Dealing with Mess-Ups : Getting Through It

Status
Not open for further replies.
I wish I had a really funny one, but this one went from bad to worse

So I was performing ambitious card for a group of friends at lunch time, and random small freshman came over, I took no notice and continued, well, I hit the "here ill show you with less cards, you hold this top half of the deck and..." and I didn't realize the SMALL freshman somewhat behind me. Anyway he called it out and started flipping stuff over, well he look satisfied with it. I was about to try and save it but my best friend said
"you need to leave bro (yes, 'bro' , welcome to California)"
and the kid went from a smirk to a confused frown, then my other friend stepped in front of him to shut him out of the circle, I was a spectator at this point.

The freshman ended up pushing my friend, who turned around and got in his face, and my magic video went from ambitious card to the pre-fight interviews before the match, when they yell at each other and stand up and act like they're going to fight right then and there.

I have a video of it actually if someone wants to see, no swearing I don't think, but just shows how bad a performance can turn.

~Beans

i'd love to see that. i usually don't make big mistakes, but like always when i perform say, when i pull the string out, it breaks in half, and it's really annoying
 
Oct 13, 2007
37
0
32
I have no performance experiences, but from my knowledge I would say a spread cull and palming a card are very effective when something goes wrong.
If you wanted to find a selected card in the deck and lost it you could find it again (now you can use different methods, e.g. just spreading the cards), palm it and say it's gone. With a spread cull you could bring it to the position you like.
Another great method imo is forcing every selection. Even if it isn't necessary, so if you lost a card you could just name it in a mentalism manner.

But a invisible deck is often mentioned as a great out. How would you use it?

- muahzz
 
I have no performance experiences, but from my knowledge I would say a spread cull and palming a card are very effective when something goes wrong.
If you wanted to find a selected card in the deck and lost it you could find it again (now you can use different methods, e.g. just spreading the cards), palm it and say it's gone. With a spread cull you could bring it to the position you like.
Another great method imo is forcing every selection. Even if it isn't necessary, so if you lost a card you could just name it in a mentalism manner.

But a invisible deck is often mentioned as a great out. How would you use it?

- muahzz
Well if they end the trick by telling you `well that was a bad trick, this isn`t my card`Then all you have to do is say, well then your card must be that card I predicted earlier, in another deck. *Pull out invisible deck, get spactator to name selection and have it turn face up*

And your out.
 
I mess up all the time, and that is why I have stopped and gone on a magical pilgrimage. I had such a hard time with slights, and just from shaking, that things would get screwed up and it turned into a big mess. I got out of it, from just stopping preforming for a while. This pilgrimage has been very enlightening, and has helped my performances and my persona.
 
Sep 1, 2007
26
0
Chihuahua, Mexico
really funny
i wasn't in the mood of doing magic that day and a friend asked me so... i decided to do something fast
just try to classic force a card ... he got one of the bottom cards so i told him to place it in the middle (i was going to do a pass and finish my trick)
so i did a pass but the card got stucked with my finger and it just flipped...
so i said the trick wouldnt worm because it was raining in hawaii
and i tried to classic force again (knowing that he would get anotherone)
and he did.... he got his last card =) and he was like WOAH your a cheater this card is the other way...
so i had to remember him...
WASNT THAT YOUR LAST CARD?
and he became amazed =P
 
Sep 2, 2007
297
0
hahaha all great stories, but i usually like dperforming a trick that name evades me. But a spectator chooses a card and is *lost in the deck* then one point in the trick I have to load the bullet into the gun. I usually fire and it's fine, but that time when I fired the card only went out an inch and I kept trying to fire the gun. So I took out teh inched card and said, "must've been a dud" a few people chuckled for a bit. But I would say it was a pretty good trick all-round
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,699
1
34
A friend and I were doing a short stage show at my synagogue a while ago. We wanted to finish with a variation of David Copperfield's "Metamorphasis."

The idea was that I would dissappear and then he would "transform" into me (if you know the effect, you know what I mean). We were the last act on stage so we figured we'd do it and then be done.

We hadn't actually thought about the clean-up. So he transforms into me, I take a bow and people start to leave.

Suddenly, a mob of little kids rush the stage and go over to the table I used for the effect and go under the tablecloth where my friend "re-appears" magically.

I realize that we shouldn't have done the trick at all.

