Your worst screw-ups - share your stories here!

[Jordan Lapping]

Hey folks,

I have always been interested in experiences of this field, I think it's great to listen to other peoples' stories. With that said, I will start with my own. Mine had to be the time at my father's wedding in February '06. I was doing some magic to this guest and I was in the end phase of a common Ambitious Card (where the bent card rises from the middle to the top).

She told me that she saw two bent cards, I thought to myself "oh ****..." and so I guess I didn't handle it too well. I began to proceed as I would do normally, I showed her that her card jumped to the top. I then proceeded to spread the remaining deck face up on the table to show her that no other cards had her selection and/or signature - meaning no dupes. It somewhat improved the effect in a way (for her personally) as I think it confused her even more as to what actually happened.

That was my failure -- What about yours?

Jordan



Edit: I actually have another story I'd like to share, that happened about this time a year ago.

I was performing a "mentalism effect" (actually a force) in which 20 cards are spread face-up on the table, and the spectator locks one to memory, without anyone else knowing it. The way it's accomplished is via a 'key card' which is placed in an arkward position and is then needed to be remembered beforehand.

This means the deck cannot be shuffled by the spectator. With that said, you can tell what happened... he mis-understood my signals and he shuffled the deck. At the time I can remember trying to think of outs in case it didn't work as he was shuffling, but nothing came to mind. I thought to myself "I'm screwed on this one" but, I kept my cool and procceeded as was suposed too.

So there I was, spreading the packet on the table, having him think of a card from the spread. I named one, and it turned out to be the card in which he remembered. Which, in reality, was very much a 5/100 chance as he could have remembered any one of the 20 cards that were on the table... I love happy accidents! :)

[lux-ferre]

I was performing Strange Travelers. In accidentally showed the "weird card" which made the spec react. He didn't see the whole thing though so I just covered it up and retraced my steps to continue the effect. I still got a great reaction though. Since he didn't know what he saw, he just thought I was trying to do a cheating move but failed.

[Studentz]

My main happy accident was almost like yours Jordan, I forced a card and give the deck to shuffle to the spectator, and a friend was talking to me during that time.
At the moment the spectator give me the deck back, impossible to remember the forced card.
I tought about a clever out wich is basically from Tommy Wonder, to resume it basically, you normally fake you're missing and go from spectacular way to reveal, to almost guessing way to reveal, ( I wanted the spectator to name his card and then I would have cull it to produce it ).
So I decide to go over a spectacular way, I do the boomerang top shot and say with a sure voice " This is your card the 6 of diamonds ! ".
And the spectator says : OH MY GOD ! DID YOU SEE THAT ?
That was my luck that the spectator shuffled his card on top of the deck.
This is one of the few trick where I fooled myself.

M.

[Studentz]

Sorry about the double posting.

M.

[Sean.Cinco]

Oh man, I always love hearing screw up stories because we all know that it's bound to happen to each and every one of us. I would also like to see how all of you were able to recover from the screw up, that way we can all learn about how to handle a screwed up performance.

Last week I went to bowling night with the Filipino Student Association here at UCF. There were some new people so I figured I would do some tricks to break the ice. I had a nice crowd...about 20 people surrounded. I proceeded to do a sandwich trick (Wave the Aces to be exact). Before I show the card in between the aces, I always ask what their card was (8D for those who want to know) and if it would be so freakin amazing if I could make it appear. As I show the card between the aces, I peek under to look at the face of the card and confirm that it's the selected card, but I don't show it. Everyone knows that gag. However, this time it wasn't the 8D. I was like "Oh (explitive)" and the guy who chose the card wanted to see. He saw the 5C. Now this crowd around me is a bunch of college kids with a handful of cocky incoming freshmen, so they were all "HA! THE MAGICIAN F-ED UP!" so had to think about how I could get out of this jam. (end the screw-up part of the story here).

I spread through the deck talking about how something went wrong. I saw the 8D and culled it to the top and told everyone that it's not even in the deck. Even the people behind me confirmed this. So I palmed it off and handed the deck to my friend to look for the 8D, but he couldn't find it either. While he was looking, I was debating where to do card to pocket, card to wallet, card to shoe, etc. But I was surrounded so really I wasn't safe planting the card on myself. Then I noticed that the guy who selected a card had a button up shirt with a breast pocket. So while my friends were looking at the deck, I reached into his shirt and pulled the 8D out of his pocket. At that point, the crowd just went wild. One of my friends taped it for me, so I'll try to have the video up once he sends it to me.

[Erik]

The screw ups are too many to remember, but I will share a short story from FISM. It was out very own Jordan Lapping that was Mr. Screw Up in this instance. I loved it.

The scenario: Jordan is performing to a girl, and it's the first effect he shows her.

The effect is a basic transposition, and it has only one move, and that is a switch of some sort. I am not sure if it was because Jordan was nervous performing to a girl, but somehow he forgot the only move in the routine. The card never got changed, and the effect wasn't very amazing at all.
When he realized his screw up, he didn't play along, he said:

Oh ****... what the...oh no... I forgot the switch...AHAHAHAHA

And this quote was repeated by him several times during the evening and the day after.

Oh, thinking about it, I remember I do have a goof I can share. Jordan is once again involved (he has some weird connection to mess ups). Oh well, I was having a webcam session with Mr. Lapping, and I was practicing a specific sleight. I messed the sleight up, and dropped a card on the floor. "No worries, I'll just pick it up". Being the big belly-boy I am, bending down while sitting is not very good for the legs of the chair. One of them broke. I nearly did a backflip with my chair. Jordan laughed, and he hasn't stopped yet.

Erik Jansson

[Jordan Lapping]

The scenario: Jordan is performing to a girl, and it's the first effect he shows her.

The effect is a basic transposition, and it has only one move, and that is a switch of some sort. I am not sure if it was because Jordan was nervous performing to a girl, but somehow he forgot the only move in the routine. The card never got changed, and the effect wasn't very amazing at all.

