Steven Blair`s blog of magic & life

Hello people of the interwebs its Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

I performed the very first trick on the DVD which is called "Chicago Scratch".The trick was really easy to learn and enjoyable to watch chad perform. Chad is an excellent teacher. 

I performed this as a opener and a closer and it works perfect as both

Hello people of the interwebs its Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

First off let me apologise for not doing a post yesterday it was Sunday and I never did much all day so I don't get a chance to perform the trick I learned so I thought I would wait until I had performed it.

Today's trick is from a book that I recommend everyone picks up and it also comes from one of my favourite magicians David Williamson.

Today's trick is from a book called "Williamson's wonders" by David Williamson and it can be found on page 77. The name of today's trick is "51 cards to pocket".

I would like to start off by saying if you have no idea who David Williamson is then don't read on go to YouTube and type his name in and watch him. He is an amazing and very funny performer. I also recommend you check out his awesome DVD set "ridiculous"  it's packed with funny moments and even amazing magic. 

The trick was really easy to learn and it gives you a great gag at the end. I did do the gag and wow it's amazing. 

I performed this trick as taught in the book for a guy called Scott who is a friend of a friend and has never met me before and never saw me do some magic.i got into the routine and it went great he loved it. The biggest reaction came from when I did the gag. Scott and everyone else watching laughed. I think this may be the best gag in magic.

I performed this as a closer and it works perfect there but could be a great opener as well.

Will it stay in my act? No it won't. The trick is very similar to a trick I do in my professional working set from stars of magic and I have worked so much on that routine it would be hard to replace with this. However I will keep the gag in my act and I may just use the gag for every single trick I do. It's that good of a gag.

Well guys that's it from. I will be back tomorrow with the very last day  of learning and performing a skipped over trick. Until then see you tomorrow. 

Hello people of the interwebs its Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

Today's trick is from a that I bought about three years ago and I haven't really looked at.

Today's trick is from a book called "Above The Fold" by Rich Aviles and it can be found on page 30. The name of today's trick is "middle man".

I want to start off by saying that I bought this book as a recommendation from a friend and I have never read any of it until today. Also I until today I never knew much about rich Aviles.

The trick was really easy to learn. 

I performed this trick as taught in the book for my friends Lisa and Chris who I was hanging out with and they seemed or really enjoy it. They have seen me do millions of magic in fact Lisa is someone I have preformed alongside on a number of occasions (she's a singer and poet) and she has also helped me write some material. Lastly she is my biggest critic and she will tell me if something sucks.

This trick has a nice emotional hook and I think the patter that is provided in the write up is gat for this style of routine.

I performed this as an opener and a closer as I only did this trick for them. I feel this would be a great middle trick as it has a lot of patter and isn't powerful enough for a opener or closer.

Will it stay in my act? I think I will play around with it and it may just stay in may act. Over all it's a great way trick and can't wait to try it out a few more times 

Well guys that's it from. I will be back tomorrow with day 6 of learning and performing a skipped over trick. Until then see you tomorrow. 

Hello people of the interwebs its Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

Today's trick is from a book that doesn't only have great tricks but also equally as good essays.    

Today's trick is from a book called "One Degree" by John Guastaferro and it can be found on page 6. The name of today's trick is "either or"

I want to start off by saying that I am a huge fan of not only Johns magic but his thinking and theory behind magic. I was lucky enough to meet and hang out with John at a recent magic convention and this was great to pick his brains about magic and theory. 

The trick was really easy to learn and I had it down in less than 5 minuets. 

I performed this trick as taught in the book for a friend who has saw me do a fair amount of magic and this got a poor reaction. The reason was that I know a lot about her and the trick is aimed at learning a bit more about your spectators. However I performed this again for a group of about 6 girls who hadn't seen me do any magic before and it got a really good reaction. 

I should say here that the second time I performed this I used a David Williamson move/idea to do what was needed. However the trick in the book isn't about how you do the effect it's about the main presentation and that's what I think makes this a great trick. You can do the exact same presentation as taught in the book using more than one method. 

The second time I performed this I used it as an opener and I think it worked great here as I got to know my audience a lot more. I think the information I obtained I could have used later on in a mind reading routine. 

Will it stay in my act? Yes, I will keep this in my act but I won't do the handling taught in the book (on occasion I might). I will however do David Williamson handling and use Johns presentation. 

Well guys that's it from. I will be back tomorrow with day 5 of learning and performing a skipped over trick. Until then see you tomorrow. 

Hello people of the interwebs its Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

Today's trick is from a book that was published in 2004 and contains one of my favourite stage tricks and some great essays. 

Today's trick is from a book called "Random Acts Of Magic" by David Acer  and it the trick can be found on page 88. The name of the trick is "The Flipwiches of eastwick". 

I performed this trick for a friend who hasn't seen me do much magic and she really liked it. I did this as a middle trick and I think this is where I think it works best. Overall great trick.

Will it stay in my act? Yes, I will keep this in my act but I won't do it all the time.

Well guys that's it from. I will be back tomorrow with day 4 of learning and performing a skipped over trick. Until then see you tomorrow.