16 December 2011

A Few Lectures In 2012

Hi folks

I thought I'd let you know about a few lectures that I will be presenting in the coming few months.

The first will be at Paisley Magic Circle on Thursday 19th January 2012 at their regular meeting place - St Ninian's Church Hall, 81-83 Blackstoun Road, Paisley, PA3 1NR (map).  The lecture is due to start at 7:30pm and non-member magicians can get full details from the Hon. Secretary, Peter Mullan, by e-mailing pgmullan@hotmail.com.  I am calling this particular lecture "A Work In Progress" as it will be a brand new lecture mostly containing material from my new lecture notes, which I will be releasing that night.  I'll give you more details on the new notes soon.

In March, I am presenting a couple of lectures in England.  First, on Monday 5th March, I will be at Leicester Magic Circle at their regular meeting place - Braunstone Civic Centre, Kingsway, Leicester, LE3 2PP (map).    This lecture is scheduled to start at 7:30pm and you can get more details from the club directly by e-mailing info@leicestermagiccircle.co.uk.

Then, on Tuesday 6th March, I will be visiting the Mid Essex Magical Society who meet at The Cricketers Public House, Penny Royal Road, Danbury, CM3 4ED (map).  The lecture is due to start at 8pm and you can get full details by e-mailing Michael Alderman on mike@michaeljalderman.myzen.co.uk.

If you are the Secretary of a Magical Society looking for a lecturer for the end of the week that I am south of the border (the week of Monday 5th to Friday 9th March) then please get in touch at peter@thecardman.co.uk.  You can get full details of my lecture on "The Lecture" page.

If you are able to make it along, please come up and say hi.  I am looking forward to visiting the different clubs.  Maybe I'll see you somewhere along the road?

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

06 December 2011

Back Twist by Mathieu Bich

Hi folks

I first met Mathieu Bich some 10 years ago at the IBM British Ring Convention in Scarborough.  Since then, I have had the pleasure of meeting him on a number of occasions and have watched in wonder countless times as he has performed effects that his brilliantly creative mind has created.  He is one of the performers who fooled Penn and Teller on their ITV series earlier in the year but I'd like to tell you a wee story about one of the first things he ever showed me.

One night, in the hotel bar, Mathieu was performing a few things for some folk.  I managed to catch the last piece that he performed.  He crouched down so everyone could look down on what he was doing and showed 4 blue backed cards.  It looked like he was performing a version of Lee Asher's "Asher Twist" as, one at a time, each of these blue backed cards turned red backed.  We all thought "that's an interesting idea".  We all thought we knew what he was doing and what he was using to accomplish the effect.  But little did we know that he was leading us down the garden path and about to turn the hose on us as once each of those blue backed cards had turned red, he turned them over to show 4 aces!  Where had the blue backs gone?  Seriously, where the smeg were they???  Mathieu was not for tipping the method that night.

Have a wee look at the trailer for it above...

Now, some 10 years later, we can finally discover the ingenious method to this wonderful effect as Mathieu has finally released it under the title "Back Twist" (when you click on the link you will also be able to see a video of the effect itself).  I am tempted to ask you not to buy it as I want to be the only one to have it but I don't think Mathieu would appreciate it.  It is a phenomenal piece.  I am not one for buying "tricks" as such but I will certainly be buying this one!  I think you should do too.

Go on and treat yourself - it's nearly Christmas!

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

POSTSCRIPT
Mathieu e-mailed me a couple of days ago letting me know that he has posted a video with the handling that I saw him perform all that time ago.  So, have a wee watch at this and allow your brain to hurt - lots!