Darren (nippy99): Hi Daryl

Welcome to Magic Bunny and thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.

Firstly, thanks for making me spend lots of money at Blackpool. With some of your great video offers how could I possibly resist?

I have a question regarding your Ultra-Monte effect, which was one of your new items at Blackpool. Having seen the effect I thought it was amazing. I spent many hours practising the routine and the first performance went very well. I removed the four Aces from my full deck and it blew the audience away.

However, the second time I performed it I did exactly the same. Then some loud mouth said he knew how it was done and preceded to tell everyone. I told him he was completely wrong and refused to show him anymore. In actual fact he was absolutely correct.

So my questions are....

Q, How would you handle a spectator who proceeded to tell the world how the effect was done?

Q, After the second performance I now have no confidence to perform it again. Was this just bad luck? Have you had a similar incident? Could I do something different next time?

Thanks very much for your contribution to magic community - it is most appreciated.

Best Wishes

Darren

Daryl: Darren,

When performing with gimmicks, you run the risk of getting caught in this type of situation. This is the price you pay for using the easier (non sleight of hand) method.

If I ever got caught in your situation, I don’t think I’d argue with the guy and tell him he’s wrong. If he told you to prove it and let him see the cards, you’d look very foolish and you’d have no out. I’d probably tell him he’s right, but “Let’s keep it a secret” and then smoothly move on to the next mystery (maybe even a “sucker” trick to set him up). Don’t worry. He didn’t really “tell the world”. In the grand scheme of things it’s just one embarrassing moment while performing a simple little trick for a small group of people in one city, in one country, on one continent on earth. Life goes on and after a few moments, all will be forgotten.

Keep performing the routine. Don’t let this one rude person prevent you and your future audiences the pleasure of experiencing this wonderful mystery.

By the way, I like your idea of removing the aces from a full deck in preparation of performing this routine. It’s a subtle “convincer” that the cards are perfectly ordinary. You’re thinking along the right lines… keep it up!

Edward: I unfortunately missed your last lecture trip in the UK a couple of years back and was wondering if you were planning another. I'm a great admirer of your work and would love to see a lecture by you.
Edward

Daryl: Edward,

Thank you for your kind words and interest. My wife Alison and I spent two years touring the world and we presented about 250 lectures in 25 different countries. We have a daughter now and we plan to spend a lot more time together at home. I have no plans on touring in the near future.

Graham: Daryl;

If Laura were now, say, nine years old and expressed a wish to follow in her parent's magical footsteps, what advice would you give her? Boiling this all down to six top tips for learning/performing magic based on what you now know, what would your six 'pointers' be?

Kind regards,

Graham

Daryl: Graham,

Wow, that’s a tough question! For a beginner, here are six points that I think are very important for learning and performing magic.

1)     Use magic to make people feel good (NEVER to insult, embarrass, degrade, etc.).

2)     Keep the effects simple and easy for the audience to understand. Remember the words of Dai Vernon “Confusion is not magic”.

3)     Start with very simple magic and advance slowly but steadily.

4)     Do not perform a new effect in front of an audience until you can perform it properly.

5)     Learn whatever you decide to perform flawlessly. There is no excuse for sloppy technique or presentation.

6)     If you make changes or improvements to an effect, be sure to (eventually) contribute it back into the body of magical knowledge.

Daryl: Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this forum and for some great, thought provoking questions. The entire project took me a little over 4 hours! Please visit us at our web site www.FoolerDoolers.com/store . Any videos you buy directly from us help to support the originator and we also have probably the best deals and prices in the world on my own items. Finally, we try whenever possible to ship UK orders from our European distributor which means you will usually get your order within a few days! Keep up the great magic!

Daryl.

Admin: Thank you all very much for your questions. I shall now close this forum, copy and paste all the threads and email them for Daryl to answer when he has some spare time. Daryl is a very busy professional magician and it is very kind of him to take the time out off his busy schedule to attend to this "Special Guest" forum.

I shall hide this forum very soon so that it does not distract you as you visit these boards. As soon as I receive the replies from Daryl I shall ensure that they are added to the appropriate thread and then the forum will be re-opened for your interest, before the threads are ultimately moved to the Guest at the bottom of this page.

Thank you.

Admin.