Magic Tricks

This lecture gets away from the rubber band and bottle cap brigade and enters the realm of polished professional presentations.

Anyone who works at their magic will understand that it takes a lot of work to get and effect to where you can perform it for an audience. After a few performances you realise that you are only 70% of the way there. Perhaps there’s a few things you aren’t fully happy with. Maybe a move feels a tad uncomfortable. It’s OK but you know it could be better.

If you have ever worked at making it better and ironing out the snags, you will know it takes far longer to get to 90% than it took to get to the 70% in the first place. That extra 20% is what separates most working magicians from those who really excel at their craft. Weeks, months, or even years of worry, trial, error, and experimentation can pass before the solution hits - usually so obvious you wonder why you didn’t see it in the first place.

This lecture is crammed with such effects, where the research, experimentation has been done and the snags eliminated. You have a silver platter of solid professional routines that have been honed over years in front of paying audiences.

Every effect is simple, clear and direct. The methods are not always easy but they are as simple as possible. For example, Ben’s presentation of The Universal Card has none of the twiddly moves that fill the literature. It is so far ahead of how magicians normally do card tricks that I felt I was in a mid-1800’s Viennese salon watching old JNH himself.

Every routine is treated with the same attention to detail. An Erdnase Table Shift is explained, and Mr. Ben must have spent ages figuring out the correct misdirection that makes the move seamless and totally invisible.

Then he goes off on tangents, explaining thought processes and suggestions for working on your own routines. These alone are worth the price of admission.

Even if you never do any of the routines or tricks explained, you will discover a goldmine of ideas and suggestions that will help you further along the road, regardless of your skill level.

Two friends of mine (both working pros), one in Dublin and one in London, both of whom bought and watched this before I did, each told me independently that it was the best lecture they had seen.

This is magic of a very high order, rarely seen in lectures, and it has my highest recommendation.