Dealing with Hecklers

[kensei777]

Hey guys! Look! My very first topic!    LoL


Anyway, I decided to make a discussion about this because (1) I did not find any, (2) a lot of people were are complaining about this in Alex's "What does your social circle think?" topic under Playing Card Plethora, (3) it's off topic if I post it there, and (4) it's a part of a magician's life.


I'm just going to pull my own bench here for a bit and I hope you guys won't mind. It's purely for the purpose of giving some of you guys a tip on how to deal with hecklers.
Now, I myself am very paranoid. Whenever I perform, most of the time I think that I'm going to mess up or someone is bound to catch what I'll do so whenever there's a heckler, I get really nervous. That's just the way I am no matter how much I get better at it. The main reason is because of how I started out with magic.
The very first tricks I learned are David Blaine's Two Card Monte and the Ambitious Card where a bent card "magically" pops up to the top. The reason why I named David Blaine is because I learned it from him. Well not personally but I actually reverse engineered it just by seeing it once on one of the earlier TV Specials he did. It's not his fault. In fact he performed it quite well. It's just that I happen to have a well developed attention to detail that I managed to do so. Due to that, I get scared of people with the similar capabilities.
In order to remedy this fear, magicians I've met advised me the same thing Don suggested in a different topic. Compose a routine with several tricks and work them as close to perfection as you can. And so I did but still the fear remained due to the increasing number of hecklers that tend to pop in at that moment when you are performing a trick to a different group of people you have already did to them(hecklers).
It wasn't until I picked up Robert Giobbi's Card College series when I learned that there are different versions of a double lift. I later found out that modern innovators have also come up with such. I decided to give it a shot. With each ambitious card routine, I perform a different kind of double lift. With each card ditching, I alternate between the palm, the tenkai, and the gambler's cup. Despite performing the same tricks, I found hecklers to be less noisy when I do a different sleight.
And so we come back to the golden rule of magic, never perform a trick twice. Well, maybe not the same way twice. 


What about you guys? Any heckler experiences that you would like to share and how you overcame them? C'mon! Fess up! 

[Lara Krystle "Lane"]

I don't deal well with hecklers, maybe that is the reason why i don't really like to perform any card magic. Except maybe for some self working tricks.

If people push me to perform a card trick and then they heckle me, i go and call in another magician to do justice to the art ^_^ problem solved LoL

I love to perform rubber band tricks though and I can say I'm pretty good at it heheheh! the only magic tricks I can do without getting cauht and'or heckled

[Don Boyer]

I don't deal well with hecklers, maybe that is the reason why i don't really like to perform any card magic. Except maybe for some self working tricks.

If people push me to perform a card trick and then they heckle me, i go and call in another magician to do justice to the art ^_^ problem solved LoL

I love to perform rubber band tricks though and I can say I'm pretty good at it heheheh! the only magic tricks I can do without getting cauht and'or heckled
[/color]

You could get better with practice - even good enough to be more heckler-resistant!

It's an unfortunate part of the practice.  There are people out there who will try messing with you.  Sometimes it's to steal back attention that was previously being given to them.  Sometimes they think you're trying to make them look foolish by pulling something over on them with a magic trick.  Some people just don't like having their sense of reality messed with.

But you will find that the majority of the people out there will fit into two simple categories: those who want to be entertained, even if they think you did a terrible job, and those who just aren't interested.

What will help you cater to those who want to be entertained is to be entertaining!  It sounds silly, I know, but picture two scenarios.  In the first scenario, you perform some really nice, skillful tricks, but with a leaden look on your face and absolutely no spirit or joy in what little patter you offer, as if you were a trick robot.  In the second scenario, you perform tricks that aren't quite as hard, and maybe don't do them perfectly, but well enough to fool most people, and you do your tricks with some style, humor and maybe even a little panache, keeping your audience's interest with colorful and entertaining patter and a smiling face.

First scenario: skillful trick "machine", zero performance - bad magician.
Second scenario: not quite so skillful, but lots of charm and a good performance - excellent magician.

You don't have to know a zillion tricks.  You do, however, need to know the tricks that you do know very, very well, to the point that you could almost perform them blindfolded.  (Doing them blindfolded would be really wild, but it's not for the faint of heart!)  I have a quickie routine of three tricks which I constantly practice in the hospital for the kids.  I'm at the point now where it's very, very good - but I see ways that it could be even better, and I work on them.  I'm good enough that unless someone seriously wants to mess with me (or is in the business), they won't spot my sleights.

And when I do encounter someone interested in messing with the performance?  I collect my cards, bid them farewell and leave.  If it's situation-appropriate, I might drop a comment about how some people are simply incapable of enjoying good entertainment... 

[John B.]

i will say just because you know how its done you should not heckle the magician. i once performed a bunch of tricks for a some guys and then was showing one of them some by him self later and he starts doing some one handed cuts with the deck and says, im a magician too. thought it was awesome that he did not say anything when i was doing my tricks.

[Linguist_]

Regarding card magic, my opinion is that I don't have a problem with people who try and look at tricks rationally. Actually, I prefer such people to people who think I actually have the ability to manipulate objects with my mind. The fact is, even if someone knows what a pass is and can tell you when you do it, or knows about palming and false cuts and controlling cards. It still takes months of practice to do them well, and it takes a lot more than just dexterity to do a card trick as Don Boyer already pointed out. If you do a trick perfectly but it's mechanical then the trick isn't really impressive.

As long as the person isn't actually interfering with your performances, like trying to grab your cards or messing things up on purpose, then I don't mind.

[Don Boyer]

i will say just because you know how its done you should not heckle the magician. i once performed a bunch of tricks for a some guys and then was showing one of them some by him self later and he starts doing some one handed cuts with the deck and says, im a magician too. thought it was awesome that he did not say anything when i was doing my tricks.

When I met David Blaine, I actually caught one of his false shuffles.  I suspected he and Asi Wind were using a few of them with a particular shuffling technique they were both using, but actually caught one of David's.  But frankly, it didn't matter to me - he is still an excellent magician and far above me in knowledge and skill in the art.  I only mentioned it to him long after the trick was done, when we were standing alone without anyone around to hear me.  I also said I didn't care because I was enjoying the performance regardless.  Magicians are entertainers, not simply trick-generating machines, and I was entertained.

Regarding card magic, my opinion is that I don't have a problem with people who try and look at tricks rationally. Actually, I prefer such people to people who think I actually have the ability to manipulate objects with my mind. The fact is, even if someone knows what a pass is and can tell you when you do it, or knows about palming and false cuts and controlling cards. It still takes months of practice to do them well, and it takes a lot more than just dexterity to do a card trick as Don Boyer already pointed out. If you do a trick perfectly but it's mechanical then the trick isn't really impressive.

As long as the person isn't actually interfering with your performances, like trying to grab your cards or messing things up on purpose, then I don't mind.

I've had the card-grabbers as well.  I saw Greg Wilson on a YouTube demonstrate an excellent way to deal with a deck-grabber - he slapped him in the face!  (It was in jest with a fellow magician, but still...)  When that happens, you just exercise faster reflexes (it helps that I study martial arts!), shut down the trick and say well, some people just don't want to be entertained and have a fun time.  If he's got friends with him who were interested, I'm sure they'll bust his chops for being such a jerk.

[phantom1412]

Often I observe people personality before I perform anything.
Sometimes I do some flourishes first to see people's reaction.
I think choosing who do you perform to is easier than make a Hecklers be good.