Marc Spelmann’s Penguin LIVE lecture lasted 4 hours and 20 minutes. I had the opportunity to be in the audience (I am the big guy in the orange shirt during the book test), and when I revisited the lecture for this review, I was surprised to learn that he taught six effects:

1. Predictable: A Psychometry & Design Duplication effect.
2. PVP: Positional, Visual, Persuasion: A Bank Nite routine.
3. In the Shadow of Shaxon: A book test with touches from the late Alan Shaxon and Max Maven.
4. The Only Card: An unpublished effect in which he attempts to memorize a deck of cards. The person picks a card, and the performer says where it is in the deck.
5. Out of this World: Marc’s take in which two spectators help and shuffle the deck.
6. PK Touches

To say Marc only taught six effects is not entirely fair. In reality, he covered more as he was explaining his effects. Marc is one who does not rush his effects, and he does not rush his explanations. He wants to make sure everyone understands.

What I liked about his lecture is that everyone of the pieces he performed would be good in one of my shows, though I am not a fan of PK touches.

With Predictable, Marc got the whole audience involved. Everyone thought of an image, drew it on a card and then sealed them in envelopes. Using psychometry, Marc got a feeling about one of the cards, and he divined the person and drew the same image as the spectator. Very strong.

PVP is a fun take on the Bank Nite plot using a single spectator. In this one, Marc wanted his helper to find the envelope with the dollar bill in it, and he did. However, if he would have picked any of the other envelopes he would have received more money, like a $5, $10 or $20. I like the simple and straightforward method of this effect.

I really enjoyed the book test. Marc utilizes similar methods as I employ in my three-phase book test, however, he adds a new twist when it comes to having people choose the page numbers. Think Autome on steroids when it comes to getting numbers from the crowd. I really liked this one because it is similar to what I do, yet his teachings will help me to enhance my routine even more.

The Only Card is an interesting effect that I will probably be making up soon. This is a nice effect that appears to be an effort of memorizing the deck. However, it has a strong finish that has to be seen to be enjoyed, so I will not say anything else. This is good. Real good. He also teaches a variation to this effect. When the spectator names a card, it is the only one in an envelope. While this one is nice, I like the original version because I believe it has a stronger finish.

Marc’s take on Out of this World is nice, especially when you have the spectators shuffling the deck. This was impressive.

As for PK Touches, because I am not a fan, I will leave it to others to delve into this.

This was an incredible lecture. I am of the belief that most of us have more magic/mentalism than we need, so it was nice that Marc spent so much time on theory, techniques, justifications and other matters.

If your priority in purchasing lectures is the number of effects taught, then you might want to look elsewhere. If your objective is to be a well-rounded performer with a balance of effects and theory, then you will want to purchase this lecture.

I have given penguin my money happily for many months on many of their lectures, i believe i just got my money back with this lecture.

This lecture has got to be one of the best i have ever seen, and also attended to. He showed some of the most powerful routines i have ever seen, they are all versatile to magicians and mentalists alike, i wont talk about the effects because everyone else already is, i will say this though, because of this lecture i have learned about building a persona and being able to bring bizarre or different effects into the corporate market, witch no one else has talked about before, as well as great tips on performing, structure and some really cool and funny stories. Its 4 hours long for god sakes, trust me you will get a lot out of it, i watched it 4 times already and on the 4th time i noticed he taught some cool subtleties that i didn't catch on the first 3 times lol.

Marc Spelmann has always been known as a great performer and teacher, he has never failed to deliver, and this is no exception, do your magic and performance evolution a favor and buy this lecture.

PS: I'm the guy that spits the gum out....

When i've heard Marc was lecturing at Penguin, i catapulted myself on the "pay with paypal" button!!! lol
Seriously!!!
Well, it was the best thing i have done lately as a matter of purchuasing magic.
Only 25$ and the amount of informations about mentalism you get from this download is priceless!!!
I highly recommend this lecture to everybody trying to be serious about mentalism!!!You get 6 strong pieces that will bend every spectator's mind at your show!!!...plus lots of magical wisdom that you can only get from a person such as Marc that has a sincere love for Magic and years of experience in the business!!!
Now, CLOSE YOUR EYES...TAKE A DEEP BREATH...GOOD, WELL DONE!!!Now, IMAGINE YOURSELF AT YOUR DESK...BY YOUR COMPUTER, LOOK AT THE SCREEN...REALLY FOCUS, CAN YOU SEE THE PENGUIN???CAN YOU SEE THE WORDS MARC SPELMANN LIVE???...GOOD, now TAKE A DEEP BREATH and...BUY IT!!!BUY IT!!!BUY IT!!!

This was my favorite Penguin lecture thus far. Marc is one of Great Britain's top working mentalists and performers - and has been for some time. His repertoire is time tested and honed to perfection.

Marc spent the initial hour with his initial mind blowing effect - and was a powerhouse of knowledge shared. Marc went into the most detail I have yet heard regarding PRE-SHOW work - the psychology, pitfalls, set-up, and proper execution. As good as the effect was (and it really was superb) I personally gained 100x more because Marc explained all those little nuances.

