Magic Tricks

To start, this lecture was available for free by penguin prior to it's release. Right now, it has gone back to the usual price of penguin lectures. With that in mind I'll try to take care when reviewing this.

This lecture is a little different to regular Penguin Lectures. It's more of a fun and silly party with skits, songs, and goofs scattered in between tricks. For the past few years Scott Alexander has been doing this form of lecture as a bit of fun around the Christmas season. However, this year Dan Harlan has joined in and shares some tricks as well. This lecture, while very silly at times, contains some great stuff from Scott and Dan.

Scott has a nice selection of tricks including a safe and simple version of a needle or razor blade swallow with safety pins, a silk in apple, a cigarette paper tear, a Koran's medallion-like effect featuring a pair of underwear, a Cake in Hat trick that would look great for kids parties, and a Russian Roulette routine with a surprise twist ending.

However, I liked his thoughts on using music in magic the most. Plenty of food for thought is given in this section where he shows the linking rings with different music which give each performance a different vibe and tone. Some great tips shared here.

Dan's offerings are also great. He has a dollar serial prediction trick, a mind reading with scrabble tiles effect, and a nice little poker themed packet trick. However my favourites were the bending nail and the Any Drink Called For trick which I believe are the best tricks in this lecture (Sorry Scott! I love you too!).

Saying that, the main meat of this lecture were the skits and songs in between. My favourite bits were the Bananachek bit and the Christmas Carol adaption (and of course, the Christmas song about Dani DaOrtiz).

If there is one negative I can give, is that there were some groan-worthy puns and some not so great moments in one section of the lecture. Luckily it didn't completely ruin the whole lecture for me.

Christmas may be over, but with Scott's Penguin Live lectures it can feel as though it's Christmas every day. The lecture was incredibly entertaining and was a lovely treat to have from Penguin Magic. Even though I got this lecture for free, you will not be disappointed with your purchase if you're looking for some fun and laughs.