John B. Born Lecture
Ipswich Magical Society
15th September 2008
Reported by Simon Shaw


I am embarrassed to say I didn't know much about John B. Born before the lecture, only that he had written a well received book "Meant to Be" that explores the classic theme of "Any Card at any Number" and that he won the IBM 2006 Close up competition.

So what a great surprise it was.

John B. Born is an incredibly charismatic performer, an incredibly skilled magician and an incredible motivational speaker. It's quite simple really. John B. Born is incredible.


The lecture, titled "Principles and approach to Sleight of Hand Artistry" was one of the best I have ever attended (and I have seen a lot). Beforehand I did think that maybe the magic would be too difficult for my limited skill, but actually he was teaching and demonstrating such a wide variety of skills, ideas, subtleties and just general thoughts that I am sure everyone took away something from the lecture. But even without that, John is such a fun guy you couldn't help but enjoy the evening anyway.

The accompanying lecture notes were also excellent and good value for money – and they contained a lot more than was actually discussed in the lecture.

John is one of those magicians who takes his magic very seriously. It is obvious that making magic magical is of utmost importance to him, and he puts in a lot of thought to everything, from what he says, when he says it and how he executes the magic.

All in all a simply marvellous evening of magic. If you get a chance to see it – just go!

© Simon Shaw, September 2008

 

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