Tom Wright’s At The Table appearance is hosted by superstar Gregory Wilson. Tom Wright gives a great lecture that is meaningful, instructive and a quick 3 hour watch.
During the first hour and a half, Wright performs and discussed various effects using IT.
First Wright demonstrates and teaches Chill, a haunted deck effect in which a freely selected card is placed back in the deck and slowly moves out of the deck, after the deck apparently cuts itself. It is very visual and spooky. As long as you are “ready” to go ahead of time (a quick and easy set-up), this trick can be done with any borrowed shuffled deck. The spectator can inspect your hands and the cards both before and after the trick. It is very good and a fooler. He then teaches with a visible substitute for IT for easy instruction.
Then, he performs his effect, Kinetic, which he describes as a bar bet. In Kinetic, a dollar bill rises out of an empty glass, pushes off two playing that are on top of the glass and flies into Wright’s hands. Wilson and Wright have a jam session on various effects with the IT and various possibilities. It is great to watch. Wright then demonstrates the effect with a visible green thread instead of the IT. Wright demonstrates how to strip IT, which can be helpful for these and other effects.
Wright then demonstrates his jaw-dropping IT effect, Oblivion. With this trick, a spinning levitating coin moves side-to-side and then drops in a way that is very impressive and then rises as quickly as it drops. Not only is the set-up simple, but so is the execution. Wright explains how a spectator once foiled this trick and how he remedied the issue for future performances using clever patter to effectuate strong audience management. Wilson and Wright have a great discussion about using IT.
Wright then performs a silk/production routine in which a bottle of wine is produced and some other items with the use of tremendous misdirection and humor.
Wright performs an effect that he indicated he invented in the past few weeks, indicating that he has not even developed a patter for the effect. It is an effect in which one of several coins slides across the table into the performer’s hands.
At the two-hour mark, Wright performs and explains his friend’s, Arron Jones, trick, Super Mint. Super Mint is an effect in which numbers are written on breath mints and the performer is able to predict which number is written on a mint that the spectator removes from the box. It can be repeated several times in a row with different numbers. It is a very fooling effect and simple to construct the gimmick.
Tom then teaches the Wright Steal in which he tells the audience that he will steal a playing card and place it in his pocket without the audience detecting it. He does so and fools the audience. Wilson then suggests a great change to the routine and the two jam on different ideas for this routine. It is great to watch the two performers brainstorm.
During the last half hour of the lecture Wright discusses various topics, including how he performs to seated spectators, what he makes them do and the reasons why. This is a great and insightful discussion that will help you get the best reactions out of your performances and make your performances more impactful.
This is another great lecture by Murphy’s Magic. Wilson and Wright have a great chemistry and I immensely enjoyed watching them discuss their magic.