Question to Become a Better Magician

CJK

Jan 16, 2016
31
26
US
www.youtube.com
Once, when I was performing a trick, there was this brat who kept asking what's in my hand when I was palming a card. He also asked to see the card when doing a double lift. He even demands that I give him the deck so that he picks one, shuffles it and return it back. When I said no, he kept ruining the performance for the other audience. My question, how perform any trick without anyone interrupting or asking of questions?
 
Jan 29, 2015
117
91
Once, when I was performing a trick, there was this brat who kept asking what's in my hand when I was palming a card. He also asked to see the card when doing a double lift. He even demands that I give him the deck so that he picks one, shuffles it and return it back. When I said no, he kept ruining the performance for the other audience. My question, how perform any trick without anyone interrupting or asking of questions?
If it's not a payed gig just walk away, there's always more people. Also, if they meet a magicain in the future they'll know not to be anoying or they won't get to see something cool. This might be bad advice but it has work good for me so far, i was preforming for some of my friends friends and one of them kept being grabby at the deck, so i just put away the cards. Later the night i was doing a trick and he walked over and was perfectly quiet :)
 
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obrienmagic

Elite Member
Nov 4, 2014
1,469
1,422
Orange County, Ca
www.obrienmagic.com
NEVER ENGAGE A HECKLER DIRECTLY! Unless you are Joe Rogan and have a whole list of witty responses for every situation, yoyu will lose... every single time. Honestly the best advice is to simply ask them to stop and allow the rest of the audience (who is trying to watch the show) enjoy it. I just stop and say "Please don't ruin the magic for the rest of us." Including that word "US" will make the person feel like the audience and the magician are together and they are now the outcast. This will do 1 of 2 things:

1. They will realize they are being an *** and ruing the show. they will usually stop and allow you to continue.

or

2. They will not care and will continue to heckle.

If the later of the two happens, simply apologize to the audience and let them know you will be happy to show them more later on after the heckler leaves.

This is honestly the most professional way to deal with it (especially when being paid). ALWAYS be polite yet firm that they stop. If they do not, then stop the show until they do.
 
Apr 18, 2016
159
125
46
USA
O'Brien is absolutely right. All you can do is be polite and hope the rest of the audience is with you. Walk away before you have any chance of being rude.


Book
 

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
May I suggest a different approach?

Take a look at your ability and how you present your performance.

In terms of ability, you may not be performing the sleights in the correct manner. For example, if your hand is curved too much when palming a card it is obvious there is something there. Even if you are performing the sleights technically correct, you may still be telegraphing that you are doing "something." For example, you may be going to the deck to palm the card at an odd time (rather than doing a top palm in the motion of squaring the deck). You could be rushing your actions or taking too long when doing the palm rather than doing it smoothly. You may also be looking at your hands when you do a move. If that is the case, you just need to learn the correct technique (may I suggest Roberto Giobbi's Card College series over Youtube videos).

For presentation, if you present magic as a challenge, your spectator's reaction is appropriate. Much magic is marketed to fool the audience, but people in the audience don't want to be fools. Also, many magicians present magic as "look what I can do" ("and you can't") which really makes the audience want to demonstrate that you are not that special by ruining your performance. I also think that having "say-do-see" patter gets the same result. If your presentation consists of saying what you are going to do, doing it and then telling the audience to see the result, you are giving them nothing to focus on but what you are doing... is it a surprise that they think about HOW you are doing it? The solution is to focus on entertaining the audience and making the presentation about more that what you are doing.
 

Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
2,966
1,101
Utah
Walking away is always an option as has been said.

Give it time, you will gain confidence to the point where you are commanding enough that they won't bug you as much.

David is right on.

Might I suggest as well some good pieces of self working magic as back ups. Palms, and double lifts are tough to pull off. Sometimes it might be a good idea to learn something where they can shuffle and handle the cards.
 
Oct 19, 2015
317
220
I once read a similar discussion where the advise the magician gave was to always have practiced multiple possible outcomes to your tricks. In that way if someone points out that you have something in you hand, turn it over and show them that they are correct, hand them the card and then, make the deck disappear...in other words always have a change in direction on those tricks that may be questioned by the audience. I am not yet skilled enough to have all this ready to go....but some of my tricks, can easily go in different directions at any point in time, making it look like part of the act!
 
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