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chrismatt Special user Why would you read any of my 978 Posts |
In his book, John Murray describes some amazingly odd coincidences in his many years of performing.
One great story is about demonstrating in his magic store before an obnoxious "know-it-all" customer. The "know-it-all" says something like, "If you're so great make the four of clubs appear face up on that deck." Just at that moment the 4C appears face up on the TABLED deck! The shocked customer runs out of the store, never to return. Murray, himself, is initially nonplussed, but then figures out that one of the cards on the ceiling (from a prior performance) chose that precise moment to become dislodged and fall face up directly onto the deck--and it was the VERY CARD THE SKEPTICAL CUSTOMER NAMED!!! Although the story seems too incredible to be true, I believe it. Certain amazing, truly magical things, have occurred over the years in my own performances. I once lost control over a selected card, so just had the spectator thoroughly shuffle the deck and count down to any number--his reaction clearly told me he had just counted to his card! Another example: I was once a guest at a rented oceanside home and was asked to perform some magic. I asked to borrow a deck of cards. Someone found one in a drawer and handed it to me. It just happened to be a Deland (marked and stripped) Deck! I had not planted the deck (and wouldn't have planted that particular gaff), but I remembered (from childhood) how the deck worked. Apparently the trick deck had been left there by a previous renter. Fortunately, no one in the room was aware that a blow torch had just been handed to an arsonist! 18 years later, friends still recall THAT performance.
Details make perfection, but perfection is no detail.
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bekralik Inner circle Canada 1349 Posts |
How many times has this happened:
spec: "Show me a trick." mag: "Okay, think of a card ... " spec: "Got one." mag: "... except don't think of the Aces of Spades." spec: "OMIGAWD! HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" mag: "I'm OUTTA here. You've been great! Try the veal!" Brian |
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Otis Day Regular user Green Bay, WI 150 Posts |
-I once lost control over a selected card, so just had the spectator thoroughly shuffle the deck and count down to any number--his reaction clearly told me he had just counted to his card!
Since you obviously had no idea where the card was, what was the point of having him countdown to any number. What were you hoping to achieve? That his card MIGHT be there? That seems a bit hard to believe. What was the plan? Just curious. |
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Thomas Wayne Inner circle Alaska 1977 Posts |
Otis,
Without having any actual clue what "Chrismatt's" plan was, it seems obvious to me that he may have been anticipating the spectator arriving at the WRONG card, whereupon he would ask what the correct card was, locate it, and then pull a clever switch - leading the audience to believe the "failure" was really just a well-acted part of the trick. This is a standard form of "out" when things go bad. You ARE a magician, aren't you OTIS? Think, man, think. Regards, Thomas Wayne
MOST magicians: "Here's a quarter, it's gone, you're an idiot, it's back, you're a jerk, show's over." Jerry Seinfeld
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Chris Berry Special user 831 Posts |
I remember my 3rd time EVER performing magic for strangers.....I did Roy Waltons Card Warp with blue backed cards.
After I finished I handed the cards out to the people and while they looked at them I grabbed a red deck of cards from my pocket. I held it in the same position I just had the cards. When they looked up they freaked out and said "How did you do that?!?!?" "do what?" "Make the box appear....and it's RED cards!!" I left that day a happy man. Chris |
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emyers99 Inner circle Columbus, Ohio 4741 Posts |
I was doing walk around at a resort where I often perform in West Virginia. I was doing my card to wallet routine for two people seated at a table. After palming the card and handing the deck to the woman to be shuffled, I noticed the guy burning my palm hand. I casually placed my hand at the edge of the table so nothing could be seen but he just kept burning me. I decided that showing my hand empty would fool him worse than the actual trick so I simply dropped the palmed card on the floor.
His face went blank when I showed both hands empty. I didn't know how to produce the card so I just stepped on it and tried to push it behind me. To produce it, I said "look behind me". The two people started going nuts. I turned around to see what they were looking at only to find that the card was gone. Then I found it. Because of the palm, the signed card was bowed so when I pushed it with my foot on the wood floor, it slid 20 feet behind me and landed face up. Even I was amazed. |
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Pavlo Veteran user Poland 306 Posts |
I was performing the insurance policy and the spectator (tried to "catch" me when performong for him) shuffled the cards thoroughly while I was holding the card which was later forced on him. After the usual procedure of the insurance policy he really demanded for the cards to be really shuffled. I asked him if he'd be amazed if his card appeared on top of the shuffled deck? Just in case the cards were marked, he turned around and proceded to mix them even more. He turned round put the deck on the table and without me touching the cards he turned the top card and that was it. Then it was this overproving with the policy thing but he was so amazed that he asked me what would happen if he thought of the card and after shuffling the cards it would be on top? I did not want him do it but he insisted and thought of the card. He then grabbed the deck, shuffled and shuffled, put in front of him and turned the top card and that was it for the second time.
