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Ian Rowland Lecture
Wessex Magical Association
14th September 2010
Reviewed by David Pennington, President Wessex Magical Association
On the 14th September, Ian Rowland gave a lecture to the Wessex Magical
Association, Ian is the author of “Full facts of cold reading” a book that has
sold over 20,000 copies all around the world, he has lectured to the Ministry of
Defence on how to spot liars, and in August was in the US lecturing to the FBI.
Ian rarely lectures to magic associations and this may be down to the fact that
his fee is higher than other lecturer’s, however everything about the lecture
marks this out as different. First, it should be noted that, there are no DVDs,
lecture notes or effects to purchase, Ian explained why there where no notes and
what we could do if this caused us problems. Secondly, this was not just a
lecture, but an event, we laughed (a lot), and we were entertained both during
the performance of the effects and through the explanations, learnt some of the
most incredible effects, and along the way heard some hilarious stories and
anecdotes from his travels all around the world. Ian gave us everything, nothing
was left out.
I would like to share just a ‘small’ sample of things we saw during the evening.
The first effect performed was “no terror”. The spectator was given a huge
folded piece of paper, and it was explained that it was either a photo of the
Sydney Opera house or a photo of the Statue of Liberty, the spectator was asked
to guess which. Before he guessed, Ian upped the ante, and clarified that he
already knew 100% what the spectator would choose, and when the spectator chose
the Sydney opera house, he stood up unfolded the paper and there was of course a
large picture of the Sydney Opera house, Ian was completely correct. We watched
as a 50/50 prediction was turned into a performance piece that had the whole
audience hanging on every word.
Later we were treated to a performance and explanation of “Thetalia”. Ian
borrowed a deck of cards, handed this to a spectator, who then thoroughly
shuffled them. The spectator then chose a card (a genuine free choice from the
whole deck), Ian produced its mates, then explained it could be improved if he
produced a royal flush (which he did), or perhaps if he knew where the rest of
the aces where in the deck, which he then produced. We were all invited to watch
really closely to ensure everything was fair (which it was).
I have seen similar effects that have taken a life time of study to perform, but
very few of these come anywhere as close to Ian’s performance, both in terms of
being genuinely entertaining, creative and simplistic in method.
I am not usually a fan of gambling routines, but here is an effect that has a
reason for being and doesn’t require much knowledge about gambling for the
spectator. To produce four aces, or a royal flush from a shuffled deck looks
impressive whether you understand cards or not.
The final effect of the evening was “the golden envelope” the spectator chose a
card, the corner of this was ripped off very carefully so everyone could see,
and both the corner and card are fully on view at all times, the spectator then
takes the corner as a receipt. The card then vanishes and after some really
funny and entertaining patter, appears in a truly impossible location. At finger
tips, Ian showed us all that the card matched perfectly with the corner. With a
room full of magicians, burning his hands and scrutinising every single move, he
had us all completely fooled. Everything was done completely fairly, no
suspicious or fishy moments. The method was, as we had come to expect, simple,
clean, and staring us all in the face.
Ian took time to perform each effect, and then break down every aspect of how it
was achieved, why it works, and why a particular method was chosen. If you are
new to magic there were items you could perform, and if you are a regular
performer there were plenty of effects and tips you could apply to your own act.
So often we hear that “such and such” an effect was worth the price of the
book/DVD/lecture, in Ian’s case every effect was worth the price of the lecture,
items that could be performed to hundreds of people and others that could be
shown to one person at a moments notice. The whole evening was a great success
with lots of fun and laughter throughout, the time flew by.
Since Ian’s lecture I have lost count of the number of WMA members that have
contacted me to say they thought this was one the best lectures we have had in
the history of the WMA. And I completely agree.
I said earlier that this was a lecture that cost more than we usually spend, and
if you haven’t got the message already, this was money well spent, I hope by
writing a review some magic clubs out there might take the plunge and book Ian,
if you do, you will have a great evening, and I would love to attend to be able
to enjoy the whole night all over again.
At the end of the evening I had only one question left unanswered “how will
we ever be able to follow that?”
www.ianrowland.com
© David Pennington, President Wessex Magical Association, September 2010