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CardC
Regular user
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
151 Posts
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Posted: Jun 26, 2011 5:36pm
Hey everyone,
this topic has probably come up but I couldn't find any posts. I wanted to hear your stories of a mess up, or mistake that has happened to you during your performance, forcing the wrong card etc...but then that you figured out how to turn it around? I think these experiences teach us to be even better magicians to take anything and run with it.
Mine:
I accidentally forced the wrong card while doing stigmata, and had gone as far as have the spectator hold my hand for a minute, then release me as I waited for the name to appear on my wrist. I asked her to name her card and I realized...SH!T I had totally screwed this one up. I then figured out her card was near the bottom due to the specific force I used, now that I knew the name I scanned for it very quickly and culled it to the top. I said do you see your card as I went through each card in the deck, she started screaming NO WAY, NO WAY, I then top palmed her 8 of clubs and removed it from my pocket...
For a magician, this wouldn't be impressive, like why the hell did I ask her to hold my arm? However the reactions were great, and instead of looking like a fool, we all shared a moment of astonishment.
What are your experiences?
be happy
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perceptions
New user
92 Posts
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Posted: Jul 9, 2011 11:56pm
Here's a wonderful excerpt from the book: CTW- A Magical Look at the Other Side of the Glass (Evans,2011):
Speaking of “outs” let me tell you a true story about how a cherished book established my confidence and reputation as a magician:
When I was a beginner at magic, back in my college days, a large group of students and facility members had assembled at the student center to watch my close-up performance. To settle my nerves, I started off my performance with what I thought would be a simple, yet good card trick as an opener. But I asked the “wrong” spectator to choose a card from a borrowed deck (my first mistake in reading spectators) and that uncooperative person actually grasped the deck from my hands (my second mistake) and proceeded to shuffle the cards as he turned his back away from me.
Well… as karma goes, he made one mistake; he carefully showed the other spectators his chosen card and my mind flashed back to what I had learned from the book: Outs, Precautions and Challenges by Charles H. Hopkins --- that all cards are marked by normal usage (smudges, smears, nicks, dents, scratches). As he proudly replaced his chosen card back into the hijacked deck and proceeded to shuffle it again and again (he wanted to be the center of attention), I noticed a small smudge on the back of the card and knew that I might be able to find the same card but I didn’t know how to search for the card without it being obvious as to what I was doing. This was my third mistake in that I had no prepared OUTS for such a situation.
As he handed me the deck, I noticed what seemed to be the same card with the same smudge on the top of the deck --- the spectator had inadvertently shuffled his chosen card to the top of the deck!!! Well, I simply tossed the deck into mid-air and pinched the top card between my thumb and forefingers, creating the illusion that I had plucked the card out from all the falling cards.
You can only imagine the reaction that this overall effect had on all who witnessed it. The very next day, the student newspaper wrote an article about the “Impossible Card Trick” and I later learned that a professor of physics had challenged his students to figure out how the trick was done during a classroom discussion.
The acronym for LUCK is: Laboring Under Corrective Knowledge --- I am indebted to Charles H. Hopkins and his small book. THE END.
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DallasCarter
New user
66 Posts
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Posted: Jul 12, 2011 3:09am
For these situations knowing some good mentalism effects is helpful!
I once did a basic force of a card with the intention or revealing it by some visual flourish and well, I forced the wrong card. YIKES! However, Once I realized I messed up I pulled out the card they said they chose, borrowed a marker, and did a 'revelation' mental effect on them that BLEW THEIR MINDS!
The latter, mentalism effects, are amazing all by themselves and so when I moved in to showing that effect, they completely forgot (or didn't even phase them) that I messed up the initial trick
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RobertlewisIR
Regular user
Colorado
114 Posts
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Posted: Jul 12, 2011 5:50am
Not so much a mistake...but I was performing for someone I knew who wanted to see something. I managed to load a duplicate card into her purse without her knowledge, and forced the same card. I then legitimately lost it in the deck, with the intention of getting the wrong card a couple times to lower expectations before the climax. Much to my surprise, I managed to cut to her card. Not once. Not twice. But three times in a row--accidentally, each time, and then finally gave up on getting the wrong card and just went straight for the climax. Not quite the effect I was going for, but I'll be ***ed if sometimes the gods of magic aren't smiling on us.
