Our last meeting was an excellent lecture by Matthew Garrett, during which he performed a number of his favourite effects and explained them as usual. Matthew has just won the Magic Circle’s close up magician of the year award so his lecture was keenly anticipated.
Starting out with a card routine involving the production of the four aces in a number of ways, Matthew went on to explain his philosophy of starting his close up act with quiet and easy to follow effects, gradually building the pace and presentation style as the routine continues to make sure that the finale of the close up session has the audience well and truly warmed up.
Matthew’s take on the magic square routine was very clever, using the old ‘out to lunch’ principle with pre-printed magic square cards.
He also presented an ambitious card effect using an Omni Deck gimmick, the production of which was heightened with a puff of smoke from nowhere! Matthew explained the workings of the prop he uses (the Ultra Smoke 2000 unit) but warned that the chemicals it uses will rust anything metallic kept in your pockets, and also rot jacket linings within a matter of a couple of months. One to ponder carefully about before investing I think!
And of course his acclaimed Ninja plus routine was superb, building on the marvellous ninja linking rings effect made famous by Shoot Ogawa. With Ninja Plus you can link a standard 4” ring to a finger ring and hand out both, linked, for examination.
This is one effect I purchased and I’m still working on the routining for it, but I’m sure that once I get it down it will become one of the strongest effects in my arsenal!
Also included was Matthew’s Monty the Spiv story deck effect, which allowed him to demonstrate how easy it is to remember the running order of the entire stacked deck once you get the story fixed in your mind.
A great evening had by all and if you want to purchase any of the effects seen at the lecture, you can get in touch with Matthew, who is a genuinely nice guy, via his website at: www.professionalmagic.com
