Saturday Night Contest - Performance Stories : Holiday Edition

Aug 31, 2007
1,960
1
34
Long Island/New York
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!

Oh man, I'm sorry to hear this.
That's really sad, like I just pictured that in my mind.
Sorry.
 
Hey All,

Earlier in the month myself and Kash 'Black Heads' had our first Charity Show together, and I must admit, it is a brilliant feeling giving back to the community.

We did some walk around magic/fire breathing/levitation for around 2 hours, and the kids enjoyed it so much. Their faces were just amazing.

We performed for a small group of around 30 People, Kids, Parents, Organizers. Half the group were under-privileged Aboriginal Australians, and the other half Children with Mental and/or Physical Disabilities.

Simple tricks such as Spun, Bruised, Haunted Deck, The Cloak etc Killed! They loved it, and after just recieving a call hours after the performance I have been told many of the kids have been attempting to Levitate Cards and Coins, and
attempting the Punch them selves in the hope they bruise a shape! lol.

I would recommend doing something like this to everyone guys, a couple of hours out of your time, can really make a difference to some child's life. I ended up giving a Unopened First Issued Guardians, some EThread and some Magicians Wax to one of the kids and her face just glowed.

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Much Love,
Matty.
 
Nov 19, 2007
76
0
MD
At Thanksgiving, we went to some relative's house, and I remember I did few card tricks to "break the ice," so to speak, since I really didn't know really those particular relatives. It went pretty well. For Christmas, we went to the same house. A few people who saw me last time asked me to show them some tricks. Unfortunately, there was a slight problem... I forgot my deck! I don't really delve much into anything besides card magic, but I did know one trick that I thought would work well...

I performed Sinful, a trick created by a Mr. Wayne Houchin. Being the genius I am, I decided to do it right in the kitchen. I mean, what could go wrong? The soda could explode, smothering the turkey with its delicious, flavorful combination of coke and lemon, but what are the chances of that‽

My intelligence became more apparent when I forgot that I had just shaken the can... As I started to open it, an explosion of flavor did, in fact, shoot from the can. Oh well, a little mopping would do the trick, right? Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of mopping turkey... Needless to say, Tank, my dog, got a delicious dinner that night. I think the coke and lemon seasoning made him enjoy the turkey even more... I wish the same could be said for the rest of us. Luckily, a plentiful amount of roast beef and other items were also present, so my wonderful aim didn't completely kill dinner.

Alright, so other than ruining the turkey, it was a pretty good performance. Everyone was enjoying the trick right until the end. The fact that the soda actually landed right on the turkey didn't really sink in at first, and everyone was so confused that that no one seemed to blame me for it. Phew! The crowd sort of... died after that, but the guy whose coin went into the can was thoroughly amazed. Some day I'll do that trick again... Outside...

The moral of that story? Don't do Sinful when there's a turkey right next to you.
 
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-Ok, so on Christmas day my Dad got me an ultra-smoke gimmick, I had been wanting one for like 2 years! So after a few minutes of setting it up and figuring it all out I decided to try out some magic with it for my Dad and the neighbors.
I came up to them and asked if they wanted to see any magic. (little did I know the neighbors where total hecklers) As soon as I took my deck of cards out, one guy immediately said, "O yeah! I know this one haha". Gotta love it how people think all card tricks are the same....
-So I start doing a real simple ambitious card routine, nothing fancy. The guy is blown away! Everyone was! Except... my Dad. He's seen me do my ACR at least 1,000 times haha. I could tell I needed to impress him, so I started doing Kenners 4 for 4 move, but to change four blue cards into four red cards. After I did the move, I gave the spectator (My Dad) the kings. I put my hand underneath his... a few seconds go by... and then.. SMOKE... Lots of it! PEOPLE FREAKED. The wife walked away, the kids started jumping up and down. The fat guy watching football ACTUALLY looked at me! (haha) And my Dad.... he just winked. Thats his way of telling me i got him... big time. One of my best performances, all thanks to my Dad!

Calvin Lauber
 
Aug 31, 2007
122
0
Alright. Last Monday, my cousins hold a Christmas party for the night before Christmas that all my family is invited to. So, I was performing Fraud, by Daniel Garcia, for some of my family, and I started to move the seal slowly. Then as I was moving, only 1 person saw what was going on, then everypne starting looking at the bill as I was moving the seal. As I had finished the move, I gave the bill for everyone to look at. Everyone said, "What did he do?" and "Whats so different?".

No one knew what I had done, so I had to ask someone for another bill, and I showed everyone the difference. They still had no idea what I did. It was hilarious! It took me 5 minutes to explain to them what happened.

