Magician Phobia
Occasionally, you meet someone who really doesn’t like magic - or more specifically doesn’t like magicians.
I met such a person when I was performing at the weekend and it can be quite off putting when, before you’ve even introduced yourself, someone says ‘You’re the magician aren’t you? I don’t want to see anything thankyou.’
Now this lady was quite nice about it, quite apologetic because she didn’t want to prevent her friends from enjoying the magic. I thought I’d try to win her around so I asked if I could do one quick effect and if she hated it I’d leave.
She said OK and I performed a very convincing coin vanish, which luckily, she didn’t hate. I carried on with the coin routine, making the coin reappear and then vanish again and she decided it wasn’t so bad. I performed another quick magic trick and then moved on, as I didn’t want to ride my luck.
It turned out not only did she have a clown phobia and associated magicians with clowns, but she also had an old boyfriend who had bored her to tears with bad magic. At least it wasn’t personal.