Last Night's Failure

[Frankie The Card]

I'm not posting this as a question but more as a story to let other newbies know that failure is not only okay but is going to happen.

I'm still new to performing magic and my coworkers have come to know my interest in it. Last night they asked me to perform a few tricks for them. I was doing rather well with the rubber band and coin tricks. Then came the card tricks. Oh boy! At first, I completely blanked and was overwhelmed with the amount of card tricks I knew and practiced and didn't know which ones to perform. Finally, after a few minutes and walking away, I took a breath and started with an impromptu ambitious card for one of them and a few predictions. It's always a good starter. It went well. Then two more showed up and when I went to do David Blaine's Here Then There, my double lift flashed and they saw it. Embarrassed, I put that one aside and did something no one should ever do. I went for a trick I had just learned that morning, eager to show it off. The four ace's Elmsley count. In the middle of doing the trick, I forgot my story line and how to do it. Then, even though I practiced the count for a few hours, my fingers couldn't separate the cards to do the count and on top of that, and I very clearly loaded the first card on the bottom. I tried it once more and it flopped even worse the second time. After a delay, and letting them talk, I set up Here Then There again and went for a different opener. Instead of a two-part trick, the bring to top transposition with two double lifts, I went for a card switch, where you switch the spectator's card with the card on top of the deck. Nailed it. Here Then There went successfully that time. I was even called out on a few things but was able to talk my way out of the accusations and still leave them mystified. Feeling very confident, I went for another ambitious card routine. Easy right? I did just perform it. No. My side angle jog almost didn't stick out far enough, I hesitated through most of the trick, and when they were convinced I was shuffling fair enough, I went to palm the card and let them shuffle and my palm flashed. Not much, but enough. Finally, I just took the cards back and said that the magic just wasn't flowing very well tonight. Luckily my ride had just arrived so I had an out.

What are some of your failure stories?

 

[David Brooke]

I accidentally punched a spectator in the nose when I did a slip force...

Saying 'tada!' Nervously whilst producing their card to diffuse the tension didn't help either...

 

[TylerScottIllusionist]

I was performing at a food pantry for kids and it was my second time ever performing in front of strangers. I opened with a trick I learned from the Howcast YouTube channel since I was telling a story about Doubting Thomas. Unfortunately I didn't take into consideration the angle that my audience was looking at since I was standing and they were sitting and they could see the second coin palmed in the pockets of my fingers.

It was super embarrassing and I was able to recover the rest of my act and redeem myself especially by ending on Healed and Sealed 2.0 but I was really disappointed with how I opened. It actually inspired me to create my own effect where the hands can openly be displayed before and after the effect without a second coin being palmed in the skin pockets of the performers hands. This way the performer doesn't have to worry about any heat being on their hands and they can just perform it smoothly. It actually became my first release ever:

 

[Dean Magic]

I was performing for a group and after a couple tricks I decided to do french kiss. The spectator was very uncooperative. They refused to put the card in their mouth and made the whole situation awkward. They finally did put the card in their mouth but a corner was showing which ruined the trick. So basically everything went wrong and I ended up having to walk away. It's still one of my favorite tricks though and the whole thing ended up being a good lesson in audience management.

 

[pugz]

I was performing at a food pantry for kids and it was my second time ever performing in front of strangers. I opened with a trick I learned from the Howcast YouTube channel since I was telling a story about Doubting Thomas. Unfortunately I didn't take into consideration the angle that my audience was looking at since I was standing and they were sitting and they could see the second coin palmed in the pockets of my fingers.

It was super embarrassing and I was able to recover the rest of my act and redeem myself especially by ending on Healed and Sealed 2.0 but I was really disappointed with how I opened. It actually inspired me to create my own effect where the hands can openly be displayed before and after the effect without a second coin being palmed in the skin pockets of the performers hands. This way the performer doesn't have to worry about any heat being on their hands and they can just perform it smoothly. It actually became my first release ever:

Love it! I think for me though, black bird saves me any problems with having to palm before the effect starts.

 

[Nathanhorne]

I've flashed a double before. Luckily my ambitios card only has a dl in the first moment after they see the card. I then use passes, side steals and a few other controlls (even that injog fan thing) to control the card to the top.

Eventually I realised that some spectators know a dl, so I constructed my ambitios card to just have that moment of "okay, YOU can put the card in the deck" : )

 

[myHaggis]

One of my worst failures was probably when I was performing a card trick to a large audience, using a very fair looking force. I usually do a routine where I call out their card twice, then do it again, but this time reveal it in my shoe, or on my phone, or written on the inside of the box. Unfortunately, I was using the deck of red keepers (marked), and one of the audience members caught the markings on the corner. He called me out for it, and unfortunately, I hadn't gotten to the part where I reveal it on the box, so I couldn't ask them how the box knew. Ever since then, I have only used a marked deck when I need to, and made sure that they never get a great look at the cards, but still, that was a painful trick to mess up.

 

[jakeherndon24]

My walk to my car after work takes me past the place where the majority of employees go to smoke and so I typically will perform there for a few minutes or so. I had only been practicing magic for about 6 months and my confidence was through the roof. I had started practicing Alone In a Crowded Room the day before and thought I had it down. I successfully shifted the bottom section into gambler's cop and went to ditch it to my pocket as I reached for my sharpie and flashed so bad. The spectator was cool about it and didn't make some huge scene but I was extremely embarrassed. I learned that a couple of hours of practice on a trick does not make it performance ready!