I don't even know what the second card was as he quickly grabbed the deck and examined it thouroughly looking for something. Would you believe that??? It happened almost a year ago and this guy is still telling miracle stories about my abilities which in my small enviroment is pretty good as far as cheap marketing is concerned. |
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iSawThat Regular user The Ivory Tower 188 Posts |
I normally as a rule try to have a duplicate in my deck, and as it so happened I once had a spectator pick one of the dupes. I didn't know it was a dupe since I don't keep track of which dupe I put in which deck, at least not for casual performances. So when I got to the phase with the top half of the deck placed away and I tried to make the card appear at the top of the talon I had (it's not supposed to work), when I flipped over that top card, the duplicate of the chosen card! Not very amazing, but I was momentarily shocked myself. Thankfully I regained my senses, duly turned that card back over, and caused it to magically appear at the "right" place, on the top half of the deck placed away from me. A miracle!
It's amazing what people will believe sometimes when you've gained credibility. I once vanished a cork by draping a napkin over it, dropping it into my lap quickly and snapping the napkin off. I got many gasps from that...mainly because it was in response to someone asking me if I could vanish a cork by waving a napkin over it. Sometimes I do take requests |
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Scott Cram Inner circle 2678 Posts |
I have two stories. One happened to me, the other to a buddy.
I was working in a magic shop, and was describing an effect on TV to a customer. While describing this effect, I had both my hands high in the air. The second I brought them down, there was a power outage, and all the lights went out! The whole block, and probably more, was affected by a power outage. Joking around, I brought my hands back up and said, "Let there be light," and the power chose that exact moment to come back on. If that wasn't bad enough, I dropped my hands after that, and the lights went out again! The customer actually said, "Stop it! You're scaring me!" It'll be tough to top that one. My buddy was doing the first phase of Alan Wakeling's "Clairvoyance" ("The Magic of Alan Wakeling", Jim Steinmeyer), in which the performer stands off at a distance, and is able to divine several randomly selected cards picked by the spectator. The last two cards in front of the spectator were the QH and the KH, but due to an innocent action by the spectator, his secret method of obtaining knowledge about the cards was getting screwed up. He tried to buy time to divine the cards by getting vague and said, "I'm not getting a clear picture. It's something like the QH or KH...." and the spectator took this as a revelation of the last two cards! Needless to say, both of us will always remember one of the most important rules in magic: "Always take credit for dumb luck!" |
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ixnay66 Inner circle Denver 1525 Posts |
Those are great. Mine isn't as cool but I thought it was. I shuffled a deck, took one card out, put it on the table and told the guy "Name a card."
He said "Six of hearts" Perfect. I said "Turn it over." I had actually seen a guy at the Castle do it as a joke and when he says "Name a card" he looks at the card he's holding up, sighs and says "Not tonight!" and puts it back. It was pretty funny! So you can do that all day long and get laughs but every now and then...a miracle. |
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Chris Berry Special user 831 Posts |
I remember another story I had about a dupe card!
I Saw That you reminded me! I was performing at my friends house during a party (this was about 5 months after I got into magic). I was practicing with the deck earlier and put in a dupe and I forgot to take it out. Well I did this one trick from an old book where half the deck is face up and mixed in with half the deck face down. The chosen card is the first face down card at the end of a long run of face up cards. It just so happend that when I spread the cards I asked him if he could see his card... he said "yes". So I turned the deck over (thinking I messed up and trying to recover) and asked him "I guess it's safe to say you don't see it now do you?" He looked puzzled and said "Yeah I see it here too..." I was confused and said "I wonder how that happened?!!" He was surprised and said "that was really good!" Just then I looked him square in the eye (I remembered what dupe I put in) and I named his card. He loved it and I pulled his card out. Squared the deck and ditched the card and spread through to show only one of his card. Fooled me! Chris |
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crashfreze Regular user columbia, sc 114 Posts |
My story isn't as neat. When people say "show me a trick" I always say "ok name a card" whatever they name I of course say "WOW! That's the card I was thinking of!!"
Always gets a great laugh. Well once I was at work and I was casually shuffling cards and one of my coworkers walked by and said, ok lets see a trick. I stopped shuffling and said "name a card." He said "Four of Clubs". So I got the gag in and then while he was laughing I casually set the deck face up on my desk not even intending to show him a trick. Much to my suprise the four of clubs stared everyone right in the face! His jaw hit the floor, I looked right at him and said, "Well, there ya go, anything else I can do for you?" "Nope." he says. Turned right around and walked away. Smiling beside me the entire time was a friend of mine who was a magician. As soon as the lay victim walked away my magician friend said, "ok dude you have GOT to teach me how you did that trick!" I milked my greatness for about 30 seconds before I came clean with my magician buddy. |
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GlenD Inner circle LosAngeles, Ca 1293 Posts |
I remember just before Christmas here at work a coworker was talking with someone else about an old leaf Penny he had in his hand and that it might have value... jokingly as I approached I said something like... is that the $100.00 dollar leaf Penny??? and he said he thought it was.
