theory11 — Magic Tricks & the World's Finest Playing Cards

Oh, great...

magicbysage

magicbysage

Feb 8, 2008
95
0
Ever have one of those moments where you completely mess up a trick, and you're just sitting there, totally embarrassed? Maybe you flubbed your break, or shuffled wrong, or anything else that could've gone wrong. I know that you have to constantly practice before showing the effect off, but even then, sometimes, we do mess up. I was just wondering how many times, on average, that you guys mess up. I was just hoping for some condolences, hehe.
 
magicbysage said:
Ever have one of those moments where you completely mess up a trick, and you're just sitting there, totally embarrassed? Maybe you flubbed your break, or shuffled wrong, or anything else that could've gone wrong. I know that you have to constantly practice before showing the effect off, but even then, sometimes, we do mess up. I was just wondering how many times, on average, that you guys mess up. I was just hoping for some condolences, hehe.
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We'll I use to mess up when I was just getting into magic due to not having the effect all the way down, even though I thought I practiced it enough but it wasn't. Now at this point of my career I mess up every now and then for different reasons. More and so due to the spectator throwing me off sometimes. I've been distracted at times by different sitiuations ranging from hecklers grabing, woman, beer, bad props. For the most part I dont mess up very often anymore ut when I do Im really hard on myself for it. Sometimes I'll get a little cocky and start do crazy flourishes after a couple of drinks and I'll drop a couple of cards but I usually don't drink when Im getting paid just when Im with friends sometimes. Anyhow I always feel stupid when I goof up but its only for a few seconds and I try and make a strong comeback with quick wit and humor. Usually works.

Shane
 
I mess up a lot, although today when I was doing a Do as I Do routine my spectator didn't cut the cards right, but then one spectator left and that was my excuse to start the trick over so that he won't miss it, this time I did it right it went great, but you can see that I try to come up with an excuse for, for example starting the trick over. Also in some books it teaches you ways to find their card even if you lost it.
 
this brings a great quote

"the man who makes no mistakes does not usually makes anything"-william Connor Magee


what i usually do is have a plan b for every trick.
 
dont just sit around like a loser and feel bad. cover it, make a joke. i've messed up tons of tricks in my time performing. get over it if you mess up, learn from it. practicing more might help, but practicing the moves might not. Practice your pace, sometimes people get so caught up in effects they forget what to do, what they did, or how they did it. dont be excited performing, relax. thats what most people do, they rush.
 
key point...relax....everyone messes up once in a while.....the best way keep from messing up is get a solid routine....do it often....practice it...\

when i mess up.....what do I do/say?.....i move positions in the crowd and say"its not really fair for me to move like that in the middle of the trick and expect it to be fair...so go ahead and pick another card" simple, sounds natural, and it is quickly forgotten by the spectators....

I dont really know how often I mess up, theres only so much you can learn from mistakes until you just need to forget about it and accept that yes sometimes ya go blank minded, get distracted, or forget some sequence.
 
What i call mesing up

Don't think that messing up is a bad. I look at a mess up as the "trick" giving me a chance to replace that portion of the trick with something different or unique. A mess up will give you the chance to take the last step a level higher and improve on what you did. - Caleb Fong (me)
 
You just have to have a bunch of outs for those type of situations. Like today I was performing for my friends mom, and I lost my break. I sat there for a second, thinking of what to do, when she (luckily) said "I forgot my card.". So that gave me a good excuse to start over. You really have to have good acting skills to make your audience believe that whatever you did, you did on purpose. And remember this: when you mess up, most spectators don't realize you have messed up, and you can start over, or whatever you wanna do. My biggest problem is losing my break. I don't do it alot, but it's my most frequent mistake. One of the things I have tried to do to fix that mistake is to force the card, no matter what effect it is. This way, if you lose your break, you can spread through the deck and ask your spectator "So, you see you're card in there, I didn't make it come to the top like you think I did, right?" And then i'll make a break where their card is, and pass it to the top.

You just gotta be able to improvise.

Anthony Bass
 
I was doing Stigmata; I was about to reveal the markings of their card but before I did that, I really milked the moment. I tensed my arm, my face, I made it look like I was really, really in pain, but just for a few seconds. Then I revealed the name and I get, "that wasn't the name of my card."