WAHAHAHA, I forgot about that, but now that you mention it I remember that like it was yesterday! LOL

I don't really understand what came over me, I just completely forgot what I was doing. I remember you sitting to the right of me, watching and in the end saying "I don't get it?" directly after the effect 'happened'. It then hit me and I realized the cards didn't even switch places. I felt a ****, but I laughed like hell.

FISM was awesome.

Jordan

Edit: And yes, your Back-Flip Clip-**** was hilarious, I can still remember it now. I saw you bending down to reach the card under the table and I heard this almighty and loud SNAP. I thought you broke your back or something. Then you said, "Dude, my chair has broken..." only to follow that with some martial-arts stunts as you plummited to the floor. WAHAHAHAHA! I bet the people on the floor below you thought it was an earth quake. Good going, Erik! :D

And Erik, I think it would be interesting to hear your mess-ups during actual perforances -- I remember you telling me not long ago that you were performing at some sort of party, and this woman kept distrupting the performance. Enlighten me?

[Djmckee]

I have to say i have been lucky o this front, not many people have ever questioned my magic. Jordan the braue popup problem 2 card bend thing happened to me before aswell but i found if you just continue they think it ends up in the middle anyway!.

My worst screw up must be the most simple trick in the world however i perform it anyway as its magical nature 'happens in the specators hands' is quite appealing to me. its very basic i belive its called 'here then there'. The effect is 2 specators chose a card they are lost by means of shuffles. One jumps to the top and handed to the spectator then the second one is found but is the card supposed to be in the spectators hand then the card in the hand is turned over and its the second card. Well to explain in the least detail they both had picked jokers! So that oh so awful scilence when i asked the spectator to turn over the card in there hand and I said "wow that joker, has.... turned.... into.... your..... Joker.:mad: haha.

[Turtle]

Ah, Nothing like a good screw up.

---
About 4 months ago, my sister had her birthday party. It was a 'Casino' themed party, and therefore, I was asked to perform for her friends.

I had done some stuff already, and was moving on to a triumph section. (I call it this because I perform a standard ITH triumph and afterwords, John Bannon's Play it Straight Triumph)

Anyways, somehow, I accidentally half-passed two cards.

After the 'shuffle', the real selection somehow found its way to the bottom, and another card was face down in the face up deck. I showed it with pride, not realizing what was going on.

I got a few strange looks, and I finally looked at the face of the card myself.
Luckily, I then noticed the selection.

I gave them the card and asked them if they were sure they didn't see their signature. (Jokingly of course).
While they were sarcastically looking, I copped off the selection.

I noticed a girl's purse sitting on a stool to my right, and as I went to retrieve the 'fake' selection, I planted it in there.

I said that I was joking, because I knew that there card wasn't the 6S (The 'fakie'), because the actual selection wasn't even in the deck.

I gave them the deck to look through, and finally said something about how ladies carry many things in their purses, and kind of suggestively nodded towards the purse.

I got a great reaction.

-----

(The worst part was the spec's reaction(s) while looking through the deck. Anybody who knows PLay it Straight knows what I mean.)

[TheNybbler]

I was performing for a guy and doing a basic transposition and ended up with a triple instead of double so needless to say when i did the transpo his King of clubs suddenly became a six of diamonds. I played along with the "where did that come from" like I'd actually meant to make a random card appear. He was still impressed that the card changed from his hand to my hand even though his card became a six of diamonds.

[remy]

I was showing a new kid at school some magic, cuz he said he liked it. I was working with loops. right when i got into finishing "LIFE" he was like oh nice loop there. i was like cuhrap.

[Jacob]

I was preforming 2 Card Monte and about halfway in to the trick I noticed that didnt have any cards.

[remy]

I was preforming 2 Card Monte and about halfway in to the trick I noticed that didnt have any cards.

Tragic. Just tragic.

[Jacob]

Tragic. Just tragic.

I know! I asked him where he thinks the queen of hearts is and I noticed that never had a deck of cards in the first place.

I was humiliated.:(

[Beans25]

Anyone ever done where they hold the deck between fingers and you hit it, and it leaves just one card in their fingers (their selected card)

Well I was performing for my dad's boss's daughter, and I did that trick, and at the end, I hit the cards, which made her jump, so she let go, and the cards went EVERYWHERE, and it was a picnic, so not only did half the cards blow away, the trick was ruined and I had to pull out another deck to save the performance, leaving the other cards to be picked up by people who realized an ace was in their drink.

~Beans

[magison83]

Here a crazy story. I was doing a street show at the beach last summer.

I was doing a basic sponge ball routine. Very simple. The same routine you get

with the package of sponge balls. This is the crazy part I had just loaded the

giant sponge in to this womens hand when she shoves it in to her top, and

says "try and cheat now magic man your never getting these back and she

turns and starts to walk away." I am like oh man I am up the creek on

this one, I take a deep breath and clap my and say ok but your going to miss

the fun take it out. Bam gaint sponge in her face. That was crazy.

[Beans25]

Hahaha, sponge ball one is classic.

I remember another one, where I crashed and burned on a ACR routine, basically flashed, but when I went to save it my friend (who was filming) got really mad at the kid, and the kid pushed another kid into my friend, and the kid he pushed turned around and tried to fight the kid who had seen me flash on the acr

so my routine went from bad and save-able to worse and a smoldering wreck that was unrecognizeable.

~Beans

[harapanong]

I was sitting in my school's student lounge, practising some of my card stuff on the table.

All of a sudden, my 2 friends brought this group of girls along and sat around me. "Hey Harapan, show something for our friends here!"

I began performing.

Every trick I did screwed up somehow, even those that I had done many times before and always suceeded. Forces didn't work, didn't get the correct card, didn't catch the card flying out, screwed up my flourishes... plus the girls were all hecklers.

Finally, I managed to sort of nail them with a sandwich routine of mine, which went well. They were amazed at how their card, the King of Hearts, managed to appear between the 2 black Aces everytime. Phew.

I decided to end this whole thing off with a trick I knew I would NEVER screw up: a standard Triumph effect. King of Hearts lost in the deck, and the trick went on seemingly well, until the last part...