-|P54
 
Nov 17, 2007
519
1
My performence

It was the last day of school before our winter break and I had brought a deck knowing that we were just going to a free day for every period. I knew this would be a perfect day to perform.
My first performance was in second period where I performed for only a few people. They were so freaked out by some of the simplest tricks, which they ordered me to perform for my teacher. She was just as freaked out as they were. At fourth period, it started out just like second. I only had about a 2-3 people audience but as soon as I finished the first trick, about 10 more people joined in wondering what the commotion was. As time went on, the ENTIRE (and I mean, every single person) from the class was crowding around my deck wanting to see. Sadly, I didn’t have any duplicates or gimmicks so I wasn’t able to perform some of my more powerful effects. No worries, I still freaked all of them out.
After school, I went to Dallas to visit my relatives.
None of them knew that I had become a magician so I was ready to surprise them by bringing all my best tricks. I knew there would be more than 10 people there to perform for, so I brought my camera along with me so I could remember my first “show”.
My dad gathered all my relatives into the family room for the show. I began with some of my simpler effects: simple sandwich, ambitious card, time machine, a few transpositions, just to name a few. These got surprisingly good reactions.
I thought I would just get reactions like: “Wow. That's pretty cool” or “How did that happen?” But, instead I got: “HOLY CRAP! Let me check the deck!” and “No, no, no, NO! NOT REAL!”

I was walking on air.

When I felt that they were warmed up, I brought out the big guns. The first weapon I used was Witness which I recently learned. It worked like a charm. It was pretty funny when I asked my cousin to turn over the bag over and he shook his head in fear. I could even see the sweat on his hands. AWESOME!
Next, I tried color fusion. That also worked like a charm. When I did the first production, the audience just froze. When I finished, I had my other cousin just put his head down. PERFECT!
I decided to close with my favorite trick of all time. Indecent. When I asked for a bag, the audience shifted they weight preparing themselves for what they were about the witness. When I showed them the card inside the bag, the F-R-E-A-K-E-D O-U-T. I actually got a standing ovation. I took my bows and the show was over.
I will never forget that show. Everything went so perfectly. Here are a few of the best pictures my mother took:
 

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Sep 1, 2007
193
0
Over the past few weeks, I have been performing Commercial for a lot of people.
People at church, parents, and my cousin.

My cousin had just come back from college and I busted out a deck of guardians. I said to him "I have somethin' new." and he replied
"okay, show me."
So I showed him commercial, I did it perfectly with a perfect snap change. He was BLOWN out of his mind.
"Devil magic... wow... get away from me." is what he said. He was so astonished that he wanted to see it again. I actually showed him again, even though I usually never. He figured it out, but the secret also astonished him. Houdini was it? His quote was "The Secret impresses none."
I just proved it wrong.

After my first success with commercial, I went to my mom. She catches everything. And she's a heckler in a good way. Parents kind of have to be. She was also absolutely amazed. She didn't even ask for the secret. I waled away happy.

The next day, I moved to my brother, who NEVER wants to see anything magical, and I performed. I performed just like Dave Buck did. I did it without the secret showing. Sometimes, if you know the secret, the special part will show up. It did not happen. This time I did a erdnase instead of a snap change. He knew the change, but he didn't figure out how I made him choose. There was complete silence from him apart from the "WOW." He made a big wow noise and all that could be heard was the hum of the car.

Last week, at church, I showed someone commercial. I performed not as well as I would have liked to, but he didn't catch on to the secret.
I've been called DC for devil child as a joke after showing people magic at a church event. That name has stuck for whenever I amaze. During the performance, I was told many times to reshow him to choose a card because I didn't 'force' it well enough. This did not hinder, but increased the wow factor. As I did the snap change, he exclaimed.
"OHHHH MY GOSH! ... DC!...DC!DCDCDCDC! you are DC :X"

The reactions are truly amazing for commercial.
 
Sep 1, 2007
125
0
Two weeks ago my friend invited me to his house for dinner. I arrived at around 7 oclock and we played some video games and watched some TV. There were 4 other people from my school there. My friends knows I do some magic and he asked me to show some to him and his family and friends. I didn't have anything on me at the moment and I didn't really want to say no.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I asked for an index card and a sharpie. I folded it in quarters, drew an X and a line in one square and asked for the first name and last initial of a close friend or family member of the person I was doing the trick to. I turned around and I heard some laughter as they told me they were done. I took back the folded paper and for those of you who know how Stigmata is done, there was NOTHING WRITTEN ON THE PAPER! haha

I wanted to just stop the trick but I realized the person I'm doing it to has seen this before at school and just decided to be funny and not write anything down. If i stopped now I would give it away. So i continued exactly as if it was legitimate, attempted to guess at a relationship. I made him squeeze my arm and at the final moment of suspense I revealed my arm.......to be empty. I continued to act like something went wrong and then I asked to see the paper and revealed there was nothing on it. At that moment he was convinced that what I did is real because I would have stopped if I saw nothing written down on the paper.

