Dave Forrest, as many lecturers spend a whole lecture taking a deck of cards of the pockets. The
presentation of Dan Harlan don’t warn you that most of the lecture will be mostly about card magic.
Most Penguin lecturers spend great part of their time only with a bicycle box and a deck a cards
leaving a great part of the public truly disappointed. Most professional magicians are expected to
do magic with much more than only a deck of cards: metal bending, ropes, coins, cups and balls,
mentalism, etc
Dave Forrest is very hard to understand in english because he rush the words to
fast speaking on his Scottish accent.
Unfortunately his lecture is not positive in any way to
develop your magic skills.
At first I wasn't sure what you meant by your first sentence, but then I realized that English is likely not your first language. While I don't necessarily disagree that many audiences expect many professional magicians to do magic with a variety of props, that is not universally true.
Some full-time professionals make/made their livings doing card magic. Some examples include Dani DaOrtiz, Paul Gordon, Shin Lim, Martin Nash, Darwin Ortiz, and Jason Ladanye. Some professional magicians perform(ed) primarily, though not exclusively, card magic, like Lee Asher, Ricky Jay, Simon Lovell, Juan Tamariz, and others.
There are many more amateur magicians than pros, and many of those folks do a lot of card tricks. So, a lecture on card magic would fit that potential intended audience very well.
Pre-pandemic, as a part-time pro, I mainly performed strolling and stand-up magic. While I did use a variety of props in my stand-up shows, I often performed only card magic in my strolling work. My strolling audiences did not seem to care that I didn't do magic with other props. For me, a good lecture that was all cards was not a waste of my time at all.
I agree that it would be nice if Penguin gave lecture attendees a bit more information about what will be in the lectures. Sometimes they do a good job of this, and at other times, not so much. Perhaps they figure people will know that certain lecturers are known for their card magic, and they assume that a knowledgeable lecture attendee will realize the lecture will be all or mostly cards.
I haven't watched the lecture yet, though I did buy it. I suspect that it really doesn't deserve such a low rating as one star. While I can understand your disappointment if you were expecting a lecture with lots of different props, I don't think it is fair to rate the lecture so low just because it is all cards. I think it would be much fairer to rate the lecture based upon the quality of the magic that is taught, and then to warn potential purchasers in the comments that the lecture is only cards so that they can make an informed purchase. This is just my personal opinion, of course.
Useless
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