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CardC
Regular user
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
151 Posts
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Posted: Jul 12, 2011 10:09am
Great stories, it's so funny what can go wrong...or right when doing magic.
Another thing that just happened last night.
I was performing a small routine for a friend and I had secretly loaded a half dollar into a sugarpacket. I was doing the bobo closed fist steal and the coin fell on to the table, I then picked it up and explain it was a very tricky coin to hold on and I asked her help to hold me wrist so the coin wouldn't go anywhere. I stole the coin and placed it on my leg under the table...then like 4 second later it fell on to the floor and I just played it like it went through the table..however when we looked for it it was gone! it had actually fallen through the wooden porch into the lake under us...i felt a little bummed cause I only own 4 half dollars...however it provided a really weird effect cause we heard the coin but we couldn't find it...then I acted confused(which I was) and revealed the coin in the sugar packet...
Walked a way happy but sad...
be happy
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KungFuMagic
New user
94 Posts
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Posted: Jul 16, 2011 12:12pm
I did a book test where I have a volunteer select a word from a random page and I read their minds to get the word. I then retrieve the book and have a reason to send that book back out to confirm information . . . and that page is mysteriously torn raggedly out of the book.
Well, I totally pooched the word portion of the effect, and it was supposed to lead into a second stage of book work. I had to ditch the whole sequence. LUCKILY, there was a grand reveal at the end of a sealed box (delivered days ahead) and several predictions inside. Inside was an envelope with the torn page that vanished. What was supposed to be just a surprise enhancement turned out to be a huge amazement and entertaining bit as my "failure" was redeemed and I looked like a masterful performer "pretending" to pooch the effect. Serendipity.
Nick Sasso
part-time Samurai conjurer
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Dr_J_Ayala
Inner circle
In search of Vlad Dracul and his
2062 Posts
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Posted: Jul 16, 2011 11:02pm
I had once been performing a coin flurry under a canopy of trees for shade in early summer, and a few of the trees happened to be pine trees. Near to the end of my routine, I vanish a coin and toss it invisibly to the other hand, where it visibly appears by landing on my open, face-up palm. Well...somehow I during some sort of flub, I accidentally tossed the coin from its concealed place into the air too high, where it landed and stayed on a branch of the pine tree directly above me...Nobody saw it and I just started playing it up, hoping it would come down. It did not...at least not then. I stole another coin from my pocket to do 'Coins from Head' and just as I was about to do the 'move' into the waiting hands of one spectator, the coin from the tree fell down into her hands at the same time as the second one...that was the best I could ever have hoped for...From where they were standing, there was only open sky directly above them. That was my biggest "oops" that I can recall.
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goatears
Loyal user
214 Posts
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Posted: Jul 30, 2011 5:35pm
Something that happens to me often when I perform a few card tricks is somebody who thinks they're really clever will challenge me to do something. You know, "if your a magician make me disapear" or "hey can you levitate like David Blaine?".
This time I was at a party and had just excited everybody with a trick. I then glimpsed the top card for a mentalism routine I wanted to try. I put the cards down and as I was talking, and prepping for the next trick the most annoying spectator grabbed the cards and said "If you were really good you could name this card". It was so perfect! It was the same card I glimpsed! I milked it for all that it was worth and after a bit of suspense I guessed the card. It floored him! It was so awesome!
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neonlime
New user
8 Posts
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Posted: Jul 31, 2011 11:39am
I was at a party a week or two ago. The spectator picked a freely selected card from a normal deck, showed the audience, etc. I retained the card on the top as I normally do, then all of a sudden my hands riffle shuffle and cut the deck for absolutely no reason! It was just one of those habit things I do - why it came in the middle of the routine I'll never know. A few weeks ago I learned I was pretty decent at tracking a card through a shuffle and cut and then cutting to that card. Along with the slight crimp from handling it, I attempted to cut the card to the top and revealed it. Cheer ensued and I felt like a real magician
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dukun
New user
55 Posts
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Posted: Aug 14, 2011 1:32pm
I realize the important thing to do magic with somebody is communication..
if you have good rapport if what you do is wrong or fail..
the spectator is still adore you..
it's just my 2 cent..
cheers
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khuzhai
New user
17 Posts
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Posted: Sep 29, 2011 6:50am
Proceed to produce a jumbo coin while classic palming the small coin. I didn't get a proper grip in classic palm and the coin kinda fell. But they were so into the jumbo coin that somehow for some odd reason 3 spectators did not see the coin. it fell onto a carpeted floor so it didn't made a sound so I place my foot on it and ended extremely clean in the end.
