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MichaelDouglas Special user Portland, Oregon 766 Posts |
Some nights I'm flawless. Other nights, I slip a time or two with a move. Yeah, I know. We're supposed to practice well enough so that we don't mess up. However, things just happen at times. So what do you guys do when you mess up?
Here's what I do: 1. I keep going with the routine, because most of the time I'm the only one that knows that I just goofed. 2. If its a trick that's new for me, I'll surround it before and after with killer effects so in case the new one doesn't go well, I still impress them. 3. If it's a new trick, I may state that "This is new for me, so I'm hoping I can get the magic to work again so you can enjoy it." This gives me an out...just in case. 4. If I'm nervous, about a new trick, I admit it with a laugh. I may say something like, "Wow, you all have these laser beam eyes on me making me all nervous." 5. Keeping things fun, light-hearted and not super serious makes it so that if things aren't perfect...well...we're just friends here having a good time. 6. I've dropped something that I wasn't supposed to and just oops...that's not supposed to happen, or oops, you all didn't see that. 7. Most of the time, they don't know what's supposed to happen anyway, so if we do something out of sequence or whatever, they don't know that we didn't do the official version of "The Matrix", or whatever. So how do you guys handle stuff like this. Let me know, 'cause I need to keep learning. |
Aaron Smith Magic Inner circle Portland, OR 1447 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-10-10 14:20, MichaelDouglas wrote: 99.9% of the time, this is the case. I just keep going as if nothing happened. The other times, let's say I do a double and it splits right in front of them. I say "that's weird" and put the indifferent card back in the deck, and jazz with their single card. I may do tilt and make their card jump back to the top. Just act casual. If you act like it's a big deal, they will act like it's a big deal. If you shrug it off and keep moving, then they'll forget. I try to do something magical after the screw up as quick as I can. That way they'll react to that, and forget about the mistake. |
Yellowcustard Inner circle New Zealand 1334 Posts |
I think you have covered all bases. But its great you have thought about it. Because this means you become confidant and in control. As long as this happens all is good.
If I stuff up a card trick I normally say one to you and carry on. Like you say you might stuff up a phase but no one knows. I was doing a rope routine and at the end were you ditch the gaff I did not clean up as well as I should. 2 people noticed but dint blurt. I turned to a angle to hide it and as I spoke I cleaned it up. I dint bring attion to it buy go bugger and I dint give it awy by rushing. everyone enjoyed my magic. the two pepol that did see did speak to me and they were yeah we saw something we should not of. But they said we just wonder what else you have managed to hide. I saw a magician once and in his act he took a borrowed singed bill and made it vanish in flames. Then at the end it reappeared in a envelope. The mistake was he forgot to get the note singed. I have seen him do it before at it kills. But this time it died. And what really sucks is because it over laps tricks it not only killed the last trick it killed the last section. How to you get back from that.
Enjoy your magic,
and let others enjoy it as well! |
Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
8. Do a post-mortem of the show. Examine anything that went wrong so you can possibly devise a contingency plan in the event it happens again. This is a good thing to do, even if you think prevention will cure all mistakes. It helps, but it won't. Sometimes we are caught off guard the first time, but there is really no excuse to be blindsided by the same thing twice. Surprisingly, if you do this long enough, even the most random glitch, one that you think was a one in a million occurrence, may very well happen again. I've seen it a number of times.
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
AndyLuka Elite user Milwaukee, Wisconsin 440 Posts |
I like to break this down into different types of mistakes you can make while performing. There are 3 different ways to cope with what happened.
