How do you deal with a cynical jack***....?

May 15, 2011
22
0
We've all seen him/her. The person who just sits there unimpressed and tries to act like they know everything the magician is doing. "That's not real magic." DUH!

I was at a party and a my friend's girlfriend threw out the fact that I dabble in magic and everyone wanted to see some tricks. And of course, the cynical a-hole was there. I haven't really done many performances outside close friends and family, so I'm not used to hecklers. The guy who shouts out "It's in your pocket" and tries to boost his own ego. Of course it didn't work and the girl he was with literally dumped him that night.

But my question for you, is how do you deal with those situations? I basically ignored him and continued my act. I even did some counter magic to try to shut him up, like attempting to put something in my pocket but keeping it in my hand anyways.
 
Aug 31, 2007
689
12
33
Lacey,Washington
Well buddy. Here you have a few options.

Don't perform for him.

Stop performing if you find a jackass heckling you, let the party go on and say you'll perform sometime later because you're not feeling it You're not getting paid for it.

This was a learning lesson, you need to learn to scope out before-hand who seems like they are going to give you a hard time. It's all about being a people person and reading them and being observant.

If you were getting paid for it then the best option would be to be professional about it and be the good guy in the situation and stop performing for him and go on and perform for someone else, or just tell him " yeah you're right, you're good " if he actually catches you on things to get on his good side. It's not a horrible thing to get caught.

or

Adapt and get him on your side. (probably the toughest to do in certain situations)
 
Jun 9, 2011
72
0
People like that are honestly those that are simply jealous that you're getting attention.
It seems what you did was fine- ignore them, and if it gets too much, don't perform.
 
Whenever I encounter a situation like that, I do a LOT of "counter magic" a.k.a fake sleights to make them feel like crap. (i.e: I make it SUPER obvious that I'm palming a card when I'm really not and when they try to call me out on it, I show that my hand is empty, or something like that.)

Yeah, yeah..I should just ignore him, but I do find joy in faking out hecklers and reverse their own intentions on themselves. >:D
 
Aug 10, 2008
2,023
2
33
In a rock concert
We've all seen him/her. The person who just sits there unimpressed and tries to act like they know everything the magician is doing. "That's not real magic." DUH!

I was at a party and a my friend's girlfriend threw out the fact that I dabble in magic and everyone wanted to see some tricks. And of course, the cynical a-hole was there. I haven't really done many performances outside close friends and family, so I'm not used to hecklers. The guy who shouts out "It's in your pocket" and tries to boost his own ego. Of course it didn't work and the girl he was with literally dumped him that night.

But my question for you, is how do you deal with those situations? I basically ignored him and continued my act. I even did some counter magic to try to shut him up, like attempting to put something in my pocket but keeping it in my hand anyways.

First of all, stop all the swearing and treat EVERY spectator with respect.

With that aside, People like this are all around the world, is not that they want to own you ( haha ), the thing is that they want to be in the spotlight, they are envious that you are the center of attention at that momment and they want to be the center of attention as well.

What to do? easy.

SMILE. Smile a lot, be a kind guy, and to avoid this situations, just share your spotlight with him, make him part of your routines, your tricks. Make him feel important. You haven't done anything wrong to him? why whould he hate you? There isn't a reason, and he doesn't hate you. He just wants to be part of the spotlight.

Let him be, and again... SMILE.

And if the way you wrote that post is the way you behave yourself around people, believe me, things like this are goin to happen to you everyday.
 
Aug 10, 2008
2,023
2
33
In a rock concert
Sorry to get off subject, but I didn't see anything wrong with how he "wrote his post." He even bleeped out a curse word!

What I meant about "how he wrote his post" is that if he lets little things like this to bother him and get the best of him against spectators (getting the need to humiliate them or making them look bad), he is going to get into more troubles rather than avoiding them :).
 
Jun 6, 2010
796
0
Nashville, TN
If you try to alienate him or "counter-jerk" him, he won't stop. He'll know that his attempts are working and continue trying to be the center of attention.

I think you handled the situation the right way. Just completely ignore him, perform for everyone around and let everyone else take care of him. Believe it or not, people actually like watching magic and hate it when someone tries to ruin it. :)
 
Apr 2, 2011
129
0
Chicago, IL
The context of the situation will indicate how you should handle it. Sometimes it won't be possible to ignore the person (or at least not beneficial to you). Also, what if the heckler is your client's son, or something like that?

