One Magician's Mistakes...
Just for flavor -- there is a magician here in Japan who does a "bumbling magician" act that is great.
For example, he will come out and show us a handkerchief with red and white stripes running horizontally between his hands. He will then turn around, his elbows move, and when he turns back to the studio audience and the cameras, the stripes are vertical! He looks at the audience and says "Don't you want to applaud?" Which usually gets some applause. Next he puts the handkerchief into his fist, does a mystic wave, and pulls it out -- and the stripes are horizontal again. Wow! And he calls for applause. He'll do something like three tricks involving that striped handkerchief, all obvious. Then he'll look at us, say well, I'm not very amusing today, I guess the magic isn't with me... and toss the blue handkerchief across the stage into his bag. Which is usually when we notice that his white shirt now has red stripes, as he waves and walks off stage.
I've seen him several times, and he usually does either obvious tricks or even ones that "fail" (where the coin doesn't go through the glass, or he drops the prop, or...) until the very end -- when he is packing up and leaving with a burst of very real misdirection. And he always gets a huge laugh and applause for the "magic" that he missed at the end. Great act, setting the audience up with his "failures" and then sliding in the real magic.
For example, he will come out and show us a handkerchief with red and white stripes running horizontally between his hands. He will then turn around, his elbows move, and when he turns back to the studio audience and the cameras, the stripes are vertical! He looks at the audience and says "Don't you want to applaud?" Which usually gets some applause. Next he puts the handkerchief into his fist, does a mystic wave, and pulls it out -- and the stripes are horizontal again. Wow! And he calls for applause. He'll do something like three tricks involving that striped handkerchief, all obvious. Then he'll look at us, say well, I'm not very amusing today, I guess the magic isn't with me... and toss the blue handkerchief across the stage into his bag. Which is usually when we notice that his white shirt now has red stripes, as he waves and walks off stage.
I've seen him several times, and he usually does either obvious tricks or even ones that "fail" (where the coin doesn't go through the glass, or he drops the prop, or...) until the very end -- when he is packing up and leaving with a burst of very real misdirection. And he always gets a huge laugh and applause for the "magic" that he missed at the end. Great act, setting the audience up with his "failures" and then sliding in the real magic.