You should never do a trick you can't control. That's the lesson I learned. I mainly do close-up stuff, so it's more relevant. I need to be in charge of my equipment at all times. Otherwise, people will walk all over me.

If you've seen The Prestige, they mention this with the transported man trick and Angier's Double. So it's double true. If I can't control the trick, I shouldn't perform the trick, no matter the potential outcome. One must be absolutely prepared before he or she does any magic.

And little kids suck.
 
Aug 31, 2007
807
0
interwebz
I wish I had a really funny one, but this one went from bad to worse

So I was performing ambitious card for a group of friends at lunch time, and random small freshman came over, I took no notice and continued, well, I hit the "here ill show you with less cards, you hold this top half of the deck and..." and I didn't realize the SMALL freshman somewhat behind me. Anyway he called it out and started flipping stuff over, well he look satisfied with it. I was about to try and save it but my best friend said
"you need to leave bro (yes, 'bro' , welcome to California)"
and the kid went from a smirk to a confused frown, then my other friend stepped in front of him to shut him out of the circle, I was a spectator at this point.

The freshman ended up pushing my friend, who turned around and got in his face, and my magic video went from ambitious card to the pre-fight interviews before the match, when they yell at each other and stand up and act like they're going to fight right then and there.

I have a video of it actually if someone wants to see, no swearing I don't think, but just shows how bad a performance can turn.

~Beans


I REALLY want to see that...you should submit it to the media section!
 
Nov 6, 2007
128
0
I would say when I perform tricks (I'm not a trick person, I like flourshes) I shake, especially my hands, and everybody notices it, I get REALLY nervous and it's really hard to control.
 
A few months ago, me and a friend were taking it in turns to perform for groups of people on the street. The whole thing went pretty smoothly, and I had an invisible deck in my pocket, so I decided to try that. It worked well, and someone said, "OK, now do it for me." Even though I should't have, I went to do it again. They named a card, and I went to shake the deck and say. "NOW the only face-up card is the [say] 3 of clubs!" but as I was shaking, I dropped the deck on the ground. My friend saved my life by quickly stepping in and blowing them away with Sankey's Bigger Finish, so thankfully no-one questioned the mix of face-up and face-down cards. (But my invisible deck never worked as well after that :( )
And of course, like everyone, I have an abundance of stories involving screwed-up passes and shapeshifters...

@Double Decker, I used to have that problem too. I learnt that the only way to fix it was to gain confidence through experience. It's actually easier to perform for complete strangers than for people you know.
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,241
1
I have to be the king of sticky situations. Here's a story about me from another thread-

Hey guys,
I'm pretty bored, so I thought I would share probably one of the scariest and most awkward moments in my, well not only magic career, but my whole life. I want to say that NOTHING in this story is fictional, and by the end of it you should think twice about going to your next gig. It goes something like this-
It was one of my first gigs. I was a pretty young kid, but I think I was pretty skilled at the time. Anyways, I heard they were having this fundraiser thing for a hospital down town. Thing was, it wasn't really a hospital. It was this open clinic type of thing, where people who didn't have health insurence stayed untill they could afford a regular hosptial. Well they started getting crowded, considering it was a bad part of the city, so they set up this big bake-sale type of thing to get some money so they could get the people out of there. So one day my dad was in the city, and he saw a flyer for it, and knowing I was looking for a place to perform, brought home the flyer and convinced me to do it. So I get there on a Saturday, and I knew it was going to be a bad day. There was NOBODY there. And the space where they were holding the event, was microscopic. It wasn't even space, it was just in the front of the clinic. So I'm there with my deck and I'm doing some tricks, for the only people that were there, the receptionist and a couple patients, when out of nowhere I hear the doors swing open, and lots of screaming. I turn around, and see a blood covered man screaming and tripping all over the place. I immediatly threw up all over the ground, not at the fact that he was all shot-up, but at the fact that I was freakin scared. So he's bleeding and screaming all over the floor, while I'm hurling all over my feet. From what I heard him saying, he'd been shot in a drive-by a couple blocks away. I see him leave the perimeter of the door, and I start hauling ass. You've never ran faster when theres a bleeding gangster behind you, believe me. So I get a couple blocks down, when I realized that what I did was a little disrespectful, you know puking and running, so I walk back, only to find about a dozen cop cars scattered arond the front of the clinic. I made a b-line to a phone booth, to call my dad to come pick me up, because he couldnt stay for the whole thing, and he was supposed to come at the near end. He picks me up, and we go home.
Well, thats pretty much it. I can tell you that I'm never going to a gig in that part of town ever again.