In that case, I would try to get the heckler involved. My favorite way of doing that is have him/her be the helper in Aaron Fisher's Search and Destroy trick. It really gets the person involved, and they usually stop afterwards.
 
May 15, 2011
22
0
What I meant about "how he wrote his post" is that if he lets little things like this to bother him and get the best of him against spectators (getting the need to humiliate them or making them look bad), he is going to get into more troubles rather than avoiding them :).

Wrong. It does not bother me when I'm actually performing. The guy simply wouldn't shut up so being a human being, I decided to shut him up. I was just wanting to know how other magicians handle similar situations.
 
its super funny what i like to do with hecklers when they call me out on whatever ill pretend like i didnt hear them and ask them to keep repeating what they are talking about and usually repeating himself he will look like and idiot and stop. But if he doesnt i always clean up whatever sleight i have in process and show myself clean and then show him he is wrong and say something like " Oh because you obviously know everything why dont you do something" and hand em the cards. Priceless.
 
Mar 22, 2010
32
0
its super funny what i like to do with hecklers when they call me out on whatever ill pretend like i didnt hear them and ask them to keep repeating what they are talking about and usually repeating himself he will look like and idiot and stop. But if he doesnt i always clean up whatever sleight i have in process and show myself clean and then show him he is wrong and say something like " Oh because you obviously know everything why dont you do something" and hand em the cards. Priceless.

On the offchance that I'm actually feeding the trolls here, allow me to reiterate what has been said in this thread, and add my $0.02 to it.

As has been clearly stated in this thread (and many, many others), there usually is a reason that spectators will go heckler on you; suddenly, you (a complete stranger to your spectators) are the center of attention of all their peers. There can be a couple of reasons why people wouldn't like this, but in short, it can be thought of as a direct consequence of your failure to properly entertain your audience.

To elaborate on this, it most certainly (that is, in 99 cases out of a hundred) is NOT the heckler's fault. Chances are, that heckler is usually a perfectly nice and normal human being, and will get back to being so within minutes of you leaving. Why then, you might be wondering, won't he just let you do your performance without giving you a hard time?

The keyword here is challenge. You (again, a complete stranger to your audience), are suddenly showing up and displaying certain skills that the people in your audience, most likely, don't possess. This in itself can be a big trigger for heckler behaviour, because most people do not like not being able to do things other people can do. The challenge for you then, is to introduce yourself and your performance in a way that does not challenge your spectators, but rather entertains them and gets them involved in the performance.

From this, it immediately becomes clear that your proposed solution does not help furthering this. Rather, it further establishes you (in the eyes of the audience) as someone who is there to challenge them. The only thing this does help furthering, is your alienation from your audience.

Ask yourself this question: Why is it exactly that you do magic? Is it to entertain? Is it to allow people to break away from reality for a moment and marvel in the little wonders of life? If you do magic on a professional basis, how do you think that alienation from your audience helps you furthering your career?

Because really, if you just do it to show off, then doesn't that make you the pompous a**hole?
 
Nov 8, 2009
131
0
On the offchance that I'm actually feeding the trolls here, allow me to reiterate what has been said in this thread, and add my $0.02 to it.

As has been clearly stated in this thread (and many, many others), there usually is a reason that spectators will go heckler on you; suddenly, you (a complete stranger to your spectators) are the center of attention of all their peers. There can be a couple of reasons why people wouldn't like this, but in short, it can be thought of as a direct consequence of your failure to properly entertain your audience.

To elaborate on this, it most certainly (that is, in 99 cases out of a hundred) is NOT the heckler's fault. Chances are, that heckler is usually a perfectly nice and normal human being, and will get back to being so within minutes of you leaving. Why then, you might be wondering, won't he just let you do your performance without giving you a hard time?

The keyword here is challenge. You (again, a complete stranger to your audience), are suddenly showing up and displaying certain skills that the people in your audience, most likely, don't possess. This in itself can be a big trigger for heckler behaviour, because most people do not like not being able to do things other people can do. The challenge for you then, is to introduce yourself and your performance in a way that does not challenge your spectators, but rather entertains them and gets them involved in the performance.

From this, it immediately becomes clear that your proposed solution does not help furthering this. Rather, it further establishes you (in the eyes of the audience) as someone who is there to challenge them. The only thing this does help furthering, is your alienation from your audience.