1. As mentioned before, if you made a mistake (your double splits, or you flash a concealed coin), keep going! Don’t draw attention to it, most likely no one else noticed. This is the most common mistake we typically make. 2. If you are doing an effect and the outcome does not happen as planned, do your best to save it. Come up with some other magical outcome to end the routine on a positive note. It may not be as impressive as the original effect but it’s better than nothing. A great example is you find the wrong card, I then ask what the card is as I thumb through the deck, I cull the card to the top, palm it off and pull it out of my pocket. I then say “that’s odd, how could you have chosen then card if it’s in my pocket” 3. No way to save. In the case you bomb the effect and there is no way to attempt to save it, I just openly admit I made a mistake. And move on to something to redeem myself. If you are doing your job and the audience likes you, they will forgive 1 mistake. But keep in mind they won’t forgive a lot of mistakes.
Making Magic and Fantasy a reality in a world where our reality can sometimes be rather cruel
Http://www.lukamagic.com -That's Me Http://www.deceptionsmke -My Show |
Dynamike Eternal Order FullTimer 24148 Posts |
Check out what Brad Burt posted:
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/searc......=7538515 This has been covered before, but it's a real problem when you are just getting started. The solution is oddly simple: Never, ever, ever admit you have made a mistake no matter how blatant it might seem to YOU. Always, always, always proceed as if the mistake did not happen. In the vast majority of cases the audience will not know that anything untoward has happened UNLESS YOU TELL THEM! Don't TELL THEM! Here's an example of getting out of the worst possible senario. This actually happened to me. I had the card selected, signed, placed back in the deck. It started the routine proper and ..... flubbed. I literally lost the deck from my hands and it fell to the floor. Here's how I recoverd: Without missing a beat I looked at the audience and said the following (more or less), "O.k., does everyone understand what is going on? The procedure, etc.? GREAT! O.k., let's start again and do this." Until you tell the audience that you did in fact screw up they mostly won't know. You HAVE to work pass what you preceive as a problem and 99.5% of the time it will work itself out. I just picked up the deck and started the entire routine over again and did just fine. I did it as if it was 'kind of' a joke. What throws a professional show off are stage waits while the freaked out performer tries to figure out what he should do. You gotta KNOW what to do brother. Any, even if it's not the best thing...you gotta DO SOMETHING with out hemming and hawing about like a doofus. You have to stay in the moment. Stay in the stream of the performance. Stay in the relationship that you, hopefully, built with the audience. They are amazingly forgiving if you don't act like a jerk. Stuff happens to the biggest names in show business. You know what it is...it's like the base philosophy behind a TT. You gotta just ACT like it doesn't exist. Same thing with mistakes. Best, |
Alan Munro Inner circle Kentwood, Michigan, USA 5952 Posts |
I messed up in a magic competition, performing the egg bag using a golf ball instead of the egg. The spectator was supposed to produce the ball after having dropped the "invisible ball" into the bag. She still found nothing in the bag. I took the bag and realized I'd handed the bag to her, oriented the wrong way. I handed it back saying the ball had bounced out. I then handed her the "invisible ball" and tried again. A friend commented, "Nice save!" I won the competition.
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Countage Veteran user Charlotte 361 Posts |
Establish control of the audience up front.
I went to Scott Francis's lecture in 2009 in Charlotte NC. He said to the audience" There will be no hecklers" He took his jacket off. As he turned around to hang it on the chair there was a handgun tucked in the back of his pants." I thought it was pretty funny. |
MichaelDouglas Special user Portland, Oregon 766 Posts |
Awesome stuff everyone. I love Mr. Baker's suggestion on doing a "post mortum" to access how to avoid the problem in the future and the comments from several of you about immediately adjusting the patter or revising the trick on the spot to morph into something different from what you had in mind at the start. They'll never know the difference most of the time. Doing these split second changes in your routine calls for several things:
1) Enough experience and training to know how to use a variety of sleights or comedy lines to fit whatever situation comes up. The result of that experience and training will result in the next two items. 2) Quick creative thinking about how to immediately modify the intended outcome of the trick 3) CONFIDENCE! If we look or sound uncomfortable, our audience will too. Knowledge begets confidence. Confidence begets competence. Competence begets success! Thanks for all of the valuable contributions. |
snowpuppy Veteran user Juneau,Alaska 325 Posts |
When ever an Effect goes awry,it opens an excellent opportunity for an impromtu comedy moment.Go with the flow.
