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jmcgrath Regular user Tomorrow I'll make another 147 Posts |
Review of Craig Petty Lecture 28-4-09
Craig opened up the meeting at 8pm and introduced himself and Russell Leeds who was going to be his right hand man for the lecture. But before we go into all the lecture bits, let’s have a Scooby Doo moment and rewind a little. 2 hours before the lecture we arrived at the venue and set up the things that are needed. Then it’s off to the bar for a chat. Craig and Russell are demming effects and moves at a furious rate. There is magical eye candy everywhere. Then slowly all the club members start arriving nice and early for a few drinks and such like and before you know it they have a group around them about 3 deep ohhing and ahhing. So before the lecture has even started these guys have been entertaining us for at least 1.5 hours. And that does not take into account the session the previous evening that went well past midnight and ended up in a kebab shop. So now we can review the lecture. Craig introduced himself and rather nicely he actually told us what his objectives were for the lecture, namely to encourage people to get over their inherent fear of coins and to start doing magic with them. Don’t think however that it was all coins, there was some excellent card work as well, but out of the 12 effects that he shared only 3 of them were using cards. Craig is well known for his use of the Coin Bag, the flipper coin and his work on Johnny Wong’s Split Coin. He explained that he felt that the flipper and the Split coin gaffs were so powerful that they would eventually replace the simple shell that we have all been using since coin magic crawled out of the primordial sludge. A big statement, but would he be able to back it up… Flippers The first 3 effects on display used the now standard gravity flipper and can be found on Craig’s excellent DVD “Flipped Out”. They were WTF (a ‘coins through table’), Empowerment (coins across into the spectators hands) and Flesh Pockets (coins through the hand). Each of these routines were pretty stunning, but there were several touches that Craig shared with everyone on how to get the most out of the spectators and how to get them to confirm that coins are in their hand when they aren’t. He’s a very sneaky man that Mr Petty! Coin Bag The next 3 routines used the coin bag that Craig first became well known for, and he used the bag to show how you could perform any classic of magic with the bags. The first effect was I think Coins in Cartoon Motion where Craig very VERY cleanly vanishes coins from the bag and then start re-appearing in, on and under the bag. Very easy to do and it looked great. No wonder everyone loves this set! The next was Chop Bag where you’ve guessed it he performed a standard (to a very high standard of course) chop cup routine using the bag. Once again the bag does all the work and all the magician has to do is take the credit. You can even use a jumbo coin for a final production. Earlier in the day Craig had performed the fastest version of Flurious that I have ever seen so he does know how to handle a jumbo coin. Finally (from the bag point of view) he treated us to a routine where the coins travelled through the bag and through the table. I think that the Attack of the Bag DVD’s were the first things to be sold out when he opened up his stand. Split Coin The final section of the first half (we are now past the 1 hour part in the lecture and Craig has barely stopped to take a breath and everyone’s jaws are sore from hitting to floor – but no stopping just yet!) was on Johnny Wong’s Split Coin which Craig uses extensively. The first was Mexican Split where Three coins are produced and examined. They then travel from one hand to the other and finally vanish into nothing. The second was an example of how you could get 3 coins to vanish using the split coin before the third routine Hopping Split which as you may expect is Craig’s take on the classic Hopping Half’s routine that we all know so well. All you need is the split coin and you are good to go - no shells to worry about and an instant reset as well. Another routine that walk around performers will love! Craig had been performing now for over 1.5 hours and we decided to take a quick break, although as everyone rushed up the dealer’s table to get everything first, this 5-10 min break lasted about 20 mins. There was not a lot left at the end of it. Still we did eventually get onto the second half. Now Craig moved onto Card Magic. The first effect was Quarantine which begins by having a card selected and signed. There then comes a standard Ambitious Card sequence before bringing out a piece of shrink wrap explaining that you will use this to quarantine the deck. The cards are handed to the spectator and then shrink wrapped in their hands. For the final(ish) phase the signed card is pulled from the shrink wrapped deck. Now for the real kicker, when the spectator tries to put the deck back in the card case he finds that it is shrink wrapped as well. It’s a great routine – no it’s a fantastic routine – in fact it’s best that you find something else and just leave this routine to me! The last 2 effects were from his Blank DVD, and the first one was Misprint. In this packet trick you start off with 4 blank cards and then both sides become printed in slow motion. First the backs print one by one and then the faces. At the end of the routine the cards become blank again and then vanish into nothing. The last routine that Craig had time to share with us was The Spade Trick where a signed card is lost in the deck. A double blank card prints front and back to match the spectator's card. This trick combines strong visual magic with a kicker ending that no one expected. It was now 10:30 PM and Craig had been lecturing for 2 ½ hours and I think that he had only got through about half of what he wanted to show, but unfortunately we had to stop things there as the cleaners were asking us to lift up our feet so the could hoover under us. Everyone in the club agreed that we had just enjoyed a fantastic night of magic and as well as being totally entertained we had also picked up a wealth of little tips and tricks that we could use to strengthen all of our magic, not just the effects that Craig has taught so well. So it was back to the hotel, well not quite yet… there was still that curry we had to find, but that’s a different story. On a final point – Craig is about to release a new coin DVD called Pure where no gaffs are used at all. I had the pleasure of seeing him perform some of this material while he was here and the one effect that stuck in my mind was Splitting the Atom which is the best ‘Spellbound’ routine I have ever seen. Don’t miss it when it comes out. Regards, John
John McGrath
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rutabaga Inner circle Toronto, Canada 1283 Posts |
Great review John, thanks!
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matt.magicman Inner circle Mars 1524 Posts |
Cool! he's coming to our club (smc) in july
cant wait.............. |
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