Saturday Night Contest - Performance Stories : Holiday Edition

[j.bayme]

Over the past few weeks, it's been that oh-so-special time of year that we like to call the holidays. It's a time for family, friends, celebration, reflection, and at least a little-- relaxation. But we hope you also had some time for performance. We are performers. We are entertainers. And the holidays give us the perfect time to do so.

This week's Saturday Night Contest is just that. We want to hear your true life performance stories over the holidays (during the past month).

Stories must be true and detail how your performance went down in detail-- but not too long. 500 words is the max, but we certainly aren't requiring that much: a few paragraphs should be plenty. The color and scent of grandma's sweater need not be described in detail.

Extra bonus points for any pictures that you include to go along with your post (of you performing during the holidays, showing an effect to a family member or friend, etc).

Submissions will be judged by the theory11 crew based on overall impression-- whichever stands out the most to us. Limit of one submission per member.

Winner takes home a 6-pack of brown Wynn's, shipped on the house. All submissions must be in by 11:00pm EST. Winner to be announced shortly thereafter (by midnight EST) after all submissions are read by our team.

Tell us how they reacted. Tell us what you performed. Tell us what it felt like. Tell us what went down.

 

[copperfield 14]

Come on guys this weeks is hard. I have no stories.

 

[The Dark Angel]

I was on Florida on vacation, and was just getting into magic, and I had gotten a book that had some basic tricks, moving a toothpick with your mind, knowing what the spectator had written down on a piece of paper, etc. And there was one mentalism test that involved some math, a prediction by the magician, and ended with the spec turning to a page in the phonebook and picking a name, and the name matched the prediction. I had done the trick for several guests in the hotel, and thought I'd try it out on the receptionists and the guys they were talking with. I performed the trick, expecting a "Woah! That's awesome!" but got something a little better. The guys (who were drunk) just kinda stared at me and walked away, but one receptionist laughed and backed away slowly as if I was going to catch on fire! However, the reaction I like the best was the one that the other receptionist gave me: She stared at the paper, stared at me, and finally said "You're the Antichrist." From that night on, everytime I saw her she wouldn't look me in the eye and everytime I said hello she nervously said it back. That was definitly my most memorable performance!

 

[Guardian18]

Does the story have to be holiday related? Or could it just be a trick, over the holidays?

 

[Loki]

It was christmas and we were visiting our relatives. I also took a deck of card with me, Guardians deck to be precise. When we got there, they wanted to see a trick. I started off simple, like some color changes and some Ambitious Card routines and ended with some more complex stuff like Biddle, Hoffzy Hosbourne and Hedbergs Peak. They were reacting crazly for about 15 minute. Talking about over 100 ways how i could possibly do that trick and so on. IT WAS FUN. This was the point, where i realized, magic Truely is one of the BEST ways of entertaining people, even with the most simplest things. Then, soon after, they wanted to see the deck. I gave it. It was the most thorough inspect that i have seen in my life. They counted the deck like 100 times, they watched it under light. They measured almost each and every cards thickness and size.(they hoped to find a extra card between it LOL). I was looking like .. "what in the hell are they doing, did i really perform that well ?". After a while, one said that, she knows a person, who produces a local Illusion show on TV and she said that she might get us perform on TV as well. I was very excited. She also told me that i can bring friends. The performance should be soon, in January...

That's mine. Hope you like it !

 

[emanmagic]

Ok!

I was performing at a company's Christmas work party, and i did a 30 min. show. So, there is this one trick which involves 3 balls a tube (Start-o-spheres) and i toss the balls in the auidence for fun and to get some participation. First ball i throw goes to a young girl. The next goes to a young boy. The last also goes to a 7-8 year old (not rasist) black kid. So i got the young girl to throw me the ball and i placed it in the tube. The young boy rolled it to me, and i placed it in the tube. (yay) The black kid stood up, wound up his arm and whipped it at my dick and balls (to revealing ) Everyone laughed and i was smiling in pain and face almost went green, thats how startled and hurt i was LOL!