I know, its pretty screwed up! I have a grown women puke all over my cards and hands before, that was a bad one. Oh yeah, like two weeks ago I performed for an elderly couple, and the guy said I should go to hell.
 
Sep 27, 2007
7
0
35
This may sound mean, but I like to see another magician mess up on a trick I know now and then. Nothing big mind you, I don't want to see them humiliated. I just love to see how they react, and how they recover. It's at moments like those that you can potentially see a magician at his or her most creative, and a good recovery can be as entertaining as a perfect effect, as well as offer a lot of inspiration.

Anyway, one of my most memorable mess ups was with D'lite. I was in Colorado for the 4th of July. The fireworks that were scheduled were supposed to have started, but it had been raining a bit and thus they were delayed. I was with my family and a bunch of other spectators, most of which looked pretty bored. So, I pulled out my D'lite's and started having fun. I just acted like it was natural, tossing it back and forth, keeping to myself. As more and more people started to watch, I became a little more animated. I started "throwing" the light high into the air, and then running to catch it. Well, about the second or third time I did so, I slipped on the wet ground and fell right on my butt. I was embarrassed, but I just thrust my D'lite in the air and yelled "Ha! I got it!" It got a good laugh, so I got up and continued. :)
 
Sep 1, 2007
885
0
36
Jamestown, NC
www.google.com
The first time that I messed up was around the time that most magicians do. Their very first performance. I started to perform a simply color change with a deck of cards, and when I did that I was later suspected with the correct method.

I know that my story isn't exactly colorful, but that just happened to be the first time that I ever messed up.

I later dealt with the mess up and treated it as all mess ups should...a learning opprotunity.

Shane K.
 
Sep 6, 2007
15
0
Crazy mistake...

This is a good one. I do alot of street and parlor magic, Sometimes I have alot

of work, then there are the months that I am trying to get alot of work. It shifts

but this story is crazy. I was working a fair in my home town this July. I had

my table set up nice, my tales clean and pressed brand new tally hos it was

good times. I do stage type illusions to a flourish act. That were everything

went wrong and no I didn't get mulled by a bear... I was right in the middle of

a turn over and catch when a group of kids ran stright into me. Then knocked

over my table causing my most of my props to lets say become unmystifed.

There were kids every were I was on the ground it looked like a magic

expolison. Good thing a cop was chasing them. Well there really nothing I

could do but start my walk around show. Well its good to know that I stoped a

crime.
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,699
1
34
Let me just say:

It is so important that when one practices he or she must strive for perfection. That said, no amount of practice can take the place of going out and actually performing live for people. Practicing in front of a mirror can't take the place, posting Youtube videos can't take the place. The only way to truly get good is to learn to deal with real people.

Also, one can take advice from other people's mistakes, but no one will ever truly know until they make those mistakes themselves.

I am still learning. I mess up. What have I learned from personal experience?

Never do a trick I can't control.

Misdirection works better than any sleight of hand.

Don't ever do "card to pants" at a bar-mitzvah.

You'll never actually know until you do it yourself.

My advice: just do it. Just go out and learn. Make sure you've got the basics down and can actually do tricks, but then get outside and perform for people and make mistakes and learn from them. There really isn''t any way around it.

Stick that in your inspirational quote book.
 
I love reading all of your stories, very intriguing.

Anyways, I've made small mistakes in my acts, nothing major really, just fumbled on something or made my pass a bit more visible than it should've been but, my only huge mistake I ever made resulted in one of the best impromptu tricks I've ever done.

Well it started out with my spectator just choosing a card, and then they put it into the middle of the deck. I then passed their card to the top, and starting giving some patter (I forget which trick this was) As I was giving my patter I was casually moving the cards from hand-to-hand and accidently dropped the whole deck.

I'd never done that before unless practicing flourishing and I felt so embarrassed until all the people around me (I was at school) started going crazy and I didn't know why. I looked down and saw all the cards had landed face down except for their card. It must have been the way I dropped them and because their card was ontop it must have caught something in my hand on the way down and turned over differently from the rest of the pack. Needless to say, Gravity saved my ass, and almost ruined it at the same time.

-Happy Holidays,
-RA69
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results