You can skip the introduction if you like; the act starts at about 1:45.

Enjoy!

In the middle or at the end of an Ambitious Card routine, the card rises to the top while the deck is in the spectator’s hands. Includes several approaches.

I’m in awe.

Devonte’s magic is so important that it caught the attention of some pretty important people. Here’s the story.

About a year ago, Google launched Google Ideas, a think tank that aims to apply technological solutions to problems in developing nations. Last month, they held their Summit Against Violent Extremism, which brought together, in addition to victims and academics, former gang members, right-wing extremists, jihadists and others who have all rejected violence and are now working to fight it.

Devonte is one of these ’formers’. After a violent incident on the streets of New York, he chose to return to his first love, magic. He has since become a rising star in the magic community as well as in the world of entertainment at large.

In addition to his inspirational work, Devonte is also a member of Magicians Without Borders, through which he performs for at-risk children in some of the poorest and most dangerous areas in the world, putting a smile on their faces and giving them a vision for a brighter future.

Watch Devonte’s presentation at the Google summit, in which he tells his story through dance, poetry and magic. You’ll be in awe, too.

While discussing his coaching work, I mentioned a young magician I had met who had devised some stunningly magical moves, but executed them in a way that was at odds with his physique. Bob replied, “Yes, we don’t see ourselves.”

Bob’s answer inspired me to write a short article about matching our sleight-of-hand motions to our natural motions. I hope you enjoy A matter of deception, and after you’ve read it, let me know if you agree that this is something we should care about.

This attitude has earned her a seriously solid reputation as a professional performer on the local (and even national) scene, and a Close-up Magician of the Year 2010 award from the Academy of Magical Arts.

Read more about her in this article in the Star Tribune: She works her magic up close.

Early beginnings

I used to be a young, hotshot cardman. You know the type: a deck of cards permanently glued to our hands, and more likely to show each other the latest tricks and moves than to talk to girls. Except for girls who actually like to pick cards, of course. At least, until they tire of it. Which they invariably do. But I digress.

I left magic for a while. When I came back, my interests had changed: I hung up Marlo and started reading Burger instead. Eugene’s books got me interested in presentation; now I just had to find my own direction. I found it when, after reading everything I could find on the topic, my friend Tom Baxter lent me his copy of Punx’s Magical Adventures and Fairy Tales. Punx, a very famous German magician, performed magic with story presentations. This was perfect for me.

Birth of I Saw That!

I wrote stories for my tricks. After some testing and refining, I wanted to share what I had learned, so I started I Saw That! and wrote and published my book, Card Stories. It got terrific reviews (and even — get this — an endorsement from Eugene himself!) and made a bit of a splash in the magic world, encouraging magicians to rethink the way they present card magic.

I started I Saw That! not just to publish my own work, but to popularize and promote all those important things that go into a magic performance beyond the tricks themselves. If you look through my catalog, you will find that this is true of all the books I published. Wit and Wizardry, as the name implies, is as much about clever presentations as it is about tricks. Once upon a time… is a new edition of Punx’s Magical Adventures and Fairy Tales, the book that inspired my whole enterprise. Performing Magic for Children is a complete manual on the philosophy, theory and practice of kid shows, whose authors are both magicians and specialists in early childhood education. On the other side of the mirror applies story presentations to easy- and self-working card tricks.

Equally important is the I Saw That! website, which has always been an integral part of my vision. The Magic section contains articles and other writings on the subjects dear to my heart, and even has some tricks, either my own or contributions from readers. The main purpose of the Magic section is to introduce some of these ideas to magicians who may not have encountered them before.

Back in business

I Saw That! — both the business and the website — has been dormant for several years. Now I’m restarting it, with new products and writings in the pipeline and a brand new website. All the old material is still here, except for the forum; that need is better served now by the more popular discussion sites, like The Magic Café and The Genii Forum.

New to the site is this blog, which will be used for news, announcements, thoughts, observations, events, experiences and so forth. It also replaces the old newsletter.

So — welcome to the “new and improved” I Saw That! Enjoy your visit.