then looking at Kid #1] I want you to take any card from the deck....
That's brilliant haha
 
Oct 6, 2017
167
136
35
Pittsburgh, PA
Nothing super strange like what you had shared but once I was showing some friends "Jump" and I had them shuffle their card into the pack. Once they were done and handed the deck back I realized their card was on top of the entire deck so instead of flicking it out of the middle of the deck I shot it upwards with my thumb and snatched it out of mid air. It had a WAY better reaction!
 

Zeede

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2018
243
203
If you watch YouTube videos of Chris Pratt doing a magic trick on the Graham Norton show, you can watch will.i.am doing the weirdest things. He calls the Ace of Hearts the "A of Hearts". He also apparently doesn't know the difference between shuffling and cutting a deck of cards.
 
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Jan 14, 2018
100
125
Philadelphia, PA
I know I post a lot of questions like this on here but I'm genuinely curious about other peoples experiences performing, especially because I have had way too many strange things happen when performing.

Anyway, this question comes from something that happened to me the other day when I was trying to do Shuffling Lesson for a spectator. I got to the end where the spectator deals down 4 piles of cards and for some reason, the guy started dealing them from the bottom. He wasn't trying to mess with me and I don't think he misunderstood me. Apparently, that's just how he dealt cards. I'm not sure how common this is but I've never seen anyone do this before. It got me thinking about other times odd things like this have happened though...

I remember this one time where a guy insisted on shuffling the deck, and I let him as it wouldn't mess up the effect. He proceeded to do an overhand shuffle but I noticed that the way he shuffled didn't change the order of the deck whatsoever which I thought was pretty funny, especially because he requested to shuffle.

I think I've also mentioned the time I asked a girl to name any card and she said "13 of stars".
I've also heard "jack of kings" and "queen of kings" before.

Anyway, I guess my question is, have you ever had a spectator do something odd like this, but not because they were purposely trying to mess up the trick. If that makes sense lol.
Once, I was performing Illusion by Paul Harris for a group of kids. One of the kids goes “I know this one, watch” and takes one of the Jokers (I use duplicate jokers instead of jacks) and puts it into his flip flop and runs away with it. The trick ended there
 
Aug 9, 2018
39
44
United Kingdom
It's hilarious when you ask somebody to pick a card and they say "I've seen this one"

I have also experienced a spectator dealing from the bottom when trying to do a 34 count card force.

I really enjoy when:

Magi: *turns over top card*
Spec: There's two cards!
Magi: *hands said card to spectator*
Spec: *look of confusion because it was actually the top card*
 
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Jan 2, 2016
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California
It's hilarious when you ask somebody to pick a card and they say "I've seen this one"

I have also experienced a spectator dealing from the bottom when trying to do a 34 count card force.

I really enjoy when:

Magi: *turns over top card*
Spec: There's two cards!
Magi: *hands said card to spectator*
Spec: *look of confusion because it was actually the top card*
I also like the "It's up your sleeve!" when you're wearing short sleeves. That's always a fun one lol
 
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Nov 1, 2016
76
95
Just last week I was performing a big stage show with a card routine built into it (the card trick was woven into the plot of the entire show which was something new and actually worked really well!!) and when in the beginning I asked for the volunteer to look for the card she had thought of (the Queen of Spades) she proceeded to say, "The Spade is the thing right?"
The audience just laughed, but I ended up having to show her what the Spade looked like so she would know.
Then towards the end of the show, The same girl needed to think of another persons card and she said "I honestly have no idea what the heck it was. No clue." and so the girl who HAD selected the card the first one needed to think of had to whisper in her ear what it was. (the six of Clubs)
All in all it was pretty comical and got the audience laughing. But it was very strange to be snapped back into the reality that not everyone knows a whole lot about cards. Definitely a very humorous experience.
 
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Jan 2, 2016
1,092
881
24
California
Just last week I was performing a big stage show with a card routine built into it (the card trick was woven into the plot of the entire show which was something new and actually worked really well!!) and when in the beginning I asked for the volunteer to look for the card she had thought of (the Queen of Spades) she proceeded to say, "The Spade is the thing right?"
The audience just laughed, but I ended up having to show her what the Spade looked like so she would know.
Then towards the end of the show, The same girl needed to think of another persons card and she said "I honestly have no idea what the heck it was. No clue." and so the girl who HAD selected the card the first one needed to think of had to whisper in her ear what it was. (the six of Clubs)
All in all it was pretty comical and got the audience laughing. But it was very strange to be snapped back into the reality that not everyone knows a whole lot about cards. Definitely a very humorous experience.
I can't even count how many times I've heard "clovers" for clubs or "pointy things" for spades.
I've even had people think that the "clubs" were called "spades".
I've also had people correct me and tell me it's "clovers" when I say "clubs".

That's why for a lot of my tricks I'll hold the cards with the faces toward them and tell them to pick one that they like. It makes it almost impossible for them to forget the card from my experience.
 
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