Steve’s review process.

I haven't even scheduled this. Scheduled, scheduled, depending on where you come from. But I just thought I was getting, not frustrated with the wrong word, because I was having quite a nice time, but I thought I'd do a live video in a real situation. Just came up with this idea just now. Answering a lot of questions that I get about my review process and how I go about reviewing. And I'm kind of in the middle of a thing, and I thought, right in the middle of it, this is how it is really, this is real. It's not put together for effect, for want of a better word. Pun not intended. And this is kind of where we are. And this is what I tend to do when I review stuff. So before we go on, please like and subscribe. And you might get some ideas for learning stuff out of books as well. Do say hello if anybody comes. Hey Anthony, how you doing? Good to see you, man. And yeah, I didn't know anybody was going to come. This is good. So like and subscribe, do all that. And I would like you to look at onlinemagic.co after this, please. That's the thing that runs the whole thing. Without this channel, there is no that channel, that course. And without that course, this channel wouldn't exist. This is my magic, magic man. The benefits of still working from home. I get to see you live. Yay. So onlinemagic.co is kind of what I put all my time into other than this. The reason I'm doing this is because I spend a lot of time reviewing stuff. I don't tend to be able to review much on release for this reason. I think that's good because I think that magic is timeless. If something comes out that's good, it doesn't get not good in another month or two months or three months or four months. You know, it's still there and it's still a trick. And I would actually say that, you know, a decent piece of magic is timeless. And it's quite good to see, you know, how am I feeling about this after the hype has gone down when I've actually looked into and worked on it. So as an example, what I'm looking at now is Ben Harris's Symmetry and Parity book. So my process for reading most books in this book, which is why they take so long, is that I've read this book. Now, this is my third read. I've read it once through. I've read it then with cards in hand and now I'm reading it to learn everything in it. Now, I won't learn every trick in every book. This is a little bit different because there are similarities between the tricks. There are different presentations and they use a similar concept so they don't require any new skills. Each trick doesn't require me to learn a new skill. But some books draw me in and they, especially this one, I get that feeling that I want to learn this. And going back to why I started doing this was because I wanted to keep learning. Now, there's no good for me sort of looking through a trick really quickly to get a review out and then looking at another one because I'm not learning anything really. I want to get a feel for something new. And even though this is a very old concept in this book, it is something new for me to play with it again, if you see what I mean. It was the first trick I ever learned, ever really. And now it's done in a very different way, in a very magical way. So, I'm reading it through now with cards in hand. I've been doing that for about, I've done that and now I'm learning the tricks so I can perform them. So, I've been through for about three hours today. I've run through the tricks. I've written down notes and notes and notes on the tricks so I can talk now about this book and the tricks in it with authority. Meaning, I know what each thing feels like. I know the pros and the cons and I know about the writing club, read it so well and I feel that I've kind of gained an understanding of the book. And that's why it takes me so long. Now, if you look around at this desk and I haven't, at any, I haven't changed anything on this desk. So, here I've got Cylinder of Coins, Joshua Jay. I haven't had that for months. I've not reviewed it yet because I haven't had time to properly learn it. It's not an easy thing and I'm not going to review it unless I learn it. Lucha Maze Marksman deck, I'm going to do a review of that with the new deck that's come out and a comparison. I've got tricks from Penguin here. The Hoff and the Rick Lacks trick. A load of tricks from Murphy's. About four or five or six tricks from Murphy's. Another few down there. And here next to me, I've got another box of stuff to review. Some of this stuff I've had for a year and I will still review it. You know, I've just not got to it yet. And I know that some people and some people might be watching this going, oh, you haven't reviewed my thing yet. Just because it takes me months, I'm going to do it. I've got Paddle King here by TCC. I'm going to review that soon because they've got a deal for viewers if I review it in the next however long. So, that's what I do with a book. And what I do then leave that review with is an understanding and a better, I feel that I'm a better magician for learning it. Within this process for me, it's hard for me to sit for hours and hours and hours without getting up and moving. So, I have a coin with me. So, I can practice vanishes and do stuff in between if I want to take a little break. I also get up and walk and make sure I go home for lunch mostly. Because if you're practicing anything, I think just to break the day up a little bit. If you're like me and you get very obsessive, you know, hours can go past and you're hunched over and