After

Part 2: So, was I able to predict the future?

If you haven’t read last week’s article, check that out first, because this is Part Two.

You can read Part One here.

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Welcome back! The show was a 6.5/10 as far as what I’m capable of delivering. I think the people who hired me would probably give it an 8.

Let’s get to some quick updates, and then a longer analysis.

The Approach

I didn’t use my approach in strolling magic where I acknowledged that they probably had a long day. It was a good thought, but it wasn’t necessary, because they were actually mingling with a bunch of other teams during the strolling period.

I did, however, change my standard approach.

I went up to members of my team (easily identifiable by the color of their lanyards), and said “Hi! Are you x team? I wanted to introduce myself, my name is Max, and I’m gonna be doing magic for you during your banquet. Do you want to try something quick right now?”

The fact that I was performing for them later perfectly justified my introduction, and doing a quick trick let them trust me when I eventually went on stage.

Memorizing Names

I ended up not doing this. I really wanted to, and I think it would’ve gone over really well. But I simply didn’t have the time. No way around that.

The Show

Most of the show went just fine. I think I did a good job given the situation—the employees were clearly pretty upset, and I understandably was not their first priority.

Like I teased last week, however, it did not go how I expected. Let’s get into that:

The Torpedo

The surprise came at the end of the night. Right before I was about to close, the boss’ boss spontaneously went on stage to try to explain the layoff situation. Keep in mind, I still had to perform one more trick after this. Here’s what I didn’t have on my 2025 bingo card: Close a show immediately after your audience’s boss threatened their job security.

That final set was pretty average, because “you might lose your job but I don’t actually know if you will and I have no real information for you” is a tough act to follow. Needless to say, you play the hand you’re dealt.

I don’t ever want to blame the audience. But some situations are just shitty, even when it’s nobody’s fault. This was one of them.

The Final Challenge

I went on stage after the “you might not have a job” speech. My plan was to do a trick where a randomly calculated number ends up being someone’s phone number. It’s a good trick—not good enough to give people their jobs back—but good enough that I hoped it would be a happy ending.

So I went on stage, and set up the trick for three minutes. I got to the end—I’m holding up the calculator, asking the guy “what’s your phone number?” And he says three digits that are simply not on the screen.

I was shocked. As far as “times I’ve been legitimately confused” on stage go, that’s easily in my top five.

My method for this trick is pretty strong, and I knew I’d done what I needed to do to ensure that this worked. So I just asked him again—really?

Of course, we know our own phone numbers, so I believed that he wasn’t lying.

But I was also in a pretty awkward situation where I was also 95% sure I was right. So I just said “Hmmm. I thought it was 605…” And he goes “Oh that’s my work phone number.” I had predicted his work phone instead of his cell phone.

I breathed a sigh of relief knowing the trick technically worked. It was nowhere near as good as it could have been, but it worked and I got out of it. And quite honestly, nobody cared. I had done a good job before. The trick still worked. And they were focused on many bigger things. It was a mistake, for sure. But a reasonable one in my book, and a really good lesson for next time: If someone ever says it’s “not their phone number,” and you have reason to believe that it is, just ask if they have another phone.

Conclusions

You can predict as much as you want about a show. But unpredictable events are, by definition, impossible to plan for.

What you can do is accept that they’ll happen and remain open to what does. There are very few truly impossible situations.

And sometimes, things just go wrong! And that’s ok too. The worst case scenario was that I walked off stage and didn’t get his phone number correct. It would’ve sucked. But in the context of them losing their jobs, I would’ve been just fine.

The bigger lesson is to always assess and reflect. The best learnings come through failure.