A Very Warm Welcome to Geoff Williams

Nigel Shelton: We are very proud to welcome our latest "Special Guest" Geoff Williams from Sunday 28th January.

Thank you to Geoff for offering your time freely to visit these forums. May I also offer a very big thank you to Magic Bunny member Craig P who has arranged this contact and offered to submit a short biography that will be posted in this forum soon.

In the meantime, you are welcome to view the collated threads of all our previous guests here.

Aommaster: I'd like to welcome Mr. Geoff Williams to Magic Bunny!

It's really great to have you here and I have heard a lot of good things about your releases.

I hope you enjoy your time here.

Geoff Williams: I am really looking forward to this week. It is an extreme pleasure to hubbub with my brethren/sistren/parentstren/??? Across the pond.

But I must warn you; I'm planning on cutting & pasting all of David Acer's answers to your questions.

Geoff

Michael Jay: My apologies for the late welcome, Geoff. Thank you for taking your valuable time to have a chat with us here at Bunny and welcome to the forums.

Mike.

LeeAlex:

Thank you for that!

And a very warm welcome to you too.

Introduction to Geoff Williams

Craig P: many of you I had not heard of Geoff Williams a couple of months ago. It was only after seeing his new DVD “Miracles for Mortals – Killer Magic For The Rest Of Us” that I was introduced to his style of magic.

He is a part-time pro who spent more than 8 years doing restaurant magic (where most of the "Miracles For Mortals" stuff was developed). He now specializes in corporate and private engagements with a public show here and there.

He is from the Aldo Colombini School of Thought: magic doesn't have to be difficult to be jawdroppingly entertaining. Most of his stuff is easy technically but so clear and well thought out.

So, who is he?

I could say he is one of the funniest and entertaining magicians I have ever seen

I could say he has released on DVD some of the finest and most commercial routines I have ever seen

I could say he is one of the finest magical thinkers in the world

I could say he was a massive hit at last years LVMI and Coinvention

What I will say is that he is someone that has really made an impression on the magical community with his very commercial effects. It has been a long time since I learnt more than 2 effects from a DVD, which has gone into my professional act, but off these DVD’s I learnt 7.

Geoff's strength is looking at strong existing routines and really taking them to a new level through presentation, handling changes, or both. He is also very big on crediting and seeking out permission to work off of someone's routine - a nice and important thing to see. As an example, In Omega Bet, Geoff takes what could be a rather boring card effect and makes it an entertaining piece of theater where the spectators really get into the betting and it builds and builds.

Please Welcome Geoff Williams

Ethan: Can I just add to this introduction, as I also had never heard of Geoff, Craig kept telling me about these great DVDs and I wasn't disappointed. Great magic, great presentation and nothing too demanding. Since myself and Craig work together it was also interesting to see a double act as it's not too often I get the chance to see a 2 person magical act.

I really can't wait for the next DVD now, especially as I've seen a few clips and was completely blown away. I just have to see the method before I can really accept it wasn't just camera tricks!

Geoff Williams: Ethan,

Obviously you're speaking of my non-commercial project titled "Brain Candy" which I did with one of my close magic buddies Scott Franz. That's COMPLETELY different than the "Miracles For Mortals" instructional release. I don't want anyone to get confused by the two.

For those of you who might be wondering right about now, here's the scoop:

A year and a half ago, Scott & I decided to flex our creative muscles and come up with some visual stunners as a special treat for family members (non-magicians) as a Christmas bonus to their regular presents. We wanted to try to solve some interesting problems, such as "How can we do Hanging Coins but only ONE-HANDED and NO SLEEVING?”

We decided to use a mixture of obscure commercial effects coupled with some radically new stuff we whipped up on our own. The one major rule we laid down: all of the magic tricks had to be done in real-time with no edits or special effects or camera tricks whatsoever. No Photoshop retouching, no post-production tweaking. The tricks had to be just as the camera caught them.

We did, however, cheat like maniacs and most if not all of the tricks are effective because the viewer is assuming something that is completely untrue.

Please note that our titling which periodically states things like "No, they're not magnetic" are absolutely TRUE. The signed card that appears to go through the car window is really the SAME card. The horse appears in front of an UNGIMMICKED, UNCUT king-size bed sheet.

Scott & I are the only ones who have a copy of the explanation DVD (we filmed explanations to the tricks so, 30 years from now, we could remember how in the heck we did them). And, no, the explanation DVD is NOT available so please don't ask and make me turn you down in front of everybody.

On a related note, since the Brain Candy project is a freebie, we encourage everyone who comes across a copy to duplicate the disk and share with as many friends (magical and otherwise) as they like and encourage them to make copies as gifts for their friends and families. I'd like to see Brain Candy pop up in every country in the world as Scott's & my gift to humanity.

There are no secrets revealed on Brain Candy; it is for entertainment only. Remember that Brain Candy was designed to fool laymen; the more well read among our brethren will be able to figure out some of the effects (and may even own a couple of them).

Please don't charge anyone for Brain Candy under ANY circumstances.