How do you handle the spectator who stares at your hands, and will not look away for any reason? I encountered this at work, and he was not interested in the patter or the effect... Just wanted to catch me.... ...

Next time, use flash paper and an igniter. He won't be looking closely after that.

Lol, yeah, and then a squirting nickel to put out the fire!.. ..

Unfortunately some people will always have a challenge mentality. I've found that this kind of person tends to get angry when they feel they've been fooled. If the two of you are not enjoying the performance (and they won't unless they catch you), I'd stop performing for them. Don't think of it as defeat or failure on your part. They just like solving puzzles more than being mystified.

Ask him to read the number off his IBM card. Gotta be a magician.

Stop the magic and have a conversation with him (about what you're gonna do, why you do it etc)... then go back to the magic while you continue the conversation.

Josh, failing yet again to be superfluous , pretty much nailed it. I'm an engineer, and while I don't generally get angry, I might get frustrated if I don't understand something, which by the way, means I'm frustrated often! But how I feel does depend on the context. I go to a magic show to be entertained, I don't go to dissasemble the performance. Naturally, I imagine how the tricks are done, especially since I'm a magician, but I'm not obssessed with analyzing, I only do it because it's a work habit. I've noted several times that good performers often make me forget to analyze because I become engaged by their presentation.

But, a person has care before they become engaged.

I wouldn't generally stare intently at a magicians hands trying to catch him or her. I realize it's impolite for a magician to do that. However, I don't think it's neccessarily bad for a layman to do it. I think in some cases, it's expected.

Was your peformance solicited or did you offer to perform? If performing for people who know you, the latter case will often result in an implicit challenge situation. I think it was Dai Vernon who said, "Make them ask twice." John Bannon won't perform his card magic for someone unless they supply the cards. That prevents the magic from being thought of as an imposition and instead it's recognized as a favor.

I've been in a new company for a year and a half. Here we send an initial greeting e-mail to everyone in the company just after we're hired. It includes both professional credentials and some personal information. The personal information I wrote included that I was interested in the "performance art of magic" and that I liked chocolate donuts. Many people commented regarding chocolate donuts. Nobody has ever mentioned magic. After just over a year, one coworker saw me looking at a magic-related site on the Internet and I later ended up showing him a few routines. So far, that's it.

To answer your question, just do tricks where the sleights are totally invisible, such as "Twisting The Aces," or where there are no sleights at all, such as "Out Of This World." There are many more tricks in those categories.

Don't worry about it.

If a person stares at my hands I always encourage them to watch carefully, and to please tell everybody if they see anything happening out of the ordinary. I only do tricks that play 360 degree so laughing at them subtlely lets them know that they are waisting their time.
HAVE FUN
Al Angello

Max Malini used to say: "Vait. Vait a veek if you heff to."

There are some things you can do that will cause them to look elsewhere, though. For example, if you are doing OOTW, at that critcal moment, when it comes time to do the necessary move, if you have them separating one pair of piles, you can do the necessary without any problem.

Most spectators can be distracted by simply speaking their name. If you call them by name, generally, they will look at your face.

If you have a split sponge ball in your pocket, you can reach in, pull it out (concealed in your hand) and put it on your nose as you rub your face. Then say, "you missed it!" They will look up, see the nose and laugh. In that brief moment, you could do an open cut and they wouldn't see it.

Okay, that's an extreme example. But invisible sleights are always preferrable, so if you know some, use them instead of the ones that require misdirection. There are pieces of misdirection, though, that are so strong that they will cover almost anything. Scotty York's "Electric Razor" is a good example.

I suggest that you learn some killer self-working effects. Switch to them for two or three routines. The person watching will eventually realize that he can't figure it out and tire of trying. You can then switch back to the sleight of hand routines. "Scarne on Card Tricks" has been the best book for such effects. I've used this technique on magicians bent on exposing and 'stare down artists'. It works equally well.

