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John Bannon LIVE ACT (Penguin LIVE)


An bullet-proof act with nothing but a shuffled deck of ordinary cards! Works with any performance style. SUPPORT LIVE MAGIC. START LEARNING THE FULL ACT TODAY.
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"The more I study card magic and mentalism, the more impressed I am with John Bannon. His "lean and mean" style of construction and execution inspires me. His routines are hard hitting and fun to perform." -Jeff McBride, Las Vegas Headliner

"John Bannon is known for his refined card work and excellent book-length collections of magic. A master of eliminating moves to maximize impact, he is the creator of some of card magic's neo-classics." -Jared Kopf, MAGIC Magazine

"Slick. Cool. Superb on all levels. Beyond the exceptional caliber of the effects is John’s brilliant thinking behind it all." -John Guastaferro

"You know, as I get older, my ability to impress an audience with brute sleight of hand, wanes ever so slightly with each passing day; and the thought of that inevitable day when my decline will be glaringly obvious to even the uninitiated is a source of gnawing depression. But then I remember the Bannon stuff, and I get a warm happy feeling. Thanks to John's material, not only will they think I'm still good, they might even think I'm getting better!! Sooner or later, everyone does Bannon." -Jack Carpenter

What will he teach?

John Bannon teaches a fantastic and practically self-working professional caliber card act that is as easy to do as it is baffling. The act goes from a borrowed shuffled deck to a four ace and royal flush production that is within the grasp of nearly every card handler. Only a few sleights are required to perform this fabulous act.

Line of Sight
Line of Sight is a very direct display of the performer knowing the exact card a spectator selects. Neatly packaged with an engaging presentation this opener stuns audiences with its directness.

Directed Verdict
A spectator freely cuts small packets of cards only to find the aces on the top of each packet.

Twisting the Aces
John’s handling of the classic twisting the aces not only teaches magicians the correct way to do this effect, but also includes a presentation that makes sense! In John’s handling the spectators can choose if the final ace turns face up or face down, and then a kicker ending in which the aces turn all face up and all face down in a very clean and simple fashion.

Secrets & Mysteries Of The 4 Aces
The four aces are fairly lost in the deck. The aces are produced from the deck in a variety of engaging ways inside of an engaging story of a poker game. Once all four aces are produced the magician reveals that not only have they produced the aces, but also a royal flush in spades.

Who is he?

John has been screwing around with playing cards for over forty years. He thinks he knows what he’s talking about. And, he still has a few tricks up his sleeve. While John's magic has an international presence, his personal appearances are limited. We are very pleased that he was available for this very special lecture.

John's first major books, Impossibilia (1990) and Smoke & Mirrors (1992), were smash hits. His packet trick, Twisted Sisters (1993), continues to be one of the bestselling tricks of all time. John has lectured throughout the United States, Europe and Japan—achieving a truly international reputation.
His book, Dear Mr. Fantasy (2005) is widely hailed as one of the best magic books of the last decade. Currently, his collections High Caliber (2013), and Destination Zero (2015), quickly sold out. His recent project, Mentalissimo, is getting the same enthusiastic reception.

In 2009, John teamed up with the stylish production company, Big Blind Media, to make Bullets After Dark, and in 2011, Bullet Party, both collections of card magic. In 2014, the best-selling collection, Fractalicious and the innovative Sizzle. Recently, they completed the epic, four volume project, Move Zero, on John’s self-working card magic.

In 2017, he began his cutting edge bi-monthly column, "Dealing With It," in Genii Magazine.

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Customer Reviews (showing 1 - 10 of 12)
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An overpriced performance of a fraction of Dear Mr. Fantasy Report this review
Verified buyer Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on July 21st, 2019
I don't use to review the lectures, as most of them tend to have something that suits me and, worst scenario, they are worth the interview. Even in those cases where a trick, move or patter line is already in print and available, I find it useful to see the author lecture and perform it, as he/she usually adds some tips on the known material.

But in this case, what you will get is just a minimum portion of Bannon's Dear Mr. Fantasy book in a disappointing 16 minute performance, followed by a sparse 1-hour explanation section. No new tricks, nor ideas, nor anything worth the price of a lecture.

Do yourself a favor and get the book. It costs less and is packed with much more material.
10 of 10 magicians found this helpful.
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Low Caliber Report this review
Verified buyer Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on August 25th, 2019
Some of the poorest material I’ve ever seen from Bannon, poorly presented. I’m a huge fan of his, and this was such a disappointment.
5 of 6 magicians found this helpful.
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Not Great, John Report this review
Verified buyer Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on August 8th, 2019
I’ve been a big fan of John Bannon since Smoke and Mirrors and Impossibilia came out. Two of my all time favorite books. I even love Dear Mr Fantasy, and I bought that during a time when I my interest in magic had waned.

$40 for this Live Act is about $30 too much. Very short and the effects are largely just okay as performed by someone who gave us greats like Strangers Gallery and Twisted Sisters. There is stronger material out of Bannon’s repertoire, but in my opinion, this just isn’t it. The peek is cool. Other than that....it’s a must miss.

I wouldn’t normally even review a lecture like this, but Penguin needs to hear how disappointed people are in this one at the new higher price.

