Review: At The Table with Steven Brundage (Murphy's Magic)

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Review: At The Table with Steven Brundage (Murphy's Magic)

Postby EndersGame » Mar 27th, '18, 09:15



Here's my review of the Steven Brundage episode at At The Table, featuring his Rubik's Cube magic, as promised in this thread about his Cube3 product.

The At The Table show

The At The Table Experience is a series of video lectures/tutorials from Murphy's Magic that can be found at http://www.murphysmagic.com/atthetable. The lectures are delivered and made available via a monthly subscription service. Each month two new videos are produced, which can be watched via streaming video, or obtained via instant download. The monthly subscription fee of $9.95 entitles subscribers to access these new lectures every month. In addition, all the past lectures are available for individual purchase from the At The Table webpage, and there are ways to get these on DVD as well if preferred.

These lectures will especially be of interest to magicians. The lecture series has been running since 2014, and by my count there are more than 100 lectures available! A quick scan of the names and contributors shows that many big names and top creators in magic have been part of the program, such as noted magic teacher Michael Ammar, prolific magic creator Jay Sankey, cardist Chris Ramsay, and dozens of others. A description of each lecture is provided online, along with a list of the material covered, so you can see in advance which ones will be of interest to you. Typically each magician will go through the material of over half a dozen effects, explaining and discussing various nuances to improve performance.

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Steven Brundage episode

To see what the lectures are like, I sampled one of the episodes from 2016 by magician Steven Brundage, who gained fame in the mass market through successful performances on TV shows like America's Got Talent and Penn & Teller's Fool Us, where he performed his Rubik's Cube magic. His At The Table lecture from 20 July 2016 can be found here: http://www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=57853" target="_blank" target="_blank

Here's a 2 minute video trailer that introduces this particular episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z-4Gq_vamc

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The show notes introduce Steven as follows: "Steven Brundage has made countless TV appearances on Penn & Teller's Fool Us, Good Morning America, The Steve Harvey Show, and America's Got Talent, just to name a few. He's hit MILLIONS of views on YouTube and the rise of his popularity shows no end in sight. Steven joins us At The Table for his very first lecture EVER, where he gives the inside scoop about what it's like to be on America's Got Talent and Penn & Teller's Fool Us. Steven also goes into heavy detail about how to create viral videos with maximum exposure. You'll also learn tips and tricks using the Rubik's cube and so much more!"

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Contents

The Steven Brundage lecture includes coverage of the following effects (description taken from show notes):
Corner to Cube: A variation of an effect Steven performed on America's Got Talent. The spectator holds the cube and selects a card. With sleeves rolled up, the corner of the selection is torn off and vanishes only to appear inside the cube that the spectator has been holding in view the whole time.
Tips on Finger Flicking: Steven gives his best advice on how to be more efficient in solving a cube.
Toss Solve: A non-gimmicked Rubik's cube is mixed and tossed into the air. Within the blink of an eye, it is solved.
Bag Solve: As seen on America's Got Talent, a mixed cube is placed into a bag and within seconds the cube is solved.
Behind the Back Solve: This effect that has received over two million views and has even gotten Steven out of a speeding ticket. A mixed cube is tossed behind the back and once it's caught, it is completely solved.
4 Ace Trick: A fooling four ace routine that has a kicker estimation ending.

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Impressions

Downloading the lecture was smooth and easy. I received an email with a password that directed me to the download section of Murphy's website. After entering the password, I had immediate access to the lecture, including a PDF file with an outline of the entire lecture, including a very helpful list of times on the video where different sections commenced. The lecture itself could be watched via streaming, or downloaded. The Steven Brundage lecture was a mp4 file of about half a gigabyte.

I was impressed by the fact that the entire At the Table Experience with Steven Brundage is almost 2 hours long. It has some very helpful tips and information in it. One of the highlights for me was a very nice `corner of a card to another location' (including inside a cube that is in the spectator’s hands) that is taught well. This effect will be a powerful addition to any magician's repertoire, is easy to learn, and seems completely impossible. He also teaches the effect he performed on TV, where an unsolved cube is placed into a paper bag, after which the cube is solved magically inside the bag with no one reaching in.

Steven also shares the secret to one of his most famous tricks: solving the Rubik’s cube in a single toss behind the back. This was the trick that he used to get out of a speeding ticket, the video of which went viral online. The Rubik’s cube is a well-recognized item, and being able to solve it with magic in a single toss has a great reaction and is something amazing! It will require practice, especially for those not used to using Rubik’s cubes, but Steven also does give a nice source to help learn how to solve the cube. He does also give some tips to allow you to help solve the cube quicker with some nice finger flicking. I have a number of Rubik's Cube enthusiasts in my household, so this was good material they could use, and they could build on what they already knew to start performing Steven's behind-the-back solve without too much difficulty.

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Recommendation

Because card magic is something that is often seen or at least heard of, seeing magic with a Rubik’s Cube is something new and very effective. The majority of people cannot solve the cube, and it is often seen and associated as something very hard to solve and time consuming. Seeing the cube get solved in itself fascinates people, and yet when they see it mixed and solved in a simple toss makes people dumbfounded! Even just one of these tricks he teaches is worth the whole video - yet you get much more out of it. If you are a magician looking for something new to learn for your magic, it is a great idea to try out and watch this episode. If you love solving Rubik’s Cubes and that is your hobby (which is the case for several members of my family), watching this gives something to learn that will easily impress people even more than just solving the cube, and you will have a lot of fun learning and performing it!

My experience with the At The Table show was very positive. For the relatively low price, when compared with DVDs that can be purchased online, it's good value. The quality of the shows is high, given the calibre of the magicians who are typically featured. The casual format also gives you the feeling of what it would be like to sit down in person with the featured magician, and have a private tutorial and informal conversation, which can include unexpected nuggets of information or interesting tips. Previous shows also provide a wealth of material to draw on, and there's some fantastic content here just waiting to be explored.

Want to learn more?
At The Table Experience: http://www.murphysmagic.com/atthetable
Steven Brundage lecture: http://www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=57853
Available from Vanishing Inc Magic: https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic ... ve-lecture
Available from Merchant of Magic: https://www.magicshop.co.uk/at-the-tabl ... load-19084

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