I'm baffled by the great reviews. The tricks are not fooling, but *worse*- the explanations are
haphazard, with few details offered. McCreary seems to take it for granted that anyone watching will
already know exactly what he's done; he begins the lecture admitting that nothing he does will fool
magicians. But even so- if he's not offering insights, what's the point? (Just one example- the last
piece is a card trick combined with an escape- he does not demonstrate the escape. It's barely
mentioned).
(I've only bought two lectures, so I can just compare this to Marc Paul, who
explains every aspect of every trick in perfect detail).
The two card tricks are a shrug,
the sponge ball monte is more of a gag, and an audience would have to be brain dead to be fooled by
"shredder." I think it's fair to say what happens in full view of the audience- a slip of paper is
removed from the secretly chosen envelope, which McCreary takes and stares at. (He has bad eyes, he
says later).
I think the best piece is actually the Silent Opener, which is not part of the
official act, but shown as a clip from a different event. If you wish, he will email you a follow up
video on the construction of this trick. (That's nice but I don't understand why Penguin wouldn't
simply include it with the download).
I held off writing this review because David
McCreary comes across as a friendly guy who loves what he does- but that's not enough to recommend
this lecture.
Hi Anonymous!
Believe it or not, I kinda appreciate the review. I appreciate this review way more than the other poor review I got. That guy just seemed hateful. Oh well.
Want to address something that you mentioned, that honestly has bothered me a bit since the lecture was released. Somebody else mentioned it in one of the less scathing reviews, so this may be a good time to bring it up.
I want to talk about the "haphazard" explanations. I really do wish I had explained things a bit better in certain areas. I think I mentioned in the lecture, but I'll say it again here. The awesome folks at Penguin called me on a Monday afternoon and, because they had a cancellation,
asked if I'd like to come in and do my show on Tuesday, the next night. Before I could say yes, he followed up with "and then lecture on it on Wednesday night?" I first said no, because I have never lectured, ever. Not just on this material, but any magic. I, obviously, agreed to do it.
So, I had 48 hours to put together a magic lecture (which I've never done) for one of the biggest magic distributors in the world. Minus 16 hours for sleep, we're down to just 32 hours, take away the 3 hours I was at the studio on Tuesday night, 29 hours. It's about a 1.5 hour round trip to the studio. I did it twice, so that's 3 hours, down to 26. I eat when I'm nervous so let's take out another three hours of eating time, 23. It was two years ago, so I'm not sure what I had going on or already planned at the time, but if we take out 8 hours a day just for the typical stuff I do around the house to keep the wife happy or the other side gig I do, we're back to 7 hours. Don't forget the 2 hours immediately after I hung up with penguin, sitting frozen, thinking, "what did I just get myself into?" 5 hours. I'd subtract bathroom time, but that's where I do my best thinking. So, if you think about it, I just had five hours to put together a magic lecture, for real working magicians. Really, that's the best trick I've ever done.
Not including the explanation on how to build the prop for silent opener falls under the same reason, not much time to get things together and lack of ever doing this before. I realized too late that I should have included it. This is why I've offered it up in addition. Please don't blame Penguin for leaving it out.
Anyway, I'm just having fun. I just need you and anybody reading that the "haphazard" explanations weren't intentional and I would hope I never take any fellow magicians for granted. If you're reading this and have bought the lecture and felt like I haven't explained something well enough, email me at david@stuffdaviddoes.com. We'll Zoom and get you straightened out.
One last thing, because I don't want you to miss out. Shredder works. I'm as shocked as you that it fools people, but it does. It's the trick that I get asked most about after my show, I swear. It's crazy. I honestly think to myself, "Do you really not get it?!", but they don't. Then again, the "Got Your Nose" trick (not in the lecture) kills every time. "Brain dead" may not be too far off.
Not magical or fooling
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