What did he teach?

Typically, when I tell you what to expect from a Penguin Live lecture, I try to give a relatively thorough overview of everything taught.

That isn't going to happen with this description of Steve Valentine's lecture, because he has literally packed more magic into it than I've ever seen.

He starts by repeatedly getting me to select the same card, showing some flourishy cuts, changing the wrong card to the right one, and vanishing the deck while his wrists are held, leaving only my chosen card behind. Then, he shares a nice touch on producing a wine glass, goes on to produce a giant diamond from a spread of cards, and demonstrates how the technique may be used to produce other objects.

Next, Steve shares his work on the Classic Force (and he's awesome at it). Then he shows a simple technique (based on Max Malini) to vanish a deck.

Following that, he teaches a terrific Smash and Grab trick through a sheet of newspaper, perfect to perform with a deck unsuited for anything else.

Then, Steve shows a complete self-working routine where he can tell me at what number my card will be found, I find another card in a random way, and an unseen card causes every card matching its suit to remain face-up as the rest of the deck rights itself. And it quickly resets.

Taking the idea of a fully set-up deck even further, Steve makes a peeked at card jump up from the deck. But, it's wrong... or is it?

Then, the color of a selected card's back changes to red, the whole deck becomes red, a single thought-of card remains blue, momentarily, then it's red.

And, three blue-backed jokers trap two red-backed cards, which vanish. The jokers are dropped on the deck & one of them pops inside to find the two cards.

Then, an odd-backed prediction matches any selected card, and two cards placed face-to-face fuse into one strange card with two backs. Whew!

What I've just described is only the first hour of Steve Valentine's incredible lecture. Yes, Steve Valentine is fast, funny, and endlessly entertaining. Do yourself (and your magic) a huge favor and watch this now.

Who is he?

Born in Scotland, raised near London, Steve Valentine has been performing since age 5. That was the year he started theatre and dance training and took a passionate, life long interest in magic.

A long-time board member at the Magic Castle and The Academy Of Magical Arts, Steve has performed stand-up in Las Vegas at the Riviera and Harrah's Hotels and at Hollywood’s world famous Magic Castle, where he was awarded the coveted Close-up Magician of the Year two years in a row! In the past he's traveled the world performing in almost every country from Alaska to The Falklands to India.

With over 250 hours of TV and Film to his credit, Steve is best known for his series regular roles on Crossing Jordan, I'm in the Band, Estate of Panic and Nikki. Teens around the world will also know him from his starring roles in Disney's Avalon High, Teen Beach Movie, Wizards of Waverly Place Movie and Don't Look Under the Bed.

Aside from acting, he is also an incredible writer, performer and magician. Steve recently developed a series about Harry Houdini with NBC.

Whether he is creating mind blowing magic tricks for professional magicians, playing multiple roles in film and television, writing graphic novels, winning Lecturer of the Year at the world famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, or performing his one man show Naked with a Deck of Cards, Steve Valentine knows how to entertain a crowd.

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