Ok, so I'm an aspiring magician, really new but very keen however, I think I may have alienated myself from my peers.

Monday night I went to Magic Mondays, which is a two hour magic show held once a month. I was sitting in the second row and the next act was announced, it was a female magician, performing for her first time at magic Monday. She needed two volunteers and asked me up on stage. It was definitely comedy magic, she had us sign fake consent forms and talked about the scene in Ghostbusters when Bill Murray shocks the two people trying to get them to use their ESP. She rids me up to this little shocker thing and says she is going to ask me what I can see. HOWEVER, right before this about to begin, another magician calls out the she can't shock the audience members, they don't have public liability. She asks if I could shock her, to which he replies yes.

So she gives me these 5 ESP cards and, knowing how easily a magician can glimpse a card, am very careful not to show her which card it is. She guesses it right. I immediately know these are some kind of marked card and begin very obviously looking for markings on the back. The audience laugh. She asks me to hold up another one, but this time I hold it up with my hand blocking the entire card. The audience laughs harder. She jokes that I am making it very hard for her, but guesses anyway and of course gets it wrong. She says to shock her, which I do. She says "Ok, try again", so I shocked her again. The audience laugh again. She says "I must see the card to be able to use my ESP." So I hold it one, this time only showing one corner. She guesses wrong again. I shock her (Note, that it isn't a real shocking device, just one that makes a beep noise when the button is pushed). I decide the joke is over and hold the card up as normal. She guesses correctly. She gives me a badge and allows me to leave the stage.

I didn't even think again about it, until I left, when my girlfriend had a go at me, saying that I acted like the kind of person I hate, that I was a trick ruiner and that I ruined that part of her act. I am immediately struck with overwhelming guilt. It is now Thursday and I am still guilty. I went to the magic shop where one of the regulars at magic Mondays works and he barely said hello to me, despite me staying in the store a good 15 minutes. I feel like a real jerk. I welcome all feedback on this story of mine. Thanks for reading.

You (or rather she) live and learn! Maybe next time she'll use a subtler method…

Your a jerk!!

Sorry irontoaster, you asked for feedback....

Chris

Covering the card once could be a joke (yeah right, freaking hilarious.) covering it 2 times?... You knew she was dying and you didn't even throw her a line? What a cad!

No wonder you got the cold shoulder, you merely insulted a female magician -one of the rarest of breeds of magicians...

Hi Ho... I'm sure you'll live it down, someday...

Truth be told, though... What an awful magician to not have an out for such an obvious dilemma an "audience member jerk" might throw her way!

I give you points for being honest with us but not cool dude,
You're suppose to be on her side. Redeem yourself, apologize, make it right...

As the others have suggested though, hopefully she learned something too.

Well put by Gaddy. That's a double whammy. Not a good combo at all. Much as I hate to say it, you were a bit of a knob mate I think you will feel a stack better if you apologised to the lady. Embarrassing as this may be, I know I would appreciate it if it were me.

However, that being said this gives you excellent insight into how narky an audience member can be. Needless to say I am sure you won't do it again, and you will always think twice about your own choice of spectator in the future.

Your girlfriend was right. Sabotaging someone's act is, as agent61 said, Not Cool Dude.

There are a lot of threads here on the the Café about professional courtesy. Read them.

I agree, that was not the right thing to do. Was it her first time on stage or just the first time at the Magic Monday event? Put youself in her place, how would you have felt ? If it was her first, or close to it, time on stage she might not want to perform ever again. I think you should apologize to her, and to the other magicians that were there. Maybe buy her something as a peace offering.
Bob.

That will be
4 Hail Mary's and 5 Acts of Contrition.

Yes, I agree with everything that has been said here. You need to put yourself in her shoes. It takes a lot of courage to get up on stage and perform. Imagine how it would feel if there was someone trying to ruin it like you did. Not cool! It's good to know that you now feel bad. It shows that you're taking responsibility for your actions. Make things right, apologize. We all learn from our mistakes, I think that sometimes we really need to think before we act.

I know this sounds corny… what goes around, comes around. For the most part this always proves true. Always try to be the best that you can.

Thanks,
Bruce

All that has been said up to now in this thread means nothing by me. If you really feel bad then telling us means nothing. Go tell the girl you are sorry and you should tell the people in the audience who were embaressed by what you did (you may be surprised at the amount of people who enjoy watching magic and get annoyed when people ruin it) you are sorry too. Telling us may make you feel better because you are getting some slack from here but still.
After you have done that come back and tell us how it went. Then you are on your way to forgiveness.
Get on stage and say "Ladies and Gentlemen. LAst week I was a jerk and I am sorry." That way everyone will know you said it and know you meant it.

I'm thinking you both learned something about performing for magicians, and hecklers here. Sounds like she held her own. Bet she does better next time.

It's one of the reasons why flowers were invented, and why florists have cards that say 'Sorry!"

You ought to apologize, both to the performer and the audience.
I know it was said above but, really, that's what you should do.

I don't know if apologizing to the audience will have the effect you want. I can see it working for some, but I get the feeling that others will see it merely as a token gesture. Even if they did accept the apology, if somebody were to do to you what you did to her, I bet the common feeling would still be schadenfreude, rather than sympathy.

Find her and apologize to her directly. Dealing with the way other people consider you will have to be your penance.

That said, any spectator, magician or no, could have done to her what you did that night. Marked cards are a highly common "how does card magic work?" theory, and any magician should know better than to blatantly employ a technique that would be so high up on the list of suspicions, with so little to disguise it as being anything else other than that. To be honest, if she really wants to be a good magician, you did her a favour. (If you do apologize to her directly, though, don't say that to her)

That was really uncool! Why did you do it? it didn't make you look better or smarter,but only made things worse , imagine how she felt! You,a magician, became a person that every magician hates! That was really bad thing to do. I hope you've learned a lesson and I agree that you should apologies!

Arthur

Ok I'm only playing devil's advocate here- so please don't hate me! I haven't performed in front of a crowd before- so I don't know that feeling, but that being said, I have done seminars (on other topics), in front of as many as 200 people, I've been doing stunts on Live TV (after which they decided to go with the tape thereafter with me - even though it doubles their work hahaha). So in my experience, I've had difficult people who would do everything they could to discredit you- for whatever reason. In the moment, I absolutely hated them- hated their challenges, them being difficult, etc etc, but at the end of it- I enjoyed it. They actually challenged what I said/did, made me know my stuff down to the smallest detail. In the end, I made sure if they were a regular, the next time, they can't fool me.

I think going too easy gives a false sense of security. It's like working any job- would you rather have the 3 months easy training and be frantic when dealing with "customers" or dropped in the fire and be totally comfortable after day 1?

I've just started on magic too- but if I perform- I certainly ask them to challenge me. Challenge my moves, challenge my patter. That's the only way I see myself getting better- especially for the unexpected.

I somewhat agree with homegrown on the false sense of security part. Some magicians just have a nice spectator who won't call them out, even if the effect sucks. Oftentimes, they will think they did a great job, simply because the spec said they enjoyed it. The magician can be lulled into a form of hubris, and think they are better than they actually are.

But I do not think it is even moderately ok to give a fellow magician a difficult time when they are performing. I find that to be completely unacceptable.

I agree that you should make amends.
I also hope that she learned from it. Spectator control is not easily mastered.