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Zuke Veteran user 353 Posts |
What I do is go home and curl up in a ball of insecurity and self-loathing.
:) |
pepka Inner circle Uh, I'm the one on the right. 5041 Posts |
I don't mess up. Seriously. Not bragging, but I REALLY could not tell you the last time something went wrong with a trick on a PAID performance. Now, when I'm breaking in a brand new piece, friends usually see it first. In that circumstance, something occasionally goes wrong and I'm OK with it. This helps me figure out whether it goes in my A material, B material, or back on the shelf. Now, on a PAID gig, maybe I lost the card or something like that, card to pocket or wallet is usually my out. VERY rarely do I declare what I'm going to do before hand, so no one knows if something goes wrong or not, and I can usually bluff my way out of 99% of problems. Now, if I drop a coin that's not supposed to be palmed or something like that, well......I'll let you know when it happens. Which thanks to this topic, will probably be tomorrow night.
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AdamChance Special user 656 Posts |
When I was doing tricks for friends at the bar yesterday, a couple little screw ups happened that I managed to get out of.
my ID is getting a bit old, so I ended up accidentally showing 2 face down cards. I just put them both on the table face down... I told him to touch one... I put the other one away, and the card he touched was his. if anything it strengthened the effect (though I got a bit lucky he touched his card since it's better that way). the other one that went kinda wrong was the crazy cube. the lighting wasn't great so I confused a two with a three. anyways, I just played it off like I was using psychology to guess and got it wrong. then I repeated the effect... and when I repeated it, I was certain of the number. so I did a whole thing about betting them money, even though it's 1 in 6, I'll bet 1 to 1 odds. obviously I wasn't going to really bet them... but it made it seem like I got the first one wrong on purpose to sucker them. if anything, this might be a better way to perform the effect. plus, 1 in 6 times you'll guess correctly, so you can do your first guess never touching the dice container. btw... does anyone know if there is anywhere to get a normal sized dice with ESP symbols on it? I have a dice with simpsons characters on it, but it's too difficult to tell the difference. I always wanted to get multidimensional... but I should just use my crazy cube more often... you get a relatively similar effect for a tiny tiny fraction of the cost. oh, I busted out the old pen through dollar that I found the other day (thought I lost it). it was one of my first tricks and I remember that some people loved it. but in this case, they basically caught me. they were examining the pen, trying to figure out how it worked... but since they basically guessed the method, I just showed them the gimmick and they were happy to at least see how one of my tricks were done (since basically all my other tricks went over really well). I stopped doing this trick for a reason, and last night confirmed it. gonna wait till I get ignition before I go around making holes in bills. oh, I guess another trick that went kinda wrong... there were two guys at the table who have seen me do magic before and two that had not. the first two guys loved my coin bend trick last time (quantum bender)... and I actually repeated it for them that night(put a second bend into that same coin) without getting caught. so when I was doing it for the new guy, these guys were just burning my hands. so I made the choice just to go ahead and do it anyways for the new guy. kinda sucks that my other friends figured it out, but they're not the type of people to go around telling anyone... so I can still perform it for people without worrying that they'll tell them the method. but the reaction from the new guys I was doing it for was still great... so it was worth it IMO. though maybe it would be good to learn a second trick with a signed quarter in case I'm ever worried that people are burning my hands in the future. I guess it's not really a trick you can repeat too many times to the same person. by the third time, I expect most people will be watching a bit too closely. |
Dr_J_Ayala Inner circle In search of Vlad Dracul and his 2169 Posts |
I do exactly what Michael Baker suggests after every single show - no matter what did or did not happen, and no matter what kind of show it was. This not only gives you the different ways to cover for obvious goofs if they ever happen, but it also is a way for you to review your work. You can identify the parts that you did not like and make changes to them, even if you did not mess up. I also rarely make unsolvable mistakes during performances (I do make mistakes, but they are really only noticeable to me and do not really mess up an effect when they happen). The other day I was doing Sam the Bellhop and whilst performing the Cornelius Spring Set for one of the $2 tips, about 10 or 15 cards flew out from under the 2 and fell to the table, one of them being what was supposed to be the next $2 tip card. I just picked them back up and shoved them back on top of the deck. The order was messed up, but I just got a quick peek of the cards before laying them down and changed the story just a tad as needed.
