I have noticed that when you do tricks to people that you know very well, they will only try to expose the trick and/or find out how you did it. Instead of being entertained. Have any of you experienced this before?

hmm.. just find other people to perform to, if all they want to do is find out how its done.. kinda pointless to continue "entertaining" them, yeah..? :(

Agreed. For example, last saturday... I was performing to a couple of friends. Very disruptive which made me lose concentration until i forgot what I was doing. Only a few were interested to see what I had to show them.

I guess it's because they feel really comfortable with you until they become more vocal and daring to disrupt the performance.

Well, in the end... i only pulled off a couple of effects while they spoilt 2 or 3. After which, I figured that they aren't really a suitable audience to perform to. ^_^

And when I was preparing an impromptu card levitation under the table today, one of them acted like he was busy but when i looked away he immediately stuck his head under the table. So irritating. I still prefer to do to girls cause they are less daring. Nothing more than that. :P

Yea, I agree. I don't really like the idea of performing magic to my close friends. They will tend to try and find fault and examine the stuff you use and since they are close friend, difficult to reject ya? If you reject, they will go 'cheyyyyy'.

It should be because you are close to them, so they will try to take advantage of that, thinking that nothing will happen as you people are good friends or something...

Then got 1 guys cannot stop talking one. I do to someone else, he will go on talking about how there is always a way or some stuff. super irritating. Next time I do "Here Then There" on him then I wanna see what he will say.

lol.. i have a feeling we're gonna start talking about crowd control.. :P

by the way, it gets kind of awkward when we reject a person who says "hey, i'm bored show me some magic".
usually i would reply "no mana" (or whatever stuff we came up with in the previous threads)

just bringing it up again, for another discussion.. does any1 here feel that way? it still concerns doing magic to friends, so not off topic.. haha

Yea. Especially when I am not mentally prepared to perform. I usually just tell them that I don't feel like performing. Or I'll tell them that I don't like doing magic in that place. Not conducive.

Haha, that "No Mana" thing is a good way to reject.

A few things and points i will touch on:

1. Maybe you are performing for the sake of performing. IF they ask you "hey dude show me some magic" you should go ahead. If it is like they are sitting together happily talking and eating and drinking and smoking or whatever, and you suddenly barge in and say "Hey show you something. Pick a Card." To my experience, 70% or more of the time, they will heckle and try to outwit you. :)

2. About the first point: Always have mutual consent between YOU and the AUDIENCE. They must let you entertain them, and you must let them be entertained.

3. If that is not the case, just remember: Don't perform to these people. If they insist, you have two choices. Either be daring and go ahead, or simply shake your head with a gentle "No". Be brave to say No. Try going up to the world's greatest pianist and ask him perform on the grand piano you brought along. :blink: makes sense?

4. If someone asks you to perform, rise up to the occasion and perform. Don't hide at this time. Unless you just got dumped and your cat died and you pissed in your pants and got a fork stuck in your throat.

Thing is, get them to be interested. I think such a case is more likely that they are subconciously not letting you entertain them, and not letting themselves to be entertained.

Let your good friends understand what magic is about, and let them respect it. I am lucky with friends who appreciate the art I do. Have fun.

I don't really agree with this point if its requested by people you know. Normally in this situation, the request is to see how magic is done and not to enjoy it.

I don't really perform to people I know as often as I use to be due to the same reason.

If we can steer some converstion towards a reason to perform, that would be very strong magic.

Ok Magicdow

Maybe I put it too casually. LEt me rephrase that sentence:

"Hey harapan, can you show me some magic?"

or

my father "show some magic to your uncle leh, he came back from new zealand only you know."

ya.

Anyway, you have a point there. Food for thought for me. :)

You got a point there panpanpan. But I dont really barge in. :D

You guys are right!

It will definitely give out a better reaction when they approach you rather than you approaching them to perform some tricks of yours.

Usually when they approach you to show some tricks, they'll probably say something like, "Hey! Show them the trick you showed me the other day!"
Dont perform the same tricks again as those who saw the tricks before will know what to look for this time round! ^_^

From my experience the reaction from spectator depends on few factors:

1: presentation: if you approach your FRIEND AND saying that you are going to show them a TRICK, basicaly you are already half screwed-up.
The word "trick" will suggest them to catch you, since you are the one wanted to "trick" them in the 1st place. Most asians have this perseption that magic is just sleight of hand and it's impossible for someone close to them to perform magic. Thus, even when both you and david blaine is doing ACR or 2CM, they'll still think that DB is much more capable than you.

2: situation where the effect is being performed: for this you have to perform more to know when it's the best senario to perform. E.g IMO it's worst to perform magic when your friends are waiting/fustrating/concerning about something else. they cant concerntrate and result in bad reaction

3: the effect itself: actually the presentation still plays a larger part compare to the effect. But effects like transposition and levitaion will get much more impact than distortion.

4: the audience: some people are just magic-unfriendly. avoid them

in conslusion, try not to perform to your close friend. the reaction will be little+ they'll try their best to screw you up. Perform to them provided your sleights are perfect.(actually you shouldnt perform if your sleights are not perfect). BTW most of my classmates are unaware that i perform magic. I never perform in my class.

perform your magic ONLY to those who'll appreciate your magic.

