This was not funny and I was ashamed for the performer. I’m very sorry, but I have to be honest here, he really needs to work on his condition.

The ‘show’ was very chaotic and messy, absolutely not my style, and I hate normal, and love crazy, but this was not the way. The methods he used where very obvious. No explanations where needed!

Unfortunately the few things I did find interesting where not answered, like in the Diary Queens he asks to name any four of a kind, someone named the kings. That was something that interested me, but he never explained how to get them to name the Kings or what to do if they name another four of a Kind. He just

The Anticlimactic Trick was indeed very anticlimactic. This very long routine is depending on a short one second moment, this moment has to be perfect. Unfortunately it was not perfect at all.

Card at any number, didn’t work, but he didn’t even explain what was supposed to happen.

Lazy Rize was not for me.

Card Exchange is a nice move, but nothing more
NFFDY, not for me.

Prior Commitment was very good and worth the price of the download! But it was from genius Simon Aronson

CAANDY: I have never seen a performance go so wrong, it was really embarrassing.

GLORY some nice moves with a two Jokers and a hole in the middle. This was not for me, but at least something that I could give Chris credit for. If you like some visual card effect, you will like Glory.

All in all a very strange download. It felt like Chris was called half an hour before the start, to quickly do something for the viewers. It was like he didn’t prepare himself, nor his tools. Everything was a big mess. Had to look at his behind very much, when he was looking where he put his stuff in his bag. He did have a few nice ideas and I really think he is a very nice guy, but the way this was presented and explained, I can only say… Embarrassing!

On the trailer is written:
"If Chris Mayhew can do it… You can do it!"

But he can’t!?

I've got a number of different Penguin Live lectures. This one I got as an extra through Penguin and that's the only way that I would have it.

In addition to the language, I just didn't care for the lecture. There was a lot of times when the tricks didn't work out for Chris and a lot of dead time when there wasn't really anything happening. There were a couple bright spots or bits that were funny or interesting, but they were definitely in the minority for me. I've heard a lot about Chris and his magic, but if this is exemplary of the rest of his work, I'll leave it to others. It could also be that this was all Chris' character and I just don't understand it.

I'm sorry but after watching Dan Harlan, Harry Anderson, Charlie Frye, Josh Jay, Kainoa Harbottle, Dani DaOrtiz, Danny Garcia, Shawn Farqhar, Jon Armstrong, Michael Eaton, and Bizzaro, I just can't recommend this lecture to anyone...

I'll make this short and sweet.

From the get-go, Chris had me lmao'ing. He really shows how much worth it it actually is to put your own character into a magic effect. You shouldn't focus too much on going from point A to B, you should be focusing on the journey from point A to B. Chris Mayhew is a natural comedian.

I really enjoyed the effects and ideas he threw around. His version of Chad Long's Shuffling Lesson is HILARIOUS and something I'd want to put in a show.

Imagine Lennart Green's messy style, but taken to a whole new level that with have you cracking up. Here is this guy, fumbling around that adds to the comedy, but you get strong magic payoffs in the end.

He teaches Simon Aronson's Prior Commitment which fooled Penn and Teller, look up Graham Jolly's performance. He gives such a nice touch that adds a little mystery to it. It is worth the price of the download, you WILL use it.

Get this lecture.

Seems like a great guy.
And his good material is really, really good.
Unfortunately he spent most of the lecture putting on a show. And it wasn't a good show. It's sad because be clearly put a lot of thought into the jokes and presentation, but at the same time he clearly has little to no experience actually performing. At least not like this. And so the jokes often fell flat.
The studio audience laughed a lot. But a: I think you have to know him to laugh. b: we didn't pay to laugh. We paid to learn

The lecture itself was unplanned. The parts where he actually performed tricks (this wasn't often) were clearly done off the top of his head. This is sad because be talked about how he wanted to explore how he came up with his tricks.... but where did he do this? He forgot? If he thinks his passing comments satisfied this, he's mistaken.

Frankly, I's be surprised if Penguin wasn't bombarded with requests for refunds. This "lecture" didn't come close to delivering. If he had stuck to demonstrating and teaching, and had actually performed the effects well, there's be something worth while here. He didn't. And there's not.

