THE NEAT REVIEW ISSUE TWO takes us to New York City in the Summer of 2019.
Asi Wind
Tony Chang
Vera Tobin
Ricky Smith
Benjamin Pratt
Éireann Leverett
Eric Hu
Tatanka Tan
Lithographically printed in London and perfect bound for your retinal pleasure.
This issue presents a stark contrast with Issue One, and with the opinions shared by our London group.
In this issue we explore:
Magic and art as time-constrained events; a study on examining the movements we make in creating and performing sleight of hand, and discovering a new challenge in magic's instructional form; the nature of surprise as it relates to fiction; a walking tour of New York City and its magic history; lock-picking as a sport; defeating ‘Anti-tamper’ security screws; “pipe dream” tricks, and an eclectic mix of card moves.
50TH & 10TH, NY 10019, AS IS
To celebrate the launch of our second issue, we held a party at AS IS in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC.
Photography by Benjamin Pratt & Jeffrey Kellogg.
- 01 ASI WIND
- 02 TONY CHANG
- 03 VERA TOBIN
- 04 RICKY SMITH & BENJAMIN PRATT
- 05 Éireann Leverett
- 06 Eric Hu & Tatanka Tan
- 07 Ricky Smith, Eric Hu & Tatanka Tan
Asi Wind
Asi Wind is an extraordinary talent! We met with him in New York City in 2019. Asi's sold-out off-Broadway show, Inner Circle, received rave reviews and extended its run six times, totaling 448 shows, and was highlighted as a New York Times Critic’s Pick. His appearance on Penn & Teller: Fool Us has over 17 million views on YouTube, making it one of the most-watched performances in the history of the show’s ten seasons. In Issue Two, we spoke with Asi about the confluence of magic and art.
Vera Tobin
Vera Tobin is an associate professor of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University, where she investigates connections between cognition, language, and narrative, with a special interest in cognitive bias and how people think about other minds. Her research looks at how people interpret and construct narratives together. She contributed a fantastic article to Issue Two.
Benjamin Pratt
Benjamin Pratt co-founded craft beer bar AS IS, in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. Benjamin is a photographer and runner of single-day 100-mile ultra-marathons, and is an all-round good dude. He grew up doing magic and while no longer practicing, loves cardistry. His beautiful work features on our website as well as in his article accompanying Ricky Smith on a walking tour of the magic history of New York for Issue Two of THE NEAT REVIEW.
Eric Hu
Eric Hu co-founded Baby Grand, a boutique karaoke bar in Brooklyn. He has done magic for 20 years, and worked for Derren Brown on his Broadway show ‘SECRET’.
Tatanka Tan
New York-based Tatanka Tan is a hobbyist magician, semi-professional gambler and chess player. He studied psychology and sociology, and collects trinkets. He published a staggering tabled card switch — our favourite move we have published — and an article in conversation with Eric Hu for Issue Two of THE NEAT REVIEW.
Tony Chang
Based out of Queens, New York, Tony Chang is responsible for an entirely new aesthetic of elegant card magic. His sleight of hand is unmatched, and the softness and effortless elegance of his card handling has inspired thousands, among them Dan and Dave Buck, Andrew Frost, and Alexander Hansford. While Tony now claims he can't do any of his old material, his thinking and theory is as sound as ever and his teachings can be seen baked into the works of all proficient card magicians worldwide.
Ricky Smith
Widely respected in underground magic circles, Ricky Smith is an impressive sleight-of-hand practitioner who has been amazing fans, peers and mentors with his technique for several years. Ricky’s lectures are always entertaining and informative, but unfortunately far too rare. He has worked at the Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York City, and contributed a fascinating magic walking tour of New York with photography by Benjamin Pratt for Issue Two of THE NEAT REVIEW.
Éireann Leverett
Éireann Leverett continually studies computer science, cryptography, networks, information theory, economics, and magic history. He is also fascinated by zero knowledge proofs, firmware reverse engineering, and complicated network effects such as Braess' and Jevon's Paradoxes. Éireann is a regular speaker at computer security conferences such as FIRST, BlackHat, Defcon, Brucon, Hack.lu, RSA, and CCC. We spoke with him for Issue Two of THE NEAT REVIEW about the nature of deception. He discussed lock-picking as a sport, defeating “Anti-tamper” security screws, why the British Army hired a magician during WWII, and social engineering.