Kids copying me and messing up my tricks.

[BlueSpade1000]

hey guys I need HELP !!

At school this kid named joey who used to heckle me while I was preforming is now trying to copy me. Actually him and three other kids are. He is finding out most of my secrets on you tube and preforming the tricks wrong!! Everybody in the school who I successfully preformed to is always coming back to me saying " I know how you did that trick joey told me". I was furious so I went to him and told him that he better stop giving away secrets for attention. He said " I dont care I'm not a magician". After that I was so ready to punch him in the face HARD!! to make a long story short he heckled me on facebook saying that I was jealous of him. I almost punched him and he got suspended for heckling me online.

Where do I go from here???? him and his friends basically taught everybody in the school what a double lift is, and revealed some of my favorite tricks such as the backpalm reversal and hand to mouth by preforming them horribly. I have nobody to practice my tricks on now. I hate street magic beacuse I hate being denied. All I can do practice my flourishes while talking to my friends. what do I do now???

 

[Enzo]

The key here could be summarized in one word: "IGNORE"

 

[Slicke]

I had similar but not so intense experiences myself ... and ignoring them is not a good idea, I would not just sit there while some guyz are walking around, destroying my reputation as a magician. Something you gotta learn, if you don't know this already ... Youtube does reveal some stuff about magic by some wannabe kids who wants views, but magic, card magic in your case is so much more than that. Use basic principles about card magic, like the key card concept to create a real miracle for them. Don't just go through the deck and show their card but add your own twist to it. Or perform Blind by Daniel Madison, with some good patter, that's "magic". Invisible deck is another option. But if wanna get your reputation back, perform something that starts with a small audience but attracts attention. I performed a "voodoo" card trick 2 years ago, very easy to accomplish where the ash reveals the playing card on your arm and till this day, people still remember it and always ask me to do it. And something good about school, news go by VERY quick and it gets better everytime it leaves a mouth because someone always add something to it. Last i heard was i blew and the ash "disappeared" from my arm ... :O

Avoid hecklers at all cost, there's no point performing to them. Win the crowd, not your enemies.

 

[THE DEALER]

its obvious that this kid wants attention. the best thing to do, like Enzo said, is to ignore him, and everyone else trying to expose your effects. use this as a learning situation and develop the ability to smile and be cool about it, i would even go as far as not to perform for anyone in school. im glad you came on the forum to discuss your challenge, i know how you feel, i was in high school once and the same thing happened. and i was like you dude, i wanted to punch a whole bunch of people in the face...lol... and thats all it is, a challenge. next time he or anyone comes up to you and says i know how you did this or that, just look at him, smile and say "thats good", and walk away. believe me, you will find other people to practice on. hope this helps

 

[Lamb3rt]

Dude you did your job. You entertained ppl with magic trick. The fact that some ppl find out how you did these trick afterward remove nothing in the experiance that they had when you did them. Just ignore these kid. If you get pissed at them they are just going to continue. Oh and start reading book if you want to kick these kid a** with magic trick. Most trick sold on dvd are reveal on youtube. Anyway magic is a way to entertainr don't forget that.


For the part where everybody know what a double lift is... that's not too much of a problem. use othere tecknique or new form of double lift. I think tha Jason England got a 1on1 with a load of variation.

 

[Matt Owen]

I agree with Lamb3rt, get your tricks from books. One Degree by John Guastaferro has some amazingly strong magic that you can't find the answers for on youtube or anywhere on the internet. If you really want to cover yourself research a trick you want to learn, make sure you can't find it anywhere online, buy it, learn it and perform it. I got a few friends that ask a name for a trick i perform so they can google it later on. I never give them the name only if i know for certain they wont find it. I normally get the response "I bet I will find it".... yeah really, good luck!

 

[~Illogical_Illusionist~]

Ok so here is what you do, nxt time you run into them, challenge them. Tell them something like "hey try and figure out this next trick" once you have their attention, perform "gator boots" haha

Just in case you're not familiar with that trick, here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQqhDwcyZ7c

 

[Smoothini]

Oh God!

Alright, first off don't let the hater get to you. Then he gets the power. You need to be so mentally and emotionally more mature than this prick and keep doing your thing. Second, get your magical LEARN on! I'll translate this in case it doesn't register in my Smoothini-speak:

Pick up a book and read.

