The creative Bay Area magician Michael Feldman presented a lecture on
his latest material to a large audience of Ring 216 members. The first edition of his recent book, A New Angle, co-written with Ryan
Plunkett, has nearly sold out. The last remaining copies were offered for sale
after the lecture, and quickly snapped up.
Michael performed and explained a series of novel effects. He began by
holding a competition to find the three best Rock Paper Scissors players in the
room. The winning moves of the top three players then turned out to have been
written, in the correct order, on three large sheets of paper that had been
stuck to the wall since the start of the game.
Next the cap of a ballpoint pen vanished, reappeared, and changed color.
This was an update of a do-anywhere pocket effect Michael had released years
ago and which he had published in his book “The Opposite of People.”
The material from his new book was then showcased in a series of card routines,
kicked off by Ryan Plunkett’s “Shuffleupagus.” Two spectators each shuffle half
the deck. The magician then shuffles and shows the cards are nearly separated
into reds and blacks. He shuffles again, and the cards are in new deck order. It was this effect which
was the genesis of the book, Michael explained. He followed this up with the
outstanding “Complete faro control, then the direct location of any
named four of a kind, and rounded off with some thinking on the larger principles behind the book.
The second half of the lecture was devoted to impromptu card tricks.
These included an in-the-hands effect where a mixed deck of face-up and
face-down cards rights itself and a cutting the aces routine.
The finale was “Merely Impossible,” a routine Michael has been
incorporating into his act over the past year. This astonishing routine has
taken in probably every magician who has seen it. In essence, the selected and signed card is located by the magician in the deck…before the spectator returns it to the deck! Michael graciously discussed in detail the psychology behind the routine.
The books he brought with him quickly sold out at the end of the lecture
– but a new edition is on the way.
