That 8 ball idea is great!!!

The only hard thing with hecklers is making sure they don't get close to figuring out the secret. I guess this is just where performance comes in...

(mental note, work on misdirection)

I just say. do you talk back to the screen when you go to the movies? gets big laughs from the rest of your croud.and shuts up the heckler.

There is a great method for handling hecklers posted elsewhere in the forum that I am going to carry with me from now on.

The little Gem is from Ron Giesecke and can be found here
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......forum=45

Thanks Ron!

I love when other people write jokes for my next show!

On the other hand...

On the street you Are on the same level as them, and thay have every right to jump up and down and say what ever thay want as mutch as you do. that is why it is street performing. get it out of your system then and there or you might be too harsh on the next guy. I do my best to cut them off quick, but that is just my style.

When you're doing kid's shows, though, I don't recommend "stingers" -- even if they are childish enough for the kids to get them.

The most effective way I've found to deal with child hecklers is to actually give them the attention they are obviously seeking. Invite them up on stage for the next trick, or respond to them in a kind, smiling (but firm) way. If it's too severe for that, ignoring them often does the trick too, as other kids around them will often quiet them up for you. Treat them with the same politeness as you would an adult, basically.

I do love the 8-ball idea, though...

Haha! Love the 8-ball bit. When dealing on the street whether strolling or doing sccual street magic, and come up to a "heckler." By heckler i mean watching every move i make and him thinking he knows how its done. I will usally whip out the Invisible deck just to shut him up. Do a deck switch then im out.
Just my thoughts
Jon

Believe me when I tell you all - hecklers DO NOT want to mess with me when I am performing, very bad mistake, I will make them the center of my show and they will not like it one bit, but I will love every second of it.

I usually start off by having the heckler stand next to me and then I proceed to tell my small audience (in bars, street...etc) to clap for the inanimate object - things just get worse (for the heckler) from there.

Hmmmmm, come to think of it, I love hecklers ;-)

Don't listen to what Darwin Ortez says...Listen to guys that perform magic everyday for a living have to say....Put those guys out on the streets to deal with a heckler and see if they can ignore him...Some drunk on bourbon street or in jackson square....Have the lines to deal with this problem.....Make them part of the show if you can...That can be really fun...But don't ignore them.....Burn them...The audience will laugh and they will shut up!....I have something built into my show just to do that...Got a heckler....I'm gonna have some fun and so will everyone else except that heckler...He might even like it...But don't ignore him...We are not talking about a parlour at the castle...We are talking about the streets....It aint easy and they aint polite....

koz

Finally got back out on the streets this weekend! Forgot what **** and how fun at the same time they can be. And the first thing I get is some kid around 18 who is an apparent, but not very polite, hobbyist/magician/...Heckler. this guy went way beyond the fun heckling that performers will do to each other. He was making direct calls like "nice TT" and "he already put the sponge ball in your hand kid, open it and see"
So as I was beginning my cups and balls he immediately started in with "I can do this one too". I brought him up and gave him the stack of cups, placed one ball into the lower cup for him to see and the other three in the top cup, and gave him the stack while everyone was watching. What he did not realize was that the extra ball I loaded for him actually never hit the lower cup and went right into my pocket. When he pulled up the cup and the load was no there I could have died laughing. Even better was the big guy in the front who looked at him and said
"you suck! Let the real magician back up there.". with the load in my hand I stepped back up and completed the act.

Mat

See!!!!!....You just can't take crap out there.....and he walked away with his tail between his legs!!!!!...See...that's the thing...but you can't just argue with a heckler cause then, he wins.
You have to put him to sleep. Then you win and so does the audience. Because they are going to laugh. And that's entertainment.

Bloody risky move though. Old show biz saying, "Never give them an opening". Too many horror stories of performers letting hecklers up on stage and the audience loving them.

I would have ignored him, moved the entire crowd back a bit and then pulled the crowd back in, in front of him. It is actually an old three-card monte bit called blocking or fanning and it works a treat.

I learned it from watching Gazzo, figuring out where he learned it, and studying that. There is actually a thread about three card monte scams that describes the method perfectly. It works amazingingly well, doesn’t kill the flow of your show, lets you look like a good guy, and saves the hat.

For a visual example, if you have Gazzo’s Cups and Balls or Uncensored Video, he does it to a group of kids to camera left. These kids were unbelievable, shouting out all kinds of awful crap. No one in the audience noticed during the show and I have never had anyone point it out on the tape.

This is one of the reasons Gazzo is just the best worker out there today. Such a subtle thing and you would think with Gaz’s reputation he would take no prisoners. This is not to say he couldn’t, but he chooses not to. It kills the hat.

The other thing is if someone is really being brutal to the performer someone in the show will usually tell the guy to take off. The people watching your show (if you are any good) want to see your show and not some idiot trying to make you look bad.

One day in Harvard Square Gazzo was doing a show and some kid about 20 was just being foul and screaming stuff. I saw a guy who was about 6’3 250lbs stand up and tell the kid if he didn’t shut his mouth his head would be leaving his neck and something unpleasant would be put in the opening.

The kid made a wise choice and decided it would be a good time to settle down.

Also along this line I saw Dave Chapel last night here in Boston. Many of you might not know that Dave used to be a busker and he learned the craft from the finest stand up busker that ever lived, Charlie Barnett. Charlie was the Cellini and Gazzo of doing stand up comedy on the street. Back in those days comedy clubs were paying fifty bucks a show for a headliner. Charlie Barnett would stand in the fountain of Washington Square Park in NYC and say, “I’m going to collect now. I am not doing squat ‘til I have a hundred bucks so you cheap sons of a so-and-so had better pony up!”

