it aggrivates me when a friend or anyone else asks me to teach them how i did something... i always say no, and when its a friend, they get mad, but i explain that i can only teach them if they want to learn alot of magic(theyre still mad, they just want to show their moms or family, but they dont wanna buy any magic for themselves)... i'm not gonna teach them one trick, not even the 2 card monte...

reason being, i showed a good friend how to do 2-card monte(he said he would just show his brother), and he ruined it for me because he does a ridiculously bad DL(just grabs the cards from the top and bottom and still cant keep em aligned)

i knew he had ruined it cuz another friend comes up to me and says, "man, how hard is it to do this anyway" and he does the same sloppy lift "this is the ace of blah"... obviously the guy i taught tried it on him and @#$%ed it up... so now i will never teach another soul any trick/move whatsoever... by the way, i fooled that same heckler of a friend with a DL right after, cuz mine is pretty clean

anyways, what do u tend to say when a friend/family member insists on learning a trick, but u know they wont respect the art and most likely theyll just keep spreadin the trick around(by teachin or #$%@in it up)

just wonderin, cuz when i saw that trick ruined, i was somewhat upset, and the friend i taught didnt understand that he was pretty much taking my money and throwin it away for me...

SORRY SOOO LONG!!!

Firstly everyone hates it when ppl ask them how they do a trick.

Secondly your friends aren't very good ones if they get mad cuz you don't show them a trick.

Thirdly the lesson is no matter what don't ever ever tell a friend how to do a trick.

Well personnaly, as soon as I would've found out that my friend, who swore to only do the trick on his brother, had TAUGHT someone else how to do it: i would've built up some adrenaline by charging thru the school halls and straight into his music class and pouncing onto him before knocking him unconscious with a keyboard, 'TAKE THAT HECKLER!'

i just did some tricks at school today and got some "can u teach me? i'll pay u" stuff too... all i did was say i didn't know how i did it lol. and i got a lot of "do it again" stuff too.. most annoying thing ever.. and i did do the pen through dollar effect again..because it was the most annoying thing to hear all day so whatever. then they want it again.
i ran.

I only teach to people who have a trick to teach me (or would be willing to do so if I didn't know all their tricks).
If somebody is completely new to card magic, then I would give them the karate kid treatment (wax on, wax off) and see how serious they were about actually learning. A week of one type of cut, a week of dribbling etc. Just to see if they were serious enough to actually practice it.

I learned all my tricks from books that I went to the library to read. Or from a bookstore where I spent money that I had worked for to buy a book on the subject. I showed initiative to learn the stuff, they would have to do so as well.

I usually don't do the same trick twice for the same people. It would be like going to a concert and the band keeps playing the same song over and over. It loses it's effect. I like it better when they have to wonder about it and sometimes it's amusing to hear them tell me what they think happened...

^ya, im the same way... but what happens to me sometimes is i go to a party, and my friends will say "hey he knows magic, watch!" and then they start callin out tricks they want me to show to a group of ppl... while they stare relentlessly at my hands, hoping to catch me slip... so im temporarily quittin magic in the presence of those ppl... and just doin it to other ppl instead...

I made the biggest mistake. Performing Twist and Shake from stealing pips to my 9 yr old brother. He developed his own method of doing it. (Which happened to be the correct one, just 100 flaws and everything is exposed.) He showed it to EVERYONE. And ofcourse, EVERYONE, soon knew how to do that dumb version. They don't know the sleights, but now the "Trick" is ruined for me.

MY FRIEND ABSOLUTELY LOVE ME DOING THE ERDNASE COLOUR CHANGE TO HIM AND CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT. But a load of people always come from the side and say ''i know how he did that'' and i'm like ''EFF OFF!'' as i don't want to hear it. But my friend is still dying to know how i do it. He's never impressed by any tricks i do but does a good job of pretending to enjoy it. But today, as he was going into class i quickly did Oz's ambitious card but missed out some things like the card to mouth and erdnase change. When i made it jump to the top bent i just quickly said see ya as i thought he'd not be too impressed anyway. I expected him to say ''see you later'' but instead i heard him moan ''How the edited!'' under his breath. Oh yes, that felt good.

