Magic Tricks

The first minute of this lecture made me smile a lot. Like I knew that Dan would be doing something different for this lecture but I was not prepared for that (although I should have seen it coming).

He starts with "Hold It, Buster!" for a stand-up performance, and shows how you can adapt it for close up. The lesson he gives here (other than the method of the trick) is a great, and important start to the lecture.

Then comes "L.O.V.E.", a "Twisting The Aces" style trick with multiple kicker endings.

"Rising Dough" comes next. An "Ambitious Card" with coins. I like the suggestion to do this with a product that gives you the necessary props for much cheaper than with coins.

Then comes "Psychic Antenna" and "Psychic Paper". The tricks here use a certain method to allow a spectator to see something revealed in a piece of wire and a "blank piece of paper".

To keep on the theme of mentalism-like effects, there's "Push" in which a spectator selects a card and Dan makes them forget that card and replace it with another.

The "Harlan Hookup" is great if you don't have a certain gimmick in order to make these kinds of animations and levitations easier.

"Win/Win" is a clever mathematical trick and Dan gives some great advice on how to make "procedural" tricks like this entertaining.

"Right Brain/Left Brain" is perhaps the cleverest thing in this whole lecture. You can describe how the effect looks simply as "The Magician is able to know what a spectator is thinking of by how they tear a piece of paper" to which the secret is pretty much "The Magician is able to know what a spectator is thinking of by how they tear a piece of paper". Even with the direct method, Dan shows how there's a backup built into the trick. An extremely good (although time-consuming to set up) mental effect.

Finally, he shows a kind of odd book test like effect with "There's Waldo!". Two methods of finding Waldo are seen here. One found by the magician and the second by the spectator. An odd case in which there's an actual justification for a book in a book test (since in most book tests it's more of a "word test").

After this, comes the interview with Dan Harlan by Dan Harlan and there are some great stories in this.

Overall, some great tricks and methods, some great advice, and an entertaining lecture all-round. Highly Recommended!