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, all the cards turn over by themselves, all except for - "

There were THREE FACE DOWN CARDS among the face-up deck, and they were in different parts of the deck. (Till today, I never knew how I did that.)

I immediately reeled back in shock, and pretended nothing happened. "except for 3 cards!" Took them out, hands shaking in fear. I knew one of them was their card, but I didn't know which one. So I decided (for some reason) to quickly do an impromptu Magician's Choice to make them pick their own card out of the 3.

I secretly peeked at all 3 cards. And I breathed a sigh of relief, because...

"Like I told you, just like the previous trick, your card the King of Hearts, will always be..." Flip over the King in the middle of the 3. "Between the 2, black, Aces." Reveal the 2 Aces, trapping the King again.

The 3 cards happened to be those very 3 cards used in the previous sandwich routine.

Everyone went wild, my 2 friends breathed a sigh of relief too (as they had thought I really screwed up) and congratulated me on another successful trick.

Whatever.

- harapan. magic!

[Mshade]

I was doing stigmata for my gym class. I forced the 2 of diamonds and everything went right. Then when I rubbed my arm nothing showed up. There was about 30 people just standing there. I was so embarassed.

[Chris Hestnes]

The screw ups are too many to remember, but I will share a short story from FISM. It was out very own Jordan Lapping that was Mr. Screw Up in this instance. I loved it.

The scenario: Jordan is performing to a girl, and it's the first effect he shows her.

The effect is a basic transposition, and it has only one move, and that is a switch of some sort. I am not sure if it was because Jordan was nervous performing to a girl, but somehow he forgot the only move in the routine. The card never got changed, and the effect wasn't very amazing at all.
When he realized his screw up, he didn't play along, he said:



And this quote was repeated by him several times during the evening and the day after.

Oh, thinking about it, I remember I do have a goof I can share. Jordan is once again involved (he has some weird connection to mess ups). Oh well, I was having a webcam session with Mr. Lapping, and I was practicing a specific sleight. I messed the sleight up, and dropped a card on the floor. "No worries, I'll just pick it up". Being the big belly-boy I am, bending down while sitting is not very good for the legs of the chair. One of them broke. I nearly did a backflip with my chair. Jordan laughed, and he hasn't stopped yet.

Erik Jansson

Ahahaha, the memories =D

The screw-ups for me are too many to be remembered. And that aint good, not good at all.

[coquito]

Over the summer I went down to Peru to go visit family and such so I had to perform for them. During the very first phase of the ACR, I somehow managed to put 3 cards instead of 1 over the signed card and didn't know it so I looked like an idiot when I said their card would rise to the top. So after the double I did a triple, but it wasn't it so then I did a quadruple which did end up being it. I still got the reactions at the end, just wish that never happend haha.

Just a small story, I performed Daniel Garcia's Torn after doing a signed card routine for my class back when I was in high school and this jerk decided to sit directly to the side of me instead of being with the class which they were infront. So he practically saw everything and was trying to tell the class how it was done at the end, but everyone just ignored him and tried to make him feel stupid. It wasn't a screw up but when you have the group worked up and you make them believe in the magic then they will believe in it.

[MaxDeVill]

I do a rubix cube bit where I let them screw it up and I fix it in under 5 mins. Pretty easy really when you know the tricks... but for some reason I just couldn't get it right that day.. glad I didn't bet money on it.

Not too horrible really, but I was embarassed.

[kartatrik]

I recently dropped by a house warming party on my way home to change out of my sweaty clothes I had on from playing Ultimate, I intended on staying for a brief hello before I popped out again, however the young woman at the home was told I performed magic and that I did insane things with cards and coins.

I ended up using a borrowed deck, but wanted to warm up, so I did some stuff for friends at the party (making my way to her). I performed an AC routine for one girl; a cell phone effect I created, for another girl and some other stuff.

When I did get the atmosphere I wanted for her, I quickly found out that she was very suspicious of magic and especially of card handlers. I wanted to perform a modified AC/Mind-Reading effect, however she wanted full control of the cards. So using the aid of one of my favorite forces, I gave her the deck to shuffle, butter, love, hold and nurture for as long as she wanted. She didn't want me touching the deck, but I really wanted to do something special for her.

After some patter, and making sure to include the people around, the heat was off me, and the memory of me ever holding the deck-long gone. I decided I would do a mind-reading effect, positioning her in the "right light" for me to see her eyes, and all that. It was a simple effect, but I did my best to build up to my abilities. When I told her that I 'thought her card might me this'-when in fact it was another, I said."Nope.... not that, let's try again, look deeper into my eyes...no no forget my good looks, concentrate". After a few seconds I calmly and quietly said her card.

She freaked, and so did her friends, who were all around me standing on chairs and sitting on the floor. After waving her hands around excitedly, (not that she needed the attention), she declared with a lump in her throat "...not only did he guess my card...it's the first card on top of the deck, but there's no way he could have done that!"

It was purely by accident, and I'm sure many of my peers would shoot me a few good grins, but the effect on her in of itself and the impression on her friends was something I could never earn or buy, and it felt a little, just a little like real magic

I wouldn't say this was my worse screw-up, in fact I'd say I just chose another effect over another, but reading some of the posts reminded me of that one night when I beat the scrutiny with a little luck, and the lesson I learned and what I'm seeing in these posts is, don't give up! Ever! Let the creative juices fly!

-KT->

[TeeDee]

My favourite screw-up was when I was performing in a bar.

I was doing some kind of ambitious card-type thing, and the selection was on top of the deck. I turned over a double to show an indifferent card then colour changed it, leaving the indifferent card on top and revealing the selection. Unfortunately, the spectator wasn't quite as drunk as I had thought and spotted exactly what I'd done. "You just left the other card on top of the deck." he said triumphantly. "What was that?" I said, leaning in as if I couldn't quite hear him as I executed a pass to leave the card he'd just seen in the centre. He repeated himself. "Really?" I said, turning over the top card, and the second and the third. "Nah, it's gone...completely vanished.....look....you can look through the whole deck if you like." I spread the deck in front of him, praying I'd be lucky. And I was. He didn't even bother looking at them, just grinned with the resignation of someone who's just been fooled by a sucker trick and gave me a tip. I felt more like a magician then, with that moment of improvisation than I had for the whole rest of the night performing my prepared routines.

