I remember doing a Halloween show and in my opening I use vanishing & appearing candles. I had the vanishing candle opened a bit higher than I usually do. And I really thought I had a good grip on it.

Well it went down with a good spring.. Bounced off my pinky finger with a good enough spring to shoo tit up out of my hand a good 3-4 inches above it.. Tried to snag it out of the air.. but I missed and it ended up on the floor.

I really thought nothing of it.. as I was figured no one really knows of collapsible candles.. pretty much picked it up.. continued.. ended up topit-ing it.. when I was done as I usually did... Hands empty.. and I don't think anyone really knew what it was.

Believe it or not, my magic act got MUCH better once I realized that even the pros screw up every now and then. Odd thing to find consolation in, but it took a lot of pressure off.
I've since talked to dozens of professional magicians, and just about every one I've asked has had at least one horror story.

Very rarely do I make mistakes, but I just keep going when I do. Just keep showing more and more people and get more practice so that there'll be an even smaller chance of it happening again.

I was doing the Tabray Rope Routine and went blank about half way through the routine. I got lost. I stopped, apoligized, and went to another routine.

I felt like an idiot.

We all have horror stories & you learn more from your mistakes whether its your best trick or any effect in your routine

Over time you elimainate from your act all the effects that don't get good reactions & you perform these more & hopefully get better leaving you with a strong audience tried & tested act of your best material -hopefully eliminating mistakes by performing them more than the rest

I hate to admit it but once I was performing a close-up show at a private resident and began an effect that I had performed hundreds of times when all of the sudden I just drew a blank. For the life of my I didn’t know were to go next. So I covered that best I could by making a joke that got a good laugh from everyone and I move on.

Oh boy...this is a good subject. I do an Okito box routine with a story line with a few coin routines in the middle, one being hanging coins. In a restaurant one night I'm at the hanging coin part, which I've done a gozillion times, and right in the middle, just went blank. I repeated the same move over a few times adjusting the patter until the brain kicked in and then moved on. The key is to never let 'em see you sweat. Another time I was doing a bit that ends with a card to a flaming wallet. I wanted to really make an impression so under the table I over juiced the wallet which of coursed errupted into a huge ball of fire burning my fingers. Fortunately it was my closer so I was able to act natural long enough to make an exit to the mens rooms for some first aid. Was it worth the reacions???????? ......Oh Yea.................

To finish this I remember seeing Copperfield do an illusion on television that floored me. Later I saw him do the same at a live performance and one little slip revealed the secret to me. So I don't feel so bad about a slip up now and then.

thanks for reading, Glen

Yes, I sometimes mess up my best trick even I have done that quite a few years. It's important experience

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXCUoRGZowk

:)

I was once performing the Ninja Rings with some people at bad angles. At one point I apparently flashed the "key" to someone at my immediate right who them shouted out "He's got a hole in the ring!" Thinking quickly I used the old gag of putting your hand through the ring and say "Yeah right here in the middle." It got a great laugh and no one ever found out what he was actually talking about. Luckily the next part was the part where the spectator helps me link the rings. I let the heckler do it and I guess that made him think he was just seeing things.

That performance taught me that I should only do a performance with perfect angles every time.

Sam Weiss

Occasionally I had a problem with card on ceiling - the cards would all cut loose after the hit, and cascade to the floor.
Awkward - difficult to talk to a table while you're picking cards up.
It happened twice - in the one night.

I now use two bands - corner to corner, and width wise. Never had a problem since.
Sometimes it's good (in the long run) to make a mistake or two.

Complacency is my biggest enemy.

DCB

I once by mistake shuffled a stacked deck in performance ...whoops.

I think anybody performing magic has messed up a trick at one time or another. The worst I have ever screwed up a trick required me to do false shuffles and I realized at the end of the trick my shuffles were not as false as I had hoped.

Somtime my dacning cane line break in a show but when fly off stage I jjust wave goodbyb it work

Once I was doing the penetration where the dime goes through the rubber sheet, and the sheet actually tore around the dime, leaving a small round hole. Now I won’t use one of those sheets more than a couple times.

And once my Zombie ball came loose during a performance, landing on the floor with a resounding THUD! I didn’t know what to do next, so I picked it up, set everything back on the table and went to my next trick. Only afterwards did some people let me know that they were impressed that I could “float” something so “heavy” (sounding).

But my absolute favorite, because in my mind it shouted “I AM A MAGICIAN!”

I used to open with an Appearing Cane. Normally I’d release the catch with my thumb and give it a quick toss. Inertia would spring out the top and bottom equally, so when I grabbed it, it was always in the middle. I’d give it a couple of twirls before standing it behind my table.

One night it was in the wrong position when I released the catch, and the tip hit the heel of my hand, sending the cane shooting about halfway across the stage. To her credit (and amazing agility) my assistant snagged the cane as it flew past her. SHE did the twirl, and then handed it back to me. The audience loved it!

When a magician messes up, it is a great opportunity for bettering. I say this from personal experience. I have performed in areas that were very humid and the linking rings would stick to my fingers, I would perform in areas that the client would insist on that is a magicians nightmare; outside. The wind blows all the time a magician performs outside, it is a natural law like Neuton's discovery of gravity or Capernicus' discovery of the earth's relation to the sun, or Einstein's theory of relativity. Tables knock down, silks fly, and sponge balls? heh, heh, heh.
I have had dove pans fail, canes not colapse...enough, Umbrellas blow away because of a sudden storm that took place at a carnival gig.
The list goes on. The reality is that all performers have bad shows for one or multiple reasons. How it is handled may determine the salt of the performer. I heard that Channing Pollock missed as he did a dove to silk. The silk fell to the floor and Channing Pollock had to actually leave the stage to ditch the dove so that he can retrieve the silk. He used the mishap as an opportunity for a second round of applause. He re-entered the stage and picked up the silk that was on the floor and took a second bow. Nobody was the wiser.

If you have not messed up you are not performing. I have seen Burton, Copperfield, and numerous others make mistakes. It is how you handle the error that determines how good you really are.

Robert

Yup.

-Mary Mowder

I've had tricks fail a few times, though I almost always have an out. But when I first started performing live, I included Bullet Catch 22 as part of my set, which always got great reactions until the day it failed. It was pretty embarrassing and I had no out. After the show I tested everything thoroughly and it all seemed to be working fine. Next gig, FAIL!. I replaced all the parts but no matter what I did, it never again worked at a live show. All I could put it down to was a change in humidity. Regardless, if an effect isn't reliable it's gone and I haven't performed it since.

Yes, and I'm glad I did. That taught me something. And I'm not talking about unexpected or unforesseable things, reactions, or factors that sometimes mess up a performance (those you have to live with), just about *me* being the one and only cause for the mess.