LOL.. I had the same thing happen to me on my neice. She was more shocked to see the flustration count than the spider. I still think it's a great effect for Halloween but then again I never do it outside of my family. Eugene Burger has got a little story on the subject on his web site. His advice on it is that it's not wise to play with ones fears.

If anyone wants to check out what Eugene has to say regarding spiders and fears the link is as follows;
Click here

Paul Hallas.

And yet, interestingly, Burger has made a living with routines about death, vampires, etc. Things that make you go "Hmmmmm...."

I do the original as part of a gothic magic routine. I have a more New Age version (involving butterflies, dolphins or whatever drippy c**p I can think of!), for standard walkaround performances!

But I think, Scott, that is more along the lines of storytelling. I doubt anyone with any serious phobias would attend a spook show, or something advertised as bizarre.

As for Burger making a living from that stuff, I think it would be more from his standard close up, books and lecturing to magicians. But who knows for sure except Eugene?

Paul.

I have an interesting story to share with you about putting spiders on people.

I developed a very interesting routine that involved a spider ending up on the back of the spectators hand.

I worked behind a bar at the time and my patrons loved it. At the time a pretty well known magician had an article about how he hated the idea of putting spiders on the back of someones hand. Interestingly my routine was based in large part on this magicians presentation of another effect he had published.

I sent him a copy of my script and asked for his opinion. He very kindly replied that it looked like a good trick but putting spiders on people is never a good idea.

It begs the question, who are we doing magic for? As a pro I do magic for the amusement of others not myself. This trick is more of a thrill for the guy performing it than the person it is being performed on.

When you do a trick like this to a normal person they flip out. I've seen 200 pound guys jump three feet in the air and scream like a ten year old girl when the find that spider.

This is a normal guy. How would a person with a horrible aversion to spiders react? Read on..

After getting this email from said magician I promptly removed the spider from the trick and went back to ashes. The trick played just as well and got a huge reaction. the only thing missing was the terrified scream and the three foot verticle leap.

Unfortunately I showed this trick to a fellow bartender and gave him permission to use it. I did tell him about the letter I recieved and how I removed the spider. He just rolled his eyes and made a comment of my lack of certain male components.

That was about three years ago. I bumped into this guy last week and he told me a horror story. he had been working in Cancun during spring break as a bartender. he had been doing the spider trick with great results to many drunken college students untill the night he placed a spider on the hand of a true aracnaphobic.

This girl quote, "Truly flipped out." She hyperventelated, her eyes ltterally bugged out, She started drooling, she turned blue, yes boys and girls she turned blue, lack of oxeygen does that to you. And she then passed out hitting her head on a bar rail on the way down splitting open her eyebrow which required several stitches to close.

When she came to she was in shock and vomited, blood was everywhere, and the police and ambulance were called.

So far she hasn't filed a law suit and my buddy quit before he could get fired and came back to the states. According to him if this had happened in the states he would be screwed eight ways to Sunday.

I was horrified. Don't put spiders on people, it's just a stupid thing to do.

Best,

Dan-

Thanks for the posting Danny, you've related to us what I was trying to warn people of. For those that use it, its simply a matter of time. Might be years before it happens, might be weeks.

Paul Hallas.

I don't do the Web any longer. I did it to a young lady who reacted very strongly due to her fear of spiders and she almost got hurt getting away. I don't want to see anyone hurt.
Steve V

Hi To All
Wow, I have had so much fun with this trick , so much that is has kinda bin a reputation maker for me in a small way and I still don't want to quite, but it seems more harm has come from this effect then any other I know. I have done The Web for almost everyone I meet, and have had a good time doing it, but this is sound like a very touchy subject. I am defiantly going to think twice about doing The Web again. But everyone that I have done it for have been scared to see the spider on their hand, and yet they all have loved it and want me to do it for all there friends. When the shock of the spider whirs off, they are coming back to me and saying that trick was so amazing. The Web is almost my number one trick to get a crowd gathered around me and then I do my routine. So I can say everyone has had a bad experience some time with one trick of theirs. The Web trick is just one that is intentional in scaring people. You can bring out the bad side of everything if you want to.

Bradley, re;
So I can say everyone has had a bad experience some time with one trick of theirs. The Web trick is just one that is intentional in scaring people. You can bring out the bad side of everything if you want to.

Read Danny's post again, three posts above yours. I don't think everyone has had bad experiences like that with "some" trick of theirs.

I am glad however that you have had no bad experiences with it....so far.

Paul.