Failure.

..:Z:..
 
I think what magicbysage is referring to is when you don't realise you've messed up the trick untill it's too late e.g. caught the break above instead of below the selection and don't notice or the spectator had sweaty hands when he handled the card and you go for an Erdnase change and 10 cards fall on the floor. When that happens it's like someone's just punched you in the guts and pulled your pants down. It can be terrifying. There's just no available "outs" sometimes.

There's not much you can do in those situations except rely on your wit and personality. You can't let them feel sorry for you, but there's nothing wrong with letting them know you're only human and excriment happens. I usually just say something like, "Wow, believe me when I say that's not exactly how that was ment to happen - here's how it should of gone." Or, "Ha, I didn't even realise I was that good, I tricked myself!." Or my favourite when cards spill out, "I'm sorry, I just got a bit too excited. I swear it's the first time that happend.......tonight ;-)"

If it leaves you a bit nervous and your hands get a bit shakey, do an impromptu self working trick. Or even bust into Control saying that you knew if you messed up one more trick it'd kill you.

The more you practice perform, the less this will happen and get easier to deal with when it does. If you've already won your audience over with a few well performed tricks, it's very hard to lose their faith/intrest in you - although it's the biggest fear. Just remember magic is ment to be fun for the audience and YOU. As long as you treat your audience like they're your friends and have fun, it doesn't really matter to them how the tricks pan out (even though the general goal is to do them well) as long as you're entertaining.


Thanks for listening to...er...reading my rant :D
 
I was told before that the person that is hardest on you for messing up, is not your spectators, not your 'mentors' or teachers, but yourself.

Whenever you screw up a trick, it's you tahts going to be blaming yourself...Pick yourself up, forget about it and move on.

The best way to overcome the frequency of messing up, besies practising, is to also perform a lot. THere's no point in practising if you only perform it once or twice. Perform as much as you can (there's the right timing and there's limitis too though).

Then, learn from your mistakes. Maybe write them down, and figure out ways to enusre it doesn't happen again!
 
Today I did a very easy trick for one of my friends. Three cards was upside down in the deck, and I flashed them. I didn't even realised that I flashed until I saw the cards! :D Well, I just laughed and did something else.
 
"What? That wasn't your card? What was it? (spreads through the deck and culls out selection) I don't see your card anywhere. Oh, right; before the trick I took out a card and put it in my pocket! (I think you can figure this bit out yourself you devious magicians!)" :D
 
As far as I'm concerned, this is WHY the invisible deck was invented :D

Talk about a "magician in trouble" plot...
 
SHANE BLACK said:
We'll I use to mess up when I was just getting into magic due to not having the effect all the way down, even though I thought I practiced it enough but it wasn't. Now at this point of my career I mess up every now and then for different reasons. More and so due to the spectator throwing me off sometimes. I've been distracted at times by different sitiuations ranging from hecklers grabing, woman, beer, bad props. For the most part I dont mess up very often anymore ut when I do Im really hard on myself for it. Sometimes I'll get a little cocky and start do crazy flourishes after a couple of drinks and I'll drop a couple of cards but I usually don't drink when Im getting paid just when Im with friends sometimes. Anyhow I always feel stupid when I goof up but its only for a few seconds and I try and make a strong comeback with quick wit and humor. Usually works.

Shane
Click to expand...

I'm very glad to hear that. I technically am stil just starting in magic, and I find myself thrown off or messing up at least once a day, if not more. But when I go back to look at the trick in private, I find that the card isn't completely hidden, or the motion doesn't look natural, or whatever. But I didn;t realize that it wasn't just me until now. Thanks for the response. :)

-killer : kam
 
Say "That's what's called misdirection. While you're being distracted by my supposed failure, some friends are sneaking an elephant wearing a sandwich board with the name of the next card you are picking into the room (or building) behind me." Obviously don't just use the same one for every performance, but a good joke takes the pressure off you and makes the audience smile, not to mention keeps them entertained. And entertaining them is the whole goal of your performance in the first place, right?
 
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