From what I understand Charlie never did a show for under $100 and this was 1979 money.

But anyway, back to the Dave Chapel show and what happened there, Chapel gets this brutal heckler. Almost all stand up comedy guys will just pound a guy with a vengeance till he shuts up. They love hecklers because they are easy if you do not have to follow the rules of conventional warfare. They throw a rock at you? You respond with a thermonuclear device. It is almost too easy and because it is a club you have already been paid. Why not have fun, right?

But not Chapel, Dave is a cagey comic. He draws the guy in and lets him have his piece, banters with him, and get’s the guy and the audience on his side. He worked that crowd of 2500 like it was a circle show. It was the most brilliant thing I ever saw. It took less that five minutes and it was a funny five minutes and everyone looked good.

The sad thing was he gets the guy calmed down but the police had already made their way to the guy and were going to throw him out. In a true busker’s style Chapel asks the cops to leave him alone, when he sees they won’t he yanks money out of his pocket and tells them to give it to the guy for his ticket price, he then talks to the guy because the guy is drunk, losing it, and about to get a big deserved smack down from the police. Chapel is saying stuff like, “Calm down man, look, I’m being your friend right now, listen to the police. Take the money, go to Blockbusters, and rent the video. You said it was the same darn show anyhow. Just don’t bring that *** tape back late or I’ll come looking for you!” The guy is now laughing and as the police are walking him down the aisle calmly, Chapel gets off one last shot, “Hey man! Remember, REWIND!”

Then bang, right back into his set, it was brilliant and it was pure street. I’ve done stand up comedy, I’ve never seen a comic who dealt with a heckler like that in a comedy club. I have seen it on the street. He saved his tip. All 2500. It was a fat hat I’m sure. Chapel rocks.

Best,

Dan-

Danny:

Your analysis of Gazzo's performance is fantastic. You should persuade SfS to have you do a voice over, or an analysis section on the tape.

Maybe I don't look at as if it is heckling...my act has always depended on audience input. Laughs, jokes, (gentle) jibes all make for a successful show.
I would suggest not doing what one fella did in a restaurant I visited to see him work about 20 yeras ago:
"Do I come to your job and (explanitive deleted)around with you?"
The manager heard it and fired the guy on the spot. I might add...rightlully so. We are representatives of the establishment, after all.


Bryan

BRAVO

For the "I saw that!" crowd: I have a blank card. In Sharpie is written THAT, other side says THIS (breast pocket). YOU SAW THAT. WHEW, I'M GLAD YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS (turning card around).

Also, "Thats great, we'll breakout in discussion groups in a minute!" and that's just to be nice. I have a sharp tongue if need be but never did street work. I live near Chicago. Do ya just show up on the street and perform? Sorry, new to street forum.

When I started out on the street I learned how to handle "hecklers" with different "hecklers insults". Today I don't use them anymore. Why? Because it can happen that the audience will turn against me. I dicovered how I can handle them and still be the man.

#1 = find out what kind of "heckler" the person is.

a = does he want to challenge you to see how good you are?

b = is he having a lot of fun but not realising he is disturbing the show?

c = is he trying to put your show down no matter what you do?

#2 = sometimes the "heckler" is somebody who is annoying to you but not neccesary to your audience. So your audience should know that there is a disturbing person.
How do we do that?

a = look aat him with an expression of "Who is that?" then go on. If he still keeps "heckling" again look at him. I sometimes say "this is my show" or "I'll do the jokes".

b = Now that you have establised that there is a disturbance you can say something to him directly.

If the audience doesn't know there is a "heckler" and you put him down you look like an ********.

Once in a while I get one person who is only there to put me off no matter what I do. If I have tried all the above and it doesn't work I say to him: "Sir, obviously you don't like my show. That's a pitty. But if you really don't like my show feel free to go away so I can do my show for all the people who like it".

Usualy at this point this will get an applause from the audience.

Most of the time I ignore the "heckler" because I am there to have fun with the audience. Those people are important, not that one person. If you give him attention he thinks he can go on. So don't give him that. Don't get your EGO involved. After a while he will stop because he is not getting what he wants.

When children say: "I know that one".
I say: "Then what is the name of this?".

Stay nice and the audience stays nice to you.

I had a friend that does magic that went to go see a magician and decided to give the guy a hard time. The magician ended up inviting my friend on stage and did the trick where a cup of water is put in a news paper. He then proceeded to dump the water on my friend's head.

Where you are performing plays a big part in how you handle the hecklers.
Most of the play nice responses are from the mid west or down south.
If I get a heckler in NYC I shut them down, a fist fight will draw a crowd in NY, if it gets to that beat him, say some thing harsh to him as he lays there, and then pass the hat!! Stingers are expected in this kind of show, by not using them, you look weak.
HOWEVER... when this Yankee was down in VA. being polite was the trick. The only problems I had was from drunks who were enjoing my show too much. Free beer will do that to ya. I made frends with them and all was good. (at this point the audience related to the drunks more than me, so if I made them choose sides, there kin, or that rude YANKEE...the term "forget hell" comes to mind)

I mentioned on the Gazzo thread that I just bought Whit's Street Magic book, and am enjoying it very much. Today, I just read Whit's advice on hecklers..."get the audience on your side, and then cream the $#@&*!."

Ron Reid