What was really funny to me was how failing and not archiving the goal I wanted made a person actually believe I was doing what I said I was doing.
 
On the 28th of December, my cousin invited a few of his friends over for a night of poker. The game was tough as I was the underdog.. All the players were 18 years and over and I was just 15.. I had my whole months allowance at stake.. $20

If i won this Tournament, I would be $100 dollars up, so I kept my mouth shut about how I could cheat with a deck of cards using sleights.. Luckily noone knew about my skills with cards at the table.

2 Hours later, I was 40 $ up and I was coming second out of 6 people. Suddenly the door bell rang and my dad returned home from shopping. As he passed the table and jokingly said,
" You should be careful Boys, this kid might only be 15 , but he can handle cards pretty well. He can do card tricks well."

The guys at the table then forced me to show one of my tricks with a spare deck. As i didnt want to show i was too good, all i did was ask someone to pick a card and put it straight back into the deck and shuffle it. Then I told another spectator to pick any card out of the same deck and told him that would be the same card as the first spectator picked. At this point I hoped that the card would not be picked as I was sure they would kick me out of the table for cheating if the card was picked... the spectator picked a card.. and guess what?? IT WAS THE CHOSEN CARD!!!!!!

They accused me of cheating the whole game and one of the boys turn my hand over ( 2 cards in Hold'em) and i had pocket aces.... as of that point they gave me my money back and told me to get out of the game.....

I was happy... I had some how managed to get a 1 in 52 chance right and get myself kicked out my very first card table.


And I did not cheat once...
 
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Nov 28, 2007
218
1
D.C. Area
The people who I performed to, their reactions were AMAZING, good and bad. So i went into the mall, 2 days ago, with my cousin, the first time i ever performed for strangers just off the street. Oh man how i was scared. I wasn't shaking since i've been performing at the school and to family. But I just walked around with my cousin looking for people who were kinda bored and looking for entertainment and I was just afraid to ask them to see my magic. the first few people i asked, reject me =\ Then i got this teen, i did the 2 card monte and really got a good reaction. he called his dad over o.0 I did the subway to him and his clap was pretty funny haha, like a kid's clap. So that day I performed to 5 people and had about 10 rejection. Today I performed with my friend. I wasn't as scared today was I was the other day. I was rejected about 5 times, but i found this lady who was willing to allow me to perform and i also did the 2 card monte(all of my performances were 2 card monte). That performance went pretty well but she flipped over the first card when it wasn't suppose to be flipped =\ One performance i did to this really nice guy who i didn't know had on his bluetooth but he agreed to let me perform anyways. He said "wow you're really good" which made me feel really good inside but I knew i wasn't good compared to magicians I've seen. My last performance today went very well. I did it to two ladies, and they were feeling a little awkward, thinking, "who is this guy showing us a magic trick." But at the end, they were freakin flipped out! one girl was like.. "What? How did you do that! That's Crazy!" Almost every person/people i performed to felt a little awkward in the beginning but was just blown away after the trick had been performed by me, future's greatest magician. =] Today i only got 5 people and probably 20 rejections, but I WILL get A LOT better. Performing was one of the highlights of my holiday this year! Man it was HOT!

My first performance with strangers 2 days ago:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mUWzCTy8_Cw
 
Aug 31, 2007
55
0
my story// how i saved my dad

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Hi there!

I just wanted to contribute to this thread. Not expecting to win, but I want to tell my story [500 words exactly!] . This is a story that really made my Christmas.

**********************

Anyways, we were having a party celebrating our patron saint St. Bartholomew. My dad threw it all together. However, during the party, he was having a lot of trouble keeping everything together. There were a lot of announcements my dad had to make. But it was hard for him. Kids were running amok and parents were standing up and walking around.

I remember having a look at my dad's eyes and seeing a glint of distress, and of sadness. He had been so excited to throw this party -- but it seemed to be a letdown for my dad. Everyone was bored at the party. Every time my dad wanted to make an announcement, the voices of the uninterested and downright BORED crowd overpowered his.

