Never doing magic again.

[Lyle Borders]

Onward and upward. Always look at things that way. You are going to have slipups. You are going to have rough performances. Learn from them. Figure out how to avoid the same things that caused your slipup. Practice, practice, practice. You will learn more from one bad performance than you will from 10 good ones. Use it as an opportunity to refine and become better.

// L

 

[VanishedAce]

Dude, everyone messes up. That is why people (both magicians and the laiety) love magic- because they KNOW it's a trick, they just don't know HOW it's a trick. This knowledge makes them look at you and give you money (hopefully) or, on a good day, makes them see through you.
See, being caught isn't the end of the world, it's the begining. You learn something new every time that someone catches you- WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SUCCESS.
That being said, practice is of upmost import- anyone can learn a trick in their free time but only a magician gets all the details right. I didn't perform magic until after I had worked on my sleights for 9 years- and while that may be a little extensive, it was certianly worth it in situations like this.
If you get a new effect, practice until you master it. Once you master it, keep practicing. When someone points out flaws, A: note said flaws to work on later and B: punish the meddlers.
Patter options: If someone says "I know how you did that," pull out some quip like "Well, that's not very impressive- I know it too" or "Yes, it's magic. Very good." Or "Really? Well, everyone give a round of applause to (insert name of meddler here)"- then hand them a deck of cards, sit in front of them and stare.
Sleight options: If they know how one sleight is done, beat them with another, more tricky sleight.

"The enthusiast will not rest until every sleight in the calendar has been perfectly mastered, so that he may be enabled to nonplus and squelch that particularly obnoxious but ever present individual, who with his smattering of the commoner sleights always knows 'exactly how it is done'"- S. W. Erdnase

 

[Houdinii]

I know how you feel. And when that happens and somebody tells the entire audience how it is done I react on it with a dare. Sure they know how its done but I would like to see them preform the moves you have practiced months if not years to perfect. The way I see it is if the audience isn't amazed by the trick or even knows how it is done, they will still be amazed by the amount of skill you have to pull it off.

Max

 

[Steerpike]

In my experience the people that try to catch you out are the ones that don't like that you are in control and have the power.

Ehhh... yes and no. Some of them don't like you stealing their thunder. Some just aren't engaged with the act. Some think you're challenging them to figure it out. Lots of reasons.

 

[steven grey]

what i do when i mess up..

i live in the caribbean and i do magic for everyone..there are alot of different types of people here coming in from abroad and locals..i have developed a way to fix everything ..what i do is when i mess up i turn the mess up into a joke..and make the spectators plainly know tht i messed up..u see if you make a mistake and you try to hide it then it becomes obvious..however if you make the mistake obvious then there's no room for the spectator to think anything..so if i mess up i make sure and let them know i messed up..and i turn it into a joke..there was this one time i was using the ghost gaff cards and i forced the gaff 5 of spades instead of the normal 5..and the spectator was confused..and when i realized what i did i quickly thought of a way to make it look like that was part of the magic effect..so i knew that the normal 5 was untop of the deck so i did a double lift and a *spin change* as i call it..and i was like 'ouu sorry about that,what happened was i handed you the card too fast so it froze in time..here let me fix that' and as i changed it back i went on to another effect..and til this day no one who was around me ever knew i messed up the trick..they all thought it was part of the trick...and every time i mess up,wich is not regularly,i always know how to make it seem that i didn't mess up..let me share some tips...whenever u mess up,after the effect sit down and think about how you can turn that mess up into a trick so if it happens again you can be sure what to do..don panic..remain calm always..the key is not to show the mistake but to SHOW that you did a mistake..if you know what i mean lol

 

[Craig Browning]

Ehhh... yes and no. Some of them don't like you stealing their thunder. Some just aren't engaged with the act. Some think you're challenging them to figure it out. Lots of reasons.

But yes, there are A-Holes out there that loathe magicians and deliberately try to mess up your bit. I've watched noted pros have to shift gears because of such crap-attitudes in laymen. . . and I'm talking about 30 year veterans here that know how to spot "the right people" 99% of the time.

 

[RealityOne]

*Sets up soapbox and stands on top of it*

It happens, but there are things you can do to make it happen less often:

1. Don't use say-do-see patter where you say what you are going to do, do it and tell the audience to see what happened. If your patter is nothing more than narrating what is happening, the audience will focus on what you are doing. Audiences are trained to think that the game of magic is that you perform tricks and they figure out how it is done. If all they have to focus on is what you are doing, they will see what you are doing. To get over this, you need to engage the audience in a different way. That is where meaningful patter comes into play.

