|
|
Go to page 1~2 [Next] | ||||||||||
plinius New user 24 Posts |
Hi, any book about getting out trouble when you make a mistake?
thx |
|||||||||
BrianMillerMagic Inner circle CT 2050 Posts |
I am not aware of any books though there be some out there. While you may not like this answer, I am going to say it anyway: If you are making mistakes often enough to worry about a book that teaches you how to get out of them, you probably haven't practiced enough. You should be able to at least walk through the technical aspects of a routine in your sleep before you perform it for someone. Use performances to get a sense of the patter/scripting, but not to get used to the sleights. Of course everyone makes mistakes from time to time, even pros, and when it happens you just have to accept it professionally and gracefully; laugh it off and move on.
|
|||||||||
Stanyon Inner circle Landrum, S.C. by way of Chicago 3433 Posts |
The better you get, the less likely the audience will be aware of your mistake.
FWIW Cheers!
Stanyon
aka Steve Taylor "Every move a move!" "If you've enjoyed my performance half as much as I've enjoyed performing for you, then you've enjoyed it twice as much as me!" |
|||||||||
Jim Poor Special user Fairfax, VA 676 Posts |
You might want to try books on ad-lib and comedy so you can recover from a goof with a funny one-liner. Though the best way to go is avoid the mistakes as much as humanly possible to begin with.
|
|||||||||
Banester Special user 669 Posts |
What kind of issues? Cards, coins, stage? De'Vo has a good DVD out called Xtreme beginnerz which teaches about card handling. In the first part of it Jerry makes some recomendations about what to do when you flub. Now that DVD is all about card handling NOT magic tricks. I think it is a great question though. We all make a boo boo at one time or another no matter how much we practice. Could be an equipment failure or maybe you aren't feeling 100%.
The art of a magician is to create wonder.
If we live with a sense of wonder, our lives become filled with joy -Doug Henning- |
|||||||||
Vandy Grift Inner circle Milwaukee 3504 Posts |
There is an old booklet called ""Outs" Precautions And Challenges For Ambitious Card Workers."
It's allright.
"Get a life dude." -some guy in a magic forum
|
|||||||||
blink_inc Loyal user Hamilton 278 Posts |
You could just laugh it off and keep going.
tell them "I made that up myself.
I am a Sankey addict....please, help me!
My name is Will, my company is Blink, an experience in transposition. |
|||||||||
Mark Wilden Veteran user San Francisco 375 Posts |
There actually is quite a bit out there on handling mistakes (and the more you perform, the more mistakes that will happen). Mistakes aren't even always the magician's fault. You do run into malicious or stupid spectators from time to time, don't you?
I have a small book on outs. I'm not sure whether it's the one Vandy mentioned. There are also effects, like Invisible Deck and Kollosal Killer, that can provide outs. ///ark |
|||||||||
pradell Special user Alaska 560 Posts |
What is amazing about magic is that the audience generally does not know you made a mistake until and unless you tell them that you did. Magic is not like music, when a wrong note is often obvious. A magic show is fluid. The audience normally does not know what you have planned to do. There are ways a good actor/magician can convince an audience that he/she meant to do what occurred, even if what occurred is not what you planned. This takes confidence and practice, and practice normally happens during performance when things go wrong. Go with the flow. If the audience laughs at your "mistake" well, hey, you go a laugh! That in and of itself is something. And if you don't act like a deer in the headlights, embarrassed, upset, etc., how do they really know that you weren't simply being funny? Lighten up a little and realize that you can't be perfect all the time. If the audience does not catch a mistake because you have used it to your advantage, then you really have done your magic!
:magicrabbit: |
|||||||||
Father Photius Grammar Host El Paso, TX (Formerly Amarillo) 17161 Posts |
I emailed Harry Lorayne about writing a book on recovering from a flub, because for my experience he does it better than anyone else in the business. His reply was basically there wasn't a book in it, the idea was simple, keep going until you come up with something. Sometimes there is just nothing, in such a case I generally bow my head and announce "we will now have a moment of silent prayer for this trick which just died", and bow my head in silence, after about 10 seconds there are a few snickers, the longer you wait the bigger the laugh gets. On two occassions when I used that, since I do a light comedy routine, the audience thought it was planned.
"Now here's the man with the 25 cent hands, that two bit magician..."
|
|||||||||
Dynamike Eternal Order FullTimer 24148 Posts |
Always think of mistakes in a positive manner.
