hi ive got a good comeback if someone heckles you here it is

s:i know how you did that(explains trick)
m:right you just keep believing that (give the hecklera sarcastic thumbs up and sarcastic smile











this outha shut em up!

Actually, that probably wouldn't help your case. My usual reply is "So do I. How fun."

Thats a god one, I think I'll use it.

yeah.. never thought of that. good one.

even if they explain the trick, just hint thats not how you do it, without saying that. just be like "are you sure about that?" or "really?" something like that, you dont want to be a jerk because allthough one person thinks that he or she knows how to do the trick, when you have a come back like that, the other specs. think that guy is a d i c k and just made himself look really dumb.

wich one makes the spec look dumb the one i said or the one you said?

carry a cookie just in case.

you can present it to him as a prize for being the biggest know it all in the room

My response to this was, so do I and a good magician never tells, and I know you want to be a good magician. He didn't say much after that, but atleast he actually waited until people were gone accept himself to say that too me.

Do you guys actually use any of this guff when you perform for real people IRL? I only ask as I wouldn't dare be so rude to a spectator as to say anything like the first post here. Man, I read so many of these ridiculous new threads with titles like "awesome cumback" and it's the same stupid thing over and over ad nasuem. exodus has a good comeback to the situation presented here, and JJMIX makes a good point about not being a jerk about it; listen and learn kids. The last thing the audience wants is a smart arse magician making them feel stupid.

Ugh.

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Some magicians can get away with smart arse comments. It's their character. And it doesn't come off as offensive. Then again, the comments are more witty.

The first come back in this thread, would just make people mad. And then they tell everyone how you did it. As for Exodus's come back, I think it's great. But only if you can fit it in your style.

A new thing that I've been trying is when someone says something that I don't really care for, I just look across the crowd and start pointing at the person that said whatever (as if I'm pointing him out to someone in the back). I then give him a bright yellow business card of mine (specially made just for this) and tell him that it allows for him to be recognized later, or something along those lines. Sometimes I will yell out, "Don't forget the bats," then look over to the spectator and tell them not to worry, they never forget the bats. It fits my working style. It's just a stupid gag, but the spectator gets the point, and usually quits.

Fair enough, I just wonder how many of the 13 year old kids here could get away with half of what they post as the final word on heckling when they perform. I'm well aware that my only view of the American School system is telly and movies, but I'm fairly sure the magician would run the risk of having to cut the show short and run away if he started throwing out wisecrack comments like the one at the top.

I can get away with a certain amount of cheek because, as you say, of my character. But I'm always careful what I say, and start small. I'll guage it and push my luck a little later on if they're being good to me and working with me. Think Andy Nyman and Derren Brown - I've a slightly sarcastic, dark, dry British sense of humour. Again, I wonder how many 13 year olds have the character to do that (I wonder if any of them even have a character...), and how many of them have the performance skills and experience to guage potential reactions like that.

My worry is that these young magicians, the kind that are performing for crowds quite prone to heckling, in situations where they could lose the audience in the blink of an eye, are coming here and saying the other young magicians, this is THE way to deal with someone saying 'this', when clearly what they've apparently said back is shocking. I imagine I could get away with saying something like "Ok, tell me how I do this one then" if we take the situation at the top, but only because my audience is adult, I am an adult, and my performance style and character fit that phrase. I work hard on my magic and make sure I perform it to crowds I know will appreciate it; as such I don't get many serious 'I know how you did that' remarks. Usually I get things like 'I've no idea how you did that' or 'How on earth did you...never mind, you won't tell me anyway'. Part of this is I don't present everything I do as magic, I try to get the audience questioning how real everything is on my stage. I create an atmosphere of entertaining scepticism, a questioning disposition in my spectators, and I never say whether what I'm doing is magic or something else. Anyway, the point is that if I get a heckler, like I did at my last show, I gave him his 15 seconds (he was drunk as a skunk dear fella), asked him politely to step off stage as I was picking someone from the back and at the end he started playing his guitar (don't ask) singing a song. I had my final line all set up and instead of using it, I altered it to bring him into my performance again and got a musical send off from stage. I didn't just shoot him down, it wouldn't have been the right thing to do. And I worry that given the bevvy of topics that are about simply being an arse to hecklers and making them angry, our younger magicians here won't appreciate the potential of making him the star of the show for a tiny bit, making him realise that it's not his audience it's yours, and quietening down. Not all hecklers need a harsh gag, or a stern talking to.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on the whole matter. There's so many ways of dealing with hecklers and people who are spoil sports, I imagine making nasty sarcastic comments is one of lesser recommended.

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I saw a guy who got heckled and insisted that since the heckler thought he knew the trick and could do it better made the heckler do the trick in front of 50+ people. And he refused to let the heckler leave until he either did the trick or admitted he couldn't do it better than the magician.

someone said this up there but im dead serious. i always carry around a snack pack bag of those cookies in my backpack or pocker (big velcro pockets) it is, the BEST reactions yoi get from the other specs to see you literrally say "Have a cookie" and bust that out for them. first time i did that everyone was laughing at the guy for like a week. he never gave me any trouble again. 100% garuentee works EVERY time

Take Gazzo for example?lol

Gazzo can basically say anything. I think it's because he's British. Jerry Sadowitz also gets very abusive in his show, but he gets away with it.


I think povallsky makes a great point. A 13 year old, saying some of this stuff, simply isn't going to work. They won't be able to get away with many of the comments they post on here. It's just going to tick people off. It's going to make them seem like arrogant little twits. And many people think teenagers are that way anyway.

They also don't realize that you don't want to embarrass the hecklers too much. You don't want to come off as too much of a jerk. Because if you do, you loose the support of the crowd. You will be looked upon as a jerk, and no one will respect you anymore.