I can't seem to find any discussions on this exact topic so here goes. What do you do when you get caught red handed, cheating? I don't mean what if you miss or a prop breaks or you can't find the impression, etc., that's a different discussion. What do you do if they say wait a minute, am I to think of the one we agreed before the show, or wait a minute these cards are all the same, or they drop your new high-tech gimmick then ask why your 'simple unsuspicious device' has circuitry and batteries, etc.?

When you have taken great care to create the impression of being a 'real' psychic or master of psychology or whatever, then your bubble is burst. How should you handle it? Just carry on, try and explain it, do something under test conditions or real muscle reading?

I would really like to hear some experiences and advice on how to handle a situation where you lose credibility, because without credibility you can't have a strong impact on the audience. The obvious answer is don't mess up and don't get caught, but as cautious as you are it's gonna happen to everyone once sooner or later. What in your opinions should you do when it happens?

Maybe this is a little vague, but I think it will make for an interesting discussion.

Basically you are busted, but then careful preparation and audience management should take care of things. For example, the script for the pre-show work should be carefully worked out to preclude such an answer. Or even use the four-sided triangle ploy and state what happened before the show.

Naturally, mistakes can and do happen. If you are claiming to be a mixture of psychological expert and magician then it shouldn't be too big a deal. If you are claiming to be a psychic then you need to be very careful with what you use in your show and keep gimmickry to a minimum.

Also, putting the onus on the spectator can help - if it's THEIR powers you are tapping into, if THEY help make the experiments work then they will be more likely to want to play along and less likely to look for gimmicks, etc.

Regards,

David.

I do my absolute best to make the effects I perform bullet proof. I do not perform magic inside my presentations. I may do that for fun outside of the presentation.

A lot would tell me that no presentations are bullet proof. Well, I believe some are. One thing that I do very well is the real three-card Monte; it's not mental but it is bullet proof, to me any way. I know how to control the card, but even I can't follow it by sight.

I do my best to take no risks. Many will not agree with me, but I feel that if you have practiced an effect so much you can do it in your sleep without messing up.

I've had things go wrong in the past, mainly with magic, but with mentalism I will absolutely not do something unless I can carry it off cleanly. When I learned Mr. Osterlind's perfected CT, I was going away for an awards weekend, every spare moment, on the plane, in the hotel and even while in the taxi was spent in practice.

I try to be careful not to be over-confident.

As a mentalist, I find that my "props" are so innocuous that they can be thoroughly inspected and they still pass muster. You should remember that the audience has no idea of what is supposed to happen next. So even if something screws up royally, generally, you're the only one who knows.

I was doing an blindfolded Q&A and all my questions nicely stacked in a bowl. The volunteer that I bought up to help made sure that I was completely "in the dark". After taping my face up and putting the blindfold on, I made my needed adjustments, and the "gentleman" (substitute your favorite expletive) who I kept on stage to help me move about, reached up and patted everything down again. TIGHT.

At that point I couldn't bring myself to re-adjust anything because it would have been too obvious. So I took a deep breath and prayed, then launched into what was probably my most believable performance ever. I won't go into detail about the techniques employed, but I used everything that I'd been taught and then made up some on the fly. I could hear by their reactions that I was scoring high with hits.

Being shoved right out of your comfort zone makes you have to think fast. But if you don't panic, you'll usually come out on top.

As a magician, once I threw a fire ball into the air, stuck my pose, and as I did, I remembered the the dove was still safely in its' cage, backstage.

Yes, your show should be bullet proof so even if everything misses or props break you still have a good enough show.

But I am talking about what if a freak accident were to occur and through no fault of your own you are proven to be cheating in front an audience. How should you go about regaining credibility? Would anyone mind sharing their experiences of a situation like this?

I guess it would apply more to stage-work. You are standing in front of an audience you have been paid to entertain with a red face and one of your methods exposed, what do you do (apart from not 'cheating' in the first place and not getting caught)?

Obviously, if you have made references to trickery and magic in your disclaimer then it wouldn't be too hard to just carry on and pick it up. However, I would like to hear more about of what to do if you are claiming to be demonstrating skills (supernatural or not) and you're found to be a fraud. Sorry if it wasn't clear from the original post.

Actually one incident does come to mind now. When I was learning metal bending, I had bought Jim Pace's DVD for the fun of it, and anyone who has seen his fork bend will know it couldn't be further from Banachek's.

My friend caught exactly what I did, but he noticed that it wasn't even close to the standard which I had bent every thing else. I was quick enough to see he had seen what I had done and told him I was trying a magician's bend which is easier than using mental methods. I then said I don't know how magicians fool people bending metal like this. The great thing is that he bought it, and I was Scott free.

Cold reading I have found is impossible to be caught out with. So is muscle reading.