Mastering Magic at The Magic Circle

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Hands on Session

Last Monday night I presented a 30-minute session called Hands on Sessions, it was a lot of fun.

Special thanks to Wayne Fox for asking me to hold court.

The Hands on Sessions are presented by Magic Circle Members to the membership. The idea being that each speaker can share a simple routine, idea or concept that may be of value. While the time frame is short, a lot of ground can be covered with intention and purpose

I was quite surprised by the turnout for my presentation, it was a big crowd for such a short 30-minute conversation. I managed to cram a lot of detailed information, technique and personal philosophy into the time frame.

The overriding arch of my talk was simply this; you don’t need complicated sleight of hand to present strong magic, it helps if you have the chops, however, strong magic is about the effect and the strength of the methodology, the engagement with the audience and how deceptive the handling is. For a beginning student, this is a good place to start.

My early days were spent reading The Vernon, Slydini, Lorayne, Marlo and Endfield Books. These books have continued to inspire me even at this stage of my development.

Why is this?

I believe it is because as a youngster, I had fewer distractions in my life. Reading became the access to learning, self-discovery and a wonderful adventure. It was through the printed page, not DVDs, videos or YouTube that I was able to explore the full range of possibilities.

Today, there are more distractions, a constant battle for our attention. I meet lot of students who have experiences of overwhelm in their studies. Many of the students have been exposed to far too much information and the constant distraction means very little time is spent mastering ONE EFFECT.

In my early days, my biggest distraction was when is the next book coming out. Fortunately, I had time to read, study and digest the information in the books I had.


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Full House

The Hands on Session I presented was great because it allowed me the opportunity to test-drive my argument and theory.

My personal philosophy is that card magic can be taught in a structured way. I believe this because of how I learnt reading Jean Hugard’s “Royal Road to Card Magic”. The pedagogy was superb and it worked perfectly for my style of learning.

For me, when I teach my students, we spend time just on Card Handling/ Cutting, Shuffling, Dealing and the spreading of the deck. This is the foundation upon which sleight of hand mastery is built. Without effective and competent Card Handling, sleight of hand with be a challenging process to learn and master.

This was my conversation last Monday and the effects I demonstrated were “The Tipsy Trick” with new handling I have developed and “The Biddle Trick”. These two effects are as old as the hills and yet, I still perform them to this very day – simply because the effect on a lay audience is STUNNING. There is no reason in my mind why I would drop these wonderful effects from my performing repertoire in favor of more “contemporary card magic”.

I am very excited by this conversation; it means that new students to The Vincent Academy will have a unique learning experience. Visit www.vincentacademy.co.uk to elarn more about my coaching and seminars

Stay tuned to this conversation, there is a lot more to come.
Thanks
Mike

1 thought on “Mastering Magic at The Magic Circle”

  1. Hey Vincent. I greatly admire your work. I was wondering if your presentation of the Biddle trick is on video to see. Wishing you continued success.

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