SEAN TAYLOR LECTURES IN SINGAPORE

Entitled “Looking Forward To The Past”, this lecture by Sean Taylor from Australia took place on the evening of 14 April 2025 at the Drama Centre.  The event attracted an attendance of 42 people, 37 of whom were members of IBM Singapore Ring 115.  We could relate to this title as Sean Taylor and his lovely wife Diana had been to Singapore in the past, also delivering a lecture to us.  This was more than 20 years ago.

4 Gone Illusion

After an introduction by our host Tommy Kian, Sean got 4 spectators to each look at a card from a deck.  He took a card from the deck and put it inside an envelope.  He claimed that this card represented all the 4 cards chosen by the 4 spectators.  The card turned out to be a Joker – Jokers are wild, claimed Sean.  Just as everyone thought that was a bad joke, the 4 cards seen by the 4 spectators vanished from the deck.  They were each re-produced separately from Sean’s different pockets.

The Final Stop

In his second effect, Sean had a spectator deal to any card.  That card was the exact card found in an envelope he placed in full view at the start.  He explained another version which used an imaginary deck of cards.

Symbology Deck

Sean introduced us to his Symbology Deck.  He had 3 spectators each cut to a card, and he could divine the symbol and colour of each of the 3 selected cards.  After explaining the concept behind this clever deck of symbols cards, Sean showed how, with some Symbology gaff cards, he could perform a version of Paul Gordon’s “Ten Card Poker”, an “Out Of This World”, and other effects possible with ordinary playing cards.

An interval allowed us to purchase Sean Taylor’s effects at a table manned by his wife Diana.  After the break, Sean proceeded with stand-up and mentalism effects.

One

Sean had one spectator merely imagine taking a card from an imaginary deck of cards and inserting it inside an empty black envelope which was then placed inside another red envelope for safe keeping.  Imagination became reality.  When the spectator named his chosen card, the red envelope was torn apart and the black envelope inside it now contained the very card named by the spectator.

Survivor Game

This effect involved the entire audience.  We all chose between 2 opposite items, such as dog and cat, hot or cold, city or country, etc.  Each time this happened, an envelope was opened and all who chose the predicted object inside it remained standing, the rest got to sit down.  After several rounds, 2 spectators remained, and they chose 2 items between them, eg Chinese or Italian.  The final envelope was opened and one of them was the only one left standing.  A prediction by the performer described the details of this person correctly, the gender and how he or she was dressed.

PsyCon Confabulation

A lottery was fabricated using 4 spectators who each named a different number.  Sean took out his wallet.  Inside his wallet was an envelope.  Inside this envelope was a written message to his wife to purchase the exact 4 numbers for Saturday’s lottery draw.  This is a nice version of Alan Shaxon’s “Confabulation”.

Pineapple Surprise

This is an all-time favourite effect of Sean.  A spectator freely named a playing card.  A deck of cards was shown to have various fruit items written on the backs of each playing card.  The named card had “pineapple” written on its back.  An unlabelled metal can visible all the time was opened and inside was found pineapple slices.

It was an entertaining evening as Sean was an engaging lecturer.  As he explained the genesis of each of his effects, we got to appreciate his creativity in his thinking.  In the lecture, we learned several special envelopes used by Sean, such as his Pro Envelope, and his version of the Kismet envelope.

After his lecture, we took photographs with Sean and continued to patronise his dealer’s table.

Reported by

John Teo