[The Dark Angel]

Oh, one time I was doing Liquid Metal for some friends.
I did the whole thing to one guy who thought that I was using witchcraft or something, cause he could barely bend the forks at all.
Well, when I did it again, there was one guy watching my every move who figured it all out.
Fortunatly the first guy was so shocked and amazed by it that he convinved his friend was seeing things and that I had real powers, so his friend said "Yeah, I guess you're right..."

[Jeff]

Jordan, the 20-cards-force you mentioned is it the one you taught me? I love that!

Anyway, I remember my worst one was this:

I was performing a mentalism act on stage using the Breakthrough Card System, which I totally forgot the card I should remember. Just before I try to read my audience’s mind, I went ‘Holy ****…’ and my mind went blank.
However, I prepared another deck in my back pocket so I proceeded saying that was a demonstration about what we are going to do and she can keep the previous deck as a souvenir (I ended up gave her both decks after the demonstration). I know it is not the best line to recover my mistakes but luckily they didn’t know I was about to screw everything up. I was lucky…

And for my most amazing magic I have done, it was a bout two years ago. I guess this won’t happen again in my entire life. Here it is:

I spread an unprepared deck face up on the table to show some card tricks to my friends in my living room, about 15 of them. I didn’t touch the deck again ever since. Before I began, it is my routine that I ask what is my audience favourite card. At that point, I didn’t realise there is one card missing in that 51 cards deck!
She said: Ten of Diamonds…
I said: Could you please take your card out and sign your name on it.
After a brief moment, I realised that I don’t have that card! And the rest is classic… crazy mentalism effect and my best card trick in my life! Sweet memories… :)

[Eddie]

I rarely performed to others(and all of them were for my dad)
I try to do biddle trick to my mom and I controlled the wrong card... yeah... thats it .

[The Dark Angel]

Here is a really weird one:

Last night I was doing the biddle trick, and I made a slight variation where, instead of placing the cards into their hands, I place it into the box.
Well, I screwed up the first time ebcause I had the 2 halves facing the wrong way.
So I did it again, and put the second half of the cards into the box, but again I put them in the wrong way.
Well, I got upset and say "Oh damn, I did it again" but when me and my dad looked in again they were all the same way!
And then, I controlled the wrong card (He had Queen of Diamonds, and I somehow controlled the Queen of Spades, but I was able to convince him that he had actually picked the QS)

[magison83]

Heres a good one. I was doing my version of card too pocket at a party,

everything was going great. I was on my third round when some one grabbed

the deck from me and said," there all the ace of spades"!!. I was like crap.

So anyway I don't use gaffs, at least not for that routine, so like any good

drunk he gets angry and throws them in to the ceiling fan, cards go every

where, sacred the hell out of the cat. But guess what ending I was going to

do. You got it card on ceiling. He didn't know the chosen card and he didn't

see the wax on the bottom of the deck. Ok guess where the card ended up,

No not stuck to the cat but to one of blade of the fan. That was cool. But the

rest of the cards endded up in the fish tank and coverd in vomet.

[scott huff]

once i was doing the invisible deck for about 5 people and i had a girl think of a card. i went through the usual stuff, and i revealed the face down card, but as i was showing that there were no other face down cards i accidently flashed one. :( i knew it was the seven of hearts or something b/c of the corresponding card above it and i kind of panicked and said "well looks like someone was thinking of the seven of hearts too" i was just hoping that everyone would be impressed that i knew what it was and just assume that someone else was thinking of it, but when i took it out this other girl just screams, and was like "OMG, i was thinking of that card!!! I never even told him!!!" and she just flipped, it was the most amazing mistake i have ever made:)

[codename_magicsimon]

Oh man, much like a lot of people, ive too many to really remember but this one really sticks in my mind..

I was doing a card to mouth as a closer to a 5 minute routine for this table in a bar, really built the whole thing up, and produced this card from my mouth but it was the wrong one. Id used a different way to control it, and it ended up second from top rather than on top. So i panicked, i was like "Ive made such a big deal of this, and ive really screwed up." Everyone around me noticed.
Luckily though, id worked the same table like half an hour ago with a different group, and there was a card on the floor from a TnR effect. I caught sight of the index and it was the same as the selected one for this trick, 10D if youre interested (side note: What are the odds of two duplicate cards both being chosen for effects where cards are destroyed?) So i made out like "While you were busy watching my mouth i got the card under your stool.. they took it, looked at it and then i thought "Sh*t! Its not signed and they signed this one!" Screwed up my recovery plan. But their signed card was still on top of the deck, so i palmed the TnR card, and made like i was repairing it and putting their signature back, and bloody hell, they bought it, and bought me drinks =P

Little bit of advice, keep an Invisible Deck with you all the time. Its one of the best outs for any screw up. Just ask, what was your card? Oh, i thought youd pick that one, i was so sure i turned one card over in this other deck thats been in my pocket.

Never fails.

[S3al]

Well I decided to try to do a mental affect I made. It was just something I thought of out of thin air, that sort of happens to me after watching Derren Brown. So I got the 6 of hearts, and the 9 of hearts. I miscalled them to see if anyone would catch it. The guy did, he's like, no the 6 is over there and thats a 10. Now the six was over at the other side, but the 10 was a 9. I'm like really? he's like yea you cant fool me. So I said, well its really a 9, he freaked out, and said I changed the card. But I never did. I really did not expect the effect to work out that way but hey, I'm not complaining.

[jdstyle]

i was doing two card monte to a bunch of girls in the U.S when suddenly one girl kneels down to see what cards the other girl had but lucky enough she didnt tell them.... It is so hard to focus when theres somone in front of u that understood the trick. :(:(:(:(

[Fergus O']

i do more cardistry than magic but i have a few screw-ups.

one recent one is that at the end of the day at school, i took out a deck and started just doing charliers or something simple to warm up. the teacher noticed as i was leaving and asked to see a trick.

i thought what the hell so i decided on subway as it was quick and i wanted to get home. so i did everything with the patter and all, but when i got to the reveal, i messed up.

