I would just like some thoughts on the Challenge Situation. (When someone challenges you to do a trick, and that someone is only interested in catching you out.) What do you guys do here? And if you accept the challenge, what trick do you do?

Peter Nardi's Extractor.
It's virtually a challenge conditions effect and it's a mind melter. This never fails to cause WILD reactions.
Not really a "moment's notice" effect though...

I personally wouldn't accept a challenge.

I do what I do to entertain not to outsmart.

Accepting a challenge is like asking for trouble.

I like challenges. It's not easy, but, IMO worth it in the end.
Here is a topic on challenges to card tricks that you might find useful:
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......&start=0

I don't do "tricks"; that's for dogs and prostitutes...

Dogs do tricks on command...
...and prostitutes do tricks for money.

However, that being said...

I will preform 'magic' for 'nice' people;
and I will preform 'magic' for anyone for a fee.

subtle difference - but, an important one.
Always be a professional - you may be the only
close-up magician they ever see live...
...you represent the entire art of magic!

Don't let your ego get in the way, if you're
not ready to do something great, don't give in
to a challenge!

BTW - Always be ready to do something great !

I think to a certain extent every performance any magician does is a challenge of sorts. In any given audience, a certain percentage of the spectators are probably watching with the thought that they can pierce through the illusion and misdirection to discover the secret. It is specifically for those busybodies that the first two cardinal rules of magic were formed--1) Never repeat a trick and 2) Never tell in advance what you are going to do. It is for that reason that a corollary of the two rules was formulated, namely: If you want to repeat an effect, do so with a different modus operandus. For example, the first time you vanish a coin, use a standard coin pass. The second time use a non-pass method (e.g. the pumpkin seed coin vanish) instead of a pass. There are a number of coin vanishes that end with the hands completely clean. When I borrow a quarter from a spectator, I sometimes warn them: "When I make something disappear, sometimes it never comes back. So I'm warning you--this may be the last time you see this quarter. And you'll just be out 25 cents."

The late Horace Bennett had a great routine with two coins--one at the fingertips of each hand--where one coin vanished and he reproduced it from behind his knee. But when he looked back for the coin in the other hand, it was gone. He reached behind the other knee to reproduce it, but it wasn't there. Then he looked at the hand with the other coin--but that coin had mysteriously vanished, too. Both coins had vanished and he was completely clean.

Horace was one of the greatest magic thinkers I ever met, and much of his magic has remained undiscovered by most of the current magic community. Curiously, I think his legacy is appreciated more in Europe than in the U.S., perhaps because he published a lot in magazines like England's _Gen_ and India's _Mantra_ magazine.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Pull out a clean handkerchief, cover your hand and produce a "bird."

What do you "preform" them from?

Bill,

Great catch - important point!

Sorry tried to send a quick message,
brain got twisted and spell checker
elf was asleep...

Again big sorry for a brain fart!

But I think you're smart enough to
know what I meant.

Others seemed to get it without a big problem.

Later,
Dnenis - oops...
Dennis

If I decide on doing magic for someone who I know is going to be a problem I will perform crazy man's handcuffs or Va city shuffle in both effects I pull them in closer than anyone else in the room and if they still want to guess how it is done they can only say "you did something I don't know what you did but you did something". Both effects end clean in case the person is a "grabber" and they are real foolers whether the challenger wants to admit it or not.

I'm not a big fan of "challenges" though it has happened to me. I hope when I am performing they get caught up in the fun instead of the idea of "busting me". I acknowledge their request with a playful response as "Easy Turbo".

Charlie

I don't like to be in that situation cos if your in that situation obviously something about the way youve presented your magic has been wrong or taken the wrong way...but it does happen and you cant always just walk away. If Im working professionally I need to 'shut someone up' as it were, I often do something like gypsy thread because its pretty amazing and they can burn your hands as much as they want and you can do it as slow and as cleanly as you want because there is nothing for them to catch.

I have on many occasions performed magic in a restraunt at the bar. Works well because the people are usually in a good mood. I have a fear of being challenged by the bartender. They are impossible. They like to catch you or even spoile a trick if the bartender is involved like something as simple as holding out their
hand. So a piece of advice, "be warry of a bartender challenge.
Leinad

I keep notebooks with ideas, sound bytes, phrases and presentation ideas. Last year I wrote this "response to a challenge" in my notebook. Haven't used it yet, but figure I might as well share it:
"Issuing me challenges is one way of testing me, but circling around the borders of my limitations will take much longer than simply allowing me to give you a demonstration."

If someone is wearing a watch then "coin under watch" followed by a watch steal - this normally shuts them up! If no watch is available however I have a trusty multible coin production followed by a coin's across routine which I always seem to fall back on.

I also recently perfomed "Powerball 60" under challenge conditions and it worked out pretty well.

The single most frequent challenge I'm issued is, "Tell me the name of my card.", immediately after a card is selected.
This usually happens when I'm performing casually for acquaintances, not during a paid performance, and during a pick-n-stick effect, after one card effect has already been performed. So, I'm performing for fun and conversationally and the spectator is having some fun with me.
To meet these challenges I have gotten in the habit of always using a classic force when a card is to be selected so I'm anticipating the challenge.
On the occassion that they dodge the force or I have not done the force, I will use my everyday wallet (peek wallet) and a presentation I've created that makes it logical for me to have the card secured on my person prior to reading their mind, but still I never touch the card.
It happened Saturday night. I was out with a date having some drinks after dinner and she asked me to show her a trick (she knows me). I wasn't really into it and just did a simple card revelation, and after that one card effect, she dug into the deck and pulled out some random card and looked me in the eye and said, "Tell me the name of my card."

So, IMO they are just having fun with you when they ask the impossible. If you can step up and meet the challenge, they are delighted and surprised.

BUT, I suppose it does depend on the nature of the challenge...

I'm VERY interested in hearing REAL examples of challenges that have been issued by audiences rather than just snappy retorts. Perhaps if this thread had real world examples of challenges that the public is issuing we can work out methods for meeting those challenges.

Typically when I go and visit my parents my Mom is always telling people I will do magic for them. We will be drinking coffee at a coffee shop and we will run into someone and she will just say, "Oh, he does magic. He'll show you a trick too!". I use to get very frustrated when this happened because it was very out-of-the-blue but now I sort of expect it so I typically keep a simple packet trick on the top of the deck of cards. Stuff like NFW and more recently a non-packet trick, Richard Sander's Tagged. I try to do things that are quick but powerful. Beyond those occasions I typically don't accept challenges.

If I am out and someone is relentlessly harassing me to do something, I will typically turn it down 2 times then on the third time say, "I'll show you a trick, if you can beat me at a game." Then I go on to do Meir Yedid's Arm Twist. This can accomplish 3 things:

1-The harasser got to see a trick,
2-The harasser can now leave me alone,
3-The harasser may hurt himself in the process.

Okay, no one has ever gotten hurt (and I hope no one ever does) but it does keep them off my back and normally gets a positive response.