On Friday I had two shows with a 4 hour drive between the two. A very tiring Day! After the second show I was chatting to some audience members and people were asking for business cards, I ran out of cards in my wallet but found one in the pocket of my suit and handed that out. The following day I had another show, was setting up and was looking for the crib for a new book test I've just started to perform. Couldn't find it anywhere. This is when I realised I'd stuck it to the back of a business card, the very business card I had in my suit pocket and handed out the night before. Someone is going to be very confused when they turn the card Over!

Haha, I can feel for you. I believe I've told this story here before but I once had the same thing happen but the opposite, that resulted in a great deal for me. Following a show someone came up to me and said they were looking for a mentalist/hypnotist for an upcoming series of events - 4 events in different parts of the country for the closing night ceremonies following each of their regional conferences. He said they'd been talking to a couple of other mentalists getting pricing quotes and avails. Someone on his board had just seen me on television that morning promoting the theater show we were at that night so he thought he'd come and check me out before their meeting a few days later on Tuesday.

He asked for a business card which I don't use, allowing me to ask for his. He gave me his card and asked for my office to contact him first thing Monday morning with my pricing for the run. No problem. He left, I spoke to some more audience members waiting to say hi and for photos, get back to my dressing room, empty my pockets and take off my jacket. As I'm sitting at the vanity I see the back of his card has something written on it. It was the pricing quotes from two of the other mentalists he was considering! Armed with this information, my agent had a great meeting on Monday and the four performances went great. It is now 16 years later and I still work for that client 5-6 times a year at their events across the country as well as some additional trade shows for them too. It was a very lucrative business card exchange!

My biggest mistake was calling a volunteer on stage who was a jerk! I should have seen the signs---he was heckling and a PITA!

One of the questions I ask during a kurotsuke style routine is "what's your name?". The most idiotic thing I've done was doing the exact same routine for some players of the most famous soccer club in portugal... I am supposed to know their names, since they're "celebrities" (I'm not a soccer fan, so I don't know their names), so I had changed the routine to ask a different question, but since I did it so many times with this question, when I was performing I just entered auto-pilot...

People were not very impressed when I guessed who was lying and telling the truth

A few years ago I was working a triple: A trade show during the day, a show that night and entertainment in the hospitality suite into the late night. I shouldn't have accepted this much, but there were strange circumstances with a friend who got ill and a frantic client.

I was at the tail end of the time in the hospitality suite and all had gone well, but I was totally bagged. I was into the last fifteen minutes and was doing a CT for a tipsy salesperson. I did the tear and realized she had put her secret at the top of the page instead of the line I had drawn for her.

I shook my head...told her that sometimes it is more difficult to connect with some people...and she said "what's the problem?"

I said...yes I did...no kidding..."Well...you didn't write on the line."

That's why I had a bright red spot on the middle of my forehead the next morning. It was from repeated palm slaps.

David

A couple hours before a performance, a good friend of mine showed me a funny video of an "Australian Deck Sealant" commercial... It contains some rather immature humor, and being a kid at heart, I found it hilarious. He and I watched it a few times until we were sore from laughing. Then I got suited up and had to transition into grown-up-professional-adult-mode.

Got to the venue, did my pre-show with no incidents or slip-of-the-tongues, and then stepped in front of the audience. I went about half-way through the show, and reached the Invisible Deck section. I handed the imaginary deck to a guy in the first row, telling him to imagine taking the deck out, reverse one card, and put it back into the box. Then I said: "Excellent, now please give the invisible d*ck to the lady beside you."

Silence.

I done goofed.

"Pardon me. Please give the invisible DECK to the lady beside you."

Fortunately, she took it well (the joke, not the deck). And I asked her to give it to some other guy (the deck, not the joke), and he said something along the lines of "Not sure I want to touch that deck."

With a hefty amount of chuckles from the audience, the show went on.

I carefully removed my glasses and slapped myself afterwards.