My brother instead of asking how I do that just tells me I'm cheating, to which I simply reply, of course I am, I'm a magician.

You just needto ignore any will you have for telling your secrets.
and keep a poker face all the time

I got kicked in the head by a mual when I was eight.
OR
I got a t.v. thrown at my head. (i did and I show a picture of my HUGE bump)

There good for me

It happened to me recently. When I was asked, I kindly said "no" but then the kid just said:

"Just let me know the name of the trick and I'll search on the Internet"

Speechless.

When you've been asking' how do you do that??
Take a serious face and answer :' how did I do that?' then take a nice smile and follow by 'I don't even know myself !...

When I'm asked I just say : You wouldn' believe me.
Normally this works quite good.

I still remember very well an experience that happened many years ago when I was 14 years old. I gave a magic performance for a group of my older sisters friends. One of her friends, Darlene, who I had a bit of a youthful crush on, was very amazed by the coin in the matchbox which came with every Mysto Magic Set in those days. She followed me about the house for over an hour after my performance begging me to tell her the secret - all the while batting her eyelashes and using all the feminine charms at her disposal. I finally relented and, drawing her into a private corner, exposed the simple secret of the trick. I still remember the excited look of anticipation on her face and the immediate look of disappointment and disgust when she found out how utterly simple the secret was. She spit out "Oh, is that all it is?!", and spun on her heels and stalked out of the room to join the rest of her friends. When you amaze someone with a magic trick you have given them something wonderful, a rare experience they may potentially remember for the rest of their lives. When you expose the secret of your little miracle you have stolen that gift away and diminished yourself. Your friend may very well feel embarrassed with himself and annoyed with you because he was taken in by such a simple trick. I have seen this happen many times when I witnessed other "magicians" reveal their secrets after fooling their friends.

Keep your secrets. If they really and truly want to know because they have a genuine interest in learning to do magic themselves then direct them to the library and let them prove they have a sincere interest beyond just knowing how it's done.

BTW; I do not believe it is in the best interest of magic to immediately drag every Tom, Dick and Harry to your local magic club meeting at the drop of a hat just because they express the slightest interest in magic. If they are not willing to at least make a few trips to the library to check out a couple books on magic then they are not really interested and introducing them to your local IBM or SAM group before they have proven themselves cheapens magic as an art which we would all like to see taken more seriously.

One further thought on the subject. I believe it was Eugene Burger who pointed out that those standard replies that have been used for decades i.e., "Can you keep a secret? - So can I" and "I do it very well, thank you" should be retired as they tend to make you come off as a wise a** - although I don't doubt that a performer with the right personality might use them without causing offense. You need to be sure that you are presenting your magic as an enjoyable, shared experience of something wonderful and mysterious and not a challenge designed to make your spectator feel less intelligent than you are. They are less likely to care about the secret if you have not made them feel like a dim bulb for being mystified.

Just food for thought.

Spec: how did you do that?

magi? I did it when you done that.

spec: done what

magi: when you looked away see you did it again when you look away is when I do the secret move and that's how I do everything I just wait untill every one looks away at the same time

spec: I didn't look away?

magi: well you must be cause you didn't see the secret move.

spec: What secret move

magi: exactley you see my point

and you just keep goin with this theme it gets lauhs and after a while thay get the idea.

Yep!

And there us a chapter in it in scripting magic (or was it Maximum Entertainment? - I don't know --- just get both and enjoy the read and then go and use the info!).

I quite like "Thank you I'm glad you liked it" as it can often be a way of them saying "that was amazing!". Or "i practice quite a lot!"

Dave

PS NO really get both books!

A lot of ideas here. My stock reply is to act really ashamed and say, "I shouldn't telly you this, but it's done with mirrors." And leave it at that.

Tell them the truth

"I cheated."

"This isn't a contest or a puzzle to figure out. It's merely an entertainment. If you're not entertained by the mystery that is magic I promise to stop inflicting my work upon you. Fair enough?"

The reply I now use I got from a thread somewhere here on the Café.
When asked I say, "It's a trick."

I say the same thing every single time... enjoy the mystery. Once you learn the secrets, you lose the enjoyment. Be amazed, be happy (not exactly true because we are all amazed when someone does something that makes us go hmmmmmm?) I am always drawn to those "adventures" that are not what the majority believe is happening...

When people ask you how the trick is done, what always has worked for me is to respond with another question:

Do you know how to keep a secret?

Almost always they respond: Yes...

Immediately I will say: Me too...

My usual reply to "how did you do that?" is to make a "thing" out of it:

"I promised not to reveal the secret, do you really want me to?"

"Yes."

"Even though I promised not to?"

"Yes."

"Well, you have a kindly face so I guess it would be all right. But are you really REALLY sure you want to know?"

"Yes."

Sigh. "Okay, then. I do it with mirrors."

Way back, the only time I ever got asked, "how did you do that" was when I first caved in to doing a trick when someone asked. So I quit doing magic on demand. Now, I perform when, where and what I choose -- and have never been asked again.

What I do works very well. I offer to sell it to them! After all, that is how I got it. I ask various prices $70 to $1500 and no one yet has offered to meet my price. They do not want it bad enough to pay for it. Then I lower the price a little (because I like them). Sometimes I will try hard to sell them the trick. The harder I sell, the more they resist. This technique usually stops all requests for the secret. Someone bought my firewallet once for $120 but other than that no one else has been willing to pay. To be honest, if they met my price I think I would actually sell the secret to them. After all, that's how I got it. Fire away!