Al, Bill & Steve,

Do you guys think it's worth it? Have you had a sceptic really enjoy themselves? I know how to fool these kinds, but it only seems to cause them frustration.

As Steve and Bill said, all you need is one strong trick like the invisible deck, the one David Blaine does will fool anybody, or the ultimate card rise (with the rubber band) and the skeptic becomes a believer, and your biggest fan.
Al Angello

I was at a Mike Close lecture, and he told a spectator that his only job was to watch his (Mike's) hands the whole time, yet he was able to get the guy to look away and still fooled him.(and everybody else there).....

I know it's hard to believe, but I have gotten some really strong responses from OOTW, from skeptics.

Theres is another thing to consider. Sometimes, if the routining is really strong, the momentum of the routine will carry you past the critical points. One example is "Solid Deception." This is a killer trick. Most people don't bother with it.

I use it as part of a larger routine.

I had this happen once when doing an Okito Box routine one on one.
The guy just went into a trance and stared.
Nothing mentioned here worked. I tried talking to him and eventually just ended the effect early. This never happened before.
Strange thing was that this guy was normally animated and outgoing.

It's different when it's not one on one because you can shift focus to different folks.

Maybe that's like my experience. I have a buddy whom I based 80% of my comments upon. He's a fun intelligent guy, who should enjoy magic. I've tried many approaches. I've never failed to fool him. He always gets extremely frustrated. I stopped showing him effects and have no regrets.

I guess he's different then just a hand burner. He sees it as a contest, and he's a bad sport.

Tommy Wonder had some really interesting things to say about this in Books of Wonder Vol 1, in Attention-Getting Devices chapter.

One that I found particularly interesting is the Grasping At Straw technique. I don't think I can sufficiently describe this in details here but in gist, it's throwing the spec off balance with an unexpected/ambigious comments or instruction which force them to turn to you for more information, which provides the lead that you can lead them (and their eyes) from then on.

Ok, that really doesn't do it justice, do find the book and check it out yourself. It's in the front few chapers.

That's the basic idea of what I was referring to in OOTW. You give them something to do, and it takes their mind off what you are doing.

Another technique is the, "No, do it THIS way" form of misdirection. You give them a simple task to do, and find some minor thing that they are doing incorrectly.

There are two views expressed here. One is to not perform for the person and the other is to take steps to make sure they're fooled. I'm not sure which is correct. I expect each answer is correct in different situations.

I think Josh probably made the right choice not to perform for his friend. I trust Josh's judgement, after all, he knows his friend. Josh, if you ever do change your mind and somehow manage to get your friend to like your magic, then I'd be curious as to what you did, but I'm not requesting that you try.

When someone stares like that, they're taking an adversarial stance. They're determined not to be fooled. I agree that they generaly can be fooled, but I question whether it's always the best course. If it's a magic show, then fool them of course, but we're talking about performing for a friend here.

The people who already know us well are very different than audiences of strangers. They have expectations about who we are and that can make it difficult for them to view us as a mystifier. Magic can pop us out of the mold they put us in.

Or, perhaps it's not just that they know us, but that they are competing because they know us. That often happens in friendships between guys, and, of course, there are also women who are very competitive.

Or, perhaps they're peeved that we won't let them in on the secrets. There's nothing that can be done about that.

It's easy to characterize someone who doesn't accept our magic as being immature, or having some other negative characteristic, and I suppose that is a possibility. That hasn't been stated here, but I've read it in similar topics. I prefer to take the view that the audience is always right unless there is a compelling reason to think otherwise.

I've had both experiences myself. I've won someone over who stated that they thought magic was for children and openly expressed no interest, but later requested magic because I fooled them. I also have a friend who seems totally ambivalent about magic. Perhaps when I first performed for him my presentation wasn't up to par. I have no specific reason to think that, but in addition to not immediately blaming the audience, I also think it's best to first assume that I'm wrong. I haven't decided if I will perform for this friend again. I probably won't unless someone else asks and he happens to be present.