I still finished the show good, got a free lunch and popcorn and met Santa Clause LOL!!!

 

[Jacob]

During the holidays at my aunts house I decided to preform a few tricks. One was the classic prep. card through window. The thing is that I had prepared the card on the other side facing away from me and I forgot which card it was. They were all waiting so I just gave it a shot. I told them to pick a card and I didnt force it at all. I just shuffled it in to the deck and gave it a throw. I was planning on just showing the back and saying it was their card but when I got outside, I saw that it was the card they chose.

They loved it. My cousin kept touching the glass, then he grabbed the deck and threw it at the window. It was great and I was so lucky, I only had a 1 in 54 chance of getting it. ( I had the jokers in the deck ) I went on to preform Distortion and a few tricks from the Trilogy along with a few flurishes.

It turned out to be a great Christmas.

 

[VagueTheory]

It was around 5 days before Christmas. The mall was PACKED with people, and I just oh so happened to have a deck of cards with me. I went up to a guy (who seemed to be in his early 20's) and I greeted him, and I asked if I could show him something. I preceded to try the 2 Card Monte, but sadly, he turned the card over before the revelation. I felt quite embarassed, so I went ahead and performed Witness...but he didn't seemed as impressed as I thought he would.

Then, I went up to two kids and (I assume) their dad. The dad said, "There's no such thing as magic." I chuckled and continued what I was doing. Again, I tried the 2 Card Monte, and one of the kids said, "Man, the Ace is right over there." "Haha you got good eyesight, I see. Let me show you something else." I said. I decided to do Witness again, and this time I blew the dad out of the water. "Now what in the world...? There is 2 cards in the bag." I handed it out, and he just looked astounded. Lastly, I performed Hand to Mouth, with the dad's signature on the card. Again, he was dazzled. I wished them a Merry Christmas as I walked away.

The performances didn't really go as good as I expected, but it gave me something to work on over the holidays.

 

[Sergey]

Well it's not the performance, but the actual consequence-

Well, I just got down sinful, good enough for an actual performance, and the first people I try an effect on are my parents, to see if I do it good enough (and very rarely I don't do it good enough, meaning usually I don't get caught). And so I was doing it pretty smoothly a little nervouse but I pulled through and you know how you shake up the can, well I shook it up and when I opened it the soda spilled on some pretty important documents, I was screwed. My dad laughed though and said yeah nice trick. Although document-wise I'm pretty sure everything went well even though a couple stains were on them.

Well thats my story, a little short but that's because I don't have much time.

PS it was at the end of November, hope it still counts

 

[Eddie]

Well this is unfair for the people who doesn't perform to audiences... how do you even know if they are faking? I mean I could tell a story about one right now and you guys might not know that it's fake.

 

[FatalAce]

Holy crap! This is perfect! I'm glad I took some pictures when I performed. I'll defiantly by joining this contest.

 

[cbols23]

'Twas night before Christmas when all was about, dear cbols23 was reading the Paper Engine to himself. Then he decided to to perform some tricks the very next day to his family, on Christmas Day.

He came to his Grandma's house with a Guardian and a Bycicle deck in hand ready to acheive laughs, cries and yelling from his wonderful family. He started with his mother with a simple gravity half pass routine and finished it off quite well if I do say so my self.

He then went to perform for his grandma who loved to see him do these "Tricks" she called them. He thought he should do something a little more advanced for she was a very sharp lady for her age. He thought a routine of "Waving the Aces" by Guy Hollingsworth would fit quite well in this situation.

It did. He them continued until it was time to open presents. He got a knew Apple Ipod for Christmas from his Aunts and Uncles because his old one was broken. But in his mind he was really hoping for a Six pack of Brown Wynn Casino Cards, with shipping "On the House". But no luck indeed.

That night though he found himself performing some Stigmata's at time's and even some ACR's with his own little twist, of coarse after opening presents.

