A heckler is a spectator who changes to someone who looks to be the entertainer. They want the attention so they stop being the person giving the attention.
This is correct only a small percentage of the time. People heckle for many reasons. Yes, some people simply want attention. But it is simplistic and all too easy to call all hecklers "people who want attention". We wish it were that easy - but the truth isn't so easy to deal with.
Why do people heckle? Sure, some of them want attention. But not nearly all of them.
For example: what about the spectator whose uncle or younger brother does a trick or two? It's pretty much human nature to mess around with the family member trying to perform. But what that does is form a spectator's attitude towards magic. He or she doesn't realise what they're doing is inappropriate. Which brings me to example two...
Someone who simply doesn't understand what they're meant to do as a spectator - what is appropriate and what isn't. Many people that we perform for are seeing magic live for the first time - they have no idea what is expected. It's up to the
performer to quickly establish authority as the performer and magician.
Example three - a naturally curious person. To them, if they see a hint of a flash - it's simply human nature again to call you out on it. If you watch Criss Angel with a laymen friend, and your friend says "Wow he's amazing" - I'd bet that many, many magicians here would say "Ah but he's a fraud, he actually just uses camera editing." Now, isn't that similar to a layman saying "I think I saw you putting the card in your palm" or "There were two cards there" when someone asks "how did he do it?" The fact is, magicians are some of the worst hecklers - and if you can associate or imagine that situation with Criss Angel - you can see how easy it would be to "heckle" without knowingly doing so.
Example four - what about someone who by nature is direct? Someone who simply won't bs you. If they think something, they'll say it. Everyone knows someone who is like this.
The truth of the matter is, there are very many reasons why people "heckle". Yes, some people just want attention. But the majority don't. In all the cases above, it's the magician's job to gently demonstrate the correct behaviour appropriate to circumstance, it's the magician's job to
change their perceptions about magic, it's the magician's job to convince the audience to
suspend their disbelief. Then you will have succeeded as a magician.
It's too easy to say "Yeah but they just want attention." This is only true of a certain circumstance, by no means the majority. It's easy to say that because then we can blame the heckler. We don't have to do anything. But the truth is, most hecklers can and should be entertained. Many people heckle without realising it.
Were you to challenge any one of these people, make a joke at their expense, throw them the deck to make fun of them, challenge them and humiliate them - this is one of the worst possible circumstances you could create.
We just have to do our job, to not only the easy spectators but the more difficult ones as well, and understand that not all hecklers are the evil, gargantuan aliens we sometimes think them to be - but simply people. And just as one person will react differently than another, so will one "heckler" than another.