If this is impossible for you... get Michael Ammar's "Easy to Master Card Miracles" volume....whatever. Pay for it too... it's a worth while investment. I promise you there is no way he'll find these tricks on youtube. The idiots that expose tricks that aren't theirs reveal them with the actual name of the trick, or new stuff. STOP PERFORMING NEW STUFF... get to the basics.

Then what you do, is you put together a 10 minute routine with 3 tricks for the Ammar set. Practice it, make it funny.... make it super entertaining. Don't do any of these tricks until you know you got it mastered. Then one day call him out. you vs. him..... do it publically. Call him out and make it so that if he doesn't show up, he'll look scared. Even give him a week to prepare. Little does he know that you've rehearsed your routine for months. Then after you shut him up, it's all good.

You can even close it with the card to ice cube from Ammar's book. Or you can use a routine that I do that shuts up amatuers. If you want it PM me.

 

[Michael Moore]

Well, you say he learns the secrets off of Youtube, than performs them badly & exposes them, & he says he's not a magician, which would tell me he wouldnt spend one penny on any actual magic tricks. So, perform gimmicked tricks, tricks that actually cost money I bet he would never be willing to spend money on, tricks that he COULDNT do without a gimmick, tricks like Misled, D-light, Tarantula, The Raven, Thumb Tip Bill Switch, Dresscode, Exile, etc. Even if he says "He uses a trck (whatever), there would be no way he could PROVE that you do, especially if you can perform it smooth & convincing enuff to make them BELIEVE there is no way you could've used a gimmick, especially when half of these gimmicks can be used on borrowed objects. I'd also recommend Andrew Mayne's Levitator DVD, which talks about a ton of levitations you could do using gimmicks, in other words levitations you just couldnt do impromptu, or better yet, levitations that this guy couldnt do. So think of magic you can practice & perform thats not just as easy as seeing the secret on Youtube, & invest time & money into gimmicked & elaboratley pre-pared tricks. Than perform them when he's not around just in case he still happens to know how you did it, than the other kids will go back to him & say "He did this to my bill, or, he freakin levitated up a chair, etc, you do it- than he'll be stuck, & youll get your reputation back while leaving him in the dust.

 

[Luis Vega]

Well, you say he learns the secrets off of Youtube, than performs them badly & exposes them, & he says he's not a magician, which would tell me he wouldnt spend one penny on any actual magic tricks. So, perform gimmicked tricks, tricks that actually cost money I bet he would never be willing to spend money on, tricks that he COULDNT do without a gimmick, tricks like Misled, D-light, Tarantula, The Raven, Thumb Tip Bill Switch, Dresscode, Exile, etc. Even if he says "He uses a trck (whatever), there would be no way he could PROVE that you do, especially if you can perform it smooth & convincing enuff to make them BELIEVE there is no way you could've used a gimmick, especially when half of these gimmicks can be used on borrowed objects. I'd also recommend Andrew Mayne's Levitator DVD, which talks about a ton of levitations you could do using gimmicks, in other words levitations you just couldnt do impromptu, or better yet, levitations that this guy couldnt do. So think of magic you can practice & perform thats not just as easy as seeing the secret on Youtube, & invest time & money into gimmicked & elaboratley pre-pared tricks. Than perform them when he's not around just in case he still happens to know how you did it, than the other kids will go back to him & say "He did this to my bill, or, he freakin levitated up a chair, etc, you do it- than he'll be stuck, & youll get your reputation back while leaving him in the dust.

I don`t think that a good idea...since even when the trick is gimmicked, lots of gimmicks are revealed in youtube and other sites as well...

I would go with reading magic books and perform tricks from them...

 

[RikAllen]

Do some tricks with objects that are not currently being exposed, rope magic can be both funny and effective, and it isn't being exposed on youtube like every new card trick on the market.

Work with some everyday, borrowed, objects. This can go a long way.

And, like many said, take it back a decade (or more) and perform some older material. Ammar's videos (now on DVD) are well worth the price and are still one of the best collections of effects out there. Old books will always fool people, and if you change the presentation then people will be youtubing for tricks that don't exist. In fact, just changing the presentation can fool magicians because everyone uses the same one for every trick so they recognize it due to the presentation and not the method.

Just a thought.

