Hello:

I can't remember how many times I've been asked, "Hey can you give me the winning lotto numbers?" or, "Hey can you pull gold coins out of my ear?" You get the idea. It's really no big deal...until of course it IS a big deal, because it's handled badly...and, believe me...it CAN be handled badly.

Here are some thoughts on how to think about this situation and how I handle it myself. Someone has just asked the question and my reply generally goes something like the following. I say it VERY lightly and in a way that is obviously making fun more of myself than the one asking the question:

"Oh, please, if I could win the lottery do you think I'd being doing this for a living?" (Or, for a hobby, etc.)

Note: The lottery question and like questions are virtually never serious. Not really. The above answer always gets a laugh, because that's what 'they' are really thinking anyway. Folks like it when other folks positionally in power do NOT take themselves TOO seriously. Makes us as entertainers more human and more approachable and by connection more watchable and enjoyable. I came to this conclusion after years of observation of the reactions of folks to the above reply and like replies having to do with pulling money from the air for instance AND making the connection as to the popularity of stuff like 'People' magazine.

It would be easy to assume that what folks like about the 'Rich and Famous' is the difference between THEM and us, but I do not believe that's so. What folks are looking for is proof that the 'Other' is really not so 'other' at all, but very much like themselves.

As magicians I think that this can be forgotten or mistaken for something other. The magicians that I truly loved over the years have ALWAYS seemed the most like me in the ways that I thought were complimentary EVEN if in my case not true. I would love to 'think' that I'm as nice and personable as Mike Ammar, Billy McComb, etc., but I'm really not. I would love to think that I could engage a total stranger in conversation in the manner that I have witnessed Jeff McBride do, but....well, you get the idea.

IF one could REALLY win the lottery at WILL....well, that would be a kind of demi-god status and place one FAR outside what 'normal' folks can identify with.

I say all the above, because I think that it IS good to have comebacks to common questions 'thought out' in advance. You can have a clever comeback that is 'clever' and yet not yield the positive results that you would wish. I have seen numbers of lay folk really, truly insulted over the years, not so much because the performer set OUT to insult them, but because he didn't really consider the AFFECT of what he was going to say, etc.

These type of 'questions' are so common that it's not that difficult to anticipate them and figure out what will work for you.

Brad Burt