🙃 What to do when a trick goes wrong

The three outs, in order

Three outs, in order. One: finish anyway — many tricks have a second ending, and every trick page here has an "If something goes wrong". Two: laugh. "Even wizards have off days" buys you the room back. Three: move on to the next trick immediately, and never explain.

Every trick in the shop has its own out written on its page, under "If something goes wrong". 80 tricks, 80 outs.

What never to do

What you must never do is apologise twice, or say "it normally works". The audience only knows something went wrong if you tell them.

And never blame a helper. If a helper does something unexpected, it was your fault, out loud. That is one of the five promises of the Magician's Code.

Practising with a trick that is honestly a guess

Your friend hides a coin in one fist behind their back while you look away. You turn round, study them for a moment, and say which hand it's in. Then you do it again. This one is a genuine guess, with two real clues. People glance at the hand holding the coin without meaning to, and a hand held up by someone's head goes slightly paler than the other one.

So it will go wrong, and that is why it teaches outs. Its own out: When you get it wrong, throw your hands up and say "your brain is too strong for me!" Then go again. Everybody wants to beat a mind reader, so they'll let you try all evening.

Practise the out as carefully as the trick. A child who knows exactly what to say when it fails stops being nervous about it failing, and that makes every other trick go better too.

Write your own out

Write one funny line for when a trick fails. Learn it like you learned the trick.

A good out is short, kind and a little bit funny, and it never blames anybody but the magician. "Even wizards have off days" works for any trick. A line written for one trick is even better, like the Floating Pencil's: wiggle all five fingers and say "Oh no, I had a helper!"

Then have a spare trick in your pocket that you know cold, one that cannot go wrong, such as The Answer Is Always 3. When a trick fails, the out buys you a laugh and the spare trick wins the room back.