That WTF moment

[The123ad.]

Whether you've been doing magic for 1 year or 10 years, we've all had those moments where something goes horribly wrong and you're left in an embarrassing situation. In those moments you go completely blank and have to think on the spot. When I think back of those moments they're funny as hell.
Whats the most embarrassing or funny situation you've been in ?

 

[The123ad.]

I'll start myself. This is just one of the things that happened to me.
I do David Williamson's torn and restored transpo a lot. Once I was performing for a group and at the final climax where the card is restored in their hand I asked the girl to open her hand. When she opened her hand the card had been restored and they started reacting.But when she started unfolding the card to my Surprise I saw that I had accidentally mercury folded 2 cards . I was speechless and it was like I did a trick on myself.
I remember the line I said at that time "Look not only did I restore the cards but I also made a card appear with it" (Yeah lame I know )
The girl I was performing for and her frined gave big reactions (Which I still don't know why )
But I still remember the confused looks the other people were giving me. Somehow I managed to move on to other effects and hopefully they forgot about the glitch

 

[Horia H.]

I went to Istanbul an year ago. There I performed a transposition effect which I created. Instead doing a double lift I did a triple lift and I didn't notice that. From there the trick went sooooooooo wrong. At the end I convinced the spectator that he didn't remember his card, he remembered just the value and the suit was wrong. Then I just performed another trick.

 

[Craig Browning]

I've had far too many but the two biggies that stick out most remain the funniest. . .

A) The Worse Performance was @ the Magic Castle and every single effect failed . . . either something was broken, a hinge lock wasn't in place, the bird was dead or the assistant missed her cue. . . every single pieced failed and to make matters worse, I'm looking onto an audience filled with "friends". . . (I still ponder if this wasn't sabotage or not).

B.) On a regional TV show I was presenting a Vanishing Elephant (ironically, the same one Valentino exposed). . . when the smoke pots went off the bang was a bit louder than our little pachyderm was used to and so she peed all over the floor. . . the elephant was gone in an instant, but their was a yellow and smelly tidal wave flowing towards the show's host and I . . . I slowly melted into the big man's arms shaking my head in total disbelief. . .

. . . but I'm not the only one to have a similar elephant episode. . . Blackstone, Jr. had a bit more of a solid remnant one night while performing in a noted Vegas casino one evening. In true Blackstone demeanor Harry walks to the pile, points and says, "Proof that it was a very real elephant!"

 

[raccoonfight]

I was busking once and i was doing the cups and balls and i dont know why i did this but i picked up the cups wrong and a cup and a ball (the extra ball) went flying into the audience. A small girl grabbed the cup but i had to impovize from there and i was talking to the audience and saying sorry and causally loading oranges. And I still got every one of them.

 

[Tokyo]

This story isn't mine, but to this day it's probably my favorite mistake moment. One of my friends, when he was just starting off in magic, was at a retirement home and he was performing the classic vanishing toothpick trick. However, when he flicked his thumb back the toothpick was extended too much and the toothpick slid out of its slot and flew out of his hand - landing directly on the spectator's ear. (like a pen)

When he first told me this story I asked him if he played it off as a magical effect, he says he was even more amazed than the spectator and couldn't contain himself.

 

[JokerZingo]

Mine is similar to The123ad I was doing an effect where their signed card comes out of my mouth folded up.
But sadly when I executed the mercury card fold I folded 2 cards, and when I loaded the cards into my mouth were when I realised this is 2 cards.
I kind of paniced because I had trouble breathing, and my mouth started to fill up with loads of saliva.
So a just before the reveal I choked and I had to pull the cards out. Luckly the specator was amazed but I felt really embarrassed and the 2 cards were just drowning in salavia.

Almost same thing happend one other time when I preformed this trick. It went so good I had their signed card folded up in my mouth ready to reveal. But I pulled the card too far back in my mouth by misstake and choked, luckly this was at the reveal and it looked so good. So I got really good reactions.

Thanks - Markus/JokerZingo

 

[SamMorgan]

I was performing on a small stage for a group of about 60-80 people. I was performing the 'Dot's next' or 'dubious domino' trick (whatever you know it as), and for those who know the secret will realise this mistake.
As I was sliding one of the spots into position, it completely fell off the card and onto the floor and it also made a noise so all the spectators noticed it.

As I thought for a second, I started to do a fake reveal saying that when the spots disappear I palm them (however I dropped that one), then continued the routine with this patter until the end of the routine where I proved the reveal wrong and still got a good reaction.

 

[RobAnderson]

I was on stage at my second stage show (ever) in front of a youth group. For some reason, I decided it would be a great idea to perform mentalism for tweens. Never do this. I did a Hoy book test with a 13 year old girl who came on stage, couldn't remember the word she thought of, and burst into tears out of stage fright. I then had to simultaneously console a crying teenager while attempting to salvage what was left of my show. I managed to close with a spirit slate routine that sent the next assistant running off the stage cussing... in a church. So basically it was the best show I ever did! The end.

 

[The123ad.]

Loved reading all the responses. Keep em coming