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Koolmagic114
Loyal user
297 Posts
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Posted: Jan 10, 2012 12:41pm
Not much of a mistake as more of a fluke.. So this is one where the Magic Gods were just watching over me.
I was just doing a gag.. Had my spectator just MEARLY THINK of a card. Told her to keep that card in her mind.. I was just going to do that gag where I throw down a card.. ask her what her card was.. look at it myself say "Your right" and then bury it..
Well in my shuffling... The card she was thinking of went to the bottom of the deck.. as I tapped the deck on the table with the faces facing her.. She went into that cartoon eye effect whee they just pop out 7-8 inches.. her mouth went to the floor.
I was wondering what the 'ell just happened.. until she pointed and asked how could I have possibly known..
End of my story.... and obviously.. end of trick !! and off I went.
Eddy
www.magicianslair.com
www.bid-on-magic.com
koolmagic114@aol.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Co-Creator of "Iced Over" / " TelePad" / "Penigma"
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BJ Almond
New user
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
7 Posts
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Posted: Jan 12, 2012 11:19pm
Not my story, but one told by a magician here in Australia... (sorry, am at work so I will produce the magicians name later once I get home and look at the book again)
So, a magician is at a corporate event and gets the polite tap on the shoulder from the organiser - "Hey, that guy over there? We really need you to impress him." So the magician wonders over, introduces himself to the big-wig. He gets the guy to select a card (free choice) and sign it. While the big-wig shows his wife the signed card, the magician points to the deck on the bar (I presume a deck swap since I know what he was going for) and says "Now, just put your card back anywhere in the deck."
The big-wig pops his card down, picks up the deck and shuffles.
The magician thinks "Oh *#&#" and after not thinking of a way out, simply explains to the big-wig who is holding the deck that he can't do that trick anymore. Instead, "I'll perform a better trick for you - so pick a card out of the deck that you have in your hands."
Big-Wig free-choices a card about a 1/3 of the way through the deck...drops the rest of the deck in amazement and screams out "THAT'S AMAZING!"
He free choiced the EXACT card he signed, shuffled and lost in the deck less than a minute before.
1 in 52 chance.
(The magician packed up his cards, said thank you and left straight away. When the magic gods give you gold, don't tempt them. Get out of there.)
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jofish999
New user
Britain
9 Posts
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Posted: Mar 31, 2012 3:16am
I was back stage at a talent show (I only had 2 tricks on me:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNo33ltEXYo and cards across.)
There was this girl in my class that I kind of fancied, and she asked me to show me a trick. I only had a regular deck of cards, so I decided to do card to pocket. She picked a card, but then started shuffling the deck... $@*&. I took the deck back, asked her what her card was: 6 of H, I fanned through the deck to show her that they were normal. I then saw that her card was on top of the deck! So I proceeded to read her mind, then produce the card from my pocket.
Joe
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EXTREMENINJA1
Regular user
134 Posts
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Posted: Mar 31, 2012 9:02am
My biggest mistake was getting the wrong card, so I guessed that the chosen card was second from the top and did a quick colour change. They were amazed
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Magic Rik
Loyal user
Eastern Canada
247 Posts
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Posted: Apr 15, 2012 8:28pm
I was performing for a class at a private school. Fourteen and fifteen year olds. The trick required a double lift. Everything was going great and I did a "triple lift" by mistake and she got a glazed look from the young lady who had picked the card.
I figured, "Oh no!" Because I had said, "Your card was the ..." and she said "Nno!"
I had been reading Pop Haydn's notes on the Chicago Surprise so used his line "I knew you wouldn't believe it" and did the double lift and really surprised her. Then turned the color-changed card down and forced the next card on the teacher. Really surprised her when her "chosen" card was under that hand of the student at the end.
Sometimes it is really fun. Heck - all the time it is really fun!
