| Steven Youell is a dynamo. A whirlwind on a triple espresso. Meet him off-stage and you'll talk to an entirely different man than the one you see performing. Off-stage Steven is fairly quiet, introspective, gentle and polite. If you watch his act, however, it's probably not a good idea to be in the front row. That's where Daniel was sitting. |
 Steven Youell and the card casualties |
 Steven teaches us magic |
Steven's lecture this year was one I had hosted here at Grand Illusions a few years back. It's a terrific class on a variety of principals including excellent uses of Darwin Ortiz's method of shuffling a new pack into a Si Stebbins stack. In the first ten minutes of this lecture Steven opens, shuffles and destroys a couple of dozen decks of cards. He viciously destroys the boxes as he rips open the cellophane and cardboard to produce the fifty-two like some horrific pasteboard Cesarean section. The ad cards and jokers are spun forcefully and haphazardly into the crowd who ducks and dodges, delighting in the antics and thankful that they weren't chosen as volunteers. |
| Oh yes, Daniel. Steven had volunteered Daniel and drug him up on stage. Then he beat the hell out of him. Wait, I'm ahead of myself. Let's back up. A handful of months ago I was in Grand Illusions imparting to Daniel how to shuffle into a stack and some of the things I had learned from Steven in his past lecture here in Sacramento. I failed to mention to Daniel that these methods were imparted to me by Mr. Youell. This led to Daniels tragic mistake: Steven shuffled the deck, spread it face up and said, “A shuffled, unprepared deck, yes?” The “Yes” was directed at Daniel and that's when his common sense failed. He said, “Well, you could have shuffled into a stack.” |
 Dan's in trouble |
 Dan shuffles the cards |
Oh, dear. The laser point of Steven's attention focused on Daniel and the resulting shenanigans had all of us in the audience crying salty tears of mirth at the expense of our tactless hero being abused horribly by Steven Youell. Did he have it coming? Well, yes, I suppose, he should have kept shut about his knowledge of stacks but I and the rest of the crowd were certainly pleased that he spoke up - I doubt anyone in the room had seen a magic lecture like this one. |
| After the abuse has subsided and the first two rows were covered in cards of all types, Steven began to teach his methods and systems. As I said before, this was an entirely different man. This fellow was kind and gentle, welcoming questions with a warm interest and enthusiasm. Approachable and informative - The polar opposite of his performance. So we got the best of both worlds this afternoon - We saw our colleague and friend take a somewhat deserved beating and we got to learn from a smooth and informative teacher. It's been a good day. Off to the session suite. |  He's a good sport |
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