Josh Jay Lecture Report

Our program for the September meeting was a lecture held in combination with SAM Assembly 3 by internationally renowned magician Joshua Jay. This all new lecture focused on his book, "The Particle System".  This innovative new system from Joshua Jay revolutionizes memorized deck magic. The Particle System contains a variety of clever built-in benefits and is far easier to learn than many other stacks.

Josh's first effect was a backward card trick called Time Travel. To begin, everybody applauded as they normally would at the end of the trick. Next, Josh "found" a card (3C) before a volunteer had a chance to pick a card. The volunteer then shuffled a deck and the 3C was found to be missing from the deck. After producing the 3C Josh showed that the shuffled deck had magically returned to new deck order. As a final effect Josh showed that the wrist watch he had removed at the start of the effect had reappeared on his wrist. 

Josh picked two volunteers from the audience. They picked a card (8C) and randomly placed it face up in the deck while Josh looked away. They then placed the deck back in the card box. Josh correctly predicted that their card would be found 24th from the top, which it was. 

One volunteer merely thought of a card (JH) and Josh asked him to cut the deck. It was shown that he had cut to the selected card! The other volunteer named the 6D and Josh instantly cut to the 6D!

Josh then named three cards and volunteers touched three cards in the fan. The touched cards were turned over and found to be the three cards Josh had named!

Next up, Josh demonstrated a number of card effects using his Particle System stacked deck. Josh went over the Particle System in great detail, including some tricks you can only do with the Particle System. The card deck he uses is a beautifully made marked deck with several special cards that can enhance the effect. For the lecture, the deck was a mere $10. I bought one!

Josh next did an amazing version of Any Card At Any Number (ACAAN). He named a number (15).  A volunteer named the value (4). A second volunteer named the suit (Diamonds). The four of diamonds was found to be the 15th card in a deck that had been sitting on the table the entire time! 

After the break Josh told the story of a couple who met over a card trick. Josh and a volunteer each shuffled decks of cards they both turned over the top card and the two cards matched! Josh then began turning over more cards and every card in the two shuffled decks matched the order of the other deck!
The couple in his story was actually Josh's parents!

Josh finished off the lecture with a slide show of people around the world that he had met and performed for. Each of 52 slides featured a local individual, often in native costume, picking a card from a fan of cards which Josh held. It was a wonderful souvenir of his travels around the world performing and teaching magic.

-- John Hutsebaut