Magic Rik
Life itself is magic - I just want to help a bit!
https://www.facebook.com/Magic.by.Rik
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lika scence
New user
15 Posts
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Posted: Apr 20, 2012 9:08am
I had done a very long setup for the invisible deck with an audience member up on stage, gave it a good 5 minutes talking about suggestion and all of that, then, after she named the card, I pulled the deck out of my poket and the flap on the top came open and the cards went spewing onto and all over the floor. This would have completely killed the show but as the cards fell they hit my left shoe, and one card stuck in my laces....her card. It was crazy, people have since asked me to do the trick again and I'm having to become more and more inventive about why I can't 
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Suren
Veteran user
Armenia
305 Posts
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Posted: Apr 20, 2012 1:55pm
Quote:
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On 2012-04-20 09:08, lika scence wrote:
I had done a very long setup for the invisible deck with an audience member up on stage, gave it a good 5 minutes talking about suggestion and all of that, then, after she named the card, I pulled the deck out of my poket and the flap on the top came open and the cards went spewing onto and all over the floor. This would have completely killed the show but as the cards fell they hit my left shoe, and one card stuck in my laces....her card. It was crazy, people have since asked me to do the trick again and I'm having to become more and more inventive about why I can't :P
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Seems like a killer routine!
Magically,
-Sur.
www.facebook.com/CardistSuren
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Father Photius
Grammar Host
El Paso, TX (Formerly Amarillo)
15701 Posts
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Posted: Apr 20, 2012 10:47pm
Where there is a will, there is a method.
"Now here's the man with the 25 cent hands, that two bit magician..."
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LeoC-Coins
New user
14 Posts
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Posted: Jul 6, 2012 12:19pm
Hi
I was performing the industrial revelation at my local pub and id just pushed the coin through the deck, when the sceptic of the table snatched the box out my hands before I could say "you probably think there is nothing in the box" and said tying to show of to the other spectators when he opened the box and the bock fell out!!! BRILLIANT!!!!!
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link8822
New user
Central Jersey, NJ
58 Posts
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Posted: Jul 9, 2012 7:53pm
I've had a few times where I accidentally got a glimpse of a card I wasn't forcing. And other times, after my friend shuffled my deck, which was in a stack, I still picked got the 2 cards he picked out by hoping the ones he picked didn't get mixed up.
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Pompey2L.A.
New user
83 Posts
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Posted: Jul 12, 2012 4:47pm
Once while doing a mentalism routine with sypher I only got some of the i******n.
Doing my best "i'm getting a fuzzy picture in my head" speech I eventually announced what was ledgeable which was the name "illam".
Turns out the name written was william however the audience member said that's amazing, that's my dads name and my SON callS him grampa illam as he cant pronounce his "w'S".
"that's what I was getting" I announced.
Thank you magic gods....
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knerrbo
New user
17 Posts
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Posted: Jul 30, 2012 1:12pm
While performing a 'magician's choice' variant, I had the spectator shuffle the deck, as he handed it back I peeked the bottom card and was about to proceed to force this card on him when he suddenly blurted out the very name of the card I had just peeked! It was so random it caught me off guard for a second, but I quickly recovered. I then proceeded to place the deck into my pocket and said "pick a number from 1 to 10" he replied "3", So I said "fine, I will pull out your selection from my pocket w/out looking on the third card". The only downfall of that 1 in 52 chance miracle was that it was only the two of us.
I've also had a few mind reading effects that aren't 100% go my way and completely freak people out in the process! Sometimes it feels like real magic.
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blastercast
New user
12 Posts
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Posted: Aug 3, 2012 6:55am
My Ambitious card routine with a rather... Hands on spectator should we say?
I was performing on a holiday camp for an audience of 12-13 people, mainly all kids and teenagers!
A little kid had the smart "idea" to grab a double lift off of me, he revealed the two cards and everyone was laughing at me, I had to immediately resurrect this or else I would be seen as a fool! I immediately executed a mercury fold (I was most the way through the routine), I asked him to take his card out the deck, he couldn't find it so in that time it was in my mouth, I told him it had rose off the deck and I slowly pushed it out my mouth, the little kid nearly fainted and I got a round of applause!
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MerlinCrow
New user
The Netherlands
56 Posts
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Posted: Sep 4, 2012 1:31pm
Many years ago in my teens I performed the classic glass under handkerchief disappearance,
the moment I removed the glass secretly for the climax, my girlfriend noticed and said it's gone.
But the coin was still underneath, I managed to do a flawless coin disappearance,
She did not even noticed I screwed up the trick big time...
Merlin
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