Enough of this negativity, already! Let's hear about the best experience you've had performing! The greatest audience reaction, the most amazing coincidence that made you look like a real wizard, or the the most touching moment when you connected with the audience on a level you'd never imagined.

I find it much harder to single out the one best experience than to single the one worst, but for depth of audience reaction, this one ranks right up there:

I was performing a coins across routine for three gentlemen. Throughout the routine I stressed that there was no point in trying to "catch" me doing something sneaky, because I wasn't doing anything sneaky: they were witnessing "real" magic. The final coin disappeared from my hand and arrived in the hand of one of the spectators. He opened his hand, looked at the coins, closed his hand, turned away from us, and dropped to his knees! He was certain he'd seen real magic.

I was doing a b-day party for some teens
and one of them was the most rude obnoxious
kid I think I had ever met... he was too good to be fooled by any old magician..*L*
he was sitting in front of me on the other side of a small coffe table, and I was performing "single coin through table"..
I lapped the coin, and proceeded to tap the imaginary coin in my right hand onto the table (looking for the hole) and really tap the coin underneath the table creating the sound illusion.. well, when I slapped the hand on top of the table for the penetration,
and slapped the coin underneath again for the sound illusion, I dropped the coin.
But this teen heckler (little did I know)
had placed his hand under the table just a couple of inches below mine. he had no I dea my hand was down there... the coin fell directly into his hand and he FREAKED!!
he then told me I was the best magician he had ever seen and followed me around for the rest of the party ...
Sometimes you get really lucky, and its those times that make all of the unlucky times worth the trouble..
C-ya
Tom

I once performed "Card On Ceiling" for my mother and a few of her friends.
Almost 20 YEARS LATER, her friends were still introducing her as..."Remember I told you about that kid who did the card trick and the card got stuck on the ceiling? Well, this is his mum."

Ian

I don’t have a specific “best” experience to share. I just always enjoy all the children, after one of my performances, pretending to be magicians. All of them running around saying Abracadabra and Hocus Pocus trying to make things happen. Parents, days later, tell me their excitement stays with them. To this day it’s a good feeling to know you can effect in a child’s life in a positive way.

Drew

I've had too many great experiences from performing magic, but if I had to choose, it would be standing ovations for the linking rings.

Somewhere in there would be the time I was in between sets at a show at a country club, and on the spur of the moment I took a cigarette from one of the waiters and made it vanish. He never said a word. He just motioned me to stay put, walked into the kitchen, and came back out with a huge steak dinner for me.

There have also been occasions when I was out for dinner with my wife or friends, and I'd do something for the host, waiter, or waitress, and the next thing I knew, they'd picked up my tab.

Lastly, there were several times I've just out different places doing whatever, and people would come up to me and tell me that I'd performed magic for them somewhere. It's always a very warm feeling to be remembered and appreciated - and to know that some kind of connection was actually made.

Cheers,


TCR

I was performing for a fundraiser for a teenage cheerleader who had a brain tumor. The fund raiser was supposedly for "families". I arrived at the gig in my best tux, ready to perform for all ages, but found out that there were only 2 "families" and about 125 teens, mostly with multiple piercings, spiked hair, tattoos, etc.

Being professional I gave it my best effort ( I was put on in between two punk rock bands) I got basically no reaction for most of my show, but at my ending, I was performing "disappearing milk to lightbulb" as I poured the milk from the light bulb there was silence until a kid from the back of the room yelled "NO WAY DUDE!!" made my day plus I happened to see him the next day in a store, he came up to me and said "I know you, you are the magic dude!"

changed my professional name the next day from Great Scot the Magician to Great Scot the Magic Dude. I no longer judge an audience by its appearance

Great Scot
the Magic Dude

I once did "Card on Ceiling" in a lobby of a Costco Wholesale.

I threw the deck so high the card was barely visible. I got so lucky because after the card stuck, the rubberbanded deck took a slight aerodynamic turn an landed on the top of a steel beam. However, the effect gave the illusion of a deck vanish and a card being revealed on the ceiling.

The moment was so strong, I almost became a guru for a cult!

