Another service annoucement from a newb:

There have been a couple discussions I've looked over (but couldn't find just now) that discuss how you shouldn't panic if you think you have made a mistake during a trick. Well I took that advice recently when I was performing a card trick for my wife. It was a simple trick with overhand control of the top card. It then involves her picking a number and so on. At any rate, I was pretty sure that I had lost control of the top card during the shuffle but just carried on anyway. I asked her for a number and she chose 2. I turned over the second card and asked if it was her card and yep, it was. Pure luck! She was pretty amazed (I asked for a number between 1-20). And indeed, it would be an amazing trick if I could do it again.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for all the advice. I kept a cool head and acted like I knew what I was doing and as a result pulled off a nice little miracle, even if by luck.

Kevin

Ah,a moment of real magic! Gotta love it.

Sounds great. Let me give you some advice from personal experience. It sounds like you do a lot of magic for your wife. I suggest you do not do TOO much magic for your significant other. They can get sick and tired. Also try to avoid talking about magic all together. Laymen do not like talking about magic the way we do.

This is ordinarily extremely good advice. Lay people do not enjoy talking about magic as magicians do, and especially significant others usually end up seeing a thousand versions of the same routine, a couple hundred times a day. This is usually bad. I happen to be blessed for the last three years with a girlfriend that absolutely loves magic, and supports me in everything that I do with it. Lucky me!

I am also lucky to have a wife that not only puts up with it but occasionally asks me to show her a trick. She tries to keep me on my toes. She is also great to have around when I perform for friends because she always finds her way into the bad angle positions and then (with great acting ability) pretends to have never seen the trick before. Sometimes I am so surprised at how amazed she seems when I perform an effect.

But I realize that she is a rare one, most "layspouses" can get sick of it pretty quick.

Then kroberge realized with dismay that he was using a one way deck all along...

My wife tolerates magic pretty well. But when I see her eyes glaze over I know that it is time leave her alone for a few days. It is really a good feeling though when after days of seclusion learning a new move, I emerge from the magic room and show it to here and she immediately says, "how did you do that!?" I know then I fooled her bad. It doesn't happen very often anymore... she is pretty sharp now.

You were saved by a cool head, combined with some great luck. But it's also a great lesson. Now that you have an example of what can go wrong, you should work on a way to save yourself without relying on luck.

Luck is a great thing to have on your side. Great news!

Thanks for the comments, I just had to share.

Drizz,
I don't talk magic with my wife, she's strictly a convenient audience. She's willing to put up with a couple tricks a week. I don't always have that many of course. In any case as a mathematician I'm used to people not being interested in what I'm interested.

ToasterofDoom,
What's a one way deck?

Foucault,
Of course I'll not rely on luck. I'm working hard to get my overhand control down so it won't happen again.

Kevin

I have it easy. I do my tricks in clown makeup so if I make a mistake I pull it off as if it was supposed to be that way and start over.

Oh, sorry. A one way deck is a deck of 52 doubles, so any card chosen will be that one card. Makes predictions real easy.

Kroberge, thos 'how the hell did I do that' moments are great, and happen from time to time. Milk them as much as you can. I am aware that you are getting into mentalism - these 'lucky hits' that you can stack in your favour are very useful in mentalism - hit and you have a miracle, miss and you brush past it. A very strong technique.

I did an effect for some awkward people, with the BCS. A woman deliberately screwed me about (poor choice on my part, but it happens), and shuffled the deck despite my instructions. Annoyed, I moved on and hada lady pick a card. She scriemed, as she had happened to take the card the first one thought of. Priceless. She was genuinely astonished, me very smug but very relieved!

Fun to perform when it happens, and very powerful. But have surefire effects too!

Simon

ToasterofDoom,

I'm going to sound daft, but what are "doubles"? Do you mean a deck of cards with face value 2?

Sorry, I'm a newb

You should do this, of course, but there's always something that can go wrong, however hard you practice. You should work on some "outs" to use in case something goes wrong. For example, some people will have an invisible deck to hand, so that should you lose the chosen card, you have an out. Consider this:

"Is this your card?" Produces the wrong card.
"Erm...no!"
"Really? What was your card?"
"The two of spades"
"Funny you should say that. Have you ever had one of those 'deja-vu" moments? I had a dream last night where someone chose a card, I found what I thought was the chosen card, the (whatever the incorrect card was) but it was wrong. Then I asked what the chosen card actually was and was told (whatever the actual card was) - that's a magician's nightmare!"

"I woke up suddenly in a cold sweat. In fact, I felt so strongly about this dream that I turned over the card in this deck, so I wouldn't forget it." Produce the ID.
Reveal the turned over two of spades.

Now you've turned a mistake into something that looks like part of the act.

Incidentally, when Toasterofdoom talked about "doubles", he meant that you have 52 identical cards.

Kevin,
You are very lucky to have a wife that encourages your journey into the magical arts. Make sure when you do effects for her you LISTEN to her comments! I've found out that after spending hours and hours of time working up an effect that I liked, my wife's reaction would be "Oh, that's nice." Later, I might perform something much less technical or even self-working, and her reaction would be "WHOA, how did you do that?!?" Her reactions are a much better gauge to what "real" people will like then what I (or other magicians) like. So take advantage of your captive audience!

I just had something similar to me happen. I was showing an Ace production routine to my wife and a few others. During the last phase when I turn over all the ace's the last card I flip over isn't one of the aces... I act all suprised (well, not so much acting) and quickly thumb through the deck saying something like "wait a minute, where is the ace. It's not even in the deck" as I secretly get it to the top of the deck. I then produce it from my pocket as if it was there all along.

I think the trick actually came off stronger this way. The reactions I got were great, people couldn't believe I had shown them the ace, cut it into the deck and then pulled it out of my pocket. I think I might try to figure out a way to make this happen on purpose now.

Another "auto-out" is to have a wallet loaded for Kollosal Killer, which lets you produce any card (or at least close to any card) at will. And you gotta carry a wallet anyway, right?

///ark

52 'Doubles' are 52 of the same card. If you have two of the same card it's considered a double so, 52 would be 52 doubles.

When my wife knits, I do simple coin manipulations (coin rolls, muscle passes, etc.). She doesn't talk much about knitting to me, and I don't talk much about magic to her. We talk easily on other things. I suspect knitting and coin manipulations fulfill similar needs for working with the hands.

I'm currently following the old tactic of palming a coin unobtrusively as I go about everyday actions. And lots of little tasks around the house from shoveling snow to chopping vegetables to washing dishes becomes a way of practicing coin manipulation. This adds an extra dimension to simple chores.