ITs good thats you kept going on, and didnt let it stop you.
Something like that could take down an unprepared and unqualified performer.

Stuff happens to all of us. Monday we (my wife and myself) had a show at the School for the Deaf. A deaf girl, Raven, wanted to learn about clowning and the teacher knew about us, so we got there at 8 AM and worked with Raven, designed her a clown face, and taught her some clown antics and how to do a sponge ball routine and a cut and restored rope.

Well at 10 AM the rest of the school came in for a show (about 50 kids and teachers) and I had a sign language interpreter so I could do the magic without having to sign at the same time. I started by talking about clowns and magic while Raven, now as Dizzy Daisy, had a feather duster and was dusting my table. She looked at me, took off my hat and dusted it, then took my wig off and dusted the top of my head. I am totally bald so it is a huge difference without the wig. The place went NUTS!! Kids signing and waving and those that could talk yelling and laughing!

Well to get to the point, during the show Raven did a cut and restored rope and then I took the rope and started the Professor's Nightmare. Got it into the 3 different lengths and was turning them into all the same length and blew it. I started again and put the 3 different into my hand and tried again and screwed up again. One more try and one more embarrassing moment. I said, to myself, but the interpreter heard me and signed "I've done this for 10 years and today I can't get it right." The kids started to laugh and on the 4th try it worked. All the kids went nuts again with the applause.

After the show all, I mean every kid came up to Raven and I and signed "thank you, that was a lot of fun." and several of the older kids signed "we liked it when you pretended that the rope trick didn't work." Never let them see you sweat and they thought it was all part of the show. By the way, the response from the staff and deaf students was so positive, I actually set down and cried when I got home. I was just overwhelmed by the joy of that group. No it was not that I am so dam good, it is that nobody bothers to try to entertain the deaf kids, they are the forgotten handicapped people.

End of sermon, Sorry.

Paddy

Well Done Paddy. It is one thing to recover from a mishap without the audience noticing, but when a trick is blown right before their eyes, the abilty to garner genuine (not mailicious) laughs and entertainment from it is invaluable. Way to go man.
Lemons to lemonade and all that.

Paddy you are an inspiration. You're right, people shouldn't forget about entertaining the handicapped, on the contrary they should do shows for them more.

I actually thought you messed up three times on purpose, just like Kaye says in SS - if you mess up - do it again, then again, it will be even funnier the third time.