I have played it off by saying "and for my next trick I will dive into this tinny glass of water" as a pretend to set a glass of water down and pick up what I dropped and smile.

"Well, shucky darns"
"Ladies and Gentlemen, you have just witnessed the dangers of believing your own press...especially when you wrote it yourself"

"At least I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico"

Robert Haas

My head chopper mal functioned ... I nodded my head said," I built it myself" then smiled and proceeded with the trick. Got great laughs

On another note if you drop something keep a piece of flash paper in your back pocket pull it out light; throw bend down and pick up what you dropped .... Works great

"Did you see that ... A sudden gust of gravity"

"$300 for nothing"

"Props: $300. Magician: $500. Magic Book: $150. Watching a magician mistake: has no price."

There are plenty things you can improvised. Once my hand guillotine malfunctioned also. I only said: "So you can see it's a very dangerous trick" or also "So you can see it could fail".

Ohh ohhh I remember one!! In a show of world's greatest magic, The Pendragons were doing the Metamorphosis. It seems like Charlotte had troubles changing the clothes and she didn't get out of the trunk. So the host said "Even Houdini failed some tricks".

You could use that line for you.

In the comedy writing business, these lines are known as "savers" and its good to have a few ready (pre-written) for when a trick or a joke goes bad....

Comedy Writer

I dummied up a paper back to look like one of those "_______ for Dummies" which clearly -- and loudly states "Magic for Dummies" if a trick goes wrong I page through the book, look at the failed trick and go-- Hah, I knew I was wrong..."

Or "priceless" as the commercial goes...

Say Criss Angel tought you it.

They will eather laugh or look puzzled.