Hi Guys

I would like to thank the SMC moderators who so kindly arrange the magic workshop at Ulu Pandan Community Club on 14 June 2008.

I would also like to convey my sincere thanks to those attending and the purchase my book, Reflections.

Uncle Bob

Hi Everyone,

Here's review of Uncle Bob's Reflections lecture that was held yesterday.

Venue:
The lecture was held at Ulu Panda CC. The same one as where we held Ledgerdemain last year. The lecture was conducted in a classroom. The room was air-conditioned and there were ample space for all of us. To facilitate learning, a projector and large screen was provided and that really helped everyone see everything much clearly.

Many Thanks to Danny and Ulu Pandan CC in allowing us to use the room and supporting SMC's event

Refreshments:
As this was a mini-lecture, everyone was treated to light refreshments. There were ample pastries and drinks to go around. In fact there were too much drinks and our we had to trouble our ever helpful mod, Gordon to bring it back home. A great lecture at such a price, the refreshments were really a bonus for everyone.

Reflections Lecture Notes:
Before the start of the lecture, everyone of us were eagerly queueing up for Uncle Bob's notes. Uncle Bob was so nice to autograph each book for eveyone. Considering the book has so much AMAZING stuff, at $35. It is indeed a STEAL. Those who did not get the book, I'm sorry to tell you that, you've missed the boat as there are only a limited copies left and it'll no longer be going at $35.00.

The book was well printed (in FULL COLOUR) and well binded. The photos on each page were well taken and extremely clear. Due to the full colour and concise format of writing, it was easy to follow the steps. The flow of the book was exactly like the lecture. With the Card Effects presented first and followed by the Close-Up effects.

Each effect ended with an after thought by none other then our CardShark ''Shade''. Some of the afterthoughts are rather hilarious as it talks about how he first saw the effect and how he felt about it. He even provided addditional notes and presentational ideas for some of the effects.

All in all, an AWESOME set of notes which I would definitely refer to over and over again. Thanks Shade for all the effort

Lecture:
The lecture started on time at seven and we even at our ever great friend of SMC and fantastic magician, Mr. Enrico ''Ironman'' Varella to attend it with us. It was indeed a pleasure for SMC to have Enrico join especially after he's just returned from Spain from his Ironman challenge.

The lecture started with Uncle Bob performing his Card effects and followed by his Coins, Ropes, Cups & Balls and Dominos effect.

It was then break time and I have to say, many of us were so engrossed in practicing and sessioning that no one was really going for a break. What dedication and passion we all have for our art. There were many hilarious moments that we had during the break. With our Best Magician in the house a.k.a Axl, we know we'll not fall short of laughter and impersonation.

After the break, Uncle Bob commenced the explanations. Every effect was explanained throughly and anyone who had difficulty, Uncle Bob was patiently guiding him along.

At 10pm the lecture ended and everyone was still very eager to session more but unfortunately the CC had to close for the day and we all adjourned to Ghim Moh for our much needed dinner

To end off, I have to say I had an enjoyable time yesterday learning new stuff, catching up and laughing and chilling with everyone. A gazillion Thanks to Uncle Bob, Shade, Gordon, all the Mods and Enrico for making this possible. You guys Rockz... ^_^

Cheers
Jerome

Ahh..Jerome beat me to a review first, but nonetheless, I'll share what I thought of the workshop from a participant's viewpoint.

Many thanks to Uncle Bob and the SMC Mods for organising and conducting this workhop. It was absolutely a great job done!

The venue was perfectly suited for the workshop and it was very comfortable for all of us. Unlike usual lectures where everyone is merely seated and watching, we all had a table in front of us that provided a large working space so that we could follow Uncle Bob's instructions step by step. Uncle Bob was teaching on an elevated platform and this improved visibility for the participants. The projection screen present also served as an aid to give a close up view of Uncle Bob's teach-in at the sides and even over the shoulders (thanks to Adrian who was the video cam guy, hard work!).

The lecture went on very well. Uncle Bob first demonstrated all the effects he was about to perform and went on to do the teaching. As usual, it's always a treat to watch Uncle Bob perform. The material taught were really really gold. Uncle Bob didn't hold anything back and was most generous in sharing with us his pet effects.