This happened this evening. While working at a local restaurant, there were quite a few people in the waiting area.( I brought the D'lites with me.) There was a long wait and the restaurant was using the blinking red light box that goes berzerk when activated. I think you know where I'm going with this. I was doing a little routine using the s-L-O-W-L-Y blinking light on the their device, when they said if you could make this thing really light up so we could get a table that would be real magic. Well I started putting 10 or so red lights into their box and as soon as I said " there, that should be enough" the thing lit up like a Christmas Tree. There table was ready. It was just perfect timing, and I'm realy thankful for that one.
David Paul

I seemed like a real magician or wizard when performing card tricks I thought I would try my luck!

I looked at the top card and lets say it was the queen of clubs. I then said name any queen to one of my friends. They did name the queen of clubs so I turned over the top card to show it was the queen they ahd named!

I cut the pack and managed to do exactly the same thing with another card! I couldn't beleive my luck so I thought I will stop now, just in case it doesn't work again!

Just before I put the cards away someone shouted "Why can't we name any card?"
So I said, "Go on then name any card."
They did name any card and to my unbelieveble luck they had named the card on the bottom of the deck!!!

So I turned the deck over to show the card that they named! no one said a word!!!
That was my best moment in magic ever!
100% true!!!

Hi, this perhaps isn't one the best magic moment of mine but surely I had some fun with it. I was "toying" with Tamariz memorized deck in a informal performance for friends; simply producing after some cut or flourish any named card. Then I said:"the next one I will try to cut it exatly at the right spot in the deck. The King of diamond was named and I proceed to cut at 26 card but suddenly, smiling sarcastly, he said "No, I want change my mind, go for the two of clubs..." Keeping my face steady I said turning the card (2 of clubs) face up "No problem, I Knew that" and then, slowly turning the upper packet face up also "so I like to be prepared...here's the King of diamonds". Ends

Andy

I have a funny one.

A couple of nights ago I did a corp. party that was going GOOD but just good.
Then I bring a lady up to help. I ask every one to give her a big hand, as I hold her watch over her head. Now here is the great part.
I noticed one of the men sitting right next to where she was sitting, was looking in his jacket as I held the watch up. So I ask for him to come up and the lady to take her seat. Quick note she still has no idea what has taken place. So when I do the same to the gentalman, She screams out he stole your watch stupid...

The whole place broke out in tears they were laughing so hard. She looks down and sees she was also a victim. If you could have just seen that face, her jaw hit the floor and her eyes stuck out her head, as she grab her head.
Priceless

Needless to say the rest of the event went out with a big bang. That is the most recent one.

I hope you like it...

It was in an event called Atsugi Japanese-American Friendship Day here in the Naval Air Facility in Atsugi Japan.

I performed magic to the Japanese guests and it went pretty well. They give really interesting reactions.

I will never forget, about 20 years ago I changed a U.S. quarter into a beautiful Jamaican coin, about the size of a half dollar.

The spectator was Jamaican (although I did not know this at the time) and he freaked out more than anyone I had ever seen. He started yelling and screaming and ran out of the establishment thinking he had witnessed real magic. He was seriously frightened.

Actually, I felt horrible about the experience and I've never used the Jamaican coin in an effect ever since. It was then I learned that not all people and cultures think magic is fun.

One of the highlights of my career was the night that the late Paul Huffaker and I were doing a straightjacket escape at a bar we worked at in Greenfield, MI. Paul did the escape and I ran my mouth to cover the time it took the audience members to put him into it.

We asked for 2 volunteers to help and one of the guys asked, "Could you do that mith MY jacket?" Turned out he was the regional sales rep for Humane Restraints corp., the makers of the jacket Paul used. We said Yes with some trepidation.

The second guy almost gave us both a heart attack when we asked him what he did for a living. "I'm a psych nurse at Ypsilanti State Mental Hospital. I put people into these jackets every day." (It was the mid 1970's).

Our challenge was that Paul would get out of the jacket faster that they could put him into it and we always passed the hat on this one, for charity. They finished putting him into the jacket in about three and a half minutes.

I sent them back to their seats and yelled "GO!"

