This is something that I have noticed people talking about doing on Penguin, and have personally witnessed at school. Blaming your spectators for your mistake. Telling them they did their part wrong, or they picked the wrong card. When the truth is, it was your fault, you screwed up, and you should take the blame.
I have a friend at school that I have known since we are like four. Recently, he started showing a real interest in magic, so I gave him a deck and a Card Guard, and got him started doing stuff. I taught him the basics, like the DL, and he advanced really quickly, so I decided, for one last thing before I pointed him to The Royal Road to Card Magic, I would teach him the Biddle Trick.
Everything went well, until the next day. As I'm sure we all know, any magician performing an effect the day after he learns it is a big no no. Now add in the fact that he just started three weeks ago, and it makes it that much worse.
We were sitting at lunch, and I was very shocked to see him pull out his cards and start performing the Biddle Trick for the girl across from him. I wasn't about to heckle him and tell him to stop, so I sat back and watched it play out.
He screwed up the effect... flashed, and the girl he was performing for immediately called him out on it. Colton denied it, and kept plowing through. He ended the trick with the reveal of the upside down card in the deck, and the girl didn't react... at all.
She told him that he didn't do very well, and she saw what he did. This put him in some kind of bad mood, and he instantly shifted the blame from him, where it belonged, to the girl... his spectator. They were arguing back and forth for about 2 minutes, Colton telling her she didn't hold the deck right, bla bla bla, and she was telling him that he just screwed up.
This went on until I finally intervened, told Colton that it was indeed his fault, and to stop blaming her. Then, later, I found out he did the same thing to another girl. I told him that he shouldn't perform an effect the day after he learns it... that he needs to put more work and practice into them, but he just responded saying that he practiced a whole lot already.
That story is not meant as an opportunity for you guys to bash me for not "teaching" him properly, as I don't really think it was my fault. It is meant solely as an example for what I'm talking about.
I have noticed this on Penguin, as well, in a discussion on what to do if you drop the cards. One guy, obviously not experienced, said to blame it on the spectators. No, no, and no!
This is not going to be lengthy, as the majority of it has been my example. But the main goal of this is NEVER BLAME YOUR SPECTATORS FOR YOUR MISTAKES! It will only ruin your reputation as a magician, and as a person.
Even when, from time to time, when it appears to everybody as if it is your spectator's fault, it is yours! For example, let's say you hand a stacked deck to your spectator, and ask them to cut the deck and look at a card. However, they shuffle up the deck first, ruining your effect. To everyone, including you, it will appear as if they ruined the effect for you, but this is not true.
It is your fault because you either 1) don't have any audience control, leading the spectator's to believe they are in control, and they can do whatever they want... including messing with your cards, 2) you simply picked a bad spectator to perform for, or 3) you didn't explain what you wanted them to do clearly enough.
The point I am stressing here is not to put yourself down when things go wrong, but to accept the blame, and move on. You can imagine how frustrating it would be to do everything correct, then when it goes wrong, have the blame automatically shifted to you.
So please, do not ever blame your spectators for your mistakes. It's another one of those things that contribute to our art not being held very high in the eyes of the public.
Thanks for reading.
I have a friend at school that I have known since we are like four. Recently, he started showing a real interest in magic, so I gave him a deck and a Card Guard, and got him started doing stuff. I taught him the basics, like the DL, and he advanced really quickly, so I decided, for one last thing before I pointed him to The Royal Road to Card Magic, I would teach him the Biddle Trick.
Everything went well, until the next day. As I'm sure we all know, any magician performing an effect the day after he learns it is a big no no. Now add in the fact that he just started three weeks ago, and it makes it that much worse.
We were sitting at lunch, and I was very shocked to see him pull out his cards and start performing the Biddle Trick for the girl across from him. I wasn't about to heckle him and tell him to stop, so I sat back and watched it play out.
He screwed up the effect... flashed, and the girl he was performing for immediately called him out on it. Colton denied it, and kept plowing through. He ended the trick with the reveal of the upside down card in the deck, and the girl didn't react... at all.
She told him that he didn't do very well, and she saw what he did. This put him in some kind of bad mood, and he instantly shifted the blame from him, where it belonged, to the girl... his spectator. They were arguing back and forth for about 2 minutes, Colton telling her she didn't hold the deck right, bla bla bla, and she was telling him that he just screwed up.
This went on until I finally intervened, told Colton that it was indeed his fault, and to stop blaming her. Then, later, I found out he did the same thing to another girl. I told him that he shouldn't perform an effect the day after he learns it... that he needs to put more work and practice into them, but he just responded saying that he practiced a whole lot already.
That story is not meant as an opportunity for you guys to bash me for not "teaching" him properly, as I don't really think it was my fault. It is meant solely as an example for what I'm talking about.
I have noticed this on Penguin, as well, in a discussion on what to do if you drop the cards. One guy, obviously not experienced, said to blame it on the spectators. No, no, and no!
This is not going to be lengthy, as the majority of it has been my example. But the main goal of this is NEVER BLAME YOUR SPECTATORS FOR YOUR MISTAKES! It will only ruin your reputation as a magician, and as a person.
Even when, from time to time, when it appears to everybody as if it is your spectator's fault, it is yours! For example, let's say you hand a stacked deck to your spectator, and ask them to cut the deck and look at a card. However, they shuffle up the deck first, ruining your effect. To everyone, including you, it will appear as if they ruined the effect for you, but this is not true.
It is your fault because you either 1) don't have any audience control, leading the spectator's to believe they are in control, and they can do whatever they want... including messing with your cards, 2) you simply picked a bad spectator to perform for, or 3) you didn't explain what you wanted them to do clearly enough.
The point I am stressing here is not to put yourself down when things go wrong, but to accept the blame, and move on. You can imagine how frustrating it would be to do everything correct, then when it goes wrong, have the blame automatically shifted to you.
So please, do not ever blame your spectators for your mistakes. It's another one of those things that contribute to our art not being held very high in the eyes of the public.
Thanks for reading.