Then, my dad shuffled to a nearby chair and dropped himself on it. Imagine your own dad feeling so defeated. I couldn't take it anymore. So I -- without thinking -- got up from my table and went straight to the microphone up front. I don't even know what was going through my head at the time.

"Everyone! May I have your attention?!"

They all mysteriously turned their heads towards me. "In the spirit of Christmas, I would like to perform something for everyone." Immediately, the little kids halted and eagerly ran up to the front right at my feet. Surprisingly, the parents did the same. I had their attention.

I looked at my dad's face, relief washed across his eyes. He gave me a nod of approval -- or rather, gratitude.

"Let's begin..."

I'm not going into detail about my trick. Basically, I took a card, signed by two people, and made it go back to the past. I placed it into a time machine and it ended up in an ancient envelope, which said: "Do not open until 2007". Inside was a cracked up, yellowed card with the same signatures.

The reactions I had... I don't want to say this without sounding "cheesy" or "scripted". Let's just say that the people there did not leave the building the same way they came in.

But actually, the reactions that I had -- no matter how great they were -- that's not what my story is about. My story is about how I saved my dad. No, I didn't CPR him. I did something different. My dad was defeated and I simply saved him. I gave him wonder. I gave him awe and amazement. I don't know how to put it into words. It felt so perfect.

So later that day, after the party was wrapping up, my dad went up to me. His eyes were wearied with fatigue. But the more I saw of them the more I realized there was a glint of wonder in them. He lays his hand on my shoulder. "Son, thank you so much for the magic show. It means so much to me. It really did."

I look back into his eyes and simply smile. "Merry Christmas, Pa".

***********************
 
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Dec 1, 2007
169
0
Long BEACH, New York
Tonight was my familys christmas party, we have it every year the saturday after christmas. Santa comes and everything. So i'm doing tricks for my cousins right before we have to open presents, using my Guardians, when Santa(who is of course my uncle) looks over and sees them. He said "What are you doing here, magic?" We talked for a minute or 2 and I asked if he wanted to see a trick. So I go on doing stigmata. Santa FREAKS out He screamed when he saw the number on my arm. I do one more trick... box monster. Not as much of a reaction but I still got a Ho Ho Ho. Now it is time to open presents. Time passes and its my turn to go up. I sit on his knee and he hands me a present. He said I was very good today. Notice he didnt say this year. I go back to my seat open my present and its Distortion, Panic, and Witness. It was the best saturday after christmas ever.
 

PhilTheMagician

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2007
368
1
45
I've already submitted the photo in a previous thread a few days back (maybe a week or so ago)....remember, the photo with the gingerbread playing cards I made....I brought some of those to the party (from a previous batch)

Here goes my story of what happened on that day:

I was invited to my best friend's niece's fifth birthday party. As per usual, I took with me some decks of cards, and a few other tricks. After dinner, I noticed how some of the guests were just sitting around, being bored (as it was a 5 year old's party, the older folks didn't care about tea-time or decorating their own Christmas cookies) so I showed the girl's great aunt a card trick (invisible deck). She freaked out, and the commotion caused a few people to look our way, and join us. I then went into some random card tricks (2 card monte, some colour changes and some mentalism with cards) and even more people were watching. Soon there after the kids left their toys and cookies and stuff, and were watching the show. Noticing how the kids were now watching, I put away the cards and brought out my ropes for Fiber Optics. This got the kids all crazy, when they were trying to explain how the ropes kept restoring and being cut with just my fingers. :)

I then brought out my sponge balls, and went through my sponge ball routine with the kids (the parents were enjoying it just as much as the kids). I end off my sponge ball routine with a "two in the pocket, one in the hand" game, which ends with me having both hands empty. CRAZY reactions by everyone at the party.

The birthday cake came out, candles were blown out, and the kids were enjoying their cake as I was making a knife stick to the inside of my open palm, confusing the hell out of one of the guests (while everyone else was in stitches at how SIMPLE the method was, but also on how completely baffled she was at how I was achieving it).

At the end of the night I was thanked by most of the guests, and my friend said, "as always, you were the life of the party! Thank you for bringing your tricks. We all had fun!"

Not really a Christmas story, but her birthday party was less than a week before Christmas.

PS: MATT 3643.....where are you from?? in that pic everyone is wearing shorts. Looks like summer.
 