After he said goodbye to his family he and his mom drove home. He Worked himself so much he fell asleep and started to dream of Wynn Cards. When he got home he put his Decks away and got ready for bed. As he fell asleep he thought how nice it was to have performed for his family on Christmas Day.


Real? you decide.

 

[DannyT]

Christmas Eve was at my house just like every year. I had the whole family come over to celebrate. Some time after dinner, my parents were bragging about me about how good I am at magic. After hearing about it, my Grandma wanted to see some of this magic that was talked about so much.

I set up the deck to perform the 2 Card Monte, I even set it up so in the end, the suites were where they were suppose to be. I began to show her the Ace of Spades and explaining how this was not really magic, but a memory game. (This got a good laugh in front of my whole family) I put the Ace of Spades in her hand face down, and flipped over the next card, the Ace of Diamonds. I flipped that one upside down and put it on top of the Ace of Spades.

I said, "Now, I want you to follow the Ace of Spades", and began to mix the 2 cards up. I said "Okay, where is the Ace of Spades?" She said it was on top and she was right. I flipped it over saying "Okay, you win this round, ready for round 2?" Another good laugh because everybody thought I messed up.

I began to mix up the cards but, this time I went so fast and said the wrong names for the cards I was switching. Everybody thought it was funny. I said "Okay, NOW!, where is the Ace of Spades?" My Grandma looked at me like, "you must be crazy".

I asked "Okay, is it the top card or the bottom card?" She said "The one on bottom". I then asked, "How sure are you that it's the bottom card?" She replied, "50% sure." Again more laughter.

I finally told her, okay turn the cards over, and to everyone's amazement, both cards had changed into queens. My Grandma nearly had a heart attack . . . . . nah, just kidding.

When my Grandma turned the cards over, everybody started laughing and clapping. It was great and it made me feel good that I entertained them.
I hope you all enjoyed my story of my performance on Christmas Eve.

 

[David Rysin]

I was performing at a private Christmas party about 2/3 weeks ago and I have to say it was my favorite performance so far. Everyone had a great time (including me)! What was paid as a 45 minute show, ended up being an hour and a half! There was a lot of drinking going on, which made people even easier to entertain, in one of the photos, I have my arm around the most intoxicated person there. I had people wear Santa hats, and had the person who threw the party wear 3 of Hearts glasses through which she could not see a thing and asked her to help me out. The first 45 minutes of the performance went straight by the book and when I was finished, I told everyone that there would be an intermission, I put on some music through the speakers I brought with me, and asked the person who threw the party if they were having a good time. They said they were, and it ended up working out that I stayed an extra 45 minutes free of charge during which I performed close-up "L&L style" having about 10-15 people around me at a small table doing close-up. It was really a fun performance and taught me a lot about being an entertainer and not just a magician- I was throwing jokes in, even improvising away from my script at times to throw jokes in, make remarks, deal with the intoxicated people, etc and everyone ended up having fun. I really hope to have the opportunity to do more shows like that one. It really showed me why it is I want to be a magician in so many ways- I was able to make them laugh, astonish them, amuse them, entertain them, and keep them occupied for an hour and a half!

They were amazed by everything, even the 1 screw-up as I had a great out for it (card fell when it definitely should not have- can't elaborate without exposure)! At one point the intoxicated person even ran up to me and started examining everything during the close-up bit (and since he could, I let him) which got everyone laughing at which point I said something along the lines of "He's a better entertainer than me to get you all laughing like that" (which have been a "had to have been there" moment, but that too got a laugh). I performed many things: A appearing canes, sucker torn and restored napkin, a book test, a prediction-in-envelope effect, and a large square/circle from which I pulled out the items needed for Sinful, a whole bunch of wands, then did cut and restored rope with a breakaway wand, and continued to pull stuff out from the square/circle. During the close-up part I did triumph, some more card reversals, card locations, ACR, etc...Everything went great with fantastic reactions!

482 words...