I was impressed at how good the time management was. During parts of the workshop, there were usually short breaks after 1 to 2 effects of about 5 to 10 minutes to give us, participants, either time to ask questions to Uncle Bob personally, work out some details that were just covered or for others, to session between ourselves. Additionally, the workshop was paced in a manner such that if people were having difficulty with a particular section, Uncle Bob would usually give everyone time to work the part out before continuing on. This is great because we could then seek clarification and get the workings right rather than being left behind, lost. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised that the workshop ended punctually with Uncle Bob covering all the material he had to teach thoroughly and even going on to demonstrate a few other effects during a Q&A session despite all the intermissions in between here and there to accomodate our pace.

I would also like to add that the workshop being a teaching session, stayed true to its purpose. Nowhere at all during the workshop was there any advertising, time wasting fillers or pushing for sales going on. Uncle Bob only introduced some of the items that he had made and was willing to sell, at the very end of the workshop when asked (spending barely more than a minute). I don't recall Uncle Bob asking anyone to buy his book, neither did he ask us to refer to the book for more details or clarity (which is a common gimmick used in many lectures to get people to buy the notes by missing out certain points due to "time" constraints) as everything was well-covered. In fact, it was really the participants who approached Uncle Bob to buy the book rather than the other way around. I think this workshop and SMC has set a really good example for all other future workshops and lectures in the magic community to follow. I have nothing against a little promotion of items and sales during lectures and enjoy knowing what is up on offer at lecture booths but I have experienced extremely uncomfortable times where the lecturer had a far greater interest in his ownself, pushing his wares continuously (wasting alot of time) and failed to make any consideration for his audience.

It was very nice that there were actually light refreshments. Given that each participant paid only $18, this was a very generous and considerate offer. Most of us probably came without taking any food prior to the lecture so having some food there helped greatly to stave off any possible hunger. Although I think that a lot of us were probably too engrossed in magic to even reach out for the refreshments in the first place.

All in all, I really enjoyed the workshop and was very happy with how it turned out and how it was organised. It is very clear that this was a workshop that was organised with a lot of thought, time and effort going into it. The beautiful book "Reflections" itself that was originally meant to be lecture notes bears testimony to this fact. I am eagerly looking forward to more future SMC events.

In addition, I am also very happy to have met Rob, who lives in UK and came over to Singapore for holiday, at the lecture. I hope you've enjoyed yourself at the lecture and have a great stay for your remaining days in Singapore. =)

Thanks for the review Jerome and Jonathan. Nice write-up which more or less covers the flow of the entire event. Thanks guys!

I would like to add a big Thank You especially to Uncle Bob, for your time and effort. However, I fully agree without Enrico that Uncle Bob must be nuts, for releasing his entire working repertoire!

Many thanks to Enrico, for dropping by as usual; some of your nutty sense of humour is always somehow or someway appreciated. *Just Kidding* Hope you enjoyed the humping session in Desaru.

Rob who came all the way from Manchester, for being able to join us for the lecture. We truly hope that you enjoyed the magic of a veteran performer in Singapore. We definitely enjoyed the Number 1-21 game. Knowing us, we will probably be playing that game for a very long time!

Finally, the participants for signing up and coming by for the lecture, we hoped that you managed to learn something from Uncle Bob. Thank you very much for supporting the event.

dry_gin

This is undoubtedly the SMC event of the year. Uncle Bob didn't just give a lecture - he really taught his routines. It was a classroom style setting where you came to really learn something.

Though I think 7 items were too many for a teach-in, Bob generously gave anyway. It would be hard-pressed for any of the attendees to remember all the material taught, but I think just about everyone who attended purchased a copy of Reflections. I truly hope that everyone who came had a great time and went home with more than they bargained for.

Thanks around:

1) Uncle Bob, without whom this teach-in would never be possible.

2) Gordon - though you 'complain' about everything, you never fail to come through for us everytime.

3) Danny and Ulu Pandan CC - they gave us the space! And they were happy about it!

4) SMC Mods: The best team of magicians one could ever have the privilege to work with!

5) Fei, Delvin, Jasper, Jonanthan for helping out throughout the entire process from the proof reading stage to the materialisation!

6) Adam & Brian for coming by early to help with the 'muscle work'.

