My night at work at the magic shop I demo in sucked lol. We had a bad crowd yesterday and still today, so I was dealing with a lot of idiots and stupid people, and of course there are always hecklers in crowds like that.

I had one, maybe two groups of hecklers tonight, but just one REALLY bad group. Luckily I only had a kid and his mom in while they were in the shop, but unluckily for me they came in while I was demonstrating for the other two people so I had to perform with them watching, and interupting too.

They were extremely disruptive and thought they were all that, and figured they would try to "prove" to me they knew how magic works since they had been watching magic secrets revealed or whatever show is on tv exposing magic right now. They were really pis**ng me off so the second the kid and his mom were gone, after they miracleously still bought a svengali deck despite the idiot brigade, I called security to come get them to leave, but security wasn't answering their phone lol!

But it turned out ok because I got them to leave after having a word with them. I guess I came across as authoritive since they left after I made it clear to them that they were not going to just be allowed to do crap like they were doing.

Its funny though, there was a group earlier way before them I was about to have to kick out of the shop too because they were being a***s just while I was only running the register. One of them asked if something we sell actually works, loaded dice, and I asked him why we would sell it if it didn't work. So he said everyone has their gimmicks, as if businesses are all out to just sell a piece of junk to their customers to get their money, which is not true at all, and certainly not for our shop. So I asked him why he would even be in our store if he thought we were just selling junk that doesn't work, and his friend jumped in and said we had a wall full of junk or something like that, or gimmicks, idky they were using that word though. The whole conversation was going like that, them just making idiotic statements to me acting like our store was Barnum selling snake oil or something. Then they wanted me to do magic so they could heckle me, but I couldn't anyway because the store was packed and I worked alone tonight, but I would have refused anyway since I was going to kick them out if they kept on much longer, but luckily they got the idea I wasn't going to deal with their crap so they left.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I had a single good demonstration tonight period. The one I mentioned earlier would have been ok if those three idiots hadn't of shown up, but the kid and his mom were both kind of wierd and didn't react at all to the magic really. I needed a cue card that said "be amazed... now!" on it lol.

I did have one nice guy in though, he comes every summer and spends one to three hundred dollars in the shop. I didn't remember him at first but once he mentioned it to me I remembered right away. He does magic at his church, and maybe other churches too idk. I showed him the Hover Card and he bought one of those even though he saw the gimmick at some point.

Which brings up an interesting point....

The hover card does not have nearly as good of viewing angles as you would think, especially up and down. For example, if a short little kid is watching with adults twice their height, more than likely the gimmick will flash depending on how high or low you hold the cards at. And the sides can be a problem too. I have found that if you make the card go out to your right away from you the left side of the deck of cards will flash the gimmick most often to people viewing from the far left of you, but if you overcorrect it the flashing problem goes to the opposite side, your far right.

Its getting annoying to me trying to figure out the viewing angles for it, but they sell like hotcakes in the shop of course since it floats lol. If it floats then people buy it as long as nothing flashes or you don't screw it up. And occassionally people still buy floating stuff even when that happens lol.

Another funny thing was that I had a couple of guys in the shop that were a pain too, but I being a pro magician with experience had enough knowledge to outwit them lol. They came in and asked if we had Scotch and Soda, probably because one of them is so stupid he let his wife or girlfriend spend the half dollar or something lol, and so I told him where it was and how much it was.

It was busy at the moment so I was watching other things, and when I looked back over where they were at they had tried to open the Scotch and Soda package! I really don't even know why though because it doesn't show anything the way we pack it. You can see the coins and the bang ring through the plastic against the dvd, so I don't know what they expected to see.

Then when I looked they were turning a hotrod around in its package to see the other side, which was again stupid and pointless, but of course when they saw the other side was red they thought they knew how it worked.

So somehow I got stuck demo'ing for them, I really don't remember how though. But the funny thing is I demonstrated the hotrod using a clear one to throw them off, and I altered my routine a little too so that at the end the rod would be clear on both sides. Then I put the rod in my pocket and pulled out a rod with clear spots really on both sides that I stuck there ahead of time just for that. Then I realized they didn't even notice me put the rod in my pocket so I just went ahead and pulled the clear one on out and sat it on the table, and they thought it was the same one and started messing with it and stuff lol! So of course that blew them away since they thought they knew how it worked so one of them bought a hotrod.

I know thats very misleading especially since a rod like that doesn't come with the hotrods we sell, but thats what happens when you give a demonstrator in a magic shop a hard time; they have to alter their performance to compensate for heckling so you may end up with a slightly misleading demo. And honestly, if people are trying to give someone going out of their way to perform something for FREE for them, they deserve something like that to happen to them.

Another thing that happened tonight while demonstrating was kind of common, but I thought of a quick effective solution at the moment tonight for it. I was demo'ing a svengali deck, and saw some guy murmuring something so I asked if he had one, and he said yes, so then I asked him if he knew what the difference between a good magician and a bad magician is, he said no, so I told him a good magician never reveals the secret so I'm counting on you not to ok, or something close to that. The crowd found it funny which was good, but more importantly I didn't notice him explaining how it worked, and I know he at least didn't blurt it out to try to ruin my demo.

So that line really pre empted any interuption that may have came from him very well, but I'm not sure if that line would work well in places other than a magic shop really. But it worked great in that particular situation.

Sounds like you had a rough night.
Anyway, people are really annoying sometimes, they always have to make themselves the smart ones in the group.
I think it's fun to watch them trying to look smart. It sucks to be the one being heckled though.

The next time that happens, seriousoly just punch them square in the face.

like that is good for business maloney. think for a second will you? it's a magic shop, would you like to be the magic shop who is notorious for having had an employee punch a heckler in the face?

Nice. Magic shops are weird. Some nights are full of amazing groups and others are filled with frat boy jacka... you get the point. I remember a few nights when I was on point and just moving merchandise and others where I couldn't sell a Svengali deck to save my life.

Dude, it was meant to be taken lightly. I meant to tell them off, make sure they know who's running it. And hey, if nobody else is in the shop, why not punch him?

Yeah thats all true, I couldn't put it better myself. And I would have liked to have punched one guy with the group that came in while I was demo'ing for that kid and his mom lol! He REALLY needs that very badly lol, I'm not joking either.

Maybe someone should create a stealth gimmick for punching someone in the face.

Go ahead then, if and when you work in a shop, punch a heckler in the face when it is just the two of you there. See what happens when the police show up and you say "I punched him because he was being a frustrating spectator"

Hey Bucky,

It's a JOKE man. Don't get a riled up over it!

Ted

Like Ted said, it's just a joke man. I'd never punch a spectator in the face.

I visited a Houdini's over the summer while in Vegas. They had a clever idea. Either post a small sign that says that hecklers will be removed IMMEDIATELY, or do what I do. Use a squirting coin!!!