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I would love to see him live, anyone know if he's going to be doing anything in south england anytime soon?

I'd love to see Maven perform live as well but at the moment it looks like he'll next be performing in the UK at the International Magic Festival in South Tyneside between the 16th and 18th of March.

Max / Phil (he no longer uses the name Phil Goldstein nor publishes under it, he prefers to be called Max now) is an exceptional mentalist. He hasn't played the UK side of the pond as much as he has the US where he lives. He is best friends with Eugene Burger, and they are both a couple of the best magic philosophers you will ever meet. Met and chatted a bit with Max at 2006 WMS, facinating man. His persona has been one of the most copied in magic, tons of Max Maven clones out there doing mentalism. His books, lecture notes, and dvds are all worth their weight in gold. I've found everything he has put out very useable. He has one of the best senses of timing in magic, and a sense of humor tht won't quit.

He performed at a conference (non-magic related) I was at in New York a couple years ago. It was interesting because it was an atheist/skeptic conferece, which has got to be a hard crowd to work with! He did it brilliantly though with some fantastic jokes at our expense (and at himself, often enough). His closer trick didn't really work out but the rest of the show was great.

Finally met Max Maven at the South Tyneside Magic Festival over the weekend. He did a two hour lecture, as well as a workshop that ended up running well over four hours.

What I came away with was a load of great material, a much clearer understanding of what this whole mentalism thing means to me, and a thoroughly profound respect for the man as a performer. Not only did he headline one of the weekends' gala shows, but he also did a tremendous midnight performance for convention delegates back at the hotel on Friday night. I was left utterly gobsmacked by it.

And (not that it matters), he was also charming, friendly, and very down-to-earth.

Nice fella.