The other thing you should remember: Practice well beyond your skill level in your fields of magical interest (such as cards, coins, silks, etc.), but be sure you perform AT your skll level. That is not to say that you should not step outside of your comfort zone from time to time, just that you should not go too far outside of it. As Mr. Douglas pointed out in a subsequent post above, confidence is key. It really is because no matter how good you might be, if you are afraid of anything in your act or set going wrong, the audience will see it and they will smell the fear. It helps to have a few of those "typical" recovery lines in your arsenal, say three or four of them, in case you do mess up. Just be sure that they fit your personality. It has been said before and will never be said enough, almost every single time you flub on a sleight, a move, a sequence, etc., you are the only one who knows it. Also, in preparation, you should write a script for everything you do and memorize it. It does not matter if you follow it to the letter every time you perform each effect, but it will be there as a guideline and that will help build your confidence. Not only that, but it is another good way to come up with cover lines in case you make a mistake. Maybe you will use the script word for word every time you perform the effect, and on the off-chance that you mess up and use a cover line, you may find you like that better than what you originally wrote. I hope this information is useful to you. |
Ekuth Inner circle Floating above my 1538 Posts |
1. Ignore the flub and move right on with the effect.
2. If #1 is impossible, move right on with another related effect. 3. Use comedy or misdirection to get the effect back on track. 4. ALWAYS HAVE AN OUT FOR EVERY SITUATION YOU CAN THINK OF. 5. See #1. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Eugene Burger taught the Master Class something I have captialized, underlined and highlighted in my notebook: "Give yourself permission to fail."
"All you need is in Fitzkee."
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themagicguy Loyal user Australia 280 Posts |
Don't worry to much about stuffing up guys. You will actually find that you will make their night. Because they have figured you out and are now smarter than you. Just smile and have a laugh its just a magic trick!
I dropped the coin when doing the jumbo coin production the other week revealing two coins, we had a laugh and the guy asked for my business card and called me for a show the other day. Whatever you do don't try and cover it up when its obvious than you look like an ass. |
General_Magician Special user United States 707 Posts |
When I mess up a trick, I usually try to play it off as if I haven't messed up the trick and do some quick thinking or I say that messing up the trick was just part of the act so that I could catch them by surprise later on (in which I do a trick which involves me really appearing to mess up the trick and then later proving that I never really messed up the trick by blowing them away and that all the mess ups weren't really mess ups but all part of the act). Sometimes you have to do some quick thinking. Most of the time, the audience has no idea I messed up and I keep that in mind and play it off without tipping them that somehow I just messed up the trick.
"Never fear shadows. They simply mean there is a light shining somewhere nearby." -unknown
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MagicJuggler Inner circle Anchorage, AK 1161 Posts |
When I was starting to do paid shows, I would carry around the old Magician's Insurance trick. So if I totally flubbed a trick I could pull out the insurance policy and start into,"That's why I carry this..." Often the spectators would assume I flubbed the trick on purpose just so I could do the magician's insurance trick.
Matthew Olsen
I heard from a friend that anecdotal evidence is actually quite reliable. |
Dr_J_Ayala Inner circle In search of Vlad Dracul and his 2169 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-10-15 09:03, MagicJuggler wrote: That is a brilliant idea for using the Insurance Policy effect - one of the better ones that I have ever seen! |
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