Edit: HAHA, forgot the links!
66.31.99.117:8001 (cut and paste if unclickable!..edit2: you do have to cut and paste for it to work, sorry!) .... My personal server- the computer won't go off until midnight, I promise!

I took about half of the photos that were sent to me by the person at the party with the camera and put them on the server, all of the ones there are good, but the ones numbered 1-5 are the best, so please look at those at least!

Great idea for a contest guys!
~David Rysin

 

[Creeper]

Oh yeah, I got a great story. This is my week. My time to shine!

It was the first white christmas I'd seen in a very long time. Me and my family all went down to visit my aunt in Colorado. We all opened our Christmas gifts, and everybody was pleased with the presents they received. it was about midday, and we were all bundled up in the living room watching Christmas with the Kranks. What a great movie. So I was sitting next to my niece who is 5. She leaned over to me, and whispered "I know abut Santa" I was surprised. This young child already knowing the truth about Santa Claus. "What do you mean" I asked urgently. "My friend told me. I hope its not true." I nearly shed a tear. It was one of those Hallmark Moments where your like, Oh my freaking god thats so cute. "Let me show you something" I said, whipping out my brand new Bicycle 808 Poker Playing Cards. "You know Santa is real. Just to those who believe" I said. "Now this may sound stupid, but lets use something to try and make you believe. i spread through the cards, and pull out the King of Diamonds. "Here lets use this. Lets say this is Santa Claus. Do you belieive?" I asked. By now my entire family was watching. "No not really." she proclaimed. "Okay, if you don't believe, look what happens." i flip the card to the top of the deck, and perform the Ego Change. "if you don't believe, then he dissappears. "Wait no no. I believe. I believe!'She screamed. "okay, if you really beleive, than maybe he'll come back. I cut the cards, catching a break where the king is. i control it to the top. Okay, maybe he's back"I proclaim, Double-lifting displaying a random card. "Are you sure you really believe?" i asked her, wondering what she would say. "Yes. I really do! Honest!" " Well, where is he then? here you take the cards, look for him." I hand her the cards, top-palming the king. I slip it into my mouth, at the perfect time. "He's not here. Where is he. I swear I believe." By now there is a crumpled up playing card in my mouth, and I'm not sure what to do. I manage to put it in the side of my mouth, so I can talk. " Well, if you don't believe, than..." i pretend to sneeze, and the king flies out of my mouth. It lands right next to her. "Its true. He does exsist!" She screams. My family is practilly crying. What a great moment. I'm never going to forget that.

 

[Dan Cross]

My Christmas trick

My Christmas trick

I was thinking of what should I buy for my mother.

I don't have any more idea ,so I bought a watch.
But I thought its not enough, so I started thinking about
a good Christmas trick.

So I tiled a letter and a six of clubs into her packet.

The letter say: (of course in hungarian)
-This is your christmas card!

I believe it you guess the rest of the parts of the trick.

(Everybody love the trick.)

"khmmm"forcing-a-card"khmmm"

PS.:Sorry my bad english.

 

[CoryOOreo]

On December 4th, everything seemed normal until the phone rang. It was my aunt, she sounded worried. She asked to speak with my dad.
The next morning we were at the airport, leaving for my grandfather's funeral. It felt as if I stopped, and the world just kept going. Everybody seemed to pass by happily, absorbed in their own lives. It made me think about our rights as magicians. It didn't make sense to me, how we think that we have the right to march up to any person, and demand their attention. We don't know what's going on inside of their lives, maybe we should just let them be.
I brought a complete deck of cards with me, 52 pieces of cardboard. By the time I returned, I only had 51. The trick I performed was much more than a trick to me, it was a way of remembering him. I placed the Ace of Hearts on the casket, as my final goodbye. I made it disappear.

-The End

I know I've already posted something about this a few weeks ago, so I don't want it to seem like I'm using this to win the contest or anything. It's just the only real story I coud think of this holiday season.

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas!

