I was at a conference in Reno last week, and the hotel/casino had a magic theater in it! The first night a few of us went to check out Phil Ackerly do some bar magic. Phil makes the boxes for my Applause Please 2.0 trick, but we’d never met in person, so it was great to see him in real life!
The next night I snuck down again to watch Phil for a little bit.
It was cool to watch how Phil handled a guy who was one of the “can I shuffle those cards” types. He did it without belittling the person or with a lame hack quip. He did it in an honest, heartfelt way. It was so effective that when the guy tried to do it again, all his friends told him to shut up so they could enjoy the show.
It was fun to meet Phil and see the show!
-Louie