Spectators

[s13zeTheDay]

I think you are running into a common problem that I used to run into often, and that is your spectators don't view you as an actual magician, but rather a person doing tricks. For example, when I was relatively new to magic, many people would always ask to see and shuffle the cards, and would harass me throughout the trick. Now that I have been performing for a while, it has been established that I am a magician and even if I use trick decks/gaffes (which I rarely use anyway) people just politely watch and get into the magic as opposed to trying to catch me

The main point is that you need your spectators to believe 1) you are not challenging them in any way 2) you really can do magic
The second part is the harder one, especially when performing for someone who has not seen you perform before. Though I'm no expert at it, I would suggest doing some very simple, very short, very strong effects to start out with in order to get your audience both amazed by and interested in the magic you are doing; they will then usually just appreciate everything you do after that if done well.

In general for street magic you need to know audience management skills, which will only come with time. They let you get out of any possibly sticky situations, e.g. if a spectator calls out a double or if they are heckling you. Again, with more performance/practice, these will develop.

FOR NOW though, the best thing you can do is be confident in what you are doing. If you don't know if you can pull off a move or don't know if the trick looked good to you, there no way a spectator will believe in the magic. You have to sell it 100%, and only then will the spectator stop focusing on magic as a challenge or a game to spot what you did and start focusing on the amazing things you are actually doing.

On a side note, keep up the performance! actual spectator reactions are 1000000 times better for helping you than a practice at home