I once had a 9-year old boy in the audience who kept running up on stage to examine my props. The 4th time he ran up, he grabbed a rope out of my hand. (Fortunately I was clean at the time.) I picked up my wand and told the boy that if he came back on to the stage, I would hit him with the wand and that it really hurts. No one else heard this of course, and you know what? It worked.
lol:

well buddy, no offence, but threatning to beat a kid with a wand lol...... thats just bad. omg... god thats funny tho, but what i do is two feet in front of my table at a kids show put tape and on both sides, and tell the kids that if they cross the line the magic wont work...... and if they do cross it.... ask a parent to handle their hellion lol......worked at my newphew's b day anyways.



Out,
TFK

you should of said you'll make him dissapear.

The best way i think to handle a heckler would give them something to do. You know the thing with the two horseshoes one on each end a little link or three of chain in the middle holding them together and a ring around the chain and you have to remove the ring. Give them this it will keep them occupied for a while it is even better when you can do it( i can) so if they try to grab it let them give it try or two or three or... It is just my opnion but threats aren't really the best thing of all time

dang, i hate prop grabbers...

fortunately i haven't had any lately... knock on wood

After several successful performances, some girl attacked me after I did 8 Card Brainwave. I couldn't let her see the cards, but they weren't trick cards. Of course, since she couldn't see them, she insisted that they had to be trick cards. Can somebody please let me know what technology would make it possible to change the back color of one card without any odd handling?

Tell her ...Now I will make every other card switch color and do one at a time (showing all blue, make one red, then showing all blue , make the second one red, and so forth. Leaving the red cards face down as you go through).
Then go ahead and hand them out.
TADA!

Why didn't you just tell him you would turn him into a frog... you probably would have gotten the same outcome without going all Ike Turner on him.

Hi
This thread prompts me to mention two weird episodes involving adults. First I was in a bar with a female friend & I was levitating a pound note (that's 'dollar bill' to you U.S. guys!) for her, when suddenly some woman at another table threw herself quite literally across our table, arms flailing through the air, not so much to grab the props as to smash them down. She was really freaked out and it was like messing with her mind so much she had to deny what I was doing in the most direct way possible.

The second, similar cause I think but different reaction, was in a classy restaurant. Again floating money for friends. A woman & her boyfriend just arriving, see the performance & come over, asking politely if she can watch. The money starts to float & she immediately gets sick and dizzy & has to be taken home.

I think this is all about some people finding some illusions to be just too disturbing to handle. While children want to unmask magic to see what's really going on, it seems some adults (thankfully few) are just too destabilised by some apparently irrational events, and respond to them irrationally in turn.

yea i had a prop stolen while the spectator was examinating it. He made me pay him 5 bucks to get it back

There's no such thing as a pound note.

Next time tell him, "Ok you keep that, I want to show you another trick." Do anything you can think of, simple card trick whatever, that allows you to invade his personal space. He will be so concerned about you not getting the prop back that all of his focus is on that. While he is not paying attention to everything else, steal his wallet, car keys, sunglasses, watch, whatever you can see on him that is of value and as much as you can. Do the trick too, to keep suspicion down.

Then say ok how much is it for me to get my (whatever the prop is) back. He will say $5. You say, "would you trade for this wallet, these car keys, these sunglasses, this watch..." rob the idiot blind and make sure he knows that you will happily keep his stuff and replace the prop he stole on your own by selling his property, if he isn't willing to play ball.

What is he going to do? Tell someone on you? You are just returning the favor. A steal for a steal.

Whoops! You're showing your age - or lack of it. The pound note was the single most common unit of paper based currency in the UK at the time of my story and was only recently withdrawn from circulation. Try searching for it online, or at least do some basic checking before making such wild and comprehensively incorrect assertions!

Here, 30 seconds effort finds this online picture of a UK £1 note!
http://www.bignell.uk.com/images/01%20Front.jpg

Your apology will be accepted

HA! I love that pickpocket idea! But if like me, you are not that skilled, you could say that you need the stolen prop for your next trick. Your other spectators will pressure him into giving it back (they want to see more tricks). When he gives it back, you put it away. Spectator:"You said you needed that for your next trick!" Magician: "Yeah, magicians say a lot of things." or "I did! I needed it for the make-the-wiseguy-give-back-my-property trick. Tada!"

P.S. I still have a pound note somewhere.

you should have just told him if you keep comeing up on stage you have to preform for every one