Now way that I would ever hope to perform like this man. He was not only, very chaotic, unorganized, but also most of the tricks went wrong.

The one thing you can learn from this lecture is that if you don’t have organization, many thing will go wrong. Big lesson learned here. Could not believe my eyes.

BUT

The Promo was very funny…

Chris Mayhew has a lot of gags and tricks to show you in this lecture. He isn't like most magicians lecturing he even does an entire 45 minute show. Here's a breakdown of the tricks:
Dairy Queens an assembly effect where it has a very cool extra phase if you like assemblies you should check this out because he adds something
8.5/10

Chad Longs Shuffling lesson his version: It uses the theme of strip war and has a lot of funny moments it isn't explained but you should be able to figure it out.
9.5/10

Anticlimatic card trick: chris can't seem to find the card until he uses his last guess very funny although the revelation needs to be better. 8.7/10

Lazy rise

Ambitious card very cool visual rise of the card and really isn't that super hard although it will require a lot if practice 10/10

Dual reality you make 3 spectator see three different things it's ok 5/10

Fade this isn't explained but you'll figure it out because of the technique he's taught see the trailer on youtube. The effect is very cool and if you can perform it 8.5/10

Cardsexchange
Ambitious card ok I guess 6.5/10

Force easy to do and the have a free choice 7.2/10

Color change. Very visual and very easy 8/10 if you like change

Dun
A sandwich trick with a surprise climax 7/10 you can see on free trick friday

The Legend Prior commitment

A very cool trick which you can see on youtube and chris gives a little something to make the trick better 9.5/10

CANDY

A ACAAN that is easy to do and you actually create a card one of the only ACAAN I would do 9/10

The Holes Concept

Glory An AWESOME sandwich trick with the holes in them 9.5/10

Hole Warp a card warp where you don't ruin your cards and their is a vet cool color change. 9.5/10

Researchers a version of the searchers plot that has to be seen and has an awesome climax 9/10

Then he ends his trick and talks to nathan for 20 minutes

A lot of people don't like this lecture because chris isn't funny and he's chaotic, but listen to me if you want to learn most of good tricks

Click ADD TO CART

Enjoyed this lecture. The downside, for me, is being a Chris Mayhew fan, I already own a bunch of his material already, so alot of it was repeated for me.

Just a warning: There is some language used in this lecture that may offend some folks. Just a heads up its a bit rated R for parents out there who may have a problem with this. That said, its all used for comedic purposes, its not aimed at to offend anyone.

Very entertaining, and a bit unusual to say the least!

Please do yourself a favor and just look below to all the other bad reviews because its the truth I wont repeat what they said but this lecture was really bad. My friend just made me watch it and I thank god I didnt pay for it. Feel bad for the ones that did. Do yourself a favor and get other lectures from Jay Sankey, Daniel Garcia, Dan Harlan, Dani Daortiz or Woody Aragon.

This was my first penguin live lecture and i really liked it.
Chris is a funny performer and he has some good material. I really enjoyed his performances and his explanations were okay. If you're a big fan of chris and you own some of his realeased materialyou won't find a lot of new stuff here. And yess he screws up some of his performances but for me it didn't really matter. It's kind of his style to screw some things up and i laughed quite a lot during his peformances. I think if you want a fun lecture and you want to learn some good card magic this is one to consider buying.

I don't do this often, but after watching the lecture I was so blown away I logged in to leave a review. It was that good.

When I got here though I was surprised to see some negative reviews for what I thought was an outstanding lecture. Even more surprising? Both the positive AND negative reviews were sorta right... FOR THE SAME REASONS!

Chris' show is messy and chaotic. But it's been designed that way. He goes from being a "normal" magician "doing" magic to one who's lost control as the magic happens around him.

Some people found this, as I did, extremely funny. The magic was clever and Chris went to great lengths explaining why he chose to make the choices he did. Although I personally would never perform like him, that's fine- you don't NEED to perform like him to be able to do his awesome magic.

Some of the negative reviews though disliked the lecture because it was messy and chaotic. That's a personal taste thing I guess. Not everyone likes horror movies or adult humour, doesn't make them bad. In fact, the people that DO like those things like them for the same reason the detractors dislike them.

Chris' lecture was funny, clever, and packed full of great magic.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.