Your Biggest Failure...

Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
According to Blackstone, Jr whenever rehearsals go smooth and perfect, you're bound to know a major failure during the show... in my experiences over the past 40ish years I'd have to say he's right.

Going back to my late teens and an appearance I made on a local TV show... we did the Melborne Christopher Vanishing Elephant (yes, the same one the Masked Mage exposed on his show)... long story short, the elephant vanished just as he was supposed to... but then there was a rush of elephant pee flowing from beneath the prop... but then Gay Blackstone told me of the time Harry was working Vegas and though the Pacaderm poofed from existence, he left a rather smelly pile behind...

I've had just about all the classic failures happen over the years; the gimmick getting stuck on the Broom Suspension; the form on the Asrah getting broken (by clumsy stage hands stepping on it) so she began bending in half, backward!; Producing the Dead Dove (more than once) and having the gimmick to a particular Newspaper and Liquid vanish effect break, spilling water all over the stage from the Newspaper, as I'm showing it empty... the sky is the limt and if you work regularly, you'll come to know your fair share of catastrophies...
 
Sep 19, 2010
5
0
Sussex, UK
Hey guys first time poster here...
I thought I'd give an account of my experiences also.
This year I've really come out of my shell and started to do magic for anyone and everyone. I've worked in a quiet pub for a few years now and got used to people being rude and drunk, especially when I do tricks. It has it's ups and downs but it's a great environment to learn and experience from. Plus a good chance to pick up good lines and jokes and teaches you how to deal with people.
Anyway, I did my first gig for a customer which was a 50th Birthday, with a few hundred people, yikes talk about deep end!
I was so nervous despite knowing most people there from the pub. I messed up a fair few tricks and got my patter down to a mumble or said it too fast, kept flashing moves or was sloppy, I got caught out lots with double lifts, generally I was a speeding train that kept de-railing! It was very painful at the time...

Before during and after the gig, I kept telling myself "as long as I'm entertaining, even if i mess up." A lot of people approached me and said what a wonderful job I did but couldn't understand some tricks, (because my presentation stank basically, personally i thought they were just being polite)
But nonetheless I was entertaining and made people laugh and smile. Also it was very loud because I had to battle with being heard over the DJ, plus it was a 50th and half the audience were older and deaf anyway! The whole evening was a nightmare and everything was just wrong :s

I have a few tricks that "apparently go wrong" then work out in the end with a surprising finish. This was a good 'out' for me as a few people followed me around and when I did actually muck up, they commented "oh he keeps doing that it's all part of the act!" Thank you very much :) For instance I mucked up the ambitious card routine and got them to blow on the deck "oops it didn't work, um, I know why, it's because you blew on it, pick another and try clicking your fingers this time. Oh look, clearly clicking your fingers this time had a better effect, it's different for everyone" or words to that effect! (phew, thanks brain!)

Working behind the bar has taught and helped me to be quick on the mark. I also find that if your having a hard time with a heckler there's a few things that I've tried out - ignoring them, acknowledging them and including them in the trick, do a self working trick that doesn't require any sleight of hand (nothing for them to catch you out then!), do a foolproof trick, when they ask to shuffle-finish the trick then say here you go, let them shuffle between tricks or hopefully if you have a good crowd they'll gang up on them! Try experimenting and find what works best for you or that situation.
Clearly some of these ideas shouldn't be used! But I've learned from them.

I hope my entry seems relevant to this thread. I've tried to write about my failures but also added what I did to overcome them with some ideas for you guys. My first and worst performance was kind of a mixed bag, but I learnt so much from it. Also despite feeling failure on my behalf, don't be so quick to judge what other people may be thinking. A lot of people have never seen magic before and may think your the best thing they've ever seen!
 
Dec 5, 2009
2
0
My biggest failure:

Looking for tutorials on magic. In YouTube. I felt so ashamed I promised to NEVER do any of the effects I learned off YouTube.

Might look like a stupid "failure". But I felt so bad for stealing.

I AM SORRY :)

(maybe I'll get flamed. Maybe not)
 

Luis Vega

Elite Member
Mar 19, 2008
1,838
278
38
Leon, Guanajuato Mexico
luisvega.com.mx
My biggest failure:

Looking for tutorials on magic. In YouTube. I felt so ashamed I promised to NEVER do any of the effects I learned off YouTube.

Might look like a stupid "failure". But I felt so bad for stealing.

I AM SORRY :)

(maybe I'll get flamed. Maybe not)

You won´t be flamed...lots of us did that also...me included...

I also feel bad for that...but It seems we learned from that...
 

Justin.Morris

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2007
2,793
888
Canada
www.morrismagic.ca
A recent private party, I borrowed the clients ring, vanished it in a ball of flame, and announced "your ring is now on my shoelace!" (via Interlace). The response I heard was "No it's not."

Turns out the ring got stuck so bad, I had to manually release it (trying not to expose). In a living room with all eyes on you, that's embarrassing.

I've been doing Interlace for a long time, and I still am not sure how it got stuck. Things did turn out better though, they kept making jokes about it, and I used it as a bit of a running gag ("Does anyone have an expensive watch I can vanish?"etc.).

In hind sight, I should have left it stuck, and moved on to a new trick and pretended that it was planned. Then tried to loosen it during the show.

Now I have backups for most of my effects planned out.
 
Jun 10, 2010
1,360
1
The only fail there is that you handed your cards to a spectator in the middle of a trick....Anyways...What you should do is say "no" and continue...If u want to avoid that from happening just do a trick that does not use controls or breaks...and let them shuffle as much as they want.. from then on if they ask to shuffle again remind them that they have done so before...

I never let the audience touch my cards with their filthy hands....unless I feel like it.


On topic...

I do not allow failure....

Post #2 that you have ever made that was useful in some way, shape or form.

I'd say something, but this suggestion just about summed it all up.
 
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