What is the year of that particular Penny, he asked and I quickly replied 1958! and guess what??? he read off that Penny the year 1958. I had to ask him to let me have a look... But even more coincidentally about a week later, still with Christmas around the corner I was doing some money magic in my dept. before going home and the same guy is there as I get my TT in place, ready to do a hundred dollar bill switch. I was in the process of folding up a dollar bill and he says can you change it into a hundred??? Boy did I try not to grin to big but continued saying something like, this is what's going to happen to you when you are out there shopping only in reverse. You get one buck back for every hundred you throw down and his eyes just about popped out when I unfolded the hundred! Anyways, I think I have one believer around here... GlenD
"A miracle is something that seems impossible but happens anyway" - Griffin
"Any future where you succeed, is one where you tell the truth." - Griffin (Griffin rocks!) |
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Mike Walton Special user Chicago 984 Posts |
When I first started I did a trick for my sister-in-law (outlaw). It was a simple choose card, shuffle and reverse card, she cuts, you spread the deck and wha-la, it's reversed in the deck.
To try to throw the trick, she cut 51 cards down and moved the deck aside. Her chosen card sat there staring at her. She freaked. Played like it was meant to happen. |
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Matt Graves Special user Huntsville, Alabama (USA) 504 Posts |
One time my brother and I had just come back from a trip to see our grandmother who lives a few counties north, and when we got home we realized our bag with our toothbrushes were missing. We assumed we'd left them up at our Grandma's house. But then I went and secretly checked in the trunk of the car, and they were there. Feeling devious, I saw a chance to freak the crap out of him. I had a small blue magic box back then that I kept cards, handkerchiefs, sponge balls, etc. in. There was enough stuff in there to cover the bottom, but not much more. So I put the bag in on the very bottom and covered it with all my "magic stuff," making it look as natural as possible. I got him to come over and showed him my box and got him to verify that it looked the same as always, nothing special in there. Then I put the lid on it and told him that just like David Copperfield could send people miles around the world, I would send our toothbrush-sack from Huntsville to Jasper in a second. I opened the box and promptly pulled out the sack. Everything else inside looked undisturbed. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. He said, "Um . . . Matt, are you okay? Am _I_ okay??" I don't think I've ever amazed him quite that much before or since . . .
BTW, Scott Cram, your comment is right on. Some of Dai Vernon's most incredible tricks came about by dumb luck, and people would remember them for years after. |
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TSchweizer New user Brazil 3 Posts |
A few weeks ago I was going to do a simple trick with a friend. (By the way, she was me trick tester). So I said, "Pick any card!" and she took the bottom card. I said, "Never take the last card; it is too easy because I always look at it. Give me back the 10H (example)." So she took another from the middle and I said (without knowing), "This 7C is better!." It was the 7C. I didn't even make the trick. It was enough!
Color Change Triumph Rox!!!!
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chrismatt Special user Why would you read any of my 978 Posts |
By force of your personality and/or reputation alone, people may attribute certain random events that occur in your presence to your "powers." In other words, I suspect some of you are able to entertain and amaze, even if you forgot to bring your gimmicks with you.
I recently had a dish fall and loudly break in a place obviously not at all under my control when I had asked those around me to be quiet and concentrate. I received credit for the occurrence, even though it was clear I could not have been responsible. Sometimes, these occurrences are unnerving to us performers! I'm sure similar things have happened to you. CM
Details make perfection, but perfection is no detail.
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Yannou Veteran user 381 Posts |
In case stuff drops on the floor around me, I pull out Banachek's PK Pen to show it really was me.
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Spanky New user Oklahoma City 81 Posts |
I once did a card trick to a guy that went horribly wrong, I lost the card, and tried to move on, but he wouldn't let me, so I topld him to think of the card, the 4H- perfect. He was amazed- because for his it was increadibly clean up until that point- even better, his brother came along, the guy told him to think of any card, because I could read minds, it was the 4H again.
I avoid them now, because I can't top that, and I hate to disappoint |
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TONY L10 New user 29 Posts |
Heres one that happened to me I was in the local pub and a girl who worked behind the bar who knew I did magic said ok show me something. I was in my mentalism mode so I secretly put on my NW and got out my business card took out a pencil and said to her think of any number between 1 and 100 and look at me, she gladly obliged and I wrote down the number apparently with my pencil then said ok what did you think, she said something like 22, I cant remember the exact number she said now its a few years ago but anyway just as I was about to do the business the NW pinged off nothing I could do, so I just wrote any number, guess what it was the number she thought of boy did that build my reputation up I felt like Nostradamus that night.
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