 

[AllanLuu]

Well, I went to a magic show yesterday night and at the intermission we went to the oddly small urinal stalls then came back to our seats. But aside from that I actualy had the chance to perform for some of the people that were in the seats near me.

It started off as me just doing some flourishes to keep me entertained during the intermission and when my head turned up, I noticed that there was two people looking at me and a bunch of little kids standing over there seats watching while I was flourishing. So, I thought on my feet and asked if everyone would like to see a trick and surely enough everyone was willing enough to watch my magic.

Since I wasn't prepared to perform I didn't perform anything really flashy I just did some simple, impromptu magic. I started off by telling them that I was going to warm up and how I liek the create connections with my audiences/ spectators when I perform and I told them that I was going to read there mind and tell them what card they picked. Surely enough, I was correct. After reading there mind I performed a very, very simple transpositon and following that I performed TiVo from the trilogy (which probably turned out the best). But the kids, they seemed to really like it the most, not saying that the adults didn't enjoy it, but the kids, they seemed like they had never seen anything like what I did. After all that I closed it all with a simple ACR of mine which was a perfect 3 phases and ended right when the intermission had ended so it all went perfect.

Everyone seemed impressed but it wasn't really over the top seeing as how it was somewhat a formal setting, so I got a nice good job and a pat on the shoulder.but the kids were really amazed, the parents had to actualy tell the kids to keep it down and not create a scene.

I had many other performances through out the holiday (most of them to my family and friends) but this one really stood out because I was at a magic show and everyone was kind of in a magical mood so they were all really impressed sorta say.

I don't really have any photos of me performing because you are not aloud camera inside the stage but I did get some photos outside next to some of the christmas lights.

Sorry they aren't pictures of the performance but they are the next best thing I could get.

Good luck everyone!

P.S. The show was called the Magic N' Miracles show, which was very, very good for all you that are curious

 

[coin_aholic]

Hey Al, what did you think of the show?
what time was yours?

 

[Marlin]

Party Magic

My neighbors hosted a Christmas party at their house last week. My neighbor knew for a while that I was really into performing magic, so she personally called and asked me to bring a few things. I am mainly a card performer so I only brought a few decks of cards in my pockets. I walked in as one of the first people to arrive but there was some people who were there before me. I was pretty excited to perform, so I started showing the early people some card tricks. I have heard time and time again that it's the simple tricks that hit hard, but I never really experienced it as much as I did at this party. I showed them some tricks off of The Trilogy, and I also performed Witness. Those definitely got good results, but it wasn't until I performed really simple tricks like one with the ghost deck joker gaff, and some reveals and card changes that they started freaking out. After around my third trick, someone was like, "Wow, these are great we should get Marlin to perform at the block party this summer!"(Yeah, Marlin is my real name, and my street has a party every summer where we block off our street for the day and hire some kind of entertainer.) After I performed another trick, someone said, "Well, if he gets any better at magic, I don't know if we will be able to afford him." Haha... They were just joking around.
As a last illusion to show the whole group, I decided to perform my DieBox routine(stage magic). I know I said earlier that I only brought cards, but I lived right next door(remember: neighbors )--which was really great, so I ran home and grabbed my props and showed my neighbors my routine. They were completely blown away. Many of my neighbors were astonished that I--being only 14 years old-- could perform so well.

Also, I felt that I wanted to add this: Yesterday, I was at a restaurant with my SYM group and as I was about to leave, the cashier saw my deck of cards I was holding, and asked whether I would show him a trick. Of course, I didn't turn him down, but there was a pretty long line at the register so I decided to make it a quick trick, so I wouldn't hold up the line. I showed him a really easy and fast trick(better known as the riffle force and saying what his card is)I don't know why the guy reacted like he did, but when I said the name of his card he started laughing in a really strange way. Maybe I didn't perform it well or he is just one of those people who don't react well to magic tricks, but as I walked out the door he said, "Happy Holidays." and kept laughing.

Me displaying my new costume that I got for Christmas: