Steven Blair`s blog of magic & life

Hey people of the interwebs Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

In today’s post I will review a magic effect from my good friend Edward Boswell. If you keep up to date with the latest magic release you will see that Edward release an effect with Theory 11 today called Rapture. This is a deck to box routine that looks like camera tricks. When Edward first showed me this trick I was stunned at how visual it was over all this is a great trick check it out here:


Purchase it from here:
http://www.theory11.com/tricks/rapture-by-edward-boswell

Well that was not what I am reviewing today the effect I am reviewing is called Cheaters Monte. First I would like to say the following review is my honest opinion so if it is a bad review I am just speaking my mind. Secondly just because Edward is friend of mine it doesn’t mean I will be nicer to him in my review. So let’s get started.


Name of product: Cheaters Monte By Edward Boswell

Price:FREE Yes it really is FREE

Available from:http://www.sleightjournal.com/ Just sign up on the website and recive it for free

Quick Description: Three cards are shown, two black and a red queen of hearts. The queen is turned face down and put on bottom. It then appears in the middle. So you flip it face up. And again it travels from the bottom to the middle. You keep the cards in a spread, and it jumps from middle to bottom. You finally explain that you cheat in cards. And all the cards are black.

Trailer:



Quality of the PDF: The PDF is really well produced all the photos are shot in great quality and the explanation is really easy to follow and the patter Edward uses is also included. Overall a really well produced PDF. The crediting in the PDF is very simple but credits those who need to be credited 8/10

My honest opinion on the effect:
This is a great trick and is very visual which doesn’t happen often in 3 Card Monte style effects which is a bonus. When I do walk around or table hopping I carry this trick with me and I perform it with a presentation about how street hustlers will cheat you out of money usually to a group of guys because I have found that men like this style of effect better than women. It is also not very hard to do and you will have it down in a very short time. The effect also has a great kicker which shocks the audience. Also included in the PDF is an extra ending by my friend Casey Rudd which I use and kills the audience.

Rating out of 10
Overall this is a great trick and is super visual I will give this a 8/10


Well that’s it from me for just now any questions regarding anything in this post feel free to contact me on any of the ways listed below. I will be back in a few weeks with a new post. Until then enjoy the summer while it lasts.

Steven Blair :)

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Hey people of the interwebs Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

On June 10th I had the honour to attend a full day workshop held by one of the best card magicians in the world Dani DaOrtiz in the Scottish city of Aberdeen . The workshop was held in the lovely CraigHarr Hotel. The following is a short little write up of the day.

The venue of the workshop

For me the day started off at 2am and the reason for this was because I had over 170 miles to travel in order to get there and I was doing all my travelling by bus there and back in just one day. The bus trip was rather relaxing up until I got to Dundee at around 5:15am where the bus broke down. The bus driver said that it would be a few hours until we would be on the road again. I was panicking because I was thinking that I would be late for the workshop. Lucky enough there was a spare bus near by so I was only running 10 - 20 minutes late. I arrived in Aberdeen at around 7:00am so that gave me a little time to grab something to eat.

I arrived at the hotel at around 8:15 and no one was around so I sat in the bar for a little bit until some people turned up at about half past 8. Up until about 9:30 I spent my time just hanging out and chatting to people and sharing magic. At around 9:30 Iain McCarron one of the event organisers shouted me over to where he was chatting with Dani DaOrtiz and he introduced me because he had been telling Dani about me travelling all night via bus to see him. I spent the next 10 minuets watching Dani showing tricks to some of the other magicians.

At 10am Steve Truglia introduced Dani and the workshop was under way. As the workshop started Dani invited a few people to join him at the table and I was one of the lucky chosen ones. The workshop started off with Dani performing a 30 minuet close-up show this was amazing even though I had the best seat in the house I was still blown away.

Dani DaOrtiz doing what he does best

After the little show Dani started by explaining his concepts and psychology behind his magic. This covered everything from being your self to getting into the spectators world to expectations of the spectator. This was really interesting and I feel it has changed the way I look at magic and I will be applying these ideas to my magic. After the chat about the concepts Dani then went on to explain one or two tricks he had did in the little 30 minuet show earlier. After the explanations of a few effects it was time for a break. I spent this break chatting to some people and showing some magic.

After the break it was time for me to take my seat at the table with Dani and he then went on to explain his handling of the classic force. The force he uses is amazing I think I will start using it more often. After this he went on to explain a few other forces such as his handling of the timing force then Dani went on to explain some tricks using these forces. Some of these were amazing such as his classic force done without any cards. Then after this Dani performed some freestyle magic in which he made up as he went along and all I can say is it was amazing to sit and watch. After this it was time for lunch in the hotels restaurant.

Sessioning during the breaks.

During lunch I had the chance to chat with my friend Tom Crosbie who showed me his work with a memorised deck from his new DVD Recall. The stuff he showed me was just amazing. As well as seeing Toms work on memorised deck I also had the chance to sit down and session with some other magicians.


