Nicholas Einhorn: At The Table Live Lecture
Reviewed by Elliot Hodges

 

Nicholas Einhorn is a two-time recipient of The Magic Circle's "Close up Magician of the Year" award, a FISM finalist, The Magic Circle's Centenary Close-up Magician and he has also fooled Penn and Teller. His magic books have also sold over 500,000 copies. I have never met Nick but I first learnt my "most performed" close-up trick from one of his books - a trick that I perform every single time I do close-up magic. His books are also ALWAYS the ones I recommend when people ask me how to learn magic tricks. On top of that, ALL of his products get amazing reviews, are always practical and are always very amazing.

So when I saw he was going to be doing a live lecture then I knew that downloading it was a no-brainer.

Clocking in at about two and a half hours, the lecture is shot to a small live audience with Mike Hankins from Murphy's Magic keeping things going and taking questions for Nick as they are emailed in.

Nick starts off by spreading a pack of cards onto a table and immediately producing four coins underneath the cards. It's incredible, fast paced magic that happens in under 20 seconds. A short matrix routine is then performed with the four coins which looks just as clean.

Next He performed and explains his coin in bottle routine. This is a three trick set which starts off with the sudden appearance of a small bottle. The bottle is examined before a coin is borrowed which gets slammed straight inside the bottle. The fact Nick uses a smaller bottle rather than a coke or even a wine bottle really helps this routine and it looks fantastic. The set concludes with the coin being removed from the bottle and the bottle vanishing. Nick follows up by giving his advice and ideas for maintaining the quality of folding coins.

Next Nick moves on to a triumph routine with a superb, logical ending. This leads on to a very practical and fresh Chicago opener routine which would work very well as an opener in a walk around situation.

Following on from this we are treated to a very visual ring flight routine which Nick uses on stage. The ring vanishes in a burst of flame which looks great and emphasises the vanish much more than most ring flight routines I've seen.

Starting off with a story about a time able to name when Nick correctly guessed a soiled playing card that was lying face down in the street, a wonderful prediction effect is shown next which starts with triumph and a card being selected and ends with a mind-blowing appearance of a rainbow deck.

Next we are shown another of Nick's sets. Starting off by borrowing a finger ring, Nick performs some of the most visual ring and string magic I've ever seen. Every move is by a different person and so it seems Nick has take all the best bits from existing routines and combined then into something great. Previously, I haven't done any ring and string magic but now I'm really tempted to look into it further. The ring is then vanished and reappears on Nick's keyring-twice! Finally, a spectator correctly guessed the only face down card in a pack of cards giving him a chance to win his ring back.......which is now inside a series of leather wallets. I defy you not to want to buy a set of nesting wallets a recently marketed product by Nick) after seeing this. It looks so good.

A banknote transposition features next where a signed, borrowed note changes places with a note in a purse. This is great and could be adapted to different bill switches. Oh and before he borrows the note, Nick correctly divines the serial number........cuz he can. Both are, of course, explained expertly and are practical pieces of magic.

Nick then teaches a SUPERB card force which has many different applications. You flick through the cards and the spectator remembers one that they saw, yet it's a force! It doesn't use a short card and could even be a borrowed back. Several applications are taught for this force including an un gimmicked invisible deck and a card at any number. A quick four ace revelation is taught which is okay but it helpfully generates a really interesting discussion on the classic force.

Finally, Nick teaches a stage routine. This looks absolutely phenomenal. Five large, wooden boards are shown with ESP symbols on. They are all placed in different envelopes. Nick is blindfolded (so he can't see....no really-he actually can't see!!)

Mike hands him any envelope and Nick immediately and correctly names the symbol inside. This is repeated in a variety of ways until Nick has correctly identified each symbol. It's a great routine that can be made in different ways pictures instead of ESP symbols etc) just looks so strong.

Mike Hankins does a good job of hosting and facilitating people's questions. Nick is an excellent teacher and the lecture flew by. There is some exceptional magic here and it's a varied range featuring many different plots and genres. I'd challenge anyone to watch this and not get something out of it. With the achievements I mentioned earlier, I would say Nick is one of the most qualified British magicians to lecture.

Available from a variety of places such as Murphy's Magic and Vanishing inc. Roughly priced at $24.99/£15.99.

Highly recommended.

© Elliot Hodges, November 2014

 

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