"what was your card? well if i look between these two face up ones i showed you, you will see..." *i spread the two cards and there is no card there* "...sh*t, where'd your card go?" now the teacher threatens me with detention if i so much as take out a deck at lunchtime :(

[Chumi]

mine was cool
i was controling the card to the top... a friend pushed me and i messed up i thought the card ended at the bottom... it didnt... top... nope---
sigh i guessed i needed to do another trick fast and while they looked at the new card i would find the card of the messed up trick which i got flashed 3S
i was about to classic force... but the guy got like 20 cards after the wanting to force one (he directly went to that one.... and it was the last tricks selected card but FACE UP xDand the whole deck was face down

[zackzgb]

I was doing my riffle pass during my ambitious card routine, and all of the cards blew out of the side.

very embarrassing lol

[The Dark Angel]

I've had several people say "That wasn't where I siad stop..." during a riffle force.

[Jack The Magician]

I've had several people say "That wasn't where I siad stop..." during a riffle force.

I usually say that it takes the mind several femtoseconds to process a signal from the neurons - that's why I stopped a little after you said to stop.

This prevents them from asking questions because they have no clue what I said, so they just accept it.:D

Cheers,
JTM

[roby11]

A mistake I did when I first started magic was performing a two card monte and only ended up changing one card instead of both and still got good reactions

[TheAsian]

Just a couple of days ago, I was performing a simple four ace production as part of a gambling card cheat routine. I showed the aces to be in different parts of the deck and went ahead with a Hindu Shuffle control to get the aces to the top of the deck. As I'm shuffling, the cards are face up. Imagine my surprise when I see first one, then another ace appear as I'm shuffling! I stopped shuffling and spread through the deck and found that not a single ace made it to the top of the deck when it was supposed to! Needless to say, I killed the trick and quickly moved on to something else.

On a side note, it still turned out to be one of my best performances.

~The Asian

[treadstone]

Mine would've been when I was trying out a friends version of Triumph (the selection ends up in the spec's hand, the tranditional reveal was used as a false climax). Anyhow, the card in the spec's hand didn't end up to be the selection. That was rather embarrasing........

[magicdude349876]

I was doing a show at a hotel and i was up on stage doing a trick called king thing. In the trick the magician finds all four kings and puts them in the deck and they appear in 4 different places. so anyway i was doing this trick and the whole thing went wrong. Either there were to many cards on top of the kings or i hade one king acidentaly in the box. menwhile there are about 150 people looking at me like " who the hell hired this idiot". That is my story.

From,
Magicdude349876

[PurpleMagician]

I was at my cousins birthday party and she is little so her friends are little. then she asked me to do some card tricks for her friends so i said what the hey. I started with a color change and i was doing it fairly good then one of the kids annoyingly shouted hey that was two cards u picked up and i said sssshhhh and he said he is cheating and he started talking and being annoying and disruptive so i just stopped. I will never perform for little kids like that again.

[cklam]

I was performing for a little kid of grade 7 ... I was having a break from my work; so I went outside and asked a kid if I can show him something.

I let him pick a card, put it back in the deck and control it to the top. As I was about to begin the effect, he asked to shuffle the deck (this kid was extremely skeptical...).

I didn't have any excuse for not letting him shuffle the deck, so I said:

" Alright, you know what? We'll start this all over again and we'll make it as fair as possible; you'll pick another card and this time you'll shuffle the deck after you put the card in. Good Enough? "

This time, I planned to force a card...in that way, the kid can shuffle as much as he wants since I already know which card he took. So I forced the card to him...BUT by the time he put the card back to the deck, he suddenly dragged a radom card out and said:

" I changed my mind, I'll pick this one instead!"

I was really frustrated :mad:; I didn't want to continue to perform for this kid anymore. So I just said: " You know what? I 'll have to get back to work (and it was true indeed)."


That was my worst performance ...

[Jordan Garret]

I sneezed while doing Mercury.

And it wasnt one of those nice sneezes that come with a warning.


It wasn't that "AH... hAH... AHCHOO!!!"

NO!

it was a sneeky come out of nowhere sneezy, right in the middle of showing that i had just flipped 2 aces over..

Shabam out it comes and i drop the cards.

Sneeky SOB.


~Jordan

[Blackjack]

For me my worst performance wasn't even my fault.

I was performing to this lady who for some reason could never remember her card. Even when i forced her card, and i asked her what card it was as that was a part of the trick, she told me the wrong card, but i couldn't say that to her because then she would have known that i knew her card already, which would have spoilt the trick. and for other longer tricks i tried on her, i got right to the end and revealed her card saying the typical "is this your card?" with all the confidence in the world, but she comes out with "i really don't reember"!!

I just didn't know what to do with her

[Dex]

Man where to start ...


At a birthday party a family and the rest of mine thought that it would be a great idea to celebrate everybodies birthday in order (Lighting a candle on the same cake again, and again, and again ....) since we only see each other once a year.
I was already bored enough and my pockets were full of tricks, but I didn't know when to start.
So when it got to my turn I tore a bit a flash paper ou of the sheet for In a Flash and did a nice flame before blowing my candle out.

The effect was nice so they asked me to do it again on the next persons candle, but when the moment came the bit of flash paper didn't contact the flame so all they say was this ridiculous tiny peace of paper that I just threw over the cake, quite dissapointiong...


Then things got worse, I realized that I didn't have enough flash paper left for in a flash so instead I balled up what was left and palmed a sponge ball to start my sponge ball routine.
But of course I had too much flash so when the flame contacted my hand it just burned for about 3-4 seconds (Which is long when you are holding fire), burning also the sponge ball.

My hand was very burnt, but I just played it like "Everything is fine, was supposed to happen...." But it hurted like hell, and my first ball was burnt about a quarter....
The rest of the performance went great , if you forget the pain, and I had and extra piece of flash paper in my pocket, so I still did in a flash.




Lots of words to say nothing...

