What is your worst performance mishap?

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Mr. Alexander
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What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Mr. Alexander » September 4th, 2009, 11:29 pm

Did anything ever happen to you that took you by complete surprise during your show that just caught you off gaurd, maybe even left you totally stunned. I will give an example; during a show at a night club I was doing magic and a few balloons, and a gentleman who was having a good time wanted to try blowing up one of my balloons. The combination of alcohol and the balloon did him in, he passed out fell backwards knocking over several people walking to the dance floor who in turn knocked over tables, as well as the people sitting at them...and no I did not give him the balloon and challenge him to blow it up! It was a quick snatch and blow!

Brian Marks
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Brian Marks » September 9th, 2009, 10:29 pm

I was performing at a comedy club and there was a rat on stage. I wasn't the rat.

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Smoothini
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Smoothini » November 28th, 2009, 5:08 am

Oh dude.. .... do I have stories.

The one that comes to mind was in Vegas. I have a belt buckle that looks like the Queen of Spades. I have a trick that I call, "The Fastest Card Trick in the Hood."

Where I force the Queen of Spades. And then a second later I thrust my pelvis into a girls face. It gets great laughs everywhere. Well one time, my fly was undone and my censored popped out.

Luckily the table I was performing for were all women. They loved it and tipped me very well.
Semi-Finalist on Season 9 of Americas Got Talent.

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Mark.Lewis
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Mark.Lewis » November 28th, 2009, 8:02 am

Dearie me. I cannot possibly approve. You are about to give all the various stuffy people on this forum a heart attack including me.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 28th, 2009, 11:16 am

"... my censored popped out."

I don't know any venues where you could work in my neighborhood.

Dude--have you thought of wearing underwear?
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Mark.Lewis
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Mark.Lewis » November 28th, 2009, 11:26 am

You must console yourself Alexander old chap. It could have been worse. I bet you wouldn't have got tipped at a kid show after all.

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Tom Stone
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Tom Stone » November 28th, 2009, 12:47 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:"... my censored popped out."

I don't know any venues where you could work in my neighborhood.

Dude--have you thought of wearing underwear?

Surely, the most constructive question is "How can I make that happen every time, in a surefire way?" :)

Btw, who was it who during an accident on stage started to bleed, and weaved that into the act somehow - and afterwards said; Damn, not I must figure out a way to make that happen every time!
...or something similar... it was a long time ago I heard that anecdote. Might it have been Billy McComb?

Ian Kendall
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Ian Kendall » November 28th, 2009, 1:38 pm

Mac King told of a time where he chopped the top off his finger during a rope routine. I can say from experience that finger cuts bleed like a river, and can be quite off putting on stage. He remembered the short version of the rope routine and mananged to get to the end of the show before getting backstage to a bandage.

The next show he was more careful about the scissors, and did the normal rope routine. At the end of the show someone came up to him and said that he was waiting for the bit where he chopped his thumb off...

Although I've not exposed myself on stage (knowingly, anyway), I have been punched in the groin twice, and once was with a mouthful of sharp razor blades.

In a very early street show I cut my finger in a rope trick, and years later I managed to cut myself on a Dean's Box (work that one out...) These days I always carry some sticking plasters in my case.

Take care, Ian

P.S. Eagerly awaiting Tom's next excerpt from the notebooks. Oh, wait...

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Smoothini
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Smoothini » November 28th, 2009, 9:07 pm

lol... funny thing is, that I did have underwear. I could get into the specifics of the physics behind how my member popped out. But I'm walking on a thin line as it is. Suffice to say that working in a nightclub at 2 am in Vegas sure helped with people enjoying it. If it was anywhere else I could've ended my career on the spot.
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rkosby
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby rkosby » November 28th, 2009, 10:45 pm

I was performing Las Vegas Leaper in a restaurant for a couple of ladies. At the end the count was one card short. I thought I just loaded one card too few. Later that evening the ladies confronted me and asked if I did it on purpose. The card stuck to my volunteer's butt. They were okay once I assured them it was unplanned.

Paul Gordon
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Paul Gordon » November 29th, 2009, 1:09 am

During a gig was working on (in 1997), a fellow magician did "card to ceiling". The hotel was/is one of London's very "top" hotels. Well, the deck hit a piece of ornate (and very expensive) cornice. It broke off and fell on an expensive grand piano. A bit of the piano flew off and hit a punter in the head! It sounds like a joke, but it's true. The insurance/compensation claims and battles continued until 2006. The magician (a well-known entertainer) is about to release the full story in a new book of his! It was an awful thing to happen, but pretty funny...all these years later! Paul Gordon
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Mark.Lewis
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Mark.Lewis » November 29th, 2009, 6:52 am

I sat in a cake once during a hypnotism show. It has become a legend in Toronto showbusiness circles I am afraid.

Actually I have small things go wrong at EVERY show. I let it happen since it adds to the fun. It makes me human to an audience and adds to the experience. I don't try to be perfect; I try to be human. Audiences like that. They don't want a perfect robot.

My early disasters are described in my book. I think the worst one happened at the Blue Angel night club in London. You can read all about it when the book comes out. At that particular night club the whole audience were drunk including the two people I got up on stage. I am not quite sure how two people got up there since I only asked for one. I still have traumatic memories of seeing them both dance around the stage balancing my table on the top of their heads.

I think one of my most amusing disasters was when I was performing close up table magic in Ireland and my sponge balls landed in the American ambassador's soup! You should have seen the look of frozen horror on the poor woman's face! To this day I am nervous crossing the American border in case it is in a file somewhere and I am banned as an undesirable alien.

Frank Yuen
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Frank Yuen » November 29th, 2009, 7:57 am

I was helping a friend once with a company Christmas party. It was a two hour drive in a snowstorm and we ended up a little late. Luckily the speeches were still going on. Anyway the audience had been drinking all night and by the time we went on and the volunteer for Jumbo Sidekick was thoroughly blasted. He kept undoing his belt and letting his pants drop while saying something like, "Hey! Mr. Magician, quit doing that!" The worst part is that he took the blank gun for the trick and held it to my friend's temple for what seemed like a minute or two. We wrapped things up as fast as we could after that.

Silly Walter
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Silly Walter » December 18th, 2009, 11:53 am

Smoothini wrote:Well one time, my fly was undone and my censored popped out.


I think Marlo published the very same thing in his book "Let's See The D*ck".
Last edited by Silly Walter on December 18th, 2009, 7:30 pm, edited 0 times in total.
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Nathan Muir
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Nathan Muir » December 18th, 2009, 8:44 pm

LOL. Hilarious post and an hilarious edit.

Jeff Eline
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Jeff Eline » December 18th, 2009, 9:30 pm

Tom Stone wrote:
Richard Kaufman wrote:"... my censored popped out."

I don't know any venues where you could work in my neighborhood.

Dude--have you thought of wearing underwear?

Surely, the most constructive question is "How can I make that happen every time, in a surefire way?" :)


I see a new ebook coming. Wait, let me rephrase that.

Gordolini
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Gordolini » December 19th, 2009, 9:00 am

D*ck-sterity?

Pete McCabe
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby Pete McCabe » December 19th, 2009, 12:08 pm

When you publish it, make sure you credit David Regal's "Sudden Deck."

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mai-ling
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Re: What is your worst performance mishap?

Postby mai-ling » December 28th, 2009, 11:46 pm

i wrote a story up for celeste evan's book.
and it was chopped in pieces.

but i re-wrote it in my livejournal.
link not in hand at this time.
will link later.
you will remember my name
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