And yes, I did make a generalization, if you don't fit into that category I don't want to hear 'I always change mine!!!!' because you're in the minority.

 

[notsoltd]

Maybe try some mentalism? If they do find out how it's done (I doubt they will) but if they do, they most likely wont want to put the effort into it and if they do learn it and try to perform it, they will look like idiots and nobody will think they are reading their minds

 

[Aaron.Williams]

This guy seems like the kind of person who needs attention by pissing someone off. The best advice would be to IGNORE HIM.
He's obviously feeding off of the fact that he's annoying you and if you give him that satisfaction, he won't stop.

So here are your options:

1. Just stop doing magic at school. If someone asks, say no. If they ask why, tell them to ask Joey. If people enjoy your magic, they'll get mad at Joey, because he's the one to blame.

2. Look into more underground tricks or get some books and do magic out of those. People who reveal on Youtube reveal very popular tricks (Pressure, Stigmata, etc.). Avoid performing things sold on theory11 and Ellusionist and you should be fine.

EDIT: 3. Here's another option, sit down and talk to him like a person. Ask him CALMLY why he wants to give all the secrets away to everyone. He might be a little jealous and he might actually want to become a magician.


I had a similar problem like this in 7th grade, the grade where everyone thinks they know everything and don't like being upstaged by anyone. I did #1 and #3 (I didn't know the value of books then) and the problem was over, and now we are actually friends and he enjoys magic.

Do these and I promise that this problem will dissapear. (pun intended)

 

[chriswiehl]

just practice secretly and go out once in a while to perform. then go to college and forget those people and work with people who arnt interested in lame attention.

 

[jakubr]

Another thing you might try is completly different approach. If he and some other folks in your school are interested enough to dig in, and look for tricks, you might try to create small magic club. I understand that in current situation, you're so upset with him, that you wouldn't even think about it. But if you were able to change relation a little bit - look how good would it be. You can practice together and this way learn faster. And also together decide, which tricks are performable. You could help him to progress, and same time, save your audience from exposure. How about this?

 

[BlueSpade1000]

Thanks guys I can always count on these forums for help!!!!...........but where do I find the magic books???All the card magic books I ever read taught the same tricks (glide, backpalm, card forces. anybody know where I can find any. Also I was thinking of buying anthensome is it worth it.

HAHAHAHAHA gator boots is the funniest trick ever!!! but I don't want to get in trouble

Also where can I find some good card mentalism that doesn't involve gimmicks or hardcore setups??

 

[RikAllen]

All the card magic books I ever read taught the same tricks (glide, backpalm, card forces. anybody know where I can find any.


Also where can I find some good card mentalism that doesn't involve gimmicks or hardcore setups??

Here is one of many. Just look around, there are tons of books/booklets with good magic in them.

Good card mentalism is hard enough to find, maybe try some mentalism that doesn't involve cards? Corinda, Cassidy and Annemann have enough material to make a half dozen career mentalist who all do completely different acts, so look into any one of them for starters.

 

[mehar]

Here are my ideas -Note some of these ideas may have been said already-

- Stop learning from Youtube. If he's finding out all your tricks on YouTube you're probably learning it from there. There are also numerous threads on here saying why not to learn from there.

- Don't say the names of the tricks. If you're doing.. pressure. Don't say, ''this one's called pressure, we're going to apply pressure onto the iphone/ipod/mp3 and it'll just go inside the balloon.''

- Practice, drill, rehearse. You're tricks might also not be practiced enough. If a layman sees you setup your double lift or something small like that, they instantly ''know'' the trick. Even though they may have only seen you do a double lift, they think that that's it, they know it all instantly.

- Read some books! The stuff on E, penguin magic, T11, Dan and Dave, etc. are all on YouTube. Grab RRTCM and read it. That kind of stuff won't be on the internet.

Hope this helped!

Mehar

 

[DonJuan]

Use this opportunity to push yourself to create. To me that seems like the most liable solution. If these guys are looking up your methods and exposing them its time to come up with some of your own or take other effects and make them your own. Modify the methods. Also look into your presentations and come up with multiple outs and alternative sleights. For example Simon Lovell recomends a simple second deal in replacement of a DL. Same effect different method.

 

[Aaron.Williams]

RRTCM

Royal Road to Card Magic in case you didn't know what that meant