There are many great routines here, but the heart of the 4 hour+ lecture are the gems, diamonds and golden ideas that Marc explains so eloquently. Any aspiring mentalist or Magician will learn a great deal - and the couch session at the end offered some fantastic advice for strolling performers in terms of breaking the ice at corporate events.

I learned a LOT from that man - and I especially liked the sage advice about the at times delicate task of approaching people at corporate gigs - who in many cases are not focused at all on being entertained, but rather networking or interacting with the boss. I can attest like many of you I think to approaching some at corporate venues and one can tell that the spectator's are not always mentally focused on being entertained.

Some of the celebrity stories at the end wrap up on the couch were also fascinating - my favorite being the one involving Peter Stringfellow and his slightly drunken "pal" that made Marc a tad nervous. Stringfellow as I recall was one of the original partners of the Hard Rock in London and also owner of the coolest dance palaces I had ever been to... The Hippodrome.

There were at least 3-4 solid and not too difficult routines that I could see doing - and methods and ideas Marc provided that will be very useful.

The first routine as I said was really a powerhouse. He said that he would never use it as a first routine because of the length, but it was also a fascinating lesson in using PS work and a nice dabble of DR in just the right measures.

Everything taught was well within what I could absorb and use - and the Out Of This World routine (as mentioned by me before and reiterated by moderator Dan Harlan) was quite possibly the best and nearly perfect OOTW yet seen - especially because it is so fair and hands off

Marc said he only lectures maybe 3-4 times a years and mostly to the Magic Circle... so in this lecture he really (as I anticipated and hoped) let loose and elaborated on a wide array of ideas and pet routines.

I also loved hearing about meeting with the great Larry Becker and even an encounter with Jack Nicholson!

The envelope & money effect (PVP - persistent visual persuasion) is 100% going into my stage act - what a powerhouse, so easy, so fun - just perfect.

All in all, this lecture was worth far more than the admission price - and on par with Looch and some of the other great lectures thus far.

Seriously this is the best lecture I 've ever seen and I 've seen a lot!!!
There is something for everyone in this huge lecture.
Congrats

I am a huge fan of Spelmann. When found out Marc was doing a lecture I instantly booked in to watch it. This lecture is one of the best I have and he always manages to give that bit extra to the people who support his work. The routines he teaches are so well taught, greatly presented and superbly explained, you can see his thought process as he explains every element, what works, what didn't and the changes he made. He knows how to build rapport with his audience and make them feel at ease, he is charming and funny but also serious at times.
He talks about pre-show, when to use it, why its done badly at times and why it can reduce the impact you created days after the show. He talks about your impact from what the layman sees and how to keep that level of impact as high as possible.
He discusses 6 effects which might seem very minimal for a lecture of this length but what he does do is go through every tiny nuance and even give you different thoughts and presentational ideas, so to me it was a lot more than 6 effects.
The host Dan Harlan is a great mind and even answers some of my own thoughts and questions so a personal thank you to Dan Harlan as well.
Marc also explains invisible thread work and a hook up that is superb and can be used for many thread work PK demonstrations and Dan Harlan shares his own hook up which was very gratious of him.
The final Q and A section made me think from a different perspective and made me laugh at his stories, advice, mistakes and experience.
Marc has a huge passion for his work and equally for those that love and use his presentations. There maybe only 6 major effects taught here but it is full of advice and experience that you wont find anywhere else.
Thank you Marc, Dan and all at Penguin for a fantastic lecture. i would have given this higher than 5 stars but it only goes to 5 stars.

I just spent my entire saturday night watching Marc Spelmann's Penguin Live-lecture, from beginning to end in more than four hours and it was brilliant.
I've heard from before that he was going to have a Penguin Live-lecture but didn't really care a lot but when I saw all the great reviews I decided to give it a shot and trust me, you should do too.
Lots of useful stuff here that I probably will use in my repertoire. Thank you Marc!

It was enjoyable to watch Marc lecture live at penguin. He gave a well organized lecture and performed superbly. The effects were a little drawn out at times, but he was great fun to watch. No new methods that I would use, but that's personal preference. Worth watching.

I'm a massive Marc Spelmann fan and this lecture certainly didn't disappoint. It had everything you'd expect from Marc - excellent material, wonderful presentations and practical methods - plus lots of great humour along the way!

I'll certainly be working on Predictable, PVP, In the Shadow of Shaxon and The Only Card in the very near future.

Wish I could give this 10 Stars!

Some people have stated that this is too long etc, I'm not sure why. There is a difference between being slow, boring and drawn out and being thorough and complete. Thankfully Marc is very thorough and complete! I could easily watch another hour or two, even just of the discussion at the end.
Each routine is packed with ideas and layers, even if the overall routine doesn't fit you, there are many pieces that surely will!

This goes on my fairly short list of the elite lectures - great stuff