I know this has been dscussed, but on the topic of impromtu card switches, is there any method or misdirection you can count on again and again to get the job done?

Over and Out,

~Mike

Look 'em in the eye and talk to them.

As Bill mentioned, where you place your sight is very important, let's say if you look down on your hands when you do a pass or something it's a dead giveaway, be sure to keep eyecontact and/or point away from where the "action" happens, often while you patter that you need some assistance from your audience..

Practice this on your friends/family on everyday things and you'll soon see what works for you.

-e-

Bill misderection is good!
You try this if you want to palm a card for example I show them a deck of card and say "could you hold it for a while" I palm my card and ask them to look for it... And then I make a big effects.

I mainly do that too, I'm right in front of them while they looking at cards, they can see me looking at the cards I look up and they look up with me,

Anyone see Bill and Ted's excellent adventure as a kid..?

*point* "Hey, its the Goodyear Blimp!"

Hahaha. that works. But what I do is usualy look at them in the eye untill they look up from the cards at my face, I do the slight or whatever I have to do.

Also, I don't reember who said it, but sombody said just throw a hundred dollar bill on the table.You can vanish an elephant, as a street trick.Not impromtu though.

That never seems to work for me. The more I try to catch the eye, the harder they look at my hands. Usually I end up making some remark about them staring at my hands and they'll finally look up. Granted I don't have much actual performance time built up, though
Shawn

Look them in the eye is good. and do ur thing when they look at you. tell a joke. have "mysterious" actions.

Somehow you must take spectators eyes from the card!
Make them Laugh, speak about your nightmare or make a cool story!

Sneezing, or other such related bodily actions.

I don't advise breaking wind during a performance as a good means of misdirection. You may lose your audience pretty quick.

Mike,

Having a naked lady suddenly walk up next to you usually does the trick. Depending on how good looking she is, I usually can re-stack a complete deck of cards that has just been freely shuffled by the spectator.

Seriously, I also find the following helps to misdirect:

1. Movement away from the "dirty work" (i.e., flick a speck of dust from your close up mat with your "clean" hand while you do the move with your "dirty" hand; pick up a pen from the table and put it in your pocket with your "clean" hand while you do the move with your "dirty" hand, adjust a prop on the table or move a card box to a new location on the table, etc.).

2. Looking someone in the eye and asking a question. Usually, just asking a question will cause a person to direct their gaze towards your eyes.

3. Looking somewhere with your eyes will cause others to follow your gaze.

4. Do the move on the off-beat. (i.e., NOT when they are burning your hands.

Hope these general suggestions help.

Mike

I found Turk's dirty work movement kinda helpful. thanks dude.

Similarly, any tips for when the spectators are absolutely relentless on burning your hands and busting you? I'd been asked to do a performance for a group of people I knew, and thought I'd start off with the crowd pleasers. First "Be Honest, Which Is It?" but try as I might, there were two or three people who didn't even know what cards I'd initially put in my volunteer's hand since they didn't stop staring at mine--they caught me on the TC as much as I tried to put it off, waiting for one of them to just look up (although out of a crowd of about 15, two or three isn't too bad--my volunteer definitely didn't see it.)

Seeing this, I went on to something less sleight intensive--"Here then There." One thing was that yet another spectator had taken it upon himself to crouch down! What the hell? If I were to match him, it would have seemed awfully awkward to just shift positions for no reason, so I chalked him up as a loss. He didn't see my DL at all, but he DID see which card was which when I was putting it in the spectator's hand. No one but him busted me on that one (and forunately, he didn't say anything..) Nonetheless, I decided that it was too much and just went on to some tabled routines.

How would I deal with something like this? Not just misdirection, but people who are simply out to get me? There have been plenty of topics, and I've searched, but there are always so many different answers on the topic...

I sometimes get this with my students, Lynn. I won't do effects for them.

There is a difference between a spec burning your hands and a spec watching the cards. There is nothing wrong with people watching the cards. You ought to be able to do most sleights while they watch. I like to build a rapport with my specs through conversation. During this time, and during most tricks, I use eye contact as often as I can to direct their attention away from my hands--but during these periods I am not doing any moves. I want the spectators to trust that when I talk to them I am really talking to them, not trying to vanish an elephant. People know about the eye contact as misdirection thing and some will not want you to manipulate them if they can help it.

I read somewhere about misdirecting the attention of the spec, even when they watch your hands.

The one time I had a bad hand burner and I was doing “Be Honest, What is It?” I had to stop and say, “Hey, you are going to get a crick in your neck. Don’t worry; I will let you know when something big happens.” While I said this I pushed the spec up to a full standing position, gently, with the hand holding the card. As he stood, he looked at me and I did the switch. Sometimes you get lucky. I also don’t do that effect often.

Cracking a joke and giving them something to do (like asking them to turn over a card on the table). Looking them in the eye is good, but the more time I have spend performing, I have realized that a mere glance before executing a card change like a top change is sufficient.
However, when an effect calls for the substitution of entire packets, I usually have them perform a simple task. I still do not have the required tenacity.

Hope this helps!

Pretty much like everyone else on this post replyed , the eyes , its all in the eyes. If it a pass I usually say look heres the tricky part and raise them up a little bit but by the time I finsis saying look the move is done.A T@@ C####e well for me at least and trust me its not pretty but it never getss seen. Myopinon is you say you don't have much performance time built up? well then do it , you will realize how simple it can be sometimes, I constantly riffle or le paul spread so me doing a move like that is invisible.

Jep the eyes work but there are also other things, when people are burning you the rule of a bigger motions hidding the smaller motions should work!
just don't do the lambada because they might get a little suspicious

pep

Thanks guys