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Sep 1, 2007
180
0
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Philippines
2 weeks ago, I was at a party that involved my parent’s friend’s families. At first, I was pretty much anti-social. Later on, I found out that my mom talked about my hobby (magic) with other people. One of the people offers to show me a card trick after he finds a deck of cards (his house). I immediately flash my Masters in a steel casing. He then shows me something and people watch. To be honest, I forgot about his trick; it had something to do with nines. Anyway, he asks me to show him something as well. I start out with mindreach. THIS was the greatest decision I made because following this, he luckily chose the key card first. I reveal it and everyone was in awe. They were all shocked. I felt so good because I became the center of the party. I proceed with other tricks and ended with biddle trick. I heard girls screaming (not that loud though), guys gasping, and people praising. It was definitely the greatest performance of my life. The guy I did biddle trick to even said he was creeped out.
 
Aug 31, 2007
308
0
California
I was performing at a casino... Near I live, the day after Christmas. (That's how my family rolls ;)) And I was asked to start performing. So, I pulled out the cards and performed the beginning of my routine.

The food started to come around and I was told to keep performing... Although I never perform when people are eating, it was family and I was being asked, so I decided to do it anyway ;) We got our appetizers and drinks and I started to perform an effect I thought up awhile back. Basically, a card is selected, replaced, shuffled and such. And is shot up out of the deck and caught in the magicians hands (I.E. Long Distance Spinner)

Well, the magician is suppose to catch the card. As a waiter was walking by our table, I did the long distance spinner and the card was accidently flung out of my reach, into the air, above the table that was infront of us.

Someone had ordered mashed potatoes and the card just happened to land directly into it, so it stuck straight up out of the potatoe. (We could see the face of the card, so we knew it was the selection ;)) Thankfully, the lady that had ordered the potatoes didn't have a problem and laughed about it. She continued to eat the potatoes and I performed for her on her behalf.

Came out to be quiet the reveal. (For those that own David Stones Secrets of real magic, vol. 2. You know how funny this looks.)

Don't perform when people are eating :)

Keenan
 
Sep 14, 2007
35
0
I'm not sure if this is allowed, but it is quite funny.
My whole family came over Christmas day for Dinner and a visit, anyways, We were all in the living room talking and opening gifts, I was playing with my new Guardians, I didn't notice but I dropped one card (the six of diamonds) under the chair I was sitting in. Later on my two uncles called me upstairs to the living room, they said "Bring those cards you were using earlier", so I brought up my Guardians and they had a trick for me, (I thought, oh this should be good:p)
My uncle had me pick a card, but not to look at it, then he put the deck around his body, then he took the card from me and told me to spin around 3 times. (at this point I have no idea what they are getting at) then my uncle put the card back in the deck. He did a little Criss Angel concentration thing and said, I will now tell me what card is missing from the deck. He told me the six of diamonds, I looked through the deck and started laughing because It wasn't there. I was basically fooled, I thought he sleeved it but I doubt he knows how to do that:p, they started laughing really hard and told me to look under the chair, and there it was: the six of diamonds. We all had a good laugh out of it. Through out the night we would joke about it and he would brag about how awesome it was:p. I told him he should be my opening act
anyways thats my holiday performance story, I'm not sure if it counts though because I didn't exactly perform it, but props to my uncles!:p
-matt
 
Aug 31, 2007
1,960
1
34
Long Island/New York
Tonight was my familys christmas party, we have it every year the saturday after christmas. Santa comes and everything. So i'm doing tricks for my cousins right before we have to open presents, using my Guardians, when Santa(who is of course my uncle) looks over and sees them. He said "What are you doing here, magic?"

Haha, on Christmas Eve, my Uncle always plays Santa for my younger cousins and he is really good at it. He always gets a little tipsy though, and that's what makes it hilarious. Like when he calls up my brother(who is 21 by the way, and kinda fat) Santa gets up, makes my brother sit down, and Santa sits on my brothers lap. My brother doesn't take it personally though, we know how to take a joke in my family.
 
C

clarrus

Guest
On Dec 24, I had a dinner with some people I knew from church. So I told them that I had some magic tricks lined up for them. Initially, I did some simple sleights and stuff. Then the real excitement began. I performed Witness and I could hear whispers of "no way" when I told them the joker turned into their card. Then I moved on to a regular Torn and Restored. Soon after Distortion came out and they freaked. ESPECIALLY I gave them both 6 and 4 of D to examine. They held onto those cards till the end. I performed some Loop magic next, the most exciting of that was when I revealed their chosen card by having the pack move.

I could've went on more but i got really really sick (Heatburn and nausea) so i had to cut it short to go home and throw up. I vowed that I would return to them and show them more stuff.

So the next day I went over their house again and performed TnR by Mathew Bich and finished it off with Indecent. They were floored.
 
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