Amazing Mistakes

As a magician, I love to be amazed. Sometimes mistakes can be as amazing as successes. I amazed myself last week when I drove 200 miles on Tuesday for a gig on Wednesday morning. After 4 1/2 hours of driving I arrived at the hotel to check in, only to be informed that my reservation was for next week. I was flabbergasted! In disbelief I pulled out my contract and, sure enough, the gig was for the following Wednesday.

What made this even more amazing was that I had made the hotel reservation only the day before, and I made it for the correct date. I had also called the client and confirmed the gig a few days earlier. Nonetheless, I still drove 200 miles to a gig that wasn't until the following week!

I turned right around and drove 200 miles back to Ithaca. Crazy. At least I had my iPod with lots of interesting radio shows downloaded, so I wasn't bored on the trip. But it literally amazed me that my circuits could have gotten crossed like that. I must have been really revved to do that gig!

On the drive back home I was laughing with a friend about the experience. He was commenting, tongue in cheek, on how conscientious I had been to drive 4 1/2 hours as a dry run just to make sure I wouldn't get lost the following week when it was time to do it for real. How utterly professional of me to go so far out of my way as to make a 400 mile roundtrip just to measure the amount of time it would take me to get to the gig so I wouldn't be late the following week!

And, he added, how crazy!

My flub-up was a real life mistake, but when magicians make mistakes during their show it is particularly funny, because the magician is pretending to wield magical powers. The magician is supposed to be able to do incredible things almost effortlessly. So when a magician screws up, you can bet the audience is going to laugh!

Next time maybe I'll share a few hilarious magician mistakes that I've made and that I've heard about from others.