New York City was one of the coolest stops on the tour. Tony Chang was a great host. We got a chance to crash at his place and see some really cool magic. He also took us to some amazing restaurants around the city. I only knew Tony from our interactions on the internet magic forums and the videos he posts to his blog. It was nice to finally meet him in person. He’s a funny guy with some amazing chops.

What’s great about Tony is that even though he focuses on some pretty difficult sleight of hand, he always has his audience at the top of his mind. As much as I liked hanging out with him myself, the best moment was seeing him perform for a group of laymen late at night at the bar. Before we left for Philadelphia, Tony was kind enough to let me film him doing one of my favorite tricks of his to share with all of you. Take a look:

We visited Tannen’s Magic Shop as well as Fantasma Magic where David freakin’ Roth was demonstrating at the counter. At Fantasma I also had the chance to meet Doug Edwards. He was a fun guy to hang around and he showed me this really cool move that could be used at the card table just as easily as it could be used in a magic trick. Basically, it’s just an add-on of the Aces. But it looks completely natural and invisible. Here’s the real work as they say:

Eric Hu was another cool guy we spent a lot of time with in New York. He showed me his version of John Guastaferro’s “Tailspin” and I just had to have it for the blog. I really like his “mystery cards” presentation. It changes the effect from a normal “twisting” routine to more of a transposition. It also motivates one of the phases perfectly. Ok, enough talk, let’s check out the performance.

I’ve got more videos from New York. I’ll try to post them tomorrow.

Tags: Magic Videos, Travel Journal