The rest of my family are starting to realise how serious about magic I am, one said recently "It's almost like you're a magician" My cousin still isn't convinced I'm even human but he's still a pretty immature kid. Maybe when he's older he'll be a better spectator.

Just remember, you ARE a magician. There is no " almost" about it. Just keep working at your sleights, behave with integrity, respect the oath, and the craft. Express yourself artistically.

I remember early on, when i wanted to perform Card magic, I was treated like..' someone that did card tricks." But once my extedned family saw I was really into this... I would be doing stuff to practice all the time. I remember one time My mother in law's dog's chew ball rolled to my feet, I picked it up...subconciously evaluated it's size , saw that it was Just big enough to look impressive and JUST small enough to so some fun stuff with, did a false transferr to my left hand a few times followed by reproductions... then tossed it back to the dog,... she just looked at me with her eyes bug eyed.

I just like giving off this aura that i can do magic at the drop of a hat, even if I am not... " performing"... I think it helps to get passed that " almost like a real magician" thing that they think is a compliment.

I can understand the sentiment behind it, but to me being thought of as " almost like a magician." is not really a compliment.

I agree with Clarissa on this one. Magic is getting really hard to perform nowadays, atleast in my school(good practice for hecklers). I usually flourish when I have nothing else better to do with my hands in school. Let's Just say that a couple of kids have started to bring cards to school kind of like that "Yo-yo" fad that went on a couple of years ago. I don't mind at all, but i hate when they ask me: "where did you learn that?... Youtube right?", I just hate when they say that especially when it's all my own material.
Anyways, that leads the kids(16-19 yr olds) to look for tricks online and end up watching n00b videos on youtube and that's not nice because then they think they're so "cool" for calling out whatever I'm doing.
That Heckler fad is growing on quick!

Well for me it was quite a compliment, maybe you had to be there. But I did a trick for a friend the other day and they said "Your gonna do this on stage one day aren't you?" It means people are getting past that "He just does a couple of tricks" stage. My family do see me practising every day and so on so they know I'm serious about it. And I impress different family members with different things. My Aunt was wowed when I did a ribbon spread turnover (That was easy). But my Dad wasn't really impressed untill I showed him an Erdnase colour change. But my family do enjoy my tricks. Which is the point after all.

Forgive me if you got the wrong idea. I know you work hard at your craft, we all do. I was just saying that...you ARE a magician. You aren't " almost like." a magician. "Almost like " means that if you aspire and work hard one day it will SEEM that you are a magician.

At least in my mind. I Guess you are right maybe I had to be there. I am glad that many in your family can see that you will be on stage someday, they accept you for what you are.

Oh, You may enjoy this handling of the Erdnase that is very deceptive. First turn the deck so backs are face up... then turn the top card over... do an Erdnase as you fake pushing the turned up card off the deck, and across the table... Hold your hand there a couple of seconds.. Under this misdirection Nonchalantly do a Charlier cut...or use the side of your leg to cut the dack with one hand... Hold the hand over the " card" for a couple of seconds... make the card.." disappear".

Then bring back the deck.....snap the fingers over the deck..show the card face up.

Looks awesome as the second part of a " select a card, control to top, reveal top card....." then do above...

Or maybe you do not show it face up. and do something else with it. But in my opinion, using The Erdnase as a way to make a card vanish is more deceptive then to use it as a transformation. I read about it in Designing Miracles By Darwin Ortiz... when i tried it I was like.." whoa..." Give it a try

I did the muscle pass. Out of habit I move my hand up an inch or two very slowly and the guy says that I threw it.

Then you did it wrong, you're not supposed to be moving that hand even half an inch. it takes away from the effect because it gives a non-magical reason for the effect. So you should practice it more, and develope that thing we can't talk about so that next time you do it without moving the hand at all.

This is the reason we always say " practice, practice, practice....." When you take shortcuts, you get burned.

Joel Paschall performed the Muscle Pass at our table at California Magic Dinner Theatre, and my friend was freaking out. And this is the same friend I test run all my tricks on; he rarely freaks out. But this did it. Just practice it a little more; you'll get it eventually.

As for the worst explanation(s):

1) This weekend I did an ACR, and was told every card was the signed card. Yes, they actually said it...

2) Some kid at school reached down my pants to try to figure out the STS. Yes, it was a guy. Yes, it was extremely creepy and awkward. Yes, I felt violated. No, he did not discover the secret. Not sure if that counts as an explanation or not, but it sure was weird.

I just love it when I'm accused of a trick deck with a real one.

I was doin Bill Malone's all backs routine and this kid said i saw that deck in the magic store before. So I replied, "and what deck would that be?" He said, "The one with no numbers"

When I went on to the all faces part he freaked.

Woot wooot... it is nice when you can get a Kicker that destroys their theory... they have no place else to go.. their mind crumbles...

Ahh yes, I love that feeling you get as you witness their reactions.

One of my all-time favorite effects is the Fork Climbing out of a Cup. I use a plastic cup and a plastic fork. I've even used the clear variety of both and I still get some of the weirdest explanations...

"Static electricity" - You were holding the cup.

"Magnets" - Everything's PLASTIC!

"Fishing line" - It's broad daylight. Have you ever been fishing?

"You blew into the cup and created a mini vortex..."

---

Also, my father-in-law is a terrible heckler. He always has a theory on my effects and feels the need to voice them. However, one time when I showed him Out of this World, his jaw just dropped and remained speachless for a good 10 minutes.

There are people that are so upset by the fact that you deceived them, and whose self esteem is such that they cannot accept that they are ignorant, that they will make up the most outlandish explanations.

I think it's a compliement when they have to wax fantastic, to explain My version of prof daly's last trick...

BTW Just did that for my Bro-in-law after twisting the aces... and his reaction...

" How the H eLL did you do that???"

Yup, You can get great reactions with a simple Oil and water routine. It's so simple it's amazing.

I actually get this a lot. (Actually never got it like you where I just took a deck out and they said it) Anyway, at least 5 times, it happened that I say: "Here, pick any card". and they go: "Oh, I know this trick". And then I'd have to explain that there are many tricks that begin with "pick a card".

Anyway!

One time, I was doing ambitious card to a friend of a friend sorta... anyway, after I do it, (I finished off with Fallen, by Daniel Garcia) He tells me that he's into magic and knows most of the sleights. He then pretty much explains the whole trick fairly well without giving the exact method of how I did it, but with popular methods of doing ACR. And then for the last part, where I had done Fallen, he takes the deck and "shows" me how I did it: pulling out one card at a time really quickly and pushing it under his card. And then he actually demonstrated it slowly. I just laughed and was like DEAR GOD MAN, I can't move my fingers that fast! And he was so sure of himself: "Yeah, I've seen that last one before. I can't do it, but like all you do is hide this part, pull out the card with this finger, and push it in while pressing on here."

When I talked to him after, he tells me that he reads books and watches teaching videos just for fun, just so that he knows how all tricks work. :\