2. Don't perform in a "look at me" style which makes it a challenge to the audience. Too often magic is presented as "look at what I can do (and you can't)." if you put yourself up above your audience, they will try to take you down. Make magic fun. See how Dani DaOrtiz performs (which is so strongly influenced by Tamariz). He is not above the audience but right there alongside them having fun. Involve the audience as equals, not as people to be fooled (because who wants to be a fool?).

3. Perfect practice makes perfect. Practice until you can do it correctly with your eyes closed. I've gotten to the point in my cups and balls routine that I don't realize I'm doing the final loads - so I'm surprised to when they are there! The sleights should be automatic and should be able to be done while you are talking (see #1 above for what you should be saying).

4. Design the effect or routine properly. Utilize natural misdirection and off beats to perform sleights, have the moves happen well before the audience think the magic happens and make every movement seem natural. Perform without magician's guilt which is the tension and involuntary reactions like looking at your hands, pausing your speech or changing your tempo when you perform a sleight.

5. Don't do this:

Patter options: If someone says "I know how you did that," pull out some quip like "Well, that's not very impressive- I know it too" or "Yes, it's magic. Very good." Or "Really? Well, everyone give a round of applause to (insert name of meddler here)"- then hand them a deck of cards, sit in front of them and stare.

Those reactions will alienate the rest of the audience (making you seem like a jerk) and will give the heckler what they want - attention. Best to just say, "I suppose you could do it that way..." and then move on in your performance. Remember, not everyone who guesses a method is a heckler - some people are wired that way and some people are trained to think that is their job. Your job is to structure your performance so that they don't care about the method.

 

[Parker Nolan]

*Sets up soapbox and stands on top of it*
Remember, not everyone who guesses a method is a heckler - some people are wired that way and some people are trained to think that is their job. Your job is to structure your performance so that they don't care about the method.

Indeed. I used to do that to my magician friend, but I was at least respectful enough to merely whisper it to my friend so I wouldn't throw off the routine, haha. In fact, the reason I got into magic was so I wouldn't just be sitting around trying to figure out how he did it, so I could actually be doing the magic. I sort of got off topic, but what I mean to say is that even a small audience of nice, happy people will attempt to figure out your trick, and might even call out that they know your methods, but not because they want to ruin it, because they are so excited that they think they figured it out.

 

[Randy]

Here's something to try out. Get your 100 bad performances out on randoms. These are people you will never see again and most likely won't have any impact on your life. Use them as your stumbling block and learning curve, after you've done that enough times. You'll have gotten used to dealing with all types of people.

 

[MtyMoose]

Thanks for the URL http://owninghestage.com/taxonomy/term/137 It helped me keep things in perspective.

 

[nynhex]

I can relate! This happens in cardistry probably more than anything. I've been doing this for 11+ years and I still get rotten days where my hands are rubber. I've had days where I would drop cards on the simplest of flourishes, ones I've been doing nearly a decade. There have also been days where no matter how great I thought I did my routines, people haven't reacted or said much at all or even worse, asked me to do magic! *gasp* Just kidding, that's never happened - but seriously...

Do I let that get to me? Sometimes. We're human beings, not robots, we'll always react to those kinds of moments. Inevitably we'll all come across those kinds of days but that's a good thing. Mistakes are experiences and experiences teach us to be better. Learn from it, take a step to the side, and keep climbing that mountain - one step at a time.

PS: When I drop cards, some people become shocked "Oh no! I can't believe he dropped a card" - so I just make a joke out of it, or better - a flourish to recover. I think the same applies to magic. Don't make it a big deal, and no one else will either. Have fun with it. Don't take yourself too seriously and you'll find the audience will more often be on your side.

I have to agree with andrei. I gave up on cardistry several times because I felt I was bombing. There were times where my hands would tremor and I couldn't even do smooth fans or simple charlier cuts. But the trick here is not paying attention to it I think. Just recover and move on.

Bad performances are actually a good thing if you think about it. It teaches you what went wrong and how you can improve. I'd hate to have a perfect performance every time. In fact I find flaws every time I do an effect/flourish but it just helps me get better.

Bottom line, you had a bad experience. Don't give up. Here's a #protip: Learn an effect, an old effect with a simple sleight and is purely lethal. Practice this effect until you hate it. Then perform for the same crowd/type. You'll be amazed at how your confidence returns.

-nynhex