As the guy from Humane restraints hit the edge of the stage, Paul's voice came out over thr speakers asking him to "Please have this dry cleaned for me, will you?" His time was just over 13 SECONDS!

Needless to say, the house went nuts.

Did I mention that the show was for the owner's birthday?

A good night and Paul is sorely missed.

Lee Darrow, C.H.

Lee that is funny. One of the best two nights I have ever had doing table hopping the first was a woman her husband and her son. I finished with a multiable selection. I had them pick the cards and put them back in the deck. I told the woman not to think of her card while I did the revial of the other two cards. When I told her to think of her card and told her what it was she said that is great, but what was the other card I was thinking of. I had no idea so I took a good stab and said Ace of spades and started to walk away she almost fell back in her chair. All she could say is how did he know that. The other was I was doing my trick Two of hearts for a man and his wife. I did the trick and at the end they told me it was their first wedding anirversary. They said it was the highlight of the evening so far. It makes you feel good when you can amaze people with just a little magic in their life.

Tom

My best situation was two years ago, when we visited my wife's family in Northern Lower Michigan for the holidays.

I was asked to perform after dinner, and did my close-up mentalism & bizarrism.

One of my sisters-in-law is the type whose reactions are so great, you wish you could have entire audiences of such people. I did my 'ghostbusting' routine on her and left her bug-eyed and with her jaw slamming the table-top .

After the performance, my father-in-law asked me about the "stiff-as-a-board/light-as-a-feather" party game.
"Ah...levitation." I replied, "Maybe I can show you something along those lines." I had made it a point to pin on my ITR before dinner, and proceded to levitate a silk hanky I pulled from my pocket.

Everyone was amazed yet again, and my sister-in-law went ga-ga once more.

It was priceless.

Steve

Two come to mind. The first was a watch steal that I handed off to my wife to put on her wrist. She came back about 15 minutes later after the magic was done and we were talking. The lady was begging me to tip how magic worked, and I explained it was hypnosis and proceeded to make her watch vanish and re-appear on my wife's wrist. They didn't know she was my wife.

Next I was performing at a wedding party and blew away a small crowd of people. As a gentleman was walking by several of the people said, "Hey you got to see this guy's magic. He took my watch, and I didn't feel anything" The man said "oh yeah, can you steal my underwear"

I said, "I don't know; lets give it a shot." I spun him around and with my right hand I grabbed his belt. With my left I stole a pair of Victoria Secret thong undies and acted like I pulled them out of his pants. The crowd fell down laughing, and I gently let the guy off the hook.

He said to me later, "I really stepped into it, didn't I?" He then hired me for a gig. The undies are used as an out if caught stealing a watch by the way.

I had an interesting experience the other day.

I was working a table and noticed one of the ladies was wearing a necklace that had a small harness ring (think Jardine-Ellis ring) hanging by a girth hitch on a simple cord tied around her neck.

Well, always take advantage of an opportunity dropped in your lap, I always say.

I proceeded to melt the ring off her neck, perform a few minor miracles with it and melt it right back on, without the cord ever leaving her neck.

Needless to say she was flummoxed in a way rarely seen.

SPONGE BUNNIES at a 6th grade fun night. I was still trying to decide if I wanted to continue my original sponge ball routine or do the rabbits from now on. I did the rabbits for four different groups of kids (I was a station for a rotating group of 300 kids). I have never heard nearly 100 kids scream so loud in unison at once.

I was literally laughing and staring at the bunnies thinking to myself, I can't believe how strong this really is. The adult group leaders were screaming and laughing just as loud. I have felt like a magician so many times before, but this was one of the true MAGIC HIGHS of my career---from those stupid litle bunnies. LOL!

Me and some of my laymen friends were in a Taco Bell late one night. I noticed a worker in the corner, and he seemed like he'd had a bad day. So I sat at the table with him, and asked if I could show him something.

I did a couple of coin routines, and then showed him a few card effects. The man had tears in his eyes when I was done, and told me that I had really made his day, and that he was so thankful that I'd taken My time to cheer him up.

I am not sure who had the better experience. And who knows? The way he acted, I could have stopped him from taking his life? You never really know what someone is really thinking!