"How'd you do that"
[EVIL VOICE] "I'm satan."

(From the opposite sex) "Can you teach me that?"
-"I would, but that would involve you, me, champagne, and a guilty conscience in the morning. Too bad I don't have a conscience."

I don't know if someone already put this but a come back that gets me a laugh or two is when people say "How do you do that", I say to them in a whisper "Can you keep a secret?". When they say "Yes", I tell them "So can I!"

Q. How did you do that?

A. Years ago I was told by my father not to question such things. He said, "Son, you are only a tool...at least I think he said tool."

I have had great reactions with the eternal energy and channeling my psychic energy. I had a guy really interested to know how I learned the control of my energy because he really wanted to levitate and make stuff float.

Pokie, Jason, those are GREAT!
jlareau, I like your Satan, haha.
And the "with cards" one too.

Inspiring stuff!

Unfortunately, I have nothing that compares or that hasn't been mentioned, but I'll work on it.

I know how you did that!....
Reply
"Great we'll break out in discussion groups in 5 minutes!?"
as used by me and Tomas in Chitown area

How'd you do that is usually replied to with "Flawlessly if I was lucky".

Princess Bride, one of my favorites.

Well done! One of mine too.
Jason

"How did you do that?"

"Very carefully."

I use the "very carefully" response to a lot of things. How do you juggle knives? get out of a strait jacket? Pick locks? get that in my hand without me even knowing? find my card? etc.

Its become habit to say it and now I just use it so fast that it takes everyone a min to realize it was a joke. Makes it come across perfectly. Not only are they no longer thinking about what they were first asking, they're laughing and paying attention to what I'm now doing (they have to mentally catch up cause they were thinking about something else for a sec).

~Spiff

What I've seen other magicians do is they perform the trick again seemingly with the same moves, apparently doing the same trick only to reveal in the end, others, surprises which entertained the spectators, avoided answering the question, and the spectator usually forgets that they have a question in the end...

For example, instead of disappearing the coin, there are now five coins when he did the trick again...

"How did you do that?"

I often reply, "If I told you, then you'd be the magician, and I wouldn't."

Dwight

How did you do that?

If you can do it again or if the trick has a second phase say..

" A good magician never does the same trick twice...OH WAIT! I'm not a good magician...."

How'd you do that, come on tell me!

.: With style & finese :.
.: Really Quickly :.
.: Psychic Mind Control :.

Often I will say "never mind!" in a very abrupt tone of voice. Parents will usually laugh and sometimes say they wish they could get away with talking to their kids like that. Sometimes kids will call me the mean clown (even thought I don't wear any makeup).

To a mature (pretty good word eh?) lady If I told you you could steal my job! Who would they rather have performing at tables, someone who looks like me or you? My secrets are for my job security!

Sometimes I tell them they watch Fox too much and I'm not the masked guy!

How did you do that?
Response- "With Mirrors- Well isn't all magic done with mirrors?"
For some unknown they will always respond -
No, really? or Did you really?
With either of those responses I reply- Really, I'll even show you! Then I proceed to do It's Done with Mirrors card routine. They never ask again after that.

To the question: "How did you do that?", answer: "I'd be happy to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." You can also preface your answer by saying "It's a secret. I work for the CIA. I'd be happy to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you".

To the question: "Will you show/tell me how you did that?", reply: "Yes, but then I'll have to kill you. You can also preface this reply with the above CIA lines.

Turk

Greg Wilson has a nice way of handling this. When asked "How did you do that?" he replies something like, "You wonder how I did that? Oh, I take that as a compliment. Thank you!"
This turns the meaning from "I want to know how he did that" into "Wow, I have no idea how he did that" (which is, in fact what most people actually think when they ask this question), changing a question into a statement that you don't have to reply to.

I use this line quite often. If they insist, I act surprised and say "You really want to know how I did that??? But that's no fun anymore!" If they still insist, I say "No honestly, I am not allowed to tell you how it's done. If I do they'll kick me out of the Magic Circle and I can't do shows anymore. We both don't want that to happen, do we?" If they say "O yes, I do" - well ...

"How did you do that?"
I say, "It's a trick."
"Do that again."
I say, "No!"
Both lines are said with a straight face and an aggressive delivery...then I smile a big smile which breaks the tension and generates a laugh and I go on to something else.

"How did you do that"
"I don't know - ask my wife she know's everything"