What is your restaurant magic horror story...where everything just went wrong or you ran into really rude customers?

I watched a glass of Coke split down the middle and flood the table in the middle of my coin matrix. The glass was still hot from the dishwasher. The guest flipped out and thought it was part of my act. He was not upset just shocked. It looked really cool I wish I would have got it on tape.

A few months ago I was doing a ring flite routine and somehow the $25,000 diamond ring came detached from the clasp! I spent 20 minutes on my hands and knees looking for it. Everyone thought it was part of the act! Another time I did ring flite a turqoise stone came loose from the ring and once again I was on my hands and knees! I found it and could not apologize enough! Turns out she just had the stone replaced and the jeweler did a crappy job setting the stone! Both times I felt embarrased and it seemed like it was 200 degrees in the restaurant as I frantically searched for each item. I have gone through 3 different versions of ring flite! Tonite, performing ring flite, the zipper "handle" broke off of my current ring flite! I have no luck! LOL.

If that happens to me the first time,I wouldn't dare to do the ring flight again!
You certainly are a brave man!

Not my experience with ringflite, but from David Stone's book: a friend of his who dropped a ring on a dinner boat on the Seine in Paris. On the deck, outside .... Guess where the ring went?

Is not exactly and horror story BUT the "animal bands" or Silly Bands are getting too much popularity to lay people...With too much pain on my heart but I think "Animal Sense" is filling an application for an space in the magic drawer...
Hansel!

I had a girl blow on my hand for the magical moment and she ended up spitting her gum onto my hand. It turned out to be pretty funny but for a split second I was shocked.

Lou, perhaps you might want to stop doing Ring Flight, just sayin... LOL

I was performing magic and twisting balloons at a Sunday brunch when a elderly couple who just happended to be on either their first or second date asked me to come over to their table. I performed Anniversary Waltz and was about to make his date lady a balloon rose when he asked if I would mind letting him have a balloon to blow up because he used to make balloon animals when he was younger. He started to blow with everything he had and couldn't do it. On his second attempt, he shot his false teeth across the room and under another customers table. I'm pretty sure this poor fella wishes he had quit at Anniversary Waltz.

"On his second attempt, he shot his false teeth across the room and under another customers table."

Must have been something he ate!

What's funny is I've been performing it for 10 years and never had a problem up until that point! After the first time it's been like a chain reaction! Needless to say I've taken proper precautionary measures to make sure I don't lose a ring again! However because of my zipper fiasco I now have to buy a 4th ring flite!

This past Tuesday, before going to my weekly performance at a local restaurant, I carelessly cut one of my fingers with a pair of scissors.
It was a pretty deep cut and my first thought was that I'd have to cancel my appearance for that evening, but after my wife patched me up, I decided to give it a try.

All was going well all evening until the last table. I performed a couple of routines and then a young lady requested a balloon heart. In the process of twisting the heart, I somehow twisted my wounded finger as well and it began to bleed. (Bleeding heart!). Fortunately, those at the table were most sympathetic though I felt horrible for bleeding at their table.

I excused myself, washed the wound and wrapped it up again and returned to finish the girl’s balloon heart, for which she was most grateful.

The finger is healing and I’ve decided against stitches…but next time, for the sake of my audience, I’ll not be so quick to go to work wounded!

Live and Learn

andrew

Fingerjack tells a story in this thread that just kills me every time I think of it. I've told his story a couple of times and it always cracks people up:
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......rum=5&61

It's not my personal story, but my buddy Bill, a well known magician here at the Café, has a doozie. I'll tell it for him because he's shy, I witnessed it, and it was hilarious! We were booked to do an Easter show at a local country club...a gig that we had been doing for years. We both did an hour of walkaround then did a dual stand up show. He opened the show and I closed the show.

So, Bill decides he's going to do the Vanishing Bandana in his act. Just before the final reveal, the recording says something along the lines of "fling open the fabric and show that the bandana has vanished." Bill whips open the bandana and WHOOOOOSHH a singular smushed up banana flies through the air (in slow motion mind you to all of us watching)and SPLAT! It hits some poor guy right in the mug. That's right. The mashed banana lands right on this guy's face. Bill then whole heartedly and repeatedly apologizes as the kids go wild. It was one of those awesome moments that we always talk about when around other magicians. I hope Bill jumps in on this one.

Chalk that incident up to "it happens to everybody". He's probably going to think of something embarassing that happened to me. If I can think of a good one of mine I'll post it first.

We should all chip in and send Fingerjack a trophy. That has to be the best "worst" story EVER!!!

Many years ago when I first started out I was not used to navigating around restaurant staff. I turned a corner at the same time as a server with a tray of drinks. I jumped back and got very little on me, but the bag I used was actually filled up with the drinks along with all my stuff. I spent the rest of the night with just 4 quarters and a TT with a small silk. I felt bad for wasting a tray of drinks and slowing down the wait staff. I have learned to be much more aware and quicker on my feet.

Wow, Monty. That's a tough night!

Did you at least get to take the bag of drinks home later? Instead of drinking shooters you could make a game out of squishing the alcohol from the sponge balls.

Brian

I was this restaurant doing a private event, mostly table hopping. I had done about half of the tables and was going to the next where people were smiling and waiting me to come. Just when I opened my mouth to say hello, one of them just shouted "get the !@#$ of our table, we don't want you here!!!!". I was shocked and so was the other people in that table! I asked if there is something special why they don't want me to perform to them and all other (maybe 3 guys) were like "yeah, we want to see you doing your stuff!" but this one guy just shouted more, "magic is a work of satan, I don't want you to show us any sorcery, you will burn in hell!".

I took a few seconds and said to other guys in that table that if they want to see me perform, they can come to that empty table and I do my magic there. So the crazy religious guy was left alone in the table and I performed my magic to others.

Funny story when you thing about it. That guy wasent even drunk or anything.

A few years back,I was doing some magic for a young lady who requested I show her something,she turned to her boyfriend & told him to watch. He said" I heard all about the street demon & I don't want anything to do with him".

I took that as a great compliment.


Mike