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Marc Spelmann
At The Ipswich Magical Society
3rd July 2006
Reviewed by Simon Shaw
I
think everyone will agree with me when I say that Marc Spelmann has an excellent
and very well respected reputation in mentalism and indeed magic communities.
However, his lecture at the Ipswich Magical Society on July 3rd 2006 was always
going to be a bit of an unknown quantity as this was (as far as I know) the
first time he has given a full lecture to a magic society.
Well fear ye not because it was a truly spellbinding and rewarding experience.
If you have already met Marc, you will know that he is a very easy going sort of
person who genuinely loves his magic. More than that though he is in my mind a
very talented and creative performer whose head is filled to the brink with
ideas.
What Marc’s lecture was not was just a dealer dem. In fact even though Marc has
an excellent set of DVDs, plus numerous effects/tools out in the market this was
most definitely not why he came to lecture at Ipswich. In fact, he didn’t even
have his lecture notes with him which actually was a huge shame as I believe he
would have sold a set to most people present. Incidentally, if you were at the
lecture, Marc assures me that these will be available soon.
The lecture also wasn’t just a show a trick, explain a trick type of an affair.
I mean he did show tricks, obviously he did, but the emphasis was on discussing
them in great detail. Dissecting them in fact, explaining his thought processes
and giving us all insights into the little nuances and subtleties that everyone
who performs knows makes all the difference.
At many lectures the speaker will offer to answer questions and yet for whatever
reason no one from the floor will say a word. Well this wasn’t to be the case
with Marc Spelmann’s lecture, in fact at times it felt more like a full blown
workshop than a lecture. Perhaps this was due to the fact that we had the likes
of professional mentalists Philip Escoffey, aka The Gray Man and Doug Segal in
the audience (to name but a few) but I think that even without them it would
have been a very lively evening.
The only bad thing I can possibly say about the lecture is that it had to end at
10pm. Marc was only just starting to warm up by then and it was obvious that he
had so much more to say.
Since the lecture I have been inundated with requests from Ipswich Magical
Society members saying that we should get him back again to give the second half
of the lecture and these aren’t just the mentalists in the society either, the
“magic boys” were just as vocal.
Marc Spelmann is a very charismatic person who is without doubt a skilled
magician and mentalist that has a lot of interesting ideas to share. If that
isn’t enough reason to book him for a lecture then I really don’t know what is.
When we do get him back – and it will be when and not if, then the only thing I
will insist on is that he comes to the pub afterwards so we can continue the
lecture there.
© Simon Shaw, July 2006