Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you guys know that my lecture notes can now be had on-line. For those of you who pm'ed me expressing interest... I'm sorry about the wait. My wife is pregnant; so doctor's appt's and late night ice cream cravings have been taking up most of my time. The on-line release is about a month late. My bad. If you download a copy, please pm me and let me know how you like the notes. The forward is written by Todd Robins. He's a member here at the Café, and also an effects consultant on Criss Angel's Mind Freak. Part of the forward can be read on-line.

I hope you guys like the notes. They're entitled "Simply Devastating" and they contain some nasty effects. Each piece is straight out of my working sets... so they are deffinately well thought out. You get the effect, method, and even a little mini-lecture on the end of each effect called "adding impact". This small section goes over the details concerning timing, stage direction, and increasing the magical moment.

Thanks again for your time and patience with this project... I hope you consider it well worth the wait!

Michael Paul

Sounds incredible if I do say so myself...

Thanks for the info, I will definitely look harder into this product!

Tanner

Thank you, the response to the hard copies have been off the wall. I hoping that someone that has grabbed the e book will review it for me.

This sounds very good. But I would like to read a review.

LOL, so would I. I hoping that someone reviews these notes in the next day or two. Check back.

I'll do me best!.I bought these mainly for the 'Spectator cuts to the Aces' plot which I've always liked.And I am very pleased with what Michael Paul offers.
You get a large file which contains a video of all the routines being performed in a busy bar enviroment also a pdf of the routines so you can just read the notes
first.Todd Robbins says in the forward that the effects are direct and they are!
'Burn' is an easy to do revelation of a card with a burnt initial of the spectator appearing on the cards back.Great use of flash paper.All I should say about the 'Spectator cutting to the Ace's is easy estimation.I know some similar things have been done with this but I'm sorry I can't give a reference.
My other favourite is a twist on Dai Vernons 'Triumph'.I could tell you the idea in one sentence but you also get a great video of some great card handling by Michael Paul. The Tossed out deck is really thoughts and additions to the David Hoy classic. Some of his tips and thoughts on Magic reminded me of Eugene Burger.
Up untill now the 4 Ace trick I used to do to amuse myself was the Henry Christ
'Fabulous Four Ace trick' and now I've got another Ace cutting routine to amuse myself with so I found these to be a good buy.

I have had these notes for about two weeks. I am not a heavy duty card guy, but there are two effects in here that I am now doing regularly. If you like strong, direct magic; you will like Michael Pauls thinking.
Viano

Thanks for the compliments. I was having an adult beverage last night with the very crazy Simon Lovell, and we where having a jam session based on these routines. We came up with so many great ideas that Simon has offered a bonus to go along with the notes. Once the bonus is completed, the extra section will be e mailed to everyone who has purchased the notes.

Thanks!

Thank you! A great idea,there is also a great strategy for dealing with the question 'Your the magician,you tell me what card I was thinking of'for anyone who
performs the Invisible deck in the bonus section of these notes.

Michael,

Great fun hanging out with you. Give me a call sometime as I have some other ideas for your effects that you may like (or indeed not!).

See you soon,

Simon

Had a fun night with Michael at the Oyster bar here in NYC going over the notes (along with sinking a few beers and downing a few oysters of course!). They really are very good (the notes, though the beer and food was good too), containing strong but pretty easy to do magic. I gave a fun extra ideas to him on the effects etc and can highly recommend them to those of you looking for great commercial magic!

Simon

Is there a link to get information about the notes?

Patrick Guida

Sure, visit Michaelpaulmagic.com/products

Thanks

Hi guys, after I bought Simply Devastating I received a mail from Michael asking for my opinion on the notes. This attention I really appreciated and I sent him a whole review, I told him I would post the review here after performing for real people, I did, so this is the review, it is the same I sent to Michael, I just added a few things I experienced when performing. Hope it is useful for you.

The introduction is great, built in me the sensation we were at a coffee house and gave me a lot about your personality and how you see magic, and I felt pretty identificated with your way of thinking, so this was a great start. The notes have great quality in their style and the correct photos (color photos, thank you) when they are needed.

THE INITIAL BURN
Flash paper needs to be used with very intelligent tricks, this is one of them. Also it could be a great opener, I like a lot Named by Richard Sanders and Graffiti by Sankey, although those effects can be done with any name, yours is an effect with a great impact not only as an opener, but findind the right moment can be killer. OKAY, AFTER PERFORMING I CAN SAY THIS REALLY KILLS, PEOPLE ACTUALLY CAN SEE HOW THEIR INITIAL ON A PIECE OF PAPER MELTS IN FIRE THROUGH THE DECK TO ARRIVE TO THEIR SIGN CARD, THAT HAS BURNT THE INITIAL ON THE BACK. THEY REALLY DON´T KNOW WHAT AMAZED THEM MORE. This is a trick were you have to find the right moment, you won´t be able to use it allways (although Michael has a suggestion in his notes if you want to perform it whenever you like, but I rather do it the other way), but when you find the moment you will kill your audience.

