i usually tell'em "good choice, just shut up and watch. jkjk"
hmm how do you guys get over it?

"Your very smart really." And if you know they don't know...let them try...unless it involves gaffs of course. That will discredit them and the other spectators will respect you much more than him./

I have encountered this loads:
I say ''well then why say that if you weren't going to give the answer, quite pointless really.'' That actually makes them say the secret out of hate, but they're always wrong.

You guys are very confrontational. Why on earth would you want to make the person who is supposed to be enjoying your magic hate you?

The only reason I can think of is that some of you think you are better than your spectator. Hardly true in some cases.

If someone thinks they know how something is done, why get in their faces. They're excited that they happen to know something that most people don't only to have the magician get in their faces with a "holier than thou" attitude....

Small wonder that most people think magic is just for kids when the magician has the maturity of a child.

I've had a lot of people say this to me, and not ONCE have I ever chastised the person for actually saying it. The BEST thing I've ever done is said "Let's talk after we're done", and then I ask them to show me how they think it's done. If they are right, then I SAY they are right and compliment them. If there is more than one way to do the effect, then I tell them that's one possibility, but I do it another way. Sometimes I've even given them hints on how to better their methods. Once, I've even given away my thumbtip because the guy knew what was being used, but didn't have one himself, and expressed an interest in learning.

Big difference here. I've made these people my friend, and have had MANY of them come back to the place where I perform, and give compliments to the management team about the magic they've seen.

Don't you think that maybe a nice guy approach would be better? If someone is being a jerk, just wrap it up and move on, no need to be a jerk yourself.

David.

I definately agree that a non-confrontational approach is the best. Some of the 8th graders in my magic club are already finding out how hard it is to do magic for their peers. Kids are really into the "put down." I constantly have to tell my classes, "no crunking in this room, today." (It is usually better if I seem a little dorky to the kids ) I think this is why so many of the younger people here are into the confrontational approach. They can face brutal heckling from friends and foes.

I work with my magic students on how to just smile and ignore the hecklers.

But there is one thing I notice with some of the magicians here is that they react so negatively to inocuous statements from the crowd, such as, I know how you did that, or Tell me how you did that. That I do not understand.

Unless of course this person is the one doing the hating before the trick.

Who is hating? What does it matter?

In any case, you can't learn to handle hecklers until you decide that you don't have to do anything when some one is a hater. In other words, you have to learn to not take stuff personally. I can't number the kids who I have known whom were suspended because they had to do something about some hater. They take everything so personally. "But they were hatin' on me," they would say. "What was I to do?" "Nothing," I would say. "But they were hatin'."

Oh, well.

I think the defensive attitude would disappear if the defensive person was actually a working magician. If you want to work restaurants or corporate gigs or parties---in other words, get paid---the defensive attitude needs to be replaced with a customer's always right attitude. You can't insult a hosts guests just because you blew a DL and they caught you.

I think this attitude comes from the fear of rejection: that you've screwed up, or that you didn't impress them. Even when you completely blow a trick and have no recourse, you can still have fun with the crowd and not feel down on yourself.

Most of the time, when I mess up and they catch me, it turns into something funny. "I really blew that! I can't believe it! What the heck just happened? Did you not pick the right card? I tell you what. I'll show you my favorite trick. I wasn't planning on doing it all night." Then do whatever you have ready and play it up like it's something special.

i liked how greg wilson kinda blows off a spec in the on the spot demo when that guy sees him do a move...

SPEC: "i saw that! i saw that!"

greg instantly focuses his attention on the ppl who were amazed, and then addresses the crowd as if nothing went wrong... i mean, the guy wasnt really a heckler, but wilson didnt even flinch when the guy called him out...

WILSON: "see, most of u didnt see it because i was leanin to the side like this.." and then he proceeds to amaze them all with the next two moves...

i usually do it the same way if possible... just move on with the trick, and keep the entertainment goin... sure, that one guy caught one of ur lifts... but if u have been practicin, he'll miss the rest of them...

Exactly. I was doing a version of Jumping Gemini at a school dance where it was hot and sweaty and I was surrounded. Somebody to my side saw a flash of a basic slight. He yelled out what I did and some of the specs looked up, but I just ignored it and went on with the trick and specs attention returned to me.

today, my words proved themselves...

i did a quick trick off of double take for some people, and by chance, one of them used to do magic... but he was a nice heckler, because he pulled me aside after the trick(instead of callin me out) and told me "i know what u did, you did the DL technique"(he told no one else)... i told him ya, u got me on that one, but i have somethin better...

then i did an AC routine for the same group, and he was floored...

"How the #$%@ did u do that?"

so, here is what should be done in case of a heckler...

1>keep entertainment focused on the entertained and dont worry about the hecklers(at the time of "heckling")
2>follow up with a routine that u have down perfectly, preferably somethin "impossible", and the heckler will soon join the entertained...

This is a good topic and I enjoyed reading all you guys' posts. I have been guilty of being confrontational with my spectators sometimes as well. There's times where I lose my cool, and I shouldn't. Though, I've handled things well sometimes too. I think it depends on my mood or the alignment of the planets or something lol. I don't have a whole lot of experience working crowds, It's not like I do it everyday. I think with time I'll learn to deal with these kinds of things better. This thread really helped! Thanks guys!

I never have confrontations because i never have spectators like this, Why? because my magic is soooo good they don't talk to me afterwards...or is that because my magic was bad...oh dear...

if they tell u that they know how u did the trick tell them something like:

"really??? me too!!!"-that usally makes them shut up... if u make a joke about it, ur'e still enterteining and keep ur tricks safe.

NEVER tell them: "well, u do it if ur'e so smart"

ur target is to entertain, i know that when u show it to friends and stuff u can't treat them as u treat ur audiance. friends always ask me to do my trick again, or tell me to tell them how it was done, i always give them the same answer:

"1st time is free, 2nd time is 5$"

ovcorse they would never agree, but go figure!!! if they wanna know how u did it then tell them:

"1st time is enterteinment, 2nd time is teaching"

u can also add money involved there... but if they agree to pay (never happens, but if it does) then just say: "oh, but ur'e not a magician"...

except for 1 time that i got payed 10$ for teaching the 21 card trick, coz i gave it a REALLY good presentation, i learned from this simple trick 10$.
and don't think i got the money off some kid, i did in the 3 adults... one of them offerd me 10$, so i teached him in the side and then he did the trick like a pro after 3 min
well, thats not relevent here, anyway, have the best of luck!!!

Tomer

the best response I have come across for this for myself is look the heckler in the eye, wink and say "that's a good idea, I will have to try that next time I perform this trick."