7) Rob, for just being there with us! :-)

8) Enrico - never a dull moment when you're around; appreciate your coming bro!

Bob's Reflections are now available only through him. If you are interested in getting a copy, please feel free to email him at:

bob@conjurer.net

or contact him directly at:
91110808

We are currently working on a companion DVD; it will be made available to all attendees at a special price once it is ready. (It might take awhile considering all our busy schedules.)

Once again, I hope this experience had been as enriching for your magic as it had been for mine.

Shade

PS: I heard that poor Itachi (Justin) thought the date was 15th of June and turned up the next day instead. :P Don't worry Justin, Uncle Bob has already agreed to sell you the notes at the discounted price anyway since you did turn up... in a way of sorts.

SOBz...
I feel extremely pathetic now...
Kudos to Shade for even bothering to put a PS bout me...
Guess it'll be all right to share my side of the story here wont it?
Should contribute as a review of sorts:

Friday- Extremely exited finally knocked off work and reach the much awaited 14,15th weekend. (notice i saw it as the 2nd weekend of the month)

Saturday- Still thought the lecture was on the Sunday, was so sure i did not make a mistake. So sure that such a fatal error would not be made by me...

Sunday- Went over to Jap Classmate's house to show her little daughter some magic tricks for fun... Till 1730hrs. Had my friend drop me back home, quickly gobbled down a 10minute dinner, not before turning on the "Events and Meetings-> Bob Chua's Reflections" page to check the TIME ... <_< and then rushing down via taxi which cost like $11.40... which i happily handed over and got off the car, to dash to the lift and go to the 5th floor...(wrong info from the security personnel) only to find the entire floor empty. Immediately whipped out my phone to call the first few persons to pop to mind=jerome,Axl (in that order), whom which Axl broke the crushing news to me... Axl:" Its yesterday!" Me:"No la are u joking?" Axl:"REally its yesterday. *sniggers(wat a loser) Over already!" Me:"(resigning to fate)Wahh....Sian diao...okok thx thx bye..." :(

Lesson learnt- Never be too sure... U might just pull off what i just did...

Justin, you are welcome to get my Reflections at the launch price of SGD35.00.

Its been great to meet you guys during my workshop and thanks for buying Reflections.

Thanks also for the nice reviews, deeply appreciated.

Uncle Bob

To Justin: Eh... I'm quite sure I didn't snigger. I mean, I usually laugh out loud in such cases. :P Anyway, if you can't understand any part of the book, I can offer to teach you for ONLY $15 per explanation... quite a fair price, considering I'm THE Best Magician In S'pore, as endorsed by Uncle Bob (I've proof..) :D

Anyway... don't want to repeat what others had already written, so just add a few points of my own.

On the lecture: So happy to able to learn the Dream and the Cannibals Outdone. IMO, these are the kind of card effects that are worth learning... simple, clear and practical, not one of those very technical, looks good yet can't really be used for live performance. By the way, I'm not trying to "carry balls" here, as Uncle Bob would testified that these are the 2 tricks I always bug him to perform. The 2 effects are already worth the price of the whole lecture (considering people teach for $25 per trick last time..)

Like his Coin Across too... for the fact that it ends with a production of a jumbo coin, as I had just bought one and was trying to find an effect to use it. :P No lah... also for the invaluable HPC move.

Didn't really want to learn his Professor's Revenge and Cups & Balls though... because these are the 2 that NEVER fails to amaze me, despite seeing it for the umpteen times (in Rob's words: "It's beautiful.."). Wanted to retain some mystic for myself.

On the book: Very clear explanations, helped by the use of simple human language (unlike Expert at the Card Table) and the use of photographs. For those who had ever struggled to read Dover's books, you will very much appreciate these 2 points.

There are some commentaries by Shade, which I didn't really care to read and 1 "contribution trick" from him too, which I didn't really care to learn . :P Hehe... (joking la.. Shade is not so petty... unlike another pro magician whose name goes by the initials of AT..)

On other things: For the record, Uncle Bob has endorsed my title of The Best Magician in S'pore on the cover of my copy of his book. So all those people out there who wants to dispute this, please go argue with him. Oh, did I mention that Enrico second to that? Hey, I had even the IBM guys on my side... eat your heart out. :P :D :lol: