Magic Tricks

Jan is definitely a mentalist's mentalist. Not only is he a highly polished pro and nice guy with a dry sense of humor, he's an outstanding teacher, one of the best. He carefully discusses every step of every routine, explains the rationale and psychology, adds subtleties and nuances, and gives you variations. You'd be hard pressed not to learn something useful from this lecture. His discussion on the use of i** p*** and Sh**** e******** and their construction is just fantastic. (To the reviewer here, who was whining that you have to make some of the gimmicks, I'd say, "Go back to your self-working card tricks." What Jan shows you is absolutely fundamental to being a mentalist. And the necessary arts and crafts are simple. All good mentalists do them. If you don't want to, you'll never be a good mentalist.) And I've never seen such a beautiful routine and explanation using a Mem Deck. He fooled me.

I was not familiar with Jan before watching this lecture, but now I'm a huge fan. His stuff is straightforward, nothing complicated, but hits hard. I hope Penguin brings him back for an encore. He's a treasure.