Audience Understanding

[VagueTheory]

Hey guys. Today, I came across a rather unique experience with an audience member while performing.

I did Biddle Trick for her and when I told her to go through the deck, she found her card face down and said, "Oh. My card is face down." She didn't get what had happened. The rest of the audience had to explain to her that her card "magically" jumped from my hand to the deck that she was holding. She did not seem to have any sort of reaction at all and said, "Oh. The card jumped to my hand. Ok." It was NOT sarcasm.

Now, some of you might tell me that my presentation might have been off. I didn't rush or anything. I presented how I would normally present. Everyone seemed to have been amazed, but her.

What do you guys think about this? Can it be something else that I might need work on? Might it be a psychological thing?

 

[visualartist]

Hey guys. Today, I came across a rather unique experience with an audience member while performing.

I did Biddle Trick for her and when I told her to go through the deck, she found her card face down and said, "Oh. My card is face down." She didn't get what had happened. The rest of the audience had to explain to her that her card "magically" jumped from my hand to the deck that she was holding. She did not seem to have any sort of reaction at all and said, "Oh. The card jumped to my hand. Ok." It was NOT sarcasm.

Now, some of you might tell me that my presentation might have been off. I didn't rush or anything. I presented how I would normally present. Everyone seemed to have been amazed, but her.

What do you guys think about this? Can it be something else that I might need work on? Might it be a psychological thing?

Unless theres something deeper going on,some people are just slow or dont "get" stuff right away.
My ex girlfriend would always come late into a joke.
Its not that theyre stupid or anything,but just really spacey people.

 

[Renaldo]

It happens. It happens for a lot of different reasons, some we'll never understand. When it does, it's always best to let the audience let her know what happened. If you do it, it will look to the spec like you failed; if the audience explains it to the spec, they'll know they failed.

 

[VagueTheory]

Thanks guys. I was hoping that it wasn't anything that I in particular was doing wrong.

 

[jok3r]

Oh no its not you, i have that happen all the time.

Ill have all the people around freak out, and the person im doing it for just say,

HUh?

So everyone else has to explain it to them.
Its mostly women, that's just my experience.(nothing against women)
It happens alot on card to mouth, one person will be like

OMG!

and the other is like um its in your mouth?

 

[Nino]

As other people have said don't worry about. Some people are slow to understand it. It as happen to me a lot and I can't do anything about it, so if it happens again you should slap them.....okay maybe not that.

 

[VagueTheory]

Hahaha. Nino, you crazy.

And I've had it happen to mostly women too (nothing against them neither) and a few guys. Don't know why it happens....

I would like to understand why though.

 

[LuseifHo]

This happens about... 1/40 people with me. Its quite awkward if its a 1 on 1, but if its with anyone else then its fine. As long as everyone else reacts, then you know you did good. No one really knows why they do that (who ever has the balls to ask?), but you can deduct a few reasons...
1. They know the trick, which is unlikely but still
2. They are mentally slow, not retarted, just slow. They connect dots slowly so unless it is visual magic, like a color change, they take time to think about it.
3. They werent really concentrating in the first place
4. You presented it confusingly, so there was some misunderstandings of where the card was in the first place.
5. They reacted inside, but don't really show it on the outside. These people can not find a way to express their surprise or shock so that it just becomes a plain "oh"

Probably some way more psychological reasoning or what ever but thats my interpretation of it. Dont really know how to deal with it. It just happens. I guess move on to something easy to understand and visual so that it is obvious why its "amazing".

 

[Steerpike]

3. They werent really concentrating in the first place
4. You presented it confusingly, so there was some misunderstandings of where the card was in the first place.

I find these to be the case more often than not. One of the reasons I try to talk slowly and keep things simple when presenting these sorts of effects.

The truth is that most people can follow along, it's just a matter of keeping them engaged enough.