I'm quite new in card magic, i can only perform in front of max 3 person. For me those number is hard enough to control. Some try hold the deck, some dont even 1 2 do as i instruct, and some even try to spoil the magic, those ppl would make the unsuspecting audience to be more scepticle.

Could any1 give me few tips on crowd control?

Well you would control your target audience by scouting first.
This would depend on the occasion of the gathering, the people that attend that gathering and the area around you, meaning the different angle's your audience would be at when you are performing.
This would also depend on the type of trick you are about to perform.
So choose a suitable audience by scouting around, observe at what they do or what they are doing.
When you target a particular audience try to make sure your angle's are secure, for example, if you cannot have any audiene standing behind you with your tricks then of course choose a audience that is standing near a wall. That is just one of the examples.
Somehow just be wise in picking your target audience by the type of trick you are performing.

All the best.

Forgive me if I hav said anyting wrong, thank you for your time.

Bro,

I am facing this problem when I first started working in magic shop.

Crowd control is an art.
An art only can be learn through experience.

We can give you 1001 tips on how to control the crowd.
But, unless you keep trying and pushing.
Even 1000001 tips cannot help you.
This art sad to say the best way to learn is through failures.

Different individual will have different styes and ways to control their crowd.

This is my way and of course it might not be your way.
As a reference, I will share few pointers.

Be very good at what you are doing.
Especially your opening effect.
When you are very good at what you are doing,
It will brings attention and respect from people.

Always remember you are the in control.
Play your game, not the hecklers.
Know what you are doing and be confident.

Try not to have so much of listen to instruction magic.
Go for some direct hit and give them the wow effect.
Malaysia audience dislike those type which have lenghty instructions.
Attention period is pretty short for Malaysian.
If they do not see something good, they will either walk away or be heckler.

Isaac

Good advice, Isaac. Listen to the working magician. :rolleyes:

wat about when we r performing, there is so smart dude says he know the trick [utube spoil the magic] n spoil it. sometime i think i 1 2 killhim on that instant.

whatdo u guys do if u were in my shoe?

Hi dray,

This is usually how I handle rough spectators :

STEP 1 : Be nice

Politely tell the person that "I'm trying to perform magic here, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't spoil the fun for me and for everybody else."

If that doesn't work, go to...

STEP 2 : Be forceful

Say, "Look buddy, it's not like I'm trying to con you out of your hard earned cash. Please leave."

if THAT doesn't work either, go to...

STEP 3 : Be an @ss.

Punch him in the face and run while screaming, "I'm gonna kill ALL THE KITTENS! I'm gonna EAT ALL THE CHILDREN!!! WAAARGGHH"

Okay, about crowd control, what isaac said is pretty much the best advice you can get. You gotta be good enough to perform tricks surrounded. Be careful when choosing your tricks, complicated and angle-sensitive tricks may seem impressive, but in the end you may find out that the simplest tricks are what gets the crowd going.

Good luck, dude.

yeah... i guess everyone pretty much said what needed to be said.

Last nite i was performing as well at a fren's party. I didnt bring my cards with me.. so i used the cards available there.

i performed to this kid and his dad. Kid didnt really get wat i doing but father was impressed.

I was also showing off my flourishes... that got some attention :).

One of my colleagues she was like praising me to all her galfrens saying that im so good this and that... and that no one can catch wat i doing etc etc...., that too me was like.... er... ok... but i stayed humble... la..... But there was this dude.... LOL... he just suddenly say "i know what he did" and he say he can do magic too. BTW, i think he was one of the gal's BF. I guess he was jealous.

My other colleague (another gal) said.. brendan... looks like u got a competitor... hehe...

I was like... hmmm... "hey.. show us some stuff that u can do"....

And suddenly his face turn red and shy saying no its ok. I was like in my heart...wth man... u said u can do magic and now u are running away. I was laughing at him inside. I guess everyone knew that this guy can do no magic. He prob know how but cant perform.

Well... i guess the reason i share this is to say that you can turn bad situations like this to embarassed the heckler. HE asked for it. He had no respect for the performing magician (me) and well... he asked for it.

He left the scene with his gal 5 mins later.

"hey why do you have to be so nasty, just found out wrestling is fake?" :P

Firstly, master your sleights. If you'rent interested in practice, then just learn a few self-working tricks to pick up girls.

After you've mastered your sleights, go out and perform as much as possible. to strangers, friends, family, or the annoying guy from any magic clubs.

The real secret to crowd management comes from performing. You'd learn from your failures. :)

Join our meeting and I'm sure the Pros out there would give you really good advices. ;)

Smile.
Praise him.
Then perform a sucker routine.
Then he will be :wacko:
Smile again.
No matter what he says, just tell him: "Good guessing!!"
Give him/her a final smile and tell him you need to go to the next table.

For me, it's always better to perform my own routine.
Then you won't face with those:
"I bought that trick from Pasar Malam."
"I saw it in Youtube."
But you rather hear things like:
"I bought that trick from XXX but you still amaze me, how do you do it..?"
"I saw it in Youtube but yours are way beyond what I know!"

Real life story
just for reading:

When I am doing my ninja rings.
This donkey/heckler keep bothering me about the "secret".
He is like yelling it out to everyone and really giving me a hard time.

Isaac: Well if there is a ---, can you do it?
Donkey: YES, SURE I CAN. IS SO EASY. CON CHILDREN.
Isaac: YOU SURE ?
Donkey: YES. THERE IS A ---, EVERYONE CAN DO IT
Isaac: If you can do it like how I did it, I give you this for FREE. If you cannot, you buy from me.
DOnkey: YES.

I threw the rings to him and in front of few crowd I ask him to do what I did. He try and he try and he try and he still trying ... of course now is expose to the crowd (My bad and I do not advise you to do this, this is just out of frustration and I am new that time).

I got him nail and nail him real hard.
I basically force him to leave and everybody laugh at him.
The crowd is still amaze by how I can link the rings even they know the secret.
If I am not wrong I sold few sets of linking ring with the same crowd.

Now,
Thanks to Yigal Mesika Electric Touch.
Today the same stuff happen.
I set my ET to high power. (with new batterey)
I gave him a nice ZAPPpPpPppPPpp.
I tell him this is magic rings and only suitable people can handle them.

LoL.

Isaac

To tell you the truth I've never really been bothered by hecklers like you guys. Probably cos I don't perform as much, or maybe I do stuff that people don't get.

Now I do a lot of psychological forces and stuff like that, and people often say to me, "I bet it's all psychology, right?" And I just say. "Yeah, this stuff is pretty hard to do."

When I say that, people seem to have more respect for me. I don't know why, but even would-be hecklers usually shut up and start to enjoy my tricks. I guess when you show dedication towards your performance, people will start to appreciate the fact that you worked hard to achieve the desired effect.