Ask yourself this question: Why is it exactly that you do magic? Is it to entertain? Is it to allow people to break away from reality for a moment and marvel in the little wonders of life? If you do magic on a professional basis, how do you think that alienation from your audience helps you furthering your career?

Because really, if you just do it to show off, then doesn't that make you the pompous a**hole?

I love this post so much I want to have babies with it.

But on a serious note, your motivation should be correct before you can complain about the way people are reacting to your magic. There is the occasional drunk who can actually not handle being a spectator, but those guys normally take care of themselves...
 
May 26, 2011
11
0
I usually just stop when I have someone who isn't receptive to having magic performed in front of them.

Magic has to be fun for you, too.

I just put my cards away or anything else and go "Nevermind, maybe I do something later"
 
Jun 9, 2011
72
0
Actually, i just had a similar situation and this is what I did-

I took out a coin, and I went "WATCH THIS!"
I closed my hand and I'm like...."it dissapeared!"
And then I open my hand and say.."now it's reappeared!"
There's usually an awkward silence and everybody laughs. And the cynic is simply confused :)

If i have a deck of cards, i do the same thing...they put the card at the top, and 2 seconds later....its magically appeared at the top!

This is much better than getting angry, stopping, or trying to embarrass them. :)
 
Feb 7, 2011
362
1
its super funny what i like to do with hecklers when they call me out on whatever ill pretend like i didnt hear them and ask them to keep repeating what they are talking about and usually repeating himself he will look like and idiot and stop. But if he doesnt i always clean up whatever sleight i have in process and show myself clean and then show him he is wrong and say something like " Oh because you obviously know everything why dont you do something" and hand em the cards. Priceless.

I responded to a post like this in a similar thread a while back. This is a very un-professional and adolescent way to react. You cant just humiliate someone who doesn't want to see magic. Do you think you'll get re-hired for making a mockery of your employer's guests? If they dont want to see magic it's their choice, you cant take offence, do magic for other people, or involve him if you have the confidence. Dont ever single him out and make him look foolish. It could be your employer's brother.
 
This is probably not the right approach, but in a casual situation where someone has asked me to perform a trick for them this is what I do. This comeback is all that I use.

"I know how you did that-" "Cool story bro"
Then interact with everybody else as if nothing happened. And as RDChopper said; smile and laugh.

When I perform there are two personas that I tend to portray. One is self-assured, the other is cocky a*****e. (Cocky a*****e never comes into play in professional situations.) The self-assured persona talks to people, makes joke, and connects with people. The cocky jack*** comes into play when I get heckled. That line is said as if the heckler is not even worth my time. In a condescending tone, and in a way that makes them realize that myself and nobody else cares. They either realize that being an obnoxious jerk isn't going to get them anywhere and they stop and watch like a normal person; or they leave. Either way the people that want to see my magic get to see it with minimal interruptions.

This is because sometimes teenager's whom you've never met will walk by you performing, look in. See you as the center of attention and jump to the conclusion that if they make fun of you they will be the center of attention. The thought process is "He's doing magic, if I tell people how it's done then I'll look smart". Although this actually has the opposite effect that's the thought process. So they call you out the first chance they get, "I saw the card in his hand". If you completely ignore it you start to lose the rapport with the audience. It's like how you feel when you ask someone a question and they just blow it off. It gives the vibe that you think that you're above them. But responding in a slightly condescending way shows that you heard him, and you don't care. That his comments make him not worth your time. And he realizes his error, and stops heckling or leaves. Or realizes he was wrong and watches without the ego and you can build rapport with him.

This works for me with my casual performing character, it may not and probably won't work for anybody else. But just trying to get a variety of responses going on in this thread.

*This is just for casual performance hecklers that are teenagers. They aren't paying you to perform, and they won't anytime soon. In a professional situation the situation is completely different. You are less likely to get heckled in a professional situation; but if you are then it's because you haven't established any connection with that audience member. When performing they should perceive you as someone they just met, have several things in common with, and you are paid by the management, or party-planner, to perform for them. With that in mind they have the conception that you can't be terrible or you wouldn't be hired and are more likely to sit back and enjoy watching magic that their new acquaintance would love to show them. If I failed to word this properly then read acme's post. He put it perfectly.
 
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