[mattjones]

I was performing for a little kid of grade 7 ... I was having a break from my work; so I went outside and asked a kid if I can show him something.

I let him pick a card, put it back in the deck and control it to the top. As I was about to begin the effect, he asked to shuffle the deck (this kid was extremely skeptical...).

I didn't have any excuse for not letting him shuffle the deck, so I said:

" Alright, you know what? We'll start this all over again and we'll make it as fair as possible; you'll pick another card and this time you'll shuffle the deck after you put the card in. Good Enough? "

This time, I planned to force a card...in that way, the kid can shuffle as much as he wants since I already know which card he took. So I forced the card to him...BUT by the time he put the card back to the deck, he suddenly dragged a radom card out and said:

" I changed my mind, I'll pick this one instead!"

I was really frustrated :mad:; I didn't want to continue to perform for this kid anymore. So I just said: " You know what? I 'll have to get back to work (and it was true indeed)."


That was my worst performance ...

Nah, that had nothing to do with your ability to do a trick- That kid was just a jerk. But if you can ever pull it off, they're the best kids to fry.

-Matt

[RebelAce69]

My worst performance or most annoying spectator story was when I was coming back on the ferry with some of my friends and there was about a group of 20 around me. I kept passing the cards to the top invisbly except it took a long time because they were watching like hawks and I wanted to punch someone in the face. And every time I passed the card to the top they would ask to shuffle the deck, and I kept saying "Can you just follow along and not be ignorant?" So instead of them just being quiet, one person took my cards out of my hand and shuffled them, well 1)DONT EVER DO THAT TO A MAGICIAN 2)I have a bad temper. I tore this kid apart I've never made fun of someone so bad, it felt good but then he got really offended and stuff. Anyways they kept asking if they could shuffle the cards so I kept getting flustered, and just forced the card for every trick and then let them shuffle then somehow I would sneakily get the cards into the proper position. But, since then no one has grabbed cards out of my hand, and I dont think ever will again. This may sound like I have a really bad temper but, it was only that day I've really ever lost it, it was something that just got to me.

-RA69

[Jordan Garret]

My worst performance or most annoying spectator story was when I was coming back on the ferry with some of my friends and there was about a group of 20 around me. I kept passing the cards to the top invisbly except it took a long time because they were watching like hawks and I wanted to punch someone in the face. And every time I passed the card to the top they would ask to shuffle the deck, and I kept saying "Can you just follow along and not be ignorant?" So instead of them just being quiet, one person took my cards out of my hand and shuffled them, well 1)DONT EVER DO THAT TO A MAGICIAN 2)I have a bad temper. I tore this kid apart I've never made fun of someone so bad, it felt good but then he got really offended and stuff. Anyways they kept asking if they could shuffle the cards so I kept getting flustered, and just forced the card for every trick and then let them shuffle then somehow I would sneakily get the cards into the proper position. But, since then no one has grabbed cards out of my hand, and I dont think ever will again. This may sound like I have a really bad temper but, it was only that day I've really ever lost it, it was something that just got to me.

-RA69

YOU D bag!!

Nah kidding man.

I know what thats like.

I just do a palm and hand them the deck to shuffle.

SO then i can't loose the card.

Just something for you to keep in mind.

~Jordan

[RebelAce69]

YOU D bag!!

Nah kidding man.

I know what thats like.

I just do a palm and hand them the deck to shuffle.

SO then i can't loose the card.

Just something for you to keep in mind.

~Jordan

I thought of that, except didn't want to crimp or bend my Masters lol., but yeah I should do that more often, I'm very skeptical of palming although when I do it I don't get caught, just don't like taking the risk. I should practice more. Thanks :)

-RA69

[Jordan Garret]

I thought of that, except didn't want to crimp or bend my Masters lol., but yeah I should do that more often, I'm very skeptical of palming although when I do it I don't get caught, just don't like taking the risk. I should practice more. Thanks :)

-RA69

Well thats a nice thing about masters, They bend back easily.
If a deck of cards is whats keeping you from saving yourself.. well then thats not good.
I can understand if it was a blck ghost or jerrys.

But masters?

=P

~Jordan

[brahmsconcerto39]

my mom discovered my force deck at the ABSOLUTE worst time in a trick. "HAHAHA Look! There its a bunch of 9 of spades!"

*shiver*......

[C=B]

I don't remember every single thing but at my Great Grandma's 94'th (yes, 94'th) birthday I was doing some sort of ace reveal.. not sure what it was now. Every single stinking time I did the reveal it was the wrong card. I did a reveal, WRONG, recovered with another reveal, WRONG.. you can see how it went.. Finally I got the right card and most everybody thought the screwup(s) were on purpose. Afterwards my grandma asked if i'de really messed up... I just smiled and said "Not telling.. hehehe"

Haha,
Sharp

[phore]

I don't perform much yet. And the last 2 times I did perform a trick, the spec reached into my performance and turned a card on the table, that, of course, wasn't theirs :/

I could kill when people do that.

But I guess I won't be using "Look I'll put your card here on the table" any more.

[C=B]

I don't perform much yet. And the last 2 times I did perform a trick, the spec reached into my performance and turned a card on the table, that, of course, wasn't theirs :/

I could kill when people do that.

But I guess I won't be using "Look I'll put your card here on the table" any more.

Audience control comes with time. It is a blend of Misdirection, Confidence, and just performing experience. We've all been there and it suuuuuucks but just keep practising and performing and you'll find ways to control that.

Steve Simmons also posted a very interesting "Crotch Holdout" thread which prevents people from grabbing items, it is somewhere in the General Forum.


I thought of another mess up. Once I went to perform a coin routine only to find that my expanded shell was STUCK to a coin right as I went to perform. I tried to cover with an original 3 fly but.. that went waaaaay down the drain...

Sharp

[phore]

Thanks for your post SharpestLives. I'm sure that with time, I will get better in that area. But those two were hecklers anyway, I should have know not to do that kind of trick.

I checked out Steve's thread, I'll keep that in mind.

Anyways I'd be happy if some of you seasoned magicians out there would share some tips with me on how to control the crowd or to make them confident that it's really their card that's on the table or that they're holding.

