Try to avoid giving any answers. Including yes or no. Tell them it's magic and ignore them from that point on. They will get the hint.

When you start arguing over how it's done, the magic is gone from it and it turns into a battle of wits and anyone else watching will be more interested in wether or not your spectator/sceptic is correct in his theory.

one time i made a silk vanish and appear outside, and this guy said i have secret magic helpers, in the form of elves or something lol. well isnt that still magic? or i made a selected card appear inside an orange, and he said i read his mind and knew the card before the trick. again still magic of some sorts. i made a silk vanish, but he said i have a hidden compartment inside my finger or hand lol. ppl dont really believe they know how it is done, they are just trying to get you to prove them wrong with the actual method, therefore confirming it is not real. then all you would get in response is, i knew it was some kind of trick. so you would not win regardless.

lol was it a girl?

everytime i get a new efect down pat i show my parents, i did the pop up amb. card routine and she said while the deck was eye level i pulled it out the side and slid it on top.. now thats really bad

I am a big advocate for putting people in their places. However I have learned humbleness since getting into magic.

I bite my tongue every time someone wishes to mess up my trick, or expose my trick. I would love to tell the world he/she's wrong and does not know what he/she is talking about. But realize of course they do not as I am the magician, and they are the spectator. We both have our jobs. If they aren't doing their job right, it doesn't mean that I will not do mine properly.

No, it was more like them pointing and demanding that I pull out my pockets, and scratching their head, and feeling the pockets (pulled out)

I don't want to even imagine what you guys were thinking.

one guy in school ACTUALLY suggested that i had a button on the pen that made superglue come out of my pen and GLUE THE PAPER!!!! ideot!

(stelath pen by the way incase you ar a [edited] like him!)

I had one guy guess Stealth Pen, and was able to prove it using something he had in his pocket. That was pretty dissapointing. I pretty much can't go into any more detail here though...

I think what sucks about people starting to explain things is that any chance for wonder in your audience is now lost. They start to join in on the "guessing game" and the moment can be lost. Beyond Secrets actaully has a good deal to say about this, I'm finding. We'll see if it helps.

Pj

u just have to pick the right spectators i guess... if someone in the group wants to try to ruin it, u should probably stop performing... even if u do somethin that is impossible in the eyes of every other spectator, that one guy will sit there and try to ruin it, probably to make himself feel smarter than those around him, and to separate himself from his 'fooled' friends...

i have one friend who CANT be wrong, no matter what an argument is about... he never sees my magic...

The problem with me is that many times I am hired to perform and I get paid at the end of my show. I (and quite a few others in penguintown) don't have the luxury of just stopping a performance. Sure, on the street or for friends I'll just walk away, but what can I do? Turn down good money because of a bad spectator?

So it's not really more of a problem, just more in need of a solution for me and others in the same boat. I think it comes down to being humble enough to not challenge them back right away, to take the time to win them over if you can. But in case you can't...I always have one trick that can't go wrong, one that hits so hard they can't help but go nuts. For me, Lorrayne's no sleight of hand prediction effect is what works well in these situations. It's one of those wonderful things that is disarming, always works with the right presentation, and leaves that person just gaping at what happened. This works for me, and allows me to move on and enjoy my performance.

...and I'm spent.

Pj

^well of course a paid performance is different... and a mind boggling effect is what u neeed...