Last Saturday I got heckled...sort of.
When you are working as a magician (or with people) things can go sideways if the other person you are dealing with intentionally wants to have things go badly for you. And last Saturday a situation happened.
As a magician, if your instructions to a spectator are not crystal clear, or you are not in control in front of the crowd and things go bad, that is on the performer. I'm not talking about that here, this is about when a spectator thinks they can get a laugh if they make the magician look bad. It's a premeditated decision to be a jerk. My feeling is that this type of behavior is coming from a place of deep-rooted insecurity on the spectator's part.
Anyway, I do a trick where the person writes down the name of a celebrity and then I show them a picture of me with that celebrity on my phone. Its a prediction. They write down the name and I reveal it with a photo. Its a pretty cool trick. During the preamble before the revelation (magicians call it the expository phase) I am very clear that this celebrity on my phone is a very well know musician, actor, or sports figure. Someone we would all recognize.
So we get to the part where he reveals the name of the celebrity he wrote down so I could then do the big reveal with the photo. He turned the pad of paper around to show the 'celebrity' and it said.....Jesus.
I couldn't continue. I didn't have Jesus' picture with me on my phone. It wouldn't be possible. He intentionally picked someone to 'screw me up' to get a laugh. It didn't.
So what did I do? I had to stop the trick and move on. I explained that I did not have a photo of me with Jesus on my phone, but I didn't need to. The audience knew. Honestly, I was miffed but I couldn't do anything. Its my job to make EVERYONE'S night better, even the 'helper' onstage.
After the spectator returned to his seat (he couldn't wait to leave) I said that I should have explained better that it was a current celebrity from music, film, etc. Someone in the audience said that I did in fact explain that. Everyone knew this guy was 'not cool'. They knew as soon as his 'celebrity' was revealed.
Fortunately these people, who I think of as thieves of joy, are few and far between. Hopefully if you ever get the chance to see me live things go more according to plan. I'll do my part.
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Chris Bruce is a magician who lives in Burlington, Ontario who performs mainly in Toronto, Ontario and the surrounding area.
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