I have been very interested in sideshow stunts for a long time and have performed a number of them
in my shows. As Eric says, there aren't really any good resources to learn a lot of this stuff, so I
jumped on the opportunity to learn some more.
All in all, this is a pretty good lecture.
Eric teaches the stuff well. A lot of it is very basic. If you've been doing this stuff before, you
probably know much of it. Blockhead, for example, is the oldest trick in the book. Kernel, as well,
has been taught many times. I first learned it from Marc Spellman, but it's (or a variation) been
taught in plenty of other places. I do like Eric's handling slightly better than Marc's, but both
are good. Eric also actually does a better job teaching instinct than Matt Mello, who I have long
suspected doesn't actually perform in the real world.
About half of this was new to me. The
can smash is excellent. I was shocked at how well it worked when I first tried it. Hopefully my wife
won't mind too much if all of our cans get dented :) Chopstick is great too. We'll see if I ever
work up the courage to do it. He teaches the deck tear well, as well as how to build up the strength
for it, but I'm pretty weak. I don't know if it will ever be relevant for me. Mental floss is good
but it feels like there's a step missing. I don't have the right kind of animal balloons at the
moment. I have to get some to see if I can make it work.
Verdict: While this lecture was
excellent and I enjoyed every minute, I own about 75 penguin lectures and this was by far the
shortest one I have seen. Eric is clearly an incredible resource, and its a shame he didn't choose
to teach more.
Short but sweet
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