I agree. You should do your best to end the heckling without trying to start some kind of confrontation. You should be out there to entertain people, and the best magicians are able to convince hecklers of this, or at least convince everyone else so that they will stop the heckler from bothering you. Also, if you were getting paid for walk-around, the last thing you want to do is challenge your spectators and lose your job because you tried to make the customers/clients look stupid.

If you come off as friendly and you show a genuine desire to entertain others, the heckling will be much less frequent. However, there are the few people in this world that refuse to accept magic and demand to inspect every last little thing you have and criticize every last move you make... for these people, you either have to leave them with some not-so-harsh words and move on to others, or hope that your genuine desire to entertain will convince your spectators to tell the heckler to shutup.

EDIT:



I didn't realize you had said this already. I completely agree, as you can see from my post. You should be professional when performing to lessen the risk of ruthless hecklers.

I agree with what Freed is saying. You never want to make anyone look stupid, even the heckler. Like he said, one day you could try this method of "You do it then" and he turns the whole situation around to his advantage, ending up making you look unproffessional and as the stupid one.
Dont give them the pleasure of taking notice of them, unless it is some of the comments from magicman33 (lol, they were very good) or just simply ignore him/her, and providing that your performance is good enough, the rest of your audience will most likely tell the heckler to stop.

Say "Your mama is easy."

But as you probably are gonna get beat up by that, dont.

Instead, have some cool flourish cuts and antpoher deck with you in hand.

Hand them the other deck, and tell them to follow you, then do some advanced sybil.

I dont know if they will even break into Z...

I highly suggest you don't change girlfriend to MOM, that was 2 years ago you could say that and it was funny but now when you say it everyone is just like Shut-up!

yeah, i did a routine in my drivers ed. class, and some kid(who's back was turned) says this outta the blue, "I think magic is boring, all it is is sleight of hand." The others in the class shut him up. And i finished by saying, " Moving on......"....

nobody likes hecklers. Usualy the other spectators tell the heckler to
please shut up because he's ruining it for everyone else

They say: "That's the easiest trick in the world!"
You say: "No, the easiest trick in the world is making your willy disappear!"

When they say you suck! You just reply back to them, "YOU SWALLOW"!!

Actually, if somebody says, "That's so easy!," that would be the perfect time to go into an impromptu "do-as-I-do" style trick. You might comment that the person is correct, it is easy. Follow by inviting them to help do your trick, and then they're part of the action. This works to your advantage in several ways.

1.) The heckler will be less likely to bother you after he seemingly did the trick. It'll make him/her feel more like your equal and positive.

2.) The heckler will be more likely to bother you also due to the fact that they just did the trick. Know that if the heckler helps you, he'll be looking for you to do your "secret move". When he doesn't see it, he'll be more convinced of your skill and less likely to pester you.

3.) The fact that the heckler is helping you will enhance the effect by disuading anyone who thought your assistant might have been informed before hand.

4.) This method of problem-solving is utterly unconfrontational. It enhances your performance, leaves you looking professional, and actually makes you and the heckler (that's the important part) look good.

If you think that this person runs the risk of ruining your performance if he helps you, I would say something that avoids confrontation. Some other people have said things that are good.

"You suck!"

Don't even reply. Not only is this person utterly rudem but they obviously are feeling insecure. They don't take your magic as performance, they take it as an insulte. Just ignore this person. They haven't figured out your trick, or else they'd say so, and they don't deserve your attention.

Here are some things you should not do with this, or the other, person:

1.) Do not ask them to do the trick. Believe it or not, no matter how amazingly good you are, some people will figure out how you do your trick. Through deductive reasoning, and "being around", not all of your tricks will remain a secret. Therefore, you open the door for people to challenge your tricks, and perhaps reveal their workings. Pretend that your performance has room for audience reactions, but not for proving yourself. Your performance is more important.

2.) NEVER belittle or otherwise insult your audience. First, without even going into anything, don't perform for friends in school. They are the most likely to reveal your tricks. Most people in school, for some odd reason or another, seem to take magic as an insult to their intelligence. Don't bother. Anyway, challenging your audience is foolish. Many audience members, if you challenge them, are more likely to throw insults or comments back at you. You'll end up looking unprofessional and rude.

This is what I would do. If there is a heckler trying to take over the show. Here are a few things you could do.
-Say "alright if you know soo much about this trick than you finish it". Then leave.
-Tell him or her "sorry, I didnt know you where a magician. You wont be interested in tricks you already know". Then leave.
-Just leave. Then the rest of the audience will be mad at the heckler for making you leave and the heckler will feel like an idiot.
-The heckler says"I know how thats done"! Then you say"Ohh cool, how?
-Or tell them "sorry, I didnt know you where a magician. Why dont you show some of your tricks"?
-" Sorry, you should have told me you werent interested in magic."
-Say"Ohh cool, your a magician? Can you teach me the______? Or the ________? Or the ______?" Then keep naming tricks and when they keep saying "well no" Then say " well your not a very good magician then". And leave.
-If the heckler keeps on saying stuff just ignor them and the rest of the audience will get annoyed and tell him or her to shut up. Or the heckler will realize that noone is listening and he will get tired of talking and will feel like noone cares and feel like an idiot.
Remember, you cant get the audience upset. If anything let the audience get mad at the heckler not you. Dont say these things in a mad way say them in a joking kind of way.


Hope these help you! cardkid.

i would say to you suck and thats so easy

great my sons birthday is next week can you coem perform your probaly much better then me or something along those lines

I'm really just a "family magician." Never worked for pay, always tried to entertain. More than once I've been asked to present 20 minutes of "something" for my childrens' school or church group or boy/cub scout group.

Smarter and better and much more skilled magicians than I have commented on how an audience of children is difficult. I believe them, and I sometimes feel like W.C. Fields. I want to say "Go away kid, you bother me!"

But I can't. So, I try to get hecklers and skeptics out of the way at the begining of my little presentaton. I announce boldly: "Now, if any of you see a part of my tricks and you think you know how it's done, then see me after the show and tell me! -- If you're correct I'll tell you, and it can be the secret that WE share!"

This does several things: 1) Gets the spectator on YOUR side 2) Maybe they really DID see something. Wouldn't you loke to know that? 3) Most times they DON'T know it, yet I'll tell a little magician's lie and tell them they're correct!

This also works w/ adults. of course. Same principles. I begin by saying something like: "Now, sit back and enjoy the show. BTW, I know that some of you are just ACHING to figure out the "magic" I do. I'd rather you just enjoy these effects for themselves, but if not then see me after the show and we'll compare notes."

I suppose that if that works for you, then good. But don't you think, then, that you're giving them a reason to try to figure out the trick.

i say "then show me how its done"...

Jerry

Do you realize how this sounds like,

"You're a booger head,"
"No, you're a booger head,"
"No, you're a booger head,"
"No, you're a booger head,"
"No, you're a booger head,"
"No, you're a booger head,"

What, are you, a bunch of little kids?