I Crashed and Burned

Michael Kras · I Crashed and Burned

I was just in the Battle of Ontario Magicians, which is a monthly competition held at a Kitchener magic shop. Everything that could have gone wrong for me did.

For my finale, I had planned and rehearsed a Card In Orange routine... all sorts of gags and jokes were in place for a fun and strong routine. Then, someone before me performs Card In Lime. As soon as he finished I scrambled to the back of the store, grabbed my magic case and tried to find something to replace it. With no time to put together a new routine or even rehearse, I chose Printing by Dominique Duvivier and went into everything totally blind.

My act was the last of the evening.... at that point, half the audience had already left and, even worse, already cast their votes without even seeing my act. I felt so bad, then suddenly, I was called to the front. Oh My God.

I go up, I feel trapped, everything is so cramped and I have no idea what I'm doing. I go in nearly unprepared but some part of me maintained an attitude that everything was going to go over well. I'm never listening to that part of me again.

I do my first effect, it goes well but for some reason my card handling just isn't working... I'm stumbling through my patter. I am handling like a complete novice and just feel all around bad.

I get to Printing.... it goes fine, until the last few cards... I do the Green back card and decide to print it off someone's green shirt in the second row. I lean over to do it, lose my balance somehow, and fall over onto someone in the first row.

I print the green back just barely to no reaction, and at the end for the final print I am feeling so shaken and clumsy that. I turn over the card before I even do the printing sequence. There goes my finale.

I'm feeling just awful after that, and there's nothing worse for me than pity applause... the audience goes nuts, loudly cheering, hollering, and at that point I almost felt like crying.... it felt like either they were mocking me or giving me cheap pity and that made me feel even worse.

There were so many things that affected my performance, it would take a ton of typing to list them all. One thing was a silent heckler in the front row who threw out an insult at the beginning of the routine that totally caught me off guard and left me disoriented.

I just needed to vent, thank you for reading.

Ben Train

I'm sorry to hear that man.

I've had shows like that as well, as I'm sure Brian and others have had as well. Here is my suggestion.

Write down EVERYTHING that went wrong. Now come up with three solutions for each.

For instance, have a different opener planed. Have a different closer planed. What happens if a force misses. Etc.

Saying that, I'll leave you with a little story of my own.

Last December I was at my local ring meeting. As I am 23, and I had no school for 2 weeks, I brought along some scotch for me and some friends. It was members night (performing tricks) and we thought it would be better drunk.

So, near the end of the night, I'm hammered, and I hear my name called! For some reason I was 'volunteered' and had to perform a piece of magic in front of about 70 people (We have a big group).

Well, I decide to do something I've mine (to be released soon) that I've had a lot of success with- it's fun and a serious fooler. And, only one thing can go wrong!

Which, as you can imagine... did.

So, I had to cull, fish, palm, and do a sh*t load of work to finish the trick... and it showed.

The good news is- the trick CANNOT go wrong now. I used this experience to grow, and deal with the problem head on.

I'm having the same issue with ANOTHER trick right now, which is also being workshoped.

So, Mike, I'm sure you didn't do as poorly as you thought, and now you have a great experience to learn from.

I'll see you on the 26th!

Michael Kras

Thank you very much for your sympathy and advice, Ben. Looking back, there are some things I feel good about in the performance. Other than a bit of a shakey patter, I got through my first effect without any mishaps or screw-ups. It was really the end of Printing that was my hugest mishap throughout the whole thing... what I'm really disappointed in was my card handling. Just the thought that the entire routine was going downhill perhaps got on my nerves and caused the poor handling, I'm not sure. But oddly enough, despite that I was still complimented on my card handling after the act had finished. I guess I just nitpick my handling a lot.

Actually, there were a ton of factors that influence my performance of the evening. I now feel like listing them.

1. The fact that my routine had to be totally reconstructed in minutes with zero time to rehearse or plan.

2. Many people had left right before my act and voted for the acts they had already seen.

3. I often get clumsy and shaky in physically tight or cramped situations and that's exactly what I was performing in... pushed to the back of a tiny stage in the corner of a small shop filled with 70 spectators. That influenced the stutter in my speech and some of my poor card handling.

4. The fact that nearly everyone in the evening did at least one card trick, and mine was the last act of a two hour show... Guess what? My routine was all cards.

5. A silent heckler in the front row at the beginning made me uneasy and caught me off guard with a very rude remark during my opening words.

6. People were getting restless and a part of me felt guilty for taking up more of their time.

7. Any time they applauded it actually hurt rather than helped, as I felt such a poor performance didn't deserve it. The whole thing puts me in a situation where no sort of response from the audience will make me feel the least bit good.

8. A few in the audience, not knowing quite how to respond to my constant clumsiness, began to chuckle midway through my routine.

9. I completely disregarded the fact that someone might have one of my effects planned for their act too and if I had thought of that before, I would have put together a well rehearsed back-up. I guess I didn't think anybody would do Card In Orange that night.

However, the shop owner realized that most people had already left prior to my performance and was very apologetic about it, as I am fairly sure I didn't receive any votes by the end (I was too scared to check). He promised me a middle spot for the next one.

Don't worry, next time I'll be back with a vengance.

Michael Kras

Tomorrow's the next competition and I'm as ready as possible!! I'm positioned to perform second of the group of nine, so everyone should still be there... plus the shop has rented a full theatre for the event... no more cramped creaky stages to get on my nerves!

Plus I've got a well-rehearsed, can't fail act.... my verion of Richard Sanders Fiber Optics, and my own Cups and Balls routine. Wish me luck! Oh, and just in case, I DO have a back-up effect this time.

LIVR

second to go... that's unfortunate. It cuts your chances of winning in half.

Michael Kras

Ahh, Redemption!

This time around, there were plenty of problems but like I said I was totally prepared for the worst. Things went extraordinarily well. I did not place this time around but apparently came very close. There was some tough competition (I was following a few illusionists) but I came through and really feel like I gave it my all. My act was well received and I really felt like a true professional.