you haven't kind of changed your position. So, I think that's really important too. With a trick, I have a similar process. So, I'll watch the tutorial. I'll then watch the tutorial with the props in hand. And then I'll start either getting some footage of me performing. If possible or not, I'll just get some footage of me not performing but demonstrating. Sometimes that doesn't feel like it's needed. It's kind of self-explanatory. So, I'll just, you know, do the trick. Excuse me. Do the trick to camera or just explain the trick and what I think of it. So, each one of these things, you know, takes a long time. I've got a book here, you know, I was given by Paul Brook, you know, months ago. Here. And again, I'm not going to review that until I've had a good read and I feel like I'm comfortable with it. So, if you're wondering why I'm not reviewing stuff. Because some people say, you know, why haven't you reviewed that? It's been out ages. It's because if I review it on release, it just shows some of the time. Unless I get an early release. God, it's a really bad color, isn't it? Sorry about the light. There's no lights here. I'm doing this sort of gorilla. But if I... Some things I can release. Yeah, yeah. Some things I can release, which is like my office, very quickly because they are self-explanatory. But if they take time, I just can't do a book unless I get a pre-release copy and I've got time to read it. So, don't think that I'm kind of... This channel is so important to me and it's something that I've put a lot of effort into. And I haven't a few questions really. I've noticed you're not putting as much out. And basically, it's because I've got a lot of more, I would say, in-depth stuff at the moment. If you just want a quick look around, this is my sort of review hub, as it were. The other side of my office is where I record the reviews. That's just over there. So, that's the filming bit of it. And the onlinemagic.co tutorials and live streams. Tonight, we have Mark Leverage, which is lovely. He doesn't have to be here tonight. I'm not doing anything. I'm just introducing. And for me, it's very important. Now, I can have a separate sort of almost creative space up there where I'm standing and I'm doing stuff. And here is a creative, more kind of mindful place where I can think. And it's important for me to have those different spaces. So, I can't really afford this office, to be honest. But for me to be able to leave the house and go somewhere where I can focus. And some people were making a short documentary on me recently. And they filmed me practicing at home and filmed me practicing in here. And they said the level of focus in here was different on the camera. They could see that it was a different place. And it's only been very recently I've had the ability to do that. But I think sometimes it's important to find a specific place in the house that you sit. So, when I do practice at home, it's in the kitchen. It's never in the bedroom. It's never in those places. And that's my place. And something happens almost when I sit in there. And I get into a different frame of mind. Sometimes I can't get in there enough to be at home because of kids and stuff. So, usually I'm a very tidy person. This is in the middle of looking at loads of stuff, deciding on what I'm going to do next and studying Ben's book. And you'll know that when I review Ben's book, I've spent serious amounts of time with it. And what I say isn't necessarily true, but it's true for me. And you'll be able to get a feel for that. So, if you've got any questions now, let me know. And again, sorry there hasn't been much main reviews. But there will be. There'll be a big load of them all in one go when I've done the time consuming stuff. And working from home, yeah, you've managed to catch me waffling. If there is anything you want me to talk about, just like this, I'll do loads more of these if you like. I'm happy to talk about anything, share anything about the process or learning. Or I'm big on talking about the process of learning, practice, creativity, performing. I'm not scared of sharing. I'm not holding back anything. So, if there's anything you want me to talk about, put a comment under this video. Do, if you want, go and have a look at onlinemagic.co. And thanks so much for watching. Take care. Oh, mate, hang on. Maybe do some re-reviews, some old stuff after you've been doing it for a while. Things you didn't realise or appreciate. Well, I do do that sometimes in the live streams on Thursdays. I will not be doing one tomorrow night, by the way, because I've got a gig. But the live streams on Thursdays. Make sure you hit the bell icon when you subscribe so you'll be notified if I'm not doing one. But I'll tend to talk about the stuff I'm still doing. And it's hard. If I review a trick and it's not, it doesn't really grab me, I'll tend not to go back to it. But if there's something in something and I go, oh, there's something in that, I'll tend to, you know, I will go back to it. As I have done recently with Henry Harris, there's Magnet Zero. Henry Harris and someone else. Sorry, I can't remember the name. Henry put it up for me, but it was someone else who came up with the concept. Magnet Zero, I've been performing for the first time recently, and I reviewed that a long time ago. So that's one of them. So I'll definitely be talking a lot more about that. It's a great idea. Magic Magic Man, is it? Yeah. Great. All right. So thanks so much. Take care. And see you later. Check out onlinemagic.co.