A friend showed me a few things you can do last week and that helped alot.
But I'd be really happy on more ideas.

@mods - I hope this isn't offtopic for you, although maybe it should get it's own thread.

Thanks.

[C=B]

I think its actually on topic. Having people tell their worst mistakes and not telling them ways to correct them is a mistake in itself.;)

It really just comes with time and you will learn how people think and when to sit things down/when not to. But a few tips i'll give you is 1) make sure if your using a double lift that they see their card until the last possible second. Don't show them the card and then wait a moment after turning it over to sit it down.

Also, a small subtle thing I do SOMETIMES (thats very important, do not do this every time you lay a card down). Is a mis-call. That is, I look at the indiferent card and say it is there card. Example, the selected card is the 5 of diamonds. I would lay an indiferent card down say "We'll take your card the *pause and glimpse indiferent card* the 5 of diamonds and..." get the idea? You don't want to over do this but just using this in a very subtle manner works WONDERS.

Also, until you have confidence in yourself and performing start by performing routines for people where the card is REALLY laid on the table or you actually place it in their hand. This builds confidence in your spectator that you are doing what you say.

Just a few tips,
Sharp

[Cardmagic12345]

my mom discovered my force deck at the ABSOLUTE worst time in a trick. "HAHAHA Look! There its a bunch of 9 of spades!"

*shiver*......

Who uses a force deck? I would never use one of those.

[Allan Hagen]

Who uses a force deck? I would never use one of those.

They sure are underrated, that's for sure. Derren Brown uses them? And if you know who he is, and have seen something from him, you also know he has sleight of hand skills far beyond the average card magician today.

I don't personally use them, but I guess that is simply because I don't have one..

[Jordan Garret]

They sure are underrated, that's for sure. Derren Brown uses them? And if you know who he is, and have seen something from him, you also know he has sleight of hand skills far beyond the average card magician today.

I don't personally use them, but I guess that is simply because I don't have one..


he is amazing!!

=P

I personally enjoy a svengalli, Always gets great laughs, And is kinda like a force deck.

[thetrilogy-corE]

some reeeeeaaally good story´s in here guys :) I enjoyed reading.

Well, i have one too. It was my Birthdayparty...yes it was mine ^^...and ..you know..i was fallen in love with this girl, I invited to (naturally)..and my plan was to tell here....the truth ^^ later...so she knows, what i was feeling...i was horrible nervous about that moment the whole evening.

However some of my friends forced me to perform some magic ...so i grabbed my cards and, as you can imagine, my body shaked sooooooo hard, becuz she was sitting right next to me smiling so beautyful, kind of excited too....(i´m famous as the freak in our group, doing all these things with cards and penspinning also)....so my body shivering has already been taken to the next level, when i started my little show. I was shaking, but all the tricks happened to be good and i got good reactions. I even managed some really visual stuff (duck changes, etc.) Within my ACR Routine, I perform almost everytime.

Well, after a while a calmed down and so i decided to do the last one with her :)
Usually im not using these "forcing a card, mind reading reveal"-tricks.....becuz i love visual stuff all the way through, prefering it the whole time...but i decided to improvise one for her.

I don´t know why i hadn´t just forced her a card. I wanted her to take a peek, while i was riffeling through and catched a break, to control it, for taking a peak later and THEN reading her mind. But than it happens....i looked at her for a split second (sorry dudes, but i was so in love ^^), I started shaking again and ......roflmao....i lost the break...my pinky...was.....MAN!

I thought: Dude....she is looking at you ...and you are loosing the break ... you messed up all the way!

Well ...i didn´t know what i was doing, so i started to shuffle the cards in every flourishy way i´am able to (got a few good reactions, but my mood was bad)

After the shuffling action i turned over the top card (was the ace of spades...masters edition bycicle ace of spades...so beautyful) and at that point...the good thing started.

An the Beginning, i was hoping, that maybe that card, could be her card, but she said "no" and smiled again (duuuuuude)....so i was kinda switching back in this mind reading theme and told her to look into my eyes....and to come closer slowly....i looked into her eyes and for any reason, i know every single detail about that moment. She was concentrating....all the others where quiet....only the other non-part-taking guests where talking at other areas of the room and of course the music was playing...so i looked into her eyes.....hardly thinking, of what card could be hers....(no chance to get the right one, i think^^)....so i started acting a little bit.....and after a while ...our faces were so close together....i whispered ..."8 of hearts"....

And this is, what was so cool about....her card was the 7 of hearts....i didnt know at that point, but....she almost forgot to tell me, that i was wrong....we just stared into each others eyes..and after ages (5 seconds) ...she started smiling again and said "no it wasn´t"......well......i dont know why, but i hardly wanted to save that situation....so i stared down on the pack of cards in my hand...the ace of spades still face up on it......

as i said, i didn´t know, what i was doing so i catched a break under the card underneeth the ace....and got into position for a shapeshifter..just to do something magical .......only to show her something ....doesn´t matter what....just a little magic trick...i executed the shapeshifter and.......

well.....i promise, this is not a fake story ;)....but the card, which was appearing, was the 7 of hearts.....EVERYBODY watching, started to scream ...she just laughing and seemed so happy...it was even hard for me to not just drop the deck, walk out of the room, and stop doing card magic forever, becuz, that was the weirdest quincidence in my life......

just an hour ago, i took her to side, to tell her about my feelings......yeah it works. We kissed. I think that screw-up, was kind of guilty for that.


yes...thats what happend. I will never forget.

[phore]

AWESOME story dude..
That's like one of the sweetest coincidences in the history of magic :)
Your one lucky guy.

Oh and congratulations on the girl :)

Ps. I dunno if I would talk to a girl about my feelings on my birthday, if she says no, you ruined your day :/
But I'm glad it worked out for you.

@SharpestLives
Thanks for your tips. I'll definitely remember the naming of their card.

[kayfour]

wow great story, u could put that in the other thread too, best tricks of all time.

lol my story is very simple
stigmata version.2

first mistake: wrote name in black sharpie pen on a small card
second mistake: cant read properly
you guys can probably figure out the rest,

well the "name" was not the one on their card, but oh wells, still got a bit of reaction coz it looked like it. sorta..

