Hi, this is my first real post here and I thought I'd use this experience to introduce myself in a way. I've been lurking on here for quite a while, soaking up all the good info but now, after my first small bar/party gig, I feel I might step forward.

So, last night I was at this local hangout, a small bar I like, and where last saturday I was squeezed in between two hundred drinking 20 year-olds, watching my angles, having my cards grabbed and even flashing a bad palm to someone behind me. In many ways most horrible and embarrassing, challenging at least, but I also got hugged and kissed and received lots of good reactions and an invitation to a new year's party. Definately a night I'm learning a lot from and that made me want to perfom more.

Anyways, yesterday I went there again, basically to hang out and maybe catch the manager. It was very crowded, and I had something to do nearby, so I left after an hour. I could not leave though, before having shown something to the waitress, who always demands some magic when I see her and basically has seen much of the stuff I regularly do already (mostly close-up). So I had to think of something good, because I had already pulled off the most impossible things with her. I told her we needed a number, maybe from a random coin from her purse. I presented it as an 'experiment' that might not work. Without me ever seeing or touching the coin at all I told her the number she was 'sending' to me. And it was 100% correct. As you will have guessed I was very relieved at that moment. Trying not to smile too much, and because she wouldn't let me go anyways, I decided to seal it with a self-worker, reversed number subtraction (I don't really like calculating stuff, but this one floored me a while ago, and so I tried it, although I consider it weak). Inspired by Banachek, I guessed one digit wrong, but then revealed the number, pretending I was just off by one. Good reaction although she suspected something about the math after a while. I hoped she was still stunned by the coin and well, she was a little confused but still very thrilled and happy and wanted to see more (which, of course I was happy about, fulfilling the law of 3s). Feeling really good about the two little feats, I took a chance even thougher than the coin's, and told her to think of any number between 1 and 50... I hoped I had already softened her with what happened up to then. Maybe that was what happened, because afer some short acting I produced the number and.. Homerun, hattrick, checkmate. Now, I really tried not to smile while the girl tried not to pass out, and after a while I told her it was only entertainment and no super-powers.
Later when the place was a little emptier, I returned and it only helped that I had a S* S******s on me (which along with normal cards would have been my out, if the other mind-reading experiments had failed).

I think it's a bit stupid to risk these things and I don't plan to base my repertoire on them. But probably it's a little less stupid than performing sleight of hand drunk.
Hopefully this wasn't too boring for you, but I'd thought I'd say hello in this way. It's good to be here, I have lots to learn which hopefully, I will here.

Ahoy!

Hi Ben,

Welcome to the Café. Glad to hear about your performances. It's always fun to share and hear about other peoples success. Keep up the good work!

Magically,
John

Thank you very much for the welcome, John. I pulled the number thing (1-50) one more time a few days ago in a very intimate setting with two guys in the back room of a bar. I have to say I hadn't used it at all in the last years but my interest in it has somewhat awakened... so I gave it another try and boom - the guy invited me to come to london and perform at this monthly darkish, turn of the century style, fin de siècle party. Wow. On that same occasion something funny, maybe worth mentioning, happened. So these guys wanted to see something and I produced a deck, saying every magician is judged by the way they have mastered cards and proceeded to do Here Then There with a selection. I asked him to pick a card... and he picked the bottom card (which, in my set-up for the trick at that point is one of the cards that should not be selected, in order for the trick to follow plan A). So, this is a situation where you should at least be able to improvise an out and since this was a really relaxed athmosphere, I was quite happy about the spectator's creativity to choose that very card (it would have enabled me to do something *really* fair looking) but I think I was so happy and confused at the same time, that I forgot to tell him to look at and remember the card!!! And he, while realizing that he probably was supposed to look at the card, was in a funny enough mood to just follow along and put it somewhere back into the deck without ever looking at it. When it came out, all of us laughed and I proceeded with the original handling, this time with a card somewhere from the spread, and the effect hit hard, as it always does. Everybody thought the first accident was planned and part of the show, which now makes me consider using it deliberately in a comedic way. Anyways, I then successfully proceeded with the mind reading on his buddy and I had made new friends for that evening.

Cheers.

Phenomenal. Great Work!

Great post!