When performing in front of a group (mixed guys and gals), there will always be an Alpha Male of the Group (AMOG) who either hates you for taking away his limelight, thus try to heckle you or thinks he is smarter than you and thus, try to heckle you too.

What will you do to get this AMOG over to your side?

And if you fail, and he is hell-bent on making you look as smart as William Hung, what will you do? Besides the usual "walk away..."?

Begin the friendship by springing cards into his face.

First of all before u perfrom or do anything make friends with him, gain rapport with him. But if the worse thing still come have some back up lines ect, example:Hey settle down, the chicks aren't impressed. Put the dick down.You be the alpha,just don't try to out insult him, chicks find that as immature, none of which are in the least attractive.

Gate

Give him the middle *beep* and tell him he *beep*. :!!:

No, Just kidding, actually very seldom in singapore you see them. Most people will be "humble" and only shout and say, "I saw that!" or anything near that.

Oh well , i use the same way i handle with hard to tackle people, IGNORE them.

It will not be an easy job if you wanna get him over to your side.

One way is to ask him which gal he likes, and you perform a "couple magic effect" to him and the gal he likes. Most likely he will enjoy your magic and for the rest of your show he will not heckle you.

Or do magic effects that make him look good. For example let him find his own selected card in some impossible looking way and say "wow this guy got the potential to be a magician or psychic! How did YOU do that?"

If he STILL wanna heckle you despite your sincere efforts to bring him to your side, just walk away. If your ego says no, then show him no mercy. Do a few of your strongest sucker effects and finish off the routine with a nice looking flourish like "card spring to face" or "card spring to *beep*. okok I know that's not a very good idea.....

Seriously for me I'll just perform a few heckler proof effects and end off the show asap. I'll not end the show after he exposed my trick. This will not reflect well on you and the AMOG. Cos the other audience will think "that magician is not good enough and he did a bad job that's why he end the show" They will also blame the AMOG for spoilling the magic show.Thus no one will be happy at the end and this is not the objective of our magic perfromance. Try to do a strong effect that is heckler proof and end of your show with it. The AMOG will not be able to know how you did that trick, so he cannot make you look bad. Plus the audience will be more satisfied with the ending of the show. I don't like the idea of just ending your routine 1/2 way.

Btw it is very seldom you encounter this type of people in Singapore. Most of the time the hecklers are like COG (Clown of the group). They are not like the alpha type, they just like to make jokes and attract attention.

Well, the main aim of you as a performer when you meet him is to get him to your side! =)

How? Make him the star! Do routines which allows him to "perform magic" himself, more importantly, get him to participate and HELP YOU OUT.. Instead of just the performer impressing everyone with magic, let him be part of the show.. Cos' it doesn't hurt at all and this ensures that his "limelight" is not stolen and yours is not destroyed~

Afterall, everyone enjoys at the end of the day! =)

Haha. Axl, you're always asking about hecklers. i pressume you really are quite unlucky to always encounter them.

Hecklers heckle because they can. I mean if they are simply looking at you do your magic and is not actively involved, it give them time to look around and spot your mistakes.

I personally know that it is very difficult to watch all your angles when you are performing to a group. Also, it is also very hard to misdirect every single spec. Therefore, if you encounter a heckler, don't be sad. Most of the time i would make him participate in my next trick.

For example, if i am doin 2CM, someone has to hold the cards right? i will make him hold the cards as if i am performing only to him. Direct the most attention to him so that he is definitely not looking where you don't want him to look. At the end of the trick, if anyone is to feel like a fool, he will. Then you can walk away triumphant. haha.

ZiAn

muscleaxl


i have a book or 2 on how to deal with the AMOG


let me know if u wanna view them


regards

roland

I seriously like the idea of springing cards at his face, end of by producing the chosen card in his mouth.

Roland... what are the books?

A lot actually depends on the performer's performing personality, whether or not he is deemed to be 'threatening' to the dominant person in the group. If you observe successful magicians, they can be categorised into 2 main groups: those that are very friendly and are accepted into the group (even by the dominant person), and those who present the 'challenge' type of magic (where the dominant person is unable to find any solution to heckle).

But many have spoken against the second group, and I while I would think it depends ultimately on the performer's style, I would believe that the first is a safer (and nicer) alternative. After all, you can only be overtly challenging to the audience if your magic is bulletproof and you have excellent audience management skills to handle people who get terribly upset.

So I suggest that as long as you are friendly and non-threatening, there shouldn't be much of a problem. Back up plan? Think up some lines for situations that require them, not necessarily to mock and dominate over any heckler, but also to seek their cooperation.

For me, I would try to be real nice to him. I would just continue to move on with my effects. Just imagine, everyone is keeping quiet and watching you performing something fabulous and he/she is the only one shouting things which disadvantages you. Nobody would give a damn about what he/she says. The others would just take him as a fool and is going to hate him if he really spoiled your trick. He is just trying to get attention. Who cares? If he have a better talent to show, then I would jolly well go away without a word. But if he just wants to spoil my trick, I would just ignore him. Going against him will only spoil my image B) . So what for? If he is determined to ruin you, he will continue to unless you want to bribe him or something. So there is no point going against him. The more you try to go against him, the more he will try to ruin you. If you ignored him, he will just go away once he has nothing to say :lol:

^

+1


the books i've read and what david stone says is very well explained by TheSilentEllusionist

just carry on and move on to something else and completely ignore him and he will look like a complete tool.

i've seen a magician friend do it to this guy when i was at camp and he kept heckling my friend and he kept ignoring him and better still kept using him as the volunteer.


in the end , after a few tricks that baffled him
he left him alone.

Heard of such books around. Does Youtube have any videos o such stuff? As in a performance video and then there is hecklers around. Ha ha. Would like to view how the magician deals with the situation. Imagine Criss Angel doing street magic then there is this guy trying to heckler him Ha ha. Wonder what Criss will do.

You mean a heckler? He just wants attention. The more you give him attention the more he'll heckle.

Imagine he's just a tiny bug, 1cm tall, nobody can see him or hear him. Just continue as if he doesn't even exist, as if you don't even notice him, keep your composure, don't respond to him in any way.

You're leading the audience, if you pay attention to him then they'll pay attention to him, if you ignore him then they'll ignore him and he'll just look like a dick.

Or, just walk away.

Anyone has encounters with "A BUNCH" of amogs? Haha~! It certainly is exciting! I think it's hard for anyone to ignore that?

Usually, there is only be 1 AMOG.

But anybody seen an AFOG (Alpha Female of the Group)?

What's an Alpha Female???? :huh: Is there really such a thing?

The 'chio-est' of the group = Alpha Female?

Lol! If the alpha female is the "chio-est", I don't think most magicians would ignore her or walk away!

Try to get her number and spam her everyday. Jay Sankey's Firestarters have good tips on how to do woo girls with magic effects. Lols. :off: