I believe he needs no introduction. What? You don’t know him?

He is one of the busy and seasoned professional magicians from New York City for the last 35 years. He performs his unique brand of magic around the world and appears many theater festivals and national TV shows. He is one of the producers at Monday Night Magic in New York City—New York's longest-running magic show. He was one of the first to use the word "Theatrical" for contemporary magic Many noted magicians have praised his book “Theatrical Close-up (Edited by Jamy Ian Swiss, Published by Mike Caveney’s Magic Words [The Magical Publications], 1984) as one of the important books in magic and it became one of the really hard to find books. According to The New York Times, he is a “soft-spoken conceptualist of sorcery.”

You also have to read a wonderful essay about him by Jamy Ian Swiss.
https://www.magicana.com/news/blog/take-two-70-peter-samelson

I sometimes feel many magicians misunderstand “Theatrical Magic” (In fact, even one of the very famous comedy magicians from England said to him “Oh, you’re that artsy-fartsy guy.")
This word often means a boring magic act, sugar-coated with amateurish acting and poor, old-fashioned storytelling. I can never hear a performer’s “voice” from these performances.

He has written and starred in 2 off-Broadway shows in New York City and worked for many theaters and movies as a consultant. Yes, he knows a real thing about theater. Once you watch his variation of “Snowstorm” or “Lady Fair and Mr. Smooth (Google it and watch on YouTube)”, you’ll understand what I mean. His performance is a great example of “Theatrical Magic.”

At the beginning of this 4 hours lecture, he sets the goal of this lecture. He said he will teach 2 important concepts in magic. The first one is “Small Changes Make a Big Difference”, the second one is “Creating A Context.”

This is the great lesson for “Use your head” that Dai Vernon said time to time again. He teaches “How to use our head in detail” with some wonderful examples including his beautiful coin piece “Mimetic Slo-Mo Show’n Vanish.” These concepts are great for close-up magic as well as stage magic. He also adopted these concepts for classic Tony Slydini’s “Coin Through Table” and Larry Jennings’ “Chop Cup.” You’ll be amazed by the results of him. Don’t miss his “Special Effect” for movie and theater. It looks so amazing.
In other words, he teaches “How to grow up in the magic.” Because we have to grow up as a “Magician” in real terms, for the real world—not just as a "Magic Guy."

He teaches many his classics from his book like “Cigarette and Thimble”, “Sponge Ball Snacks”, “Ring of Truth (One of great Ring and Rope routine, I believe), and “New York Transpo” in detail.

Whenever I’m studying magic with seasoned professionals, I’m always impressed by their attitude toward magic. They NEVER stop thinking about their works. They always keep improving and polishing their works. This “New York Transpo” is a great example. Since he created this amazing variation of “Chicago Opener” in 1974, his original handling still works well. 3 powerful climax jam-packed in this 3 minutes routine. I still love to perform this original routine since I was a high teen. But he’s still working on this routine and his improved handling pushes this routine to the max! If you already know his original routine, you’ll be amazed by his cleanest handling. Now, I’m switching to new improved handling. It’s worth the price of the lecture.

And don’t miss his talk about “Why, What, Who” and “3 types of Justification.” If you always think about your performance with these 2 topics, you’ll become a wonderful magician (at least, you can become a better magician than now.)

He also teaches his new works. One is “Small Change Prediction.” This is an amazing new concept of mentalism. You can use this concept from close-up to stage performance and looks fair. Collected coins from the audience are put in a Starbucks paper cup. They are shaken and mixed and a random selection is dumped out into one spectator’s cupped hands. Coins are hidden from sight, but the performer can tell with certainty both the total of the value of the coins being held and what the individual coins are. I believe this concept opens up new opportunities.

The other is “Ring to Wallet.” This is a really practical, powerful routine that can be used in any situation and great climax for any “Finger Ring and Rope” routine. His tips for vanishing ring with a handkerchief was marvelous.

“Heartstrings (His beautiful handling for Gypsy Thread)” is a thing of beauty. A great presentation and wonderful handling weave into a masterpiece. There are many great works by Gaetan Bloom, Richard Hatch, Eugene Burger, Javi Benitez, Max Londono, Gene Anderson, etc., but his handling is as good as these masterful routines.


Nonetheless, that is not by far! You also can enjoy his beautiful performance— “The Smoke”, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, and “Snowstorm.”

His Q and A session with lecture host, Dan Harlan also gives us so much food for thought (Especially, talk about production value on theatre is a really interesting one for me.)

I’m very satisfied with his lecture. Once we return to a normal and safe life, I highly recommended attending his live lecture when he visits near you. One day, I want to attend his 2 days workshop! 

This is the lecture where we can learn real things from a real professional. Whenever I read or study professional work (like this lecture DVD) from a real professional, I always straighten my back and study everything carefully.

The camera work is well done and his explanation also really clear, so you can learn everything from this lecture (For further study, I also highly recommended reading Genii magazine June 1995 and September 2014 issues. You can enjoy his interviews and essays.)

$30 is a bargain price, I believe. I highly recommended for every serious student of magic who wants to become a better magician. Before his big book release, we will be busy studying this lecture DVD.

If you perform effects with rings, rope, cards, coins, flowers, imps, coins again because there is a lot of great work with coins, thimbles, cups, handkerchiefs, cigarettes, or you want to consult on theatre or movies, and you are or want to be working for real audiences and getting paid...Watch this lecture. The title truly says it all. Peter shares his personal effects, his take on classics, and in each he shows the little changes he makes that make them more magical, that justify all the moves, and that entertain.

This lecture is chock full of great ideas and little moments to add to anyone's work. I have taken away many subtitles that I know I will use, and I usually perform mentalism. Peters material is tried true and tested on literally thousands of audiences. And he even shares some new thinking for a mental piece that he is still working out.

Also, Peter performs his classic work from Theatrical Close Up as well as sharing the rebirth of "Smoke" which is a beautiful routine with coins, smoke and a glass that he hasn't shared for a very long time. Peter ends the lecture with a performance of his classic snowstorm (the one that inspired most snowstorms performed today). Go watch it, you will earn something...

Peter Samelson brought his "A" game and tipped the real work on magic you WILL use!

Anytime and actual full time, working Professional shares his secrets of connecting with an audience, you will become a better performer yourself. That's exactly what happens with these lectures when you incorporate not just the tricks, but the thinking behind presenting magic, whether one on one, street, strolling or on stage.

HIGHLY recommended!

This is a great lecture and totally worth the price.

Peter’s thinking and theory alone will help improve your magic and your presentation and as others here have written long and better reviewers I’ll leave mine short. But… here comes the “but” in the title.

I was shocked (to put it mildly) to hear some of his lines, patter and interactions with the female spectator. I would think, hope and expected that for someone of Peter’s experience and caliber that he’d be aware of some of the do-not-do/say.

So much has been written in recent years about how not to treat an audience member (men, woman, etc.) that it really degraded my experience a bit.

I really like this lecture. Peter has some really good stuff on here. Well worth the money.

not mind-blowing magic in here, but Peter's theory of Small Changes is OUTSTANDING, it worth the price.

After a brief review of Peter's lecture it seems almost "boring" which is evident by the looks of his two spectators. Not one of Penguin's best lectures.

Some old and some new effects. His penultimate effect (not taught), using “smoke,” was quite magical, as was his Snow Storm in China. Peter is a bit of a slow talker, and as I mentioned already on another review, using the ability to speed up Penguin lectures greatly enhances what otherwise might have been a laborious lecture. In this case to the point that it was quite valuable.