talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect:

What the ad says:
A professional Magic Square routine from the repertoire of Luis de Matos. Members of the audience call out numbers at random. Unbelievably, from these the performer is able to construct a perfect magic square. All the columns, rows, diagonals and corners add up to the same number. Not only that but this number was chosen by a spectator just a few moments earlier. No formulas. No memory work. An incredible mind boggling routine for the professional worker.

Cost £23.33

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

I'd give it a 3, not because it contains any difficult sleights, but you'll need a solid presentation.

Review: I bought this since I always wanted to do a magic square, not necesarily to include in my act, but just for fun. Before I bought this I already knew the principle of a magic square, but had never really sat down to really learn it and be able to "perform" it, so I thought this could sort of "kickstart" my little project.

This DVD is only valuable to newcomers to the magic square, I say this because from what I previously have read about magic squares here and there, I really didn't learn anything. In spite of this, it was nice to see his version.

The ad says "Members of the audience call out numbers at random.", which is true, this is what the audience might think, but to me it feels like it's somewhat a reverse Gazzo's tossed out deck. I would personally not do it this way, as it just seems too transparent to me and easy to backtrack. I was thinking about doing some preshow work, and have a spectator write a secret number that they hold on to throughout the show.

And about the no memory work, as everyone who's done a magic square knows, there is a few things you need to remember. And it's the same here, not much though.


Overall:If you know nothing about magic squares, then there is no doubt you'll learn everything you need to know on this DVD. If you're familiar with the magic square you can skip this one.

Hello,

I saw Lennart Green at EMC 2011 performing the Magic Square and he mentioned this DVD was in production with Luis de Matos.

Lennart produced a 4x4 square using a spectators birth date as the numbers across the top row. Is this covered on this DVD? I am familiar with magic square principles, but I thought this was a pretty good effect, especially for lay audiences.

Regards,