"We learn from mistakes." "The more mistakes we make, the more we are closer to becoming professional." "If we make no any mistakes, we are never going to get good." "Experience is more important than education." |
|||||||||
damkat69 New user 59 Posts |
I have to agree, when you make a mistake learn what you did wrong and try to fix it. Also practice makes perfect so keep going over a routine untill you get it right. Try seting up video/pc camera's at the same angle your audience would be at. Then watch them, if you see a mistake you can fix it before you preform for people. I set up my vidoe cam, and 2 pc cam's to record my preformance, one in front of me and one one slightly to each side so I can capture my mistakes before the happen in front of a group of people.
|
|||||||||
HNTVProduction New user 15 Posts |
The best way I get out of sticky situations like that is with a joke or something. lol I like to use comedy to wiggle out of trouble.
|
|||||||||
MagiClyde Special user Columbus, Ohio 871 Posts |
Quote:
in such a case I generally bow my head and announce "we will now have a moment of silent prayer for this trick which just died", and bow my head in silence. I like that line. I, too, need to figure out how to recover from stupid errors. Many times it seems to come down to knowing how to do a trick WELL. In other words, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Then when you think you've gotten the trick nailed, PRACTICE SOME MORE! Even with lots of practice you are bound to make mistakes, albeit far fewer of them. A professional magician friend of mine made a goof right in front of me. We both had a good laugh about it and moved on. He then proceeded to do the trick again without error. That has since proven to be a valuable lesson to me to not be afraid to screw up. It's human and it happens. Like him, I am learning to get over it and move on.
Magic! The quicker picker-upper!
|
|||||||||
ssucahyo Inner circle 1955 Posts |
"PRECAUTION OF OUCH"....this book is for card trick.
CC |
|||||||||
steves7 Regular user Blue Springs, Missouri 114 Posts |
I agree with Blink that you should just laugh it off. Also, unless you bring attention to your mistake, many people will not realize you made one.
For example, this past week I performed Gene Anderson's Torn and Restored Newspaper trick for a Children's Church audience. The routine went great until after I did the restoration and inadvertently opened up the wrong page of the restored paper. Now, some were watching close enough to see the gimmick, but not everyone was. So, I just kept my composure and kept going. Now, if I had did something to reveal to the entire crowd the secret or something like that, I would have just laughed it off and kept going. They (the audience) know you are really human. They will be drawn to your personality. Remain pleasant and have fun. They will. Steve |
|||||||||
atucci Veteran user Middleburg, Florida 381 Posts |
A recent Eugene Burger statement refers to Channing Pollack always saying the true test of a magician is how well they handle adversity including flubs.
Recently I read where Ricky Jay in his latest run of '52 Assistants' really got lost during a routine. His solution? He simply turned over the deck of cards, restacked the deck and began the routine over again. As a performer your best scenario would be if you had enough 'flight time' to encounter many different type of adverse performing conditions or scenarios. It would propel you throught the learning curve so much quicker.
Tony Tuccillo
Middleburg, Florida |
|||||||||
Mark Wilden Veteran user San Francisco 375 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-04-07 08:31, atucci wrote: I read that too. And my response was that it exhibited a lot of contempt for his audience. After all, no one could seriously have been entertained by that trick after he exposed how it was done. A mere mortal magician would have gone into another trick, or even resorted to Invisible Deck or Kollosal Killer to save himself. But Jay's action was as if to say, "It doesn't matter whether the trick worked or not. I'm more important than the trick. You came to see me, not magic." Everyone knows that Ricky Jay (who I always watch, and also collect) is one of the great cardmen of all time. But I think he's more intested in sleights than he is in presentation. His recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel proved that. My Uncle Charlie could present a trick better than that. Who else could get away with restarting a trick that he screwed up, and openly restacking the deck? ///ark (BTW, my friends and I recently decided that Ricky Jay is the 9th most famous magician around today. Any other candidates?) |
|||||||||
atucci Veteran user Middleburg, Florida 381 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-04-07 11:40, Mark Wilden wrote: Mark its a little presumptuous of you to assume you know the threshold for others being entertained by Ricky Jay, don't you think? Quote:
A mere mortal magician would have gone into another trick, or even resorted to Invisible Deck or Kollosal Killer to save himself. But Jay's action was as if to say, "It doesn't matter whether the trick worked or not. I'm more important than the trick. You came to see me, not magic." Actually I'm sure many in the audience came to see Ricky entertain them by using the tools of his trade which include but are not limited to his tricks. Quote:
Everyone knows that Ricky Jay (who I always watch, and also collect) is one of the great cardmen of all time. But I think he's more intested in sleights than he is in presentation. His recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel proved that. My Uncle Charlie could present a trick better than that. Who else could get away with restarting a trick that he screwed up, and openly restacking the deck? ///ark (BTW, my friends and I recently decided that Ricky Jay is the 9th most famous magician around today. Any other candidates?) [/quote] I'm sure very few would be willing to attempt to restart a trick and even less would be successful in pulling it off but this discussion started with sources of getting out of performance jams. The Ricky Jay reference was just an example of one possible solution.
Tony Tuccillo
Middleburg, Florida |
|||||||||
Mark Wilden Veteran user San Francisco 375 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-04-07 12:24, atucci wrote: As magicians, we judge entertainment thresholds all the time. But if you think Jay's audience was entertained by watching him mess up and then restack the deck as if mystifying the audience was of no importance at all, I respect your opinion (really). Quote:
I'm sure very few would be willing to attempt to restart a trick and even less would be successful in pulling it off but this discussion started with sources of getting out of performance jams. The Ricky Jay reference was just an example of one possible solution. I disagree that it was a solution. In my humble opinion, it was sheer, arrogant laziness. ///ark |
|||||||||
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » New to magic? » » Magician in trouble (0 Likes) | ||||||||||
Go to page 1~2 [Next] |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.03 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |