Hello I'm new to the forum and couldn't find anything relating to this when I used search, so forgive me if it has already cropped up.
Recently I've had a few instances where someone in the audience (One of those borderline heckler kind of people) who ask me if they can shuffle the cards. So normally I oblige, quickly palm the card or memorise it and hand it over.
However these few instances they will demand that I look away (Apparantly people believe you can watch where the cards go if you watch them being shuffled?) and will just take their card out without me watching then ask me to carry on with the trick. If I have palmed the card, then they say that I've taken the card out of the deck and now whatever effect has been given away.
To be blunt, I could just not let them handle the deck, but my question is, is there any other way that I should be dealing with this?
Well there are a few different ways you can handle this:
1. Just say no.
2. Better Audience management.
3. Having the cards shuffled/handled throughout the performance.
Lets Handle number one first:
Just saying no, to me, rarely looks good in the eyes of the spectator. Basically it cancels out the whole "magic" thing. You want them to believe their card is lost in the deck, or that the aces are lost in the deck, etc. And when they cant shuffle, they can and will believe that you where their card is and you dont want to lose its position. This is why I usually never say no when they ask to shuffle the cards. Worst case scenario, they ask to shuffle, you glimspe the card real quick, take back the deck, cull the card, talk for a minute, and bam, your right back on track. But in order to do that, you have to have good number two. No, not that number two, i ment audience management.
Number two:
Good Audience management is key to a good performance with a pain in the ass spectator. The strategy behind audience management is to control them so they DONT ask to shuffle the cards, look in the packet, etc. And, in my opinion, the best way for this to be done, is great technique. Your double lift should look like your single lift so they dont get suspicious and think you are cheating. If they really feel their card is lost in the deck, they wont ask to shuffle the cards. Another way to control the audience is to show things how they are once in a while, provide convincers if you will. When you say you are losing their card in the deck, so them that that is in fact their card. When you place the aces on the table, show them the aces! So later on, when that selection isnt the selection, or those aces arnt really aces, they wont ask, simply because you proved that
what you say is truthful, so that they dont have to check it themselves. When they ask to shuffle, its alot like a lady looking through her house to make sure everythings their after a strange person they cantquitetrustbutwontsayanything leaves the house. Shuffling the cards to them ensures that everything is what it is. Another great convincer is in fact, number three.
Number three:
Having them shuffle when its not nessecary. To you. No, to them shuffling the cards makes all the difference in the world. It proves everything is fair and just how it needs to be. Of course your just giving them the packet that doesnt really have the card(s) in it, or you are in between effects, or youve already loaded the card where it needs to go. You are already ahead of the game, shuffled deck or not. This convincer is fantastic when you want to prove everything is as its should be. Also, let the cards that are about to be in question handled before they cant be handled. To them, they stay the same throughout the entire performance, when in reality, you let them handle the normal card, and then switched it for the not so normal gaff. Letting them shuffle and letting them handle the cards are two of the best, controlling convincers available, but you have to be able to combine this, and other convincers to gain the entire trust of the audience.
And that truly is what you are trying to obtain: The trust of the audience. When they dont trust you, they start asking to see the packet in question, the deck, etc. Only when you have the entire trust of the audience can the magic begin.