CARD TO SHOE
I am shure you have experienced this, you read a trick and ask yourself: Why I didn´t think about it? I have performed card to shoe using another card in may shoe and making a switch, or also not loading it in my shoe and pretending I hit it out, so this effect was a lightning to my head, and I can assure you I will be doing this a lot!!!

I did this just this last weekend, one of the greatest impromptu “card to impossible place“ .that I can say.

ON SPONGES AND ART
Great essay, I would appreciate reading things like this on every note I have purchased.

SPECTATOR CUTS THE ACES... NO REALLY, THEY DO...
This I can say I allready performed it like 5 or 6 times. I love it!!! It has fooled magicians and laymen as well. Very smart, this is killer. I am amazed myself when they cut on an ace, for me is incredible every time I perform it, nobody can explain how can you force them to cut in the ace, it is great when the spectator changes his mind and drops a few cards to change their selection in the cut. Great!!! (The notes have an error, page 14 and 15 are transposed) I just will add that this uses a regular deck, no grimps, no gimmicks, and the spectator really, really, really cuts the aces.

THE CALL
Probably, if I had read this effect when I was starting my career on magic, I would have complaint a lot about this effect. But I can say any experienced magician will appreciate this kind of hints, this little effects that when you find the oportunity it will make the audience start a religion on you, and will talk about you for ever, this is a great idea. I allways when starting Ambitious Card I start by shuffling the deck, then I take the top card, and ask the spectator to name any card on the deck, when they do I turn this card, if it is not his card I say „That would have been great, don´t you think?„ this brings a laugh, but once every 52 times they will say the card you are holding, and it is a nameless reaction. The call will be a nameless super reaction.

TOTALLY TRIUMPHANT
I like, time to time to do Vernon´s Triumphant, every time I am doing impromptu over a table, so this will be my new triumphant, a great ending.

NO TOSS DECK
I usually don´t do stage magic, I work in bars and streets, so I believe I won´t be using this a lot. For this kind of situations a prefer using Osterlind´s radar deck, however if I have the chance I will use your principle, of course this effect of reading minds without questions or other elements is what every mentalist wishes to do.

SAY WHAT?
Again, thank you for this

Bonus Ideas!
I love ID, I allways perform it when possible, your ideas will be used.

Recap,
Your style is great, when I was a younger magician, I wanted to learn new moves, you know? I thought that I would be a better magician increasing my sleighted hand abilities. However, I realised over the years, that it is important to have technique, but a good or bad effect is measured for what the spectator sees, what they believed happened, and this is when I am thankful for the café, and finding magicians sharing their work and art based on what an spectator must see and feel when a magician is performing. When a magician understands this, then he really has supernatural powers.

Hope you liked this review and find it useful, I sure recommend Simply Devastating, and I look forward to see more of Michael´s work.

Pablo Valdes

Thanks for the nice review, I'm glad you find the material useful. I've gotten a lot of e mails from guys who wanted to wait on this until the Simon Lovell bonus was done. I just finished this up, and it is now available. If you already purchased, I'll e mail this directly to you.

Thanks again!!!!

Michael,

I hope you'll send me the updates to make sure that I was making some sense on your great effects!

Simon

Yup, you made perfect sense...

check your e-mails, there are a couple of different format copies for you there. Thanks so much for all of the great ideas.

I just got this e mail from a top secret magic periodical producer:

"Gees, like I'm not jealous enough reading about your one-on-one breakout
session with Simon, you have to throw in the Absolut Girls and really rub it
in!

It really was a perfect topper to the "Devastating" notes. I had, ironically
enough, just re-read them a day or so ago and had been mulling a few things
over and then I get hit with a whole new set of ideas! It's a great
companion to the core set of notes and I'll probably end up reading through
it at least once more tonight before I go to bed!

Are these included with the download? I'd like to mention them in the AP!
review (which will be delayed, by the way, until the end of June as I try to
finish negotiating worldwide distribution before I am forced to release the
next episode... you won't mind international exposure, will you?)."

I think he liked it.
And yes, A copy will go out with each set of notes.

I have had these notes now for a while and the two effects I play with most are Initial burn and Spec cuts the aces. I love these two and am reading and think about some of the others. The stage stuff I prolly wont use , but it is fun to see the thinking!!! Great notes Michael!!!!!

I had some requests to put a teaser video up for this, the way that I did it for Show No Mercy. I put a very short teaser together today. it's at http://michaelpaulmagic.com/instantdownloads.htm

click on the link for Simply Devastating. You won't have to download it, the video is imbedded in the page.

Hope that helps.