It was standing room only for the Tyler Wilson lecture, with some getting their seats hours before the scheduled start. A packed audience hung on Tylers every word, an aberrant, adroit, meritorious, display of dexterity, which was the clear highlight of the convention and must certainly put Tyler in the picture for a Nobel Prize or at the very least a Merlin Award. This was accentuated by the fact he completely sold out of his notes and books, but that didn’t stop the long queue of good looking women, with Tyler having the arduous job of having to sign various body parts using nothing more than a blunt wax crayon.

Tyler Wilson certainly did have an envelope, and don’t let him tell you any different, because I saw it. He handed it out for safe keeping before asking for a number between one and a zillion. He then took that number and used it to calculate the cube root in his head. He then used this to set up a running gag using the hot-rod trick however let it be known that Tyler can perform the hot rod without spelling. Ever.

The first trick of the lecture was Scarred Warp, Tylers take on Roy Waltons trick. A hole torn in the card allows you to see that the middle of the card doesnt exist. The method is simply that Tyler stops time a skill I think he somehow acquired from Hiro Nakamura. Tyler showed us his Occams Edge which is a great principle for marking a card on the edge with a sharpie, and having that black line vanish, reappear and change colour. I personally prefer the variant of having the line shorten, which I know is Tylers favourite.

B52 Shooter allowed Tyler to show off the side of him that is 9/10ths Love Machine, 1/10th Card Sorting Machine. A version of triumph where all the face up cards visually shot out of the deck leaving just the selection amongst the face down ones. Finally Tyler showed us a new principle for getting an object into a sealed envelope. In this case it was a card that predicted the thought of number from the start of the lecture. However Tyler showed how you could load anything in there, by producing the entire universe from inside the envelope thus causing a tear in the space-time continuum and causing a temporal alternate reality where magic is cool, and the beer is free. That last bit was fortunately described in the notes.

The crowded room gave Tyler a long and sustained standing ovation, and surged to the front to pick him up on their shoulders, where-by they marched him out of the front door of the arts centre, chanting Tyler, Tyler, and were last seen heading down the coast to Tylers next lecture venue, so they could be part of the next showing of miracles from this amazing thaumaturge.

* Disclaimer: This review may or may not be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, however Tyler has paid me money to do this, which I have subsequently donated to the IBM welfare stand. This product is meant for educational purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. List each cheque separately by bank number. Batteries not included. Contents may settle during shipment. Use only as directed.