Magic Tricks

Max Maven is a famous top tier pro with enormous experience, but I doubt this was his A-level material. There are only three effects that I may use to some degree: 1)Four Sided Triangle, 2)Fearless Book Test, and 3)The Answer to Life the Universe and Everything. The four ace routine was overly complicated compared to other methods that achieve the same effect. Ghostwriter II is not clean (i.e., cannot be examined and prone to exposure). Numberskull, Maven's ACAAN effect, uses a difficult to make gimmick deck.Even Maven stated he thought no one would perform it (due to the difficulty of making the gimmick deck). This raises the question, why present an effect that you think your workshop attendees will likely not use or perform? I don't think Maven's Q&AVM hits hard enough and the presentation was confusing. About the worst thing you can do is blame a volunteer for an effect going wrong and that is how Maven's interaction with Patrick Redford came off during the Q&AVM effect. Redford is a fine magician/mentalist.If he has a problem with following directions, then the routine needs work. Maven also had problems with the first Fearless Book Test volunteer and had to replace the first volunteer with another. This raises questions about audience management and preparing for multiple outs. Dismissing the first volunteer was rude, and I think Maven could have made it work using a more finesse. In fairness, Max Maven did provide a lot of tips and interesting anecdotes. However, this was a four hour lecture and I think there could have been more and better magic/mentalism performed and explained. None of the effects that Maven performed came off as top tier material.