Lecturing for Magicians…They Want My Secrets

I’ll be honest. The idea of lecturing to a group of magicians has been so far down on the list of things I wanted to do, I had to put it someone else’s back burner. I think putting it off for so long was mainly due to the rapidly growing imposter syndrome that we hear so much about these days. Never thought any of my stuff was good enough to release. But after learning that my stuff was good enough, I didn’t want to release it because it was good stuff and I wanted to keep it for myself. Finally, my humility and selfishness came to a truce and I did my first lecture this past weekend to over 150 magicians.

Highlight of the Lecture

For me, the highlight would have to do with my opening. I began with a trick that rotates into my show throughout the year called The Hacker. It’s essentially a few minute piece where two people apparently have their cell phones hacked by someone who isn’t in the room. There are three effects (tricks) that happen in the routine. At all three moments, I watched magicians that I have respected for many years look completely dumbfounded. I saw many of the people in that room turning to their neighbor in disbelief…with the neighbor doing the same. Now, being a lecture, I did tip the method to the room. The follow up comments I got throughout the rest of the convention were all to the effect of, “Until you revealed the secret, that’s the most I was fooled this weekend.”

What Did I Release?

I mainly released three things. Believe it or not, I wrote a book about my style of magic which is called Almost Believable. That was probably the release I was most proud of. I also officially released my watch steal, which I’ve been asked about for years. AND…drum roll…I released my phone charger trick. Yes, the one I did on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. It was quite the surprise when I brought out the phone charger saying, “I guess it’s time to let this one go,” and the many magicians began to applaud.

Overall

It was really a lot of fun sharing my magic/brain with magicians/science. I’ve already been asked to lecture at another magic convention. I’ll keep the suspense for magicians that are reading this and not reveal which convention. 

Yes, my daughter made the cover of my book.