I’M NOT YOUR BUDDY, GUY; Chris Mayhew and Tyler Wilson’s ‘The EH Team’ notes

I know.. I’m soooo fucking overdue for this. At least I’m not taking your money for bullshit pre-orders and spending it on coke, hookers and corduroy assless chaps. At least give me that courtesy.

I’m a bit of a fan of Canada. Aside from some of the best minds in magic (Dai Vernon, Stewart James,David Ben, Tyler “God among Men” Wilson ❤ etc.), they are some of the nicest people in the world. Seriously. They could apologise at each other for shit they are not even remotely responsible for. Canadian’s must get pissed at each other if people don’t apologise enough. Also, they are the Guardians of maple syrup. ball nectar of the Gods. If they didn’t accept the French so much (excluding Vincent and Boris), I would probably call them perfect.

So when I heard that Tyler and Chris were leaving their merry land of Jizz syrup, moosefucking and daily apology quotas to do a lecture tour of the West Coast, I immediately shat myself into a coma in excitement, called my agent and told him to cancel all my bookings. Unfortunately I don’t have an agent, nor does anyone book an octogenerian, opinionated pain in the ass who faintly smells of piss and mothballs. So basically, I was just really excited and equally bummed that I was going to miss out because of my hectic schedule of doing sweet fuck all.

Luckily, a friend/ass-kissing bitch boy (who wishes to remain nameless and hairless) planned to get a copy of the notes for me. Hearing that it was for moi, Tyler spiced up my copy with a special inlay. Let me just say that seeing one man’s distended anus’ is seeing one too many men’s distended anus’ (anii?). But, I digress.

So a big thank you to Tyler for the thought and hospitality; I really fucking hate you (Jks, ily<3, we should bang).

The notes are 37 pages long in a fine quality A5 layout, and exceptionally well produced and contains 7 items with some weird fucking names (You sneaky fucker, Tyler…Sorry Chris). Let’s get into this shit.

MR. HANDS – Chris Mayhew
A card that has been sitting in a spectator’s hand changes to be her selection. Big fucking deal, this is like card magic 101 shit. But, this is a bit of a mindfuck of a plot. Chris has taken the core weakness of the effect (i.e. expecting that the card in the hand will turn into the selection) out by tweaking the context of where and what the attention is on. By doing so, the spectator doesn’t jump the gun and expect what’s going to happen, allowing for the effect to hit a bit deeper. The spectator is fooling themselves, which is basically how every effect should be. That’s smart. Give this man a medal. I’ve also seen this style of thinking applied to introducting a four of a kind. Figure that shit out.

UPDOG – Tyler Wilson
This reminds me of Aronson/Bannon/Solomon’s ‘Among the Discards’ for the ending. A standard sandwich trick finishes.. and then keeps going. This effect goes into some unknown territory in a way, as there’s no real indication of what’s going to happen until the revelation where the whole effect comes full circle. To be honest, I really didn’t like some parts of the handling, but I silently mind-jizzed over the implications of the effect and the comments and explanation Tyler gave of the effect. There’s a lot of value in the effect, but the handling seems a bit off for some reason. I can’t quite put my penis on/in it. It’s a weird one. I spent three days trying to make another handling and all I got was bloated and some papercuts on my taint. Overall, really enjoyed the effect but just felt like there could be a less fiddly way to achieve the inception-like effect of a sandwich within a sandwich, or a Chipotle within a Taco Bell shooting out of my rectal cavity at Mach 3.

KIM CARD ASHIAN – Chris Mayhew
Another fucking sandwich trick… Really? HAHA JUST KIDDING, I’M HILARIOUS. If you can’t do a 25 phase sandwich routine, you are lower than the plebs who lovingly gaze up towards my sack for guidance. Chris has taken the sandwich plot and combined it with the Partagas Sell/Dunbury Delusion plot, where the magician fucks up and uses the selection in the course of finding the selection. The effect is short and to the point and I love how simple the handling is for the mileage you get out of the effect. My only issue with Chris’ effect was the initial handling for the selection. Without giving anything away, the method calls for the selected card to be removed by the performer and then lost back into the middle a second later. For the purpose of the method, I can think of at least 4 different ways to achieve the required result while avoiding weird unnecessary actions. Aside from that, love the simple twist that Chris has made with the plot mash-up. Give that man some Poutine.