Yea. I also stop performing tricks that involve too many sleights to my brother. He now does not even look at me. He just stares at the pack. I cant even make him look at me for 1 sec.

i scolded my girlfriend once when she was watching a magician doing some ACR and levi at Bangkok. She goes pointing here and there... i pull her one side and tell her 'nicely'

"magic is actually very simple to do and get expose, but not everyone can do magic, can you learn to appreciate the way the person handling the routine. admire the value of the art. i know you can do DL and Colour Change (yes, she is my beta-tester) , but how good can you do in front of a completely stranger who know nothing about magic ??"

well, i must say she understand what i mean, but i feel bad scolding her. :(

i have also people around me that are out to expose magic... i try not to do tricks like ambitious card...

what i normally do is i will do haunted deck.... after i make them to pick the card and placing it back, they will normally want to shuffle the deck or so... i'll try to delay it and show them the effect first then they will be shock and they can examin the deck

can the haunted deck be checked? or must you do a swi***?
by the way, i agree with a lot of you guys. these tips seem to come with experience..

Sometimes hecklers like these are quite helpful in our progress in magic, our showmanship, the way we handle our audience and skills. Of course, everyone should practise well first before going out to show anyone magic. Dont feel bad not to show your friends magic if you are not ready. Only when you are confident and ready then entertain them.

Sometimes if you hit them real hard with a trick which they cannnot figure out, then they will start to lose confidence in themselves and will tend to be able to find out less easily. So always be ahead of them.

Doing magic to friends.. If they never ask for it don't perfrom lol... And i magic the power of showmanship and misdirection is very important to make a mgaic performance entertaining yet enjoyable and with a bit of magical effect lol :D

For me, I test how far i can go.
its important to always set "house rule"
like " recently, i read in the newspapers typical singaporeans CANNOT understand simple instructions. Im going to run a test to see if its right."

surely the audience wouldnt wanna be typical and bust you.

even if they do, like go on about how its done - "aiyah he take 2 cards la"
u could probably reply with , "thats a good idea." ,
"since you have so much theory about how i do magic. why dont you come over here and show everyone what you can do. people a round of applause for him then"

this are the couple of phrases i actually use on peeps , and they usually keep quiet after that. Perform more and you guys'd get more experience.

yes haunted deck can be given to the audience to check afer the effect is done.. back to topic.

when i started magic, i always showed to my close friends..they got shocked at first then got tired of it.

whenever i tried doing a trick that requires DL or other SOH, my friends know what i am going to do, but remains silent.. well inside me, i don't feel the hype anymore because they know what i am doing but remain silent.. even if i succecced the magic, i won't feel happy or something.. =/ so i seldom show it to them anymore..

but i sometimes, showing to friends the magic u learned can be helpful too.
i would show them, then ask if they see anything fishy about my hands, is it natural? is the effect good ? i get opinions from them and change till they find it perfect..

because doing infront of mirror only can get your own one sided view..so yeah, some of my friends are my guinea pig.

Totally agree about part number 1.

With advanced technology today, it's easy to view magic shows on television or magic clips online. It's not like in the past when magic must be visited and seen personally, like going to a escape show by Houdini or a street performance by Cellini.

It used to be totally impossible and mind baffling to all spectators. And if your friends see you do magic, they'll inherently think: If you can do it, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out.

From experiences, there were a couple of times when we were in chalets and i showed my friends magic. They were receptive. No doubt i could sense heckling eyes but they kept watching and appeared entertained.

Other times, i don't usually perform for my friends in a set parlour setting. I don't perform when requested to either.

I perform when they least expect it to come. When they were caught off guard, they don't have time to adjust their heckler senses. Also, perform effects which appear to be impromptu.

Examples are: Somehow producing the 4 aces when playing a casual poker game, bending a coin after recieving change from the coffeeshop uncle, swoop a $10 for a $2 when you realise that you have only $2 left and need $7 to buy that book, etc.

Let your imagination flow but don't appear too corny and obvious that you really had thought them out beforehand.

I find it weird that people are saying not to perform on close friends and how the people closest to them don't know they perform magic. If anything I use close friends to gauge my performances and get tips and advice. If I've learnt something new I perform to them and get their opinions on how I could improve. If your entire class is unaware that you even perform magic I'd recommend that you start now because unless you're some sociopathic freak it can really get you a good rep around the place. I don't mind close friends trying to figure out my magic when I perform solely for them because they're people I'm open to and people that I trust. I don't treat doing magic to close friends as seriously as I do when I perform to other people, so I don't really care if they figure out what I do or if I get poor reactions because they're people I hang around with the most and people that I joke around and do all my shit with on a daily basis. As long as they understand the importance magic has to me then everything's all worked out. Plus I realised that they really give you moral support when you're actually, really performing for other people and help you out against hecklers you might encounter. If your own close friends start really, really heckling you in a performance you might want to reconsider whom you deem as being a "close friend". If you have the skills, you shouldn't be hiding them.

Chris