Get his other Penguin Lecture. It’s far, far better.
5 of 6 magicians found this helpful.
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Short and boring Report this review
Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on August 4th, 2019
I am generally a fan of John bannon, but i have to say this was an incredibly poor live act. Not only did he seem very tired and bored, the act was only 15 minutes long and really wasn't anything original or interesting. In addition, the filming was surprising bad. When he did his Twisting the Aces, you could barely see the cards. If you can't see the cards, what is the point? In all, a major disappointment from a great magician...
5 of 7 magicians found this helpful.
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live act Report this review
Verified buyer Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on July 27th, 2019
You get a quite short lecture with five card tricks and a John Bannon who looks very tired...One is very simple , a Marlo- Draun fan glimpse on a selected card. Two others were already published by John Bannon himself: his version of Doctor Daley last trick and spectator cuts on aces (in his previous lecture at Penguin!). The last two are Vernon twisting the aces and Chris aces (with a royal flush production). Even the nice Dan´s comments does not save the lecture...
4 of 5 magicians found this helpful.
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Not Great Report this review
Verified buyer Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on July 24th, 2019
I really like Mr. Bannon's writer work. It is clever, exciting, and often has very few technical requirements. This lecture, however, left me a little cold.
First, Mr. Bannon is not a performer and it shows. There is nothing wrong with this, but forcing him into a performance situation didn't help anyone. His magic is VERY strong, but he has no humor or ability to really sell the effect. He is an inventor not a performer.
The magic that he does show is very well done, though some of it is a little derivative (e.g., twisting the aces). Add this to the fact that the performance is short and the interview is also very short and you have a recipe for some unhappy buyers.
Don't get me wrong, I learned some cool things here and I think it was worth the money. When compared to other performers, however, this one was lacking.
Your mileage may vary, but I felt it was pretty weak.
3 of 5 magicians found this helpful.
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Improved version of Henry Christ's Fabulous Four Ace Trick Report this review
Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on May 22nd, 2021
As other reviews have noted, if you're seeking an all-around good Penguin Live lecture, this isn't it.

Part of it is that the "Live Act" format is a poor fit for Bannon, as he's mainly a writer and trick developer who doesn't actually do performances.

And part of it is that this one is WAY too short to justify the price tag. There are only five tricks - four in the act, and one demonstrated later in the interview. The bang for the buck is really bad, so it deserves the bad reviews that it's getting.

But there's one reason why someone might want to jump on board and get this...

First note that the "act" he performed here is actually the second section of the book Dear Mr. Fantasy, called "Secrets and Mysteries of the Four Aces". In the product description for this video, that name is given to the closing trick. In Dear Mr. Fantasy, that trick is called "Beyond Fabulous", as it is based on Henry Christ's "Fabulous Four Ace Trick".

If you aren't familiar with that one, it's a strong production of the four aces. Bannon's version adds a kicker ending where he also produces the rest of a royal flush.

Keep in mind that the entire routine is designed to be done impromptu with a borrowed deck. Beyond Fabulous does require setup, but that's one of the main points of that section of Dear Mr. Fantasy - if you script the routine well, you can actually do the setup (called Cull de Stack in the book) on the fly as you come out of an earlier trick.

The deck is shuffled or appears to be shuffled several times throughout the act, making Beyond Fabulous a mind-blowing conclusion to the routine.

You probably wouldn't buy this for any of the other tricks, and three of the five total tricks are also on other videos. The Line Of Sight opener is on Fire When Ready. Directed Verdict (which he also calls Final Verdict) is on Bullet Party and was also part of his previous Penguin Live lecture. His take on Dai Vernon's "Twisting The Aces" is new, but you've probably seen too many other variations of it before to care all that much about another one. He throws in Doctored Daley (his take on Dr. Daley's Last Trick) when talking with Dan Harlan (it's not part of the live performance). That's on Bullets After Dark, was also on his first Penguin Live lecture, and was also included as a bonus on the out of print DVD of the "Spin Doctor" trick. (Note: Spin Doctor is another take on Twisting The Aces. It's now available on the Fractalicious DVD.)

So... if you specifically want a video version of Beyond Fabulous and the Cull De Stack setup, here it is. Otherwise, skip this one and put the money towards something else.

For that matter, Penguin might as well rename this video "Beyond Fabulous" and list his Twisting The Aces variation (aka "Plot Twist") plus the other three tricks as bonuses. Maybe get Dan Harlan to film a new intro and demonstrate the "Mark Of The Fabulous" alternate variation from the book.

If they did that and cut the price to $20, this would be a five star winner.

2 of 3 magicians found this helpful.
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Excellent material and advice Report this review
Verified buyer Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on July 21st, 2019
John Bannon delivered a short but insightful card magic lecture of tried and true classics with his special finesses and improvements. Much is to be learned by closely listening to John’s presentations and advice in this Live Act. John offers a set of 4 card routines that flow together in an ease of presentation and style that pack a wallop on the audience. This lecture is geared towards the beginner to intermediate card worker. However, even the most seasoned card handlers will appreciate and perhaps adapt some of John’s patter and presentational ideas. Outstanding lecture!!
2 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
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John Bannon Live Report this review
Verified buyer Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on July 21st, 2019
As alway John make card magic easy for everyone.
Twister of the Aces is on of my favorite effect nice ending.
The show was short and sweet right to the point.
thanks John
2 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
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John Bannon Live Act Report this review
Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on August 5th, 2019
Sadly , this is not a typical John Bannon dvd. Not when you consider the legend and his works. Move Zero, Smoke & Mirrors, High Caliber, Lucky, Mentalisimo, Sizzle, The Royal Scam etc. I can go on and on. John is the man, all card magicians look up to. This video does not do justice to the work we expect from Mr Bannon
1 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
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