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Daniel Garcia Lecture
Reviewed by Elliott Hodges
Please note, Daniel Garcia has recently done two online lectures - this
review is about the Penguin Magic Live lecture and not the "At the table" one.
Daniel Garcia has consulted for the likes of Cyril, Blaine and Dynamo. Despite
being 23, I consider the likes of Paul Daniels and Geoffrey Durham to be some of
my favourite magicians and some of the best of all time. Approaching the lecture
of Daniel Garcia then, shouldn't have made me comfortable. I'm certainly not of
the current day magic show camp and am rather traditional and old school in my
approach and magical beliefs.
And yet there was something that hooked me about Garcia on the trailer. A small
amount of research reminded me of some his earlier releases and I decided to buy
the lecture.
The lecture clocks in at about three and a half hours long. Daniel starts off by
teaching his marketed effect Greed, complete with a Q&A session about it. The
lecture costs £19 which is about the same as Greed sells for so in the first
twelve minutes, you've essentially got your money's worth out of the lecture.
Greed is a lovely looking bill change where a $1 bill changes into a 5, then a
10, then a 20 before changing into a 50 cent coin. Daniel runs through how to
make this up, perform it and gives other ways of performing it.
Daniel then moves on to a section of card magic. He teaches a great card in
balloon where the balloon is held by the spectator, a version of the mystery
card where an odd backed card disappears from the card box and ends up as the
signed selection, a sandwich routine which looks very clean and hands off and a
very visual looking piece where a selected card appears outside the card box,
despite it being wrapped in gaffer tape. There is also a funny and involved
version of the lie detector which Daniel really hams up for comedy effect.
Daniel's version of the rub-a-dub vanish looks visual even if the grip looks a
little strange. There would easily be ways of justifying it though. A version of
the open prediction is also taught too where a spectator stops dealing at the
mate of a card shown at the start.
Daniel teaches lots of non card material too. He performs and teaches his
version of Timothy Wenk's mislead where a straw punctures a banknote before
restoring. It's an amazing three phrase routine that really couldn't look any
cleaner even if a gimmick was being used.
Also on offer is a variation of Dan Harlan's Travelling Cash where a banknote
penetrates through both strands of a rubber band. This one looks amazing.
Daniel also runs through some mentalism. There is a BRILLIANT prediction effect
with a paper fortune teller (the type you used to make in primary school.) A
version of Bill Goldman's Mental yarn is also taught using the "Notes" app on
the iPhone.
There is a huge variety of great effects taught but what really made this stand
out for me was Daniel's character and particularly his politeness. He not only
clearly values each helper but also praises their questions in a sincere way. He
compliments and thanks almost every person who asks a question. It was really
lovely to see.
He has a few Q&A sessions throughout the lecture and talks extensively about
consulting for TV. He has some great thoughts about people who sit at home and
accuse every TV magician of using stooges for every effect.
Also really valuable are his thoughts on using character and personality as
technique. If you, like I initially was, that Daniel is very much a modern day,
Hip-Hop style TV magician then let's remember that using personality as
technique goes back to Slydini and even earlier (Max Malini was the name that
came to mind.) I am a firm believe in that most of the important lessons you
learn to be a good magician are more to do with life and not to do with magic. I
was therefore delighted when Daniel recommended non magic books that helped him
in magic.
I cannot recommend this lecture highly enough. The three and a half hours flew
by and made this incredible value for money. I'm going to be honest and I'm
sorry to all magicians whose tapes grace my DVD shelf. I think this is the best
video I've ever seen in magic.
Available exclusively from Penguin Magic.
© Elliott Hodges, March 2014