Never, never, never teach anybody the trick they want to learn. Even if they want to pay for it. Let them find out on there own. Isn't that how you found out. And for those of you who are exposing secrets due to your inability to perform and control a crowd, stop performing until you know what you are doing. No one should ever be standing in an area where there is a bad viewing angle that would expose the secret to your moves. You do have to control what ever crowd there is and make sure they are in a good viewing area.

If you don't expose any secrets then you save yourself the trouble of having to deal with routines that get ruined due to some one elses chop job performance skills. This hurts magicians everywhere. It all boils down to exposure.

Looking on the bright side, you can be assured that once you branch outside your immeadiate circle of freinds, especially if you are in school right now, you will not have as much trouble. Since you will be dealing with new crowds all the time. The professional magicians out there travel all over the country showing thier routines over and over and over again so they can perfect everything. Then they might get a spot on TV. The trouble with TV is once it has been on TV nearly everyone in the country knows about it or has already seen it. That's the trouble with the Blaine type of stuff right now.

So simply refuse to teach them your material. Explain that you have spent countless hours perfecting what you do and exposing the secrets would make all the time spent on it wasted. If they are truely interested in learning more, point them to some sourses of good begining magic. But don't show them where to get your material. If they want to find out bad enough they will find it on there own.

First of all, most magicians do not get p.o.ed when someone says "show me how you do that." Some of you confuse the feeling young magicians have with the feelings most adult magicians have. Most of us take statements like that as a compliment.

Second, most of us do not have friends who get mad when we do not reveal a secret. Again, this is mostly with people who are less mature.

Third, as stated, never tell someone a secret (magic or otherwise) unless you do not want it to be a secret.

Now, if magic is only a goofy hobby you will do for a few years, then by all means follow the advise given by some immature people here to run around like a maniac, mad as heck, threatening violence to everyone who dares to treat you with anything other than awed respect. Other wise, listen to what real magicians say about handling hecklers: Ignore them, learn to control your audiance without being a jerk, and stop worring about whether other children think you are a wimp because you are respectful, polite, and nice to your spectators.

How did your brother figure out how to do Twist and Shake from watching you? If he figured it out, then others would have too.

I would talk to him about the ethics of not doing what he did. If that doesn't work, stop showing him tricks.

Stealing Pips is soooooo advanced.

hmm...what if u bought a trick for $10 and they're willing to pay u $30 if u teach them?

Kline hit the nail on the head...who cares if they ask to know how it's done? That means that you not only impressed them, but they are also oblivious as to how you impressed them (read: your performance went well).

I work for both adults and children, and I get it across the board. The trick is to know when and where you should bust your moves

I actually made the mistake of pulling my cards out at a Superbowl party last night because I was asked to see some stuff from people who didn't know me. I opened the box a la Cradle to Grave and started my first effect when I hear (in complete drunken slur) "DUDE! I know a trick, hold on!" This kid runs to his shoe and starts taking the lace off of it. He was so loud and animated that the attention went right to him. I could have gotten mad and threw a fit, but I decided to just put my cards away and see what he had. He did a goofy rope trick with his shoelace and a coffee mug, got a good laugh, and that was that.

Just remember, if you're not getting paid for it, they don't have to see it. Pick your battles...

Pj

one of my friends came over randomely, and i was ion the middle of learning a trick (man i hate that!!!) and he asked me if i had learned any new tricks. i said no but eventually i decided to show him the trick. I messed up a bit because he's one of those spectators who try REALLY hard to catch u out. Anyway so i was performing the trick a few days kater and he came round. I showed my other friend the trick but as soon as i hit the climax (i did it perfect) , he says some stupid line about how he already had the card all along.

ARRGGGGHHHH