After lunch it was time to take my seat at the table again. In this session Dani performed and explained some self working tricks that used no or very little sleight of hand. I am not really a fan of self working tricks but these may have changed my mind. After the self working tricks Dani then took requests of tricks the people who attended would like to see. This included his mini oil and water, open triumph, the self working trick and loads more. This part was really entertaining once this was done Dani then performed what I think was the best trick I have seen in ages a trick called "Triple Intuition" this trick fooled everyone who did not know how it worked in the room including myself. This then concluded the workshop and Dani then offered some of his products that he has on the market for sale and I managed to pick some of them up.

Me and Dani DaOrtiz after the workshop.

 
Over all it was an awesome day of card magic and well worth travelling over 170 miles to attend. If you ever get the chance to attend either one of these workshops or even Dani DaOrtiz`s lecture I would make sure you attend you will not want to miss it.

Lastly I just want to say a big thanks to Dani DaOrtiz for the amazing workshop and huge thanks to Iain McCarron, and the Aberdeen Magical Society for there hosting and for an amazing day. Big thanks to Radek Makar for the first three photos.

Well that's it from me I hope you enjoyed my little write up. I will be back sometime soon with another blog post until then enjoy the summer.

Steven Blair :)


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Hey people of the interwebs Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

As I type up this post I am chilling out in the sun. Enjoying it while it lasts.Well you are probably sitting there thinking what is today's post is really about (well after all I can read minds). If you follow me on any social networks such as Twitter or Facebook you will know I wrote a post for another blog. Don`t worry I am not turning on my readers I just thought that the post I had written would benefit if it was read by a wider audience (and I was asked by a friend who runs the blog if I would do it).

As you may know in a past post I mentioned I atteneded 61st annual Scottish Association of Magical Societies convention (S.A.M.S) in my hometown of Kilmarnock. Well if you are wondering exactly what I got up to then you can head over to The Daily Decption and read my report or you can Click here to read the post.

Also as you may know in my last post I shared my performance in the Close-up Competition and you can watch it below.



Anyways that it from hope you all enjoy the sun while it last. Any questions feel free to comment below or contact me on the ways listed below.

Steven Blair :)


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Hey people of the interwebs Steven back again with yet another blog post. In todays post I will be entertaning you with some magic performed live for a group of  fellow magicians.
 
If you read my last post you will know that I entered the Scottish Association of Magical Societies Close-up comeptition a few weeks ago. Lucky enough a friend of mine had recorded the act as it happened.
For the magicians who want to know what the tricks I performed were (in order):

1. A Charming Chinese Challenge by Troy Hooser this effect can be found in his book DesTROYers or on a DVD that Bob Kohler put out that includes contributions from Shoot Ogawa, Apollo and Thomas Wayne.
2. The first coin vanish is based on something I saw Jay Sankey do but it is as old as the hills.
3. Seconds vanish where it reappers on the table is something I came up with but I am sure its been done before.
4. The jumbo coin load I learnt from Eric Jones metal DVD and David Roths Expert Coin Magic Made Easy DVD.
5. Deminishing not likely by Paul Gordon. This trick is in a number of his books but most recently was printed in the best of british book published by Magicseen Publications (great book).
6. Card to wallet honestly I have no idea what wallet it is I picked it up from a second hand dealer at a convention.

The jokes were all old jokes that I have picked up over the years and I am unable to give crediting on them.
Anyways enough of the rambleing its time to watch the video.

 

Let me know what you think.
Steven Blair :)

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Hey people of the inter webs Steven back once again with yet another blog post. I know I haven`t posted in a while but I am back.

So you are all probably wondering where I have been.Well let me bring you up to date on what I have been up to the past month or so. It has been super busy for me and I haven`t really had much time to blog or even relax because of a lot of different stuff magic and non-magic related.

As some of you may know this past weekend I attended the 61st annual Scottish Association of Magical Societies Convention in my hometown of Kilmarnock. It was a great weekend I saw some great magic, met up with old friends, made some new ones and even spent a ton of money. Over all it was a great weekend. Why am I telling you this well on the Sunday I competed in the Close-up Competition even  though I didn`t win I had a blast performing for everyone. Most of my time has been taken up with working on my act for the competition.

As well as working on my act I have also been working hard with college stuff, hanging out with friends and doing work for a friend who has asked me to design and develop a website for him this also includes editing a showreel for his band that is just starting out and I see a big future ahead for them.

As those who like me on facebook will know I also had the chance to perform magic for guest at a wedding at the Lochside Hotel in New Cummnock. This was one of the nicest place I have ever performed at and the guest had as much fun as I did. Below you can read the status I posted about the feedback I received.



Well thats it really from me. I should be back in a week or so with a blog post that was suggested by one of my readers. If you have any questions or just fancy a chat feel free to contact me on one of the ways listed below.

Steven Blair :)


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