Hey fun seekers... I returned from my trip to Tailand and then the US over a week ago now and have been quite busy since. On the side of performing and teaching magic and mentalism and working in voice over and dubbing I have also just started on the road to getting my masters in education...whew..going to be busy busy busy...
Recently I designed a few banners for my show. The "thought reading" banner is featured in this post. It is amazing to me how much is added to a shows production value simply with a banner. I highly recommend to any performer having a cool banner made! The printing is very reasonable, roll out banners are light and very portable, so really the expense is the design...and if you are a performer reading this and need a design, drop me an email as I do all my own design and illustration work, and have also done many posters for other entertainers, including Adam Cardone, and Jeff Sheridan.
Last month I performed for the Entraprenures Organization, we did an after dinner show and a magic learning workshop. They also asked me to provide some kind of talk during the dinner, which was great fun to design. I gave a talk to them on magic and deception with a focus on the "why" in magic. I became a bit obsessed in the reasearch for this keynote lecture and I am currently adapting it to use for more functions. The new version of this lecture is called Hacking a Human, and it is about how, through magic performance, the magician learns how people's minds work and play on the limitations. Many scientists and neurologists have started studying magic and magicians and with magicians to better understand how people think and experience the world, and their findings are amazing. The bulk of my research was inspired by "sleights of mind", a book by neuro scientists Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, the idea of humans being hackable comes from this book. It's fun to see the scientific take on things like misdirection and psichophisiological thought reading; things magicians have been aware of for centuries. It's a great read if you are into magic and science. Many thanks to the EO for having me at their event and for inspiring this research and new avenue for me as a presenter.
It was truly great to be home in the US, even if it was for a very short time. I got to see my parents and sisters as well as my nieces and my Uncle. It was also great to see my friends in New York, many thanks to Michael Saab of the Modern Gypsies for putting me up in Brooklyn. I miss them all already. It's amazing how fast my nieces are growing up. My mother threw a sort of thanksgiving dinner for us on Easter Sunday and had around twenty guests. It was especially nice to get to catch up with the Florida crowd. I also performed a show for the dinner, which felt great. On the Saturday before Easter I went in a five mile walk with my parents and young sister on honeymoon island, I'll post the photos from that later. I am only now getting through the peeling skin from the sunburn that resulted, whoops...
I'll be teaching magic through the summer as well as performing regularly in and around Hong Kong...my best to you all.
Stuart