[Balázs]

Hooly **** man I've enjoyed that story VERY much! Man, I envy you so much! That's mainly because I've had a very similar story...........

I was performing some very simple trick to a girl, who I was in love with. I got great reactions, and finally I did a card to mouth.........when she saw her card in my mouth, she was just shocked, stared at my with her mouth open............so yeah, I was pretty satisfied with myself in that very moment. Unfortunately she's been through two other guys since then............none of them me.

And to be a little on-topic, my worst screw-up was.............with my friends I think. They are all hecklers and always make fun of me when I perform, so you can imagine, if I would screw-up, that would suck. Well, I did..............I was doing some kind of "select a card, lose it, reveal it" trick. And when I did the revelation, a completely wrong card appeared.............I didn't have enough time to even say something, my friends were all laughing and pointing at me, so..........yeah, that's about it.

[thetrilogy-corE]

first mistake: wrote name in black sharpie pen on a small card
second mistake: cant read properly
you guys can probably figure out the rest,

well the "name" was not the one on their card, but oh wells, still got a bit of reaction coz it looked like it. sorta..


soooooooooooooooo great man xDDD...kinda made my day ^^

thank you for enjoying my little story ^^ and sorry for the bad grammar and stuff :/ ^^

[C=B]

Damn, Cor-E... haha I need that to happen to me man.. hahaha

I recently tried to tell the same stuff to a girl.... trainwreck...


That was a great read man.

Sharp
PS. Glad you liked that, phore.

[Dex]

I use one for a kicker a the end of my ACR (Look ! You choose the only different card !)

For other tricks to, but never as an actual "Force" deck.

[shinichikudo992000]

I remember the worst screw-up trick I ever did is I'm chocking on my card when I'm doing the card to mouth.

[The Dark Angel]

I remember the worst screw-up trick I ever did is I'm chocking on my card when I'm doing the card to mouth.

Um... isn't the card only supposed to go into your lips? Or are you talking about the David Blaine version where he coughs up their card?

[Jordan Garret]

Um... isn't the card only supposed to go into your lips? Or are you talking about the David Blaine version where he coughs up their card?

OH I CAN DO THAT!!!!

Its amazing.

=P
Except not.

[The Dark Angel]

OH I CAN DO THAT!!!!

Its amazing.

=P
Except not.

I've actually had people think I was seriously choking and freak out.

[Jordan Garret]

I've actually had people think I was seriously choking and freak out.

Noice. I just cough once and out it pops.

i do whatever possible to keep my hands away from my mouth

[Ender]

i'm young sort of a noob to magic less than a year now but the worst thing i've had was performing Panic for a friend, acidentally messed up the gimmicks:( (for all of you who have the trick, let's just say i messed it up so tthat they couldn't tell i was using a gimmick lol). then the worst part was after the trick he grabbed the deck and saw the four non-gimmicked kings on top and i was still holding the gimmicks (we were sitting down so i couldn't ditch them in my pocket without it being obvious. and then he told everyone else that i used 8 kings when doing magic :p
not a good experience. and i've also had people forget their card during the biddle trick. i'm doing the bit where i have four cards hold up indifferent card say was it (name their card)? and i named their card but they that wasn't it (i said KH it was KH but they thought it had been KS so i just do the tent vanish anyway, have them go through deck, find card, i say there's your card.
they say, no, was KS. most frustrating thing ever.

i think you have to be very selective about your audience and what tricks you perform. you shoudl try to read what sort of person they are (forgetful, heckler, etc.) before deciding what type of tricks to do. just my two cents :)

[MitchellStafiej]

It was winter, snow and ice everywhere. I was performing on the street in the freezing cold, (I'm incredibly stupid I know), and I was backing up when performing Sinful and slipped on a patch of ice behind me. Probably the most embarrassing thing I've had happen during a performance EVER.

I look back now and laugh about it though.

Mitchell

[greeney]

Hilarious stuff guys.
I screwed up pretty badly just yesterday, performing street magic for a group of people. Me and a friend had been walking around all day, taking it in turns to perform and film stuff. Some of the reactions I'd got were INSANE. My confidence was up, and I was loving it.
Unfortunately, this group was full of hecklers and they were really giving us a hard time. I pulled out my "Invisible Deck", handed it to a girl in front, and got her to pick a card. Everyone was laughing. Then I took the deck out of my pocket and revealed her card (ace of spades) in the middle. Great reactions.
Another girl said, "OK, now do it again for me!" I know I shouldn't have, but I thought I could get away with it. As I put the cards back in the box -
I DROPPED THEM.
Luckily, no-one questioned the mix of face-up and face-down cards, but obviously I couldn't perform the trick again. I had to get my friend, who was filming, to bail me out.
:(

[The Dark Angel]

It was winter, snow and ice everywhere. I was performing on the street in the freezing cold, (I'm incredibly stupid I know), and I was backing up when performing Sinful and slipped on a patch of ice behind me. Probably the most embarrassing thing I've had happen during a performance EVER.

I look back now and laugh about it though.

Mitchell

Hahahaha, just imagining that is hilarious. :D

[Afraidofzombies]

I have many screw-ups. Most of them oddly involving TiVo 2.0, but I won't go there. I think that my worst screw-up yet would be a couple of weeks ago at school. Some of my friends had asked me to show them some flourishes. I thought to myself "Okay, what could go wrong?" I had a brand new deck of Tallys that I had opened and broke in no less that two hours previous to the event. I should also mention that we are outside during all of this. And it rained last night, a lot. Right when I am taking the cards out of the box, some ass-hole comes up behind me and pushes me into this giant puddle that I am standing in front of. So, I fall in, get all wet, cards go every where (except outside of the puddle), and everything is ruined. Don't worry though, I found out who the kid was. And I got him back. But that is a story for another day.

Brian

[S3al]

Don't worry though, I found out who the kid was. And I got him back. But that is a story for another day.

Brian

I want to hear that story.