Next Meeting: 15 March 2025 | Theme: Annual General Meeting | Location: NLB Drama Center

DR ANTHONY DARKSTONE LECTURES AT SINGAPORE RING 115

It was a much anticipated lecture from Dr Anthony Darkstone, a.k.a. Tony Brook, because most of us are familiar with him, having read his weekly column “Tony Brook In Conversation With …” in Alan Watson’s cyber magic magazine “E-Zine”.

 

We arranged the lecture to coincide with our Ring’s May monthly meeting since it fell on a Saturday.   The event took place on the afternoon of 15 May 2010 where 46 people congregated at a function room in the Bayview Hotel.  Immediately after the lecture, the participants took time for a quick dinner and then stayed back in the evening for the Ring’s May magic gathering where Tony was the guest.

 

Tony is not only a great magical performer, he also produces and manages many outstanding magic shows in Europe and the United States of America .  His approach to magic is not in creating complicated routines, but in using simple ideas to produce strong commercial magic for the paying audience.

 

Tony started his lecture with a visual coin bend.  He then talked about the theory of magic.  “Weave the spell, create the magic’ was his favourite phrase for the entire evening.  He taught us how to think “outside-the-box” and gave several applications of the down-under card deal.  He showed us many effects taken from his own performing repertoire.  Included were a ring off string effect, a comedy card revelation using a banana, a coincidence trick inspired by Las Vegas gamblers, his version of the clear force bag, and many others.

 

During the 20 minutes break, brisk sales were observed at Tony’s dealer table.

 

After the break, Tony revealed his Pythagoras Force – a simple concept that could force several cards.  He demonstrated many applications of the Force by using it in an amazing poker deal, an interesting card prediction, and to force the four Queens .  Tony completed his lecture with stacked deck effect and a cell-phone prediction.

 

Participants got a double portion of Dr Anthony Darkstone as they stayed back for the Ring’s May meeting where Tony Brook was the guest of honour.