HOT POCKET – Tyler Wilson
Finally, an effect that couples good magic with my crippling fear and inability of touching other people (Hoverhanding like a motherfucker, errr’day). Praise to you, based Tyler. The performer attempts to recreate the shortest ‘Hands Across America’ re-enactment/expressive dance number while showing them he’s capable of blowing their fucking minds. While he holds two spectator’s hands, the performer has another spectator choose a card and write it down on a piece of paper. The performer then asks the spectator to go into his shirt pocket, which she had previously removed other items from, to find the card matching her mental selection which she wrote down. I really loved this because of how ballsy it is while being fairly simple and straightforward as an effect for both the performer and the audience. The comments and tips at the end also show some awesome approaches to the method and effect that really do make a difference. If only you could somehow substitute the hand holding for crotch-grabbing, this would be the perfect effect. Shame on you Tyler . You were the chosen one.

KZSDYFBNCZK – Chris Mayhew
An effect that highlights how awesome Chris can be, and the dickish depths that Tyler can go to (I know your tricks, Mr Wilson). Chris takes Tyler’s ‘Updog’ sandwich-ception and puts a little spin on it. This handling feels a bit more like what I was going for when I was trying out Tyler’s effect, the handling feels more practical and tangible for an audience. A spectator’s selected card is produced between two cards and the selection is put aside. Another three cards are produced from between the sandwich cards and put aside. The deck and sandwich cards are put aside, and the performer picks up the four cards put aside through the trick, which smoothly transform into the selection being sandwiched by the two sandwich cards used at the start of the effect. Fuck yeah, throwbacks. Love you, Chrissy-Poo

SHORTSERS CUT – Tyler Wilson
Mandatory coin trick. Before reading this, I really didn’t have high hopes. Not a huge coin guy lately. Basically, the performer is able to perform an estimation/impossible location/impossible situation effect progression using only coins. At first, I called bullshit but warmed up to it.. here’s what I mean.

Reaction to first phase explanation: Fucking coin snatch bullshit. What a crock of shi…

Reaction to second phase: …. Ahhhhhhhh. You fucking sneaky sasquatch bastard, Tyler.

Reaction to all subsequent phases:

“FUUUUUCKKK YOUUUUUU TYLER!!!!!!”

I really dislike how much happiness this routine gave me. The effect is great, the method is hilariously practical to learn and perform. It’s something that has a perverse and weirdly satisfying cause and effect for the method. Muchos gracias, Señor Wilson.

SANTA BABY WITH BABY MUSCLES – Chris Mayhew
These fuckin’ effect names.. brilliant. I like this effect, not because it was groundbreaking in what it achieved in the method or presentation, but because it just felt like a practical solution for the premise but also mixed it up a bit. A spectator names a card from the spread, the cards are then openly mixed face up and face down ala Jennings display. Half of the mixed up mess is cut into the spectator’s hand, the other half left in the magician’s. The moment happens, the magician’s half visually corrects itself, and the spectator spreads through their half, finding the cards all corrected except for the selection. Again, this is not the most amazing handling in the history of the world, but it has a special place in my heart (and my loins).

So… What’s the dealio? Worth it?

I really liked these notes. They didn’t make me question my sanity or challenge my perceptions of the universe (Fuck off with your “life changing” bizarre magick bullshit), but I had fun. I genuinely enjoyed reading and learning from the notes (as always, with Tyler and Chris’ write ups), but I also really enjoyed the effects as well.

Unfortunately, you could only get these if you were lucky enough to attend Tyler/Chris’ West Coast lecture tour last year.. Unless Tyler and Chris are considering another book release (Pretty pleaaaaaaaaase?)

If you manage to find these notes somehow and you’re a fan of Chris and Tyler’s previous works, get them. Good luck fucking finding them, bitches

I’m out, going to head back into my hole in the ground for another 6-12 months.
#sorrynotsorry

Chupacabra,
LH