Welcome to the lecture, “Dissecting Methods”, I hope you enjoy it! In it we will be looking at various

effects (new and old) to see how the mathematics that is used in magic really work – and the cases where

they don’t! You will come away with a greater appreciation of the mechanics behind these effects so that

you can easily adapt and expand the tricks in new and interesting ways, that would be impossible

otherwise. You will also see how to prove that the trick will work in every case through simple reasoning,

without having to test every single possibility.

About your lecturer:

Steven Goodwin is the off-stage name of mentalist and magician, James Merlin. As a performer, James

does the traditional round of corporate ice-breakers, trade shows, and weddings, with the occasional stage

performance at places likes the Magicians Showcase and The Magic Circle (both London) and the

Junction theatre in Cambridge (where he was once reviewed with the phrase, “James Merlin is the Derren

Brown of Cambridge”)

On the other hand, Steven Goodwin is much more interesting!

Professional quiz writer, composer, author, AFOL, game developer, lecturer, advocate, recreational

mathematician, and general-purpose computer geek are just a few sides to his polymath personality!

Steven is also not adverse to subverting the genre and crossing the streams, as was last seen in 2024 when

he presented a keynote lecture in Brussels on how Open Source Software and Magic are related to

intellectual property law.

His public contributions to magic have been under his private name (to avoid inquisitions from the merely

curious!) and include publications such as Abra, Linking Ring, Top Hat and not forgetting “The Alexa

Trick” (as published by Alakazam.) and the book “Mathematics in Magic.