Etienne Pradier Lecture

14 December 2006

A packed club room greeted the lecture by Etienne who was a member of the SMC some 18 -20 years ago. (Older members may remember him!)

The lecture consisted mainly of items that Etienne uses on a daily basis and according to his lecture notes he is extremely busy with Private Parties and other engagements. He packed a lot of Magic into his lecture and If I described everything he demonstrated and explained this article would be extremely long. I will list all that I can remember with some brief notes. Etienne started with a 4 Ace Production leading on to an Ambitious Card routine which finished up with all the cards being blank, the highlight for me being a very clever and deceptive card switch using his watch strap. There followed a variation of the two ace trick as made famous by David Blaine (or Paul Gordon?) with a clever ending producing Cards adding up to the seventeen of clubs as verbally forced on the spectator.

Next were some short comedy items including bending a fork, apparently cracking a spectators finger and finally a broken and restored wine glass. I was particularly impressed by Etienne's use of misdirection when two cards appeared under a glass whilst all the attention was drawn to the pack in his other hand. Again the same use of misdirection was used in the Coins across Routine when he then stole a watch.

Ring Flight was next, an item that a lot of Magicians use and also one that a lot of Magicians are very wary of using, Etienne had a holder on his belt which seemed to solve a lot of the problems about rings disappearing or stones falling out. However he did offer the comment that if something goes wrong - be professional about it, offer your business card and promise that they will be fully recompensed. He also presented his ideas about "looping" effects together. Ring flight "looped" with a watch steal was demonstrated as a "Package".

Finally he showed us his Ring on String effect and talked of a very strong moment which was achieved by getting the ring back to its owner before the final reveal, totally
fooling the watching audience. This was followed by a short demonstration of a bulldog clip which he had for sale. Any mentalists in the audience would immediately recognise this as an "Austin Clip". He had several sets of lecture notes for sale which did a roaring trade.

I thoroughly enjoyed Etienne's lecture but felt that the explanations could have had a bit more depth. All in all a good night was had by all present.

Andy H

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