Good advice. Thankyou.

Hitting the guy and flashing him with flas paper are good ways to end up in court. Sometimes you just can't win. If you are in a paid venue, after asking the fellow to back up, the next choice is to have them speak with the management.

But... You'd better have done all you can diplomatically and have other customers on your side. In a free-for-all situation, you are on your own.

Best thing to do is put a paintball gun in the small of your back.


Pull it on the offender and blatt him with 20 red pells!

I might consider that.

I was having a lot of fun with ambitous card with one particular guy. I didn't stop after the usual 5 or 6 times the card gets back to the top. I kept going, again, and again, and again.

I know I shouldn't do this, but I must have got the card back 15 or 16 times in different ways, repeating some, you get the idea. I knew the guy so really it was more a case of practicing than performing.

Eventually after seeing it 15 or 16 times he got his eye right next to the deck. It made the angle a little tricky, but I did it twice more with him practically touching the deck.

It's a difficult line to walk, you don't want to come accross as making the person feel like an idiot. The fact that I knew my spectator made it much easier.

Incidently doing an AC routine for 15 or 16 iterations is a BAD idea. But in the right context it can be very funny.

-MM

I've had plenty of people assume they've figured out an effect of mine, when it couldn't be further from the truth. Most of the time, I hand them the deck and ask them to do it, and they go blank, ultimately making an *** of themselves in front of others.

It's a horrible situation to deal with...and unfortunately I have been through the same ordeal...with the 6-8 grades I've performed for and taught. My double lifts were pretty much useless.

Well, this is where psychological methods come into play. Elmer Biddle had a great method for guys like this. You do that method and offer to cut to a matching card to the one in the batch of cards you just counted off that has HIS earlier chosen card in it. I think you can fill in the blanks as to where to go from there.

I use this any time I get a "hand burner" and it never fails to french fry their overzealous minds. Courtesy of the late, great Heba Haba Al Andrucci, whom I worked with at the New York Lounge in Chicago.

Lee Darrow, C.H.

Well with somebody that warped, I'd probably play a game of 52 card pick up with him and spring the cards into his face. Then ask him, "did you see what you wanted to see?" Sheesh the nerve of some people. Those are the kind of people who follow you into the bathroom.

I've had a similar experience, and the guy just didn't stop even when I stopped the whole trick to get his stare off the deck. The only thing that worked for me was that I quickly riffled one end of the deck right in front on his face. This makes him fall off his chair if he didn't expect it, and in my case he didn't. He got some laughs from the other spectators and I think he learned his lesson.


Scaster

Of course, there's the Groucho Marx Card Trick from Duck Soup. You have the guy pick a card and then put the deck away and turn away from him and engage someone else in conversation. Eventually, he will ask you what he should do with the card.

Your response should be exactly what Groucho's was to Margaret Dumont in the film:

"Keep it! I've got 51 left!"

Lee Darrow, C.H.

Hello

I have had people grab props out of my hands, I have had them run out of the room screaming, I have even had spectators sneak behind me to try and see how things were done. You just never know what the reaction of a spectators will be or what their motives are for what they, the spectators, do. They are out there, they will always be out there, and you (the performer) should plan for a CLOSE encounter again!

With that in mind you might think less about what the rude spectator did and more about how to prevent it from happening again. In my routines I take each and every effect and analyze them for possible weaknesses. I also try to have three outs for each routine. That way, if I encounter your spectator, I can change the routine to suit the situation.

Take care and take cards
Antony Gerard

PS: The Magic Circular has a magic summer school and one of the topics of discussion was magic that could be performed surrounded. A topic worth thinking about when choreographing your next show.

Several years ago I was doing magic for some co-workers when another employee entered the room. Suddenly he made a face of utmost disgust and left the room. He would not re-enter the room until I stopped doing magic. It turned out the guy was slightly retarded and took being fooled as an insult. As a result, he hated magic. I hope there are not too many people like this.

In over 20 years it only happened once.

I was doing the invisible deck and a guy in his late 20's or early 30's went down on the floor to look up at what I was doing. It takes all kinds, doesn't it?

Rob

What I hate is the spectators that say "I know how you stuck that pencil through that quarter! There was an elephant in the other room and he pulled some invisible rope ( invisable rope?) which hit a sledge hammer that forced the pencil throught the quarter. ha ha ha, I figured it out." sadly I am not making this up it happened at school. I just looked at him and said
"Yes, your right. When I dropped my cards a few tricks ago I snuck in an elephant."

2 stories,many years ago I was in a pub doing magic,i was doing the blank paper to note,afterwards this bloke approached me,and said he had a great idea whereas we could both make a lot of money,he said he would supply all the paper and I would turn them all into £10 notes and then we would split 50-50,i said why do I need you ? he said well I can help you,he was really serious,he was one of these low life crooks, he really believed I was making money, the other time well I was doing the routine with the cigarette ash on the palm of the hand of this lady,(i think she was a gypsy)boy what a response,she screamed and freaked out swinging her arms,she was saying it,s the work of the devil,she really thought it was black magic,(her brothers reassured her after I explained I was a magician,,,like on the t.v.)takes all sorts,but they are out there,mike

It took me a while to realize that when I'm in a restaurant and I get someone who is REALLY unpleasantly challenging, I don't HAVE to perform for them. So ... when that guy does his thing, I finish up as quickly as I can and go to the next table. I originally started out thinking I had to show him at least ONE thing that would fool him...and then I realized that if he has the completely wrong attitude, it just can't work - and if it does, it won't be worth the effort. Not when there are ten other tables that would be a all around good experience just waiting for me.

Here is a different POV for you...

You were doing a show for an audience. You asked them to watch your act and they were nice enough to oblidge. From what you said, he didn't interupt your act, he didn't abuse you, he didn't try and purposely stop you from performing.

Instead, he, like a million audiences before him, tried to figure out how you did it. He watched too close in the wrong spot and figured it out. He saw the trick as a puzzle and not a piece of entertainment. As a performer, it is YOUR job to make sure that people are in the right spot for the effect to work. You've got to have an out for this situatuon.

A lot of people have suggested that you should treat this guy like s*** and try and make him look like jerk. This is just plain rude!

Sounds like it would work, but you don't want the audience to start to sympathize with him. Just remember not to go *too* crazy - The second the magician starts being a bully, he stops being a magician.

Just walk away. Easy. Finish the current effect and politely excuse yourself. Fake a page or cell phone call. Anything. Just get out of the situation. You're no longer having fun, he obviously isn't having fun, and anybody else watching won't be having fun if you start a conflict with the spectator in question.

Stand-up comedians have to deal with hecklers. However, as a close-up magician, you have the option of walking away. Comedians have to stay right until the end.