David Ben at The Walrus Talks

Congratulations to Walrus Magazine for their interesting speaking series: The Walrus Talks. Last night, they presented The Walrus Talks: Performance, inviting a broad range of Canadian talent to give their  insights and thought-provoking ideas on performance. From branding to innovation to productivity to Olympic skill, each speaker shared their perspective on what it takes to “perform”.

David Ben, Magicana’s artistic director, is  known to incorporate the art of magic into creativity and problem-solving. At the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary on Jan 29 , he shared his ideas about performance – not from the stage but from the dark and mysterious world of  gamblers card cheats.

Specifically, David talked about one area of card table artifice that has plagued the best of card cheats for centuries. Not only did he flag the problem (while entertaining the audience with a sly nod to his sleight-of-hand wizardry), he also shared how he solved this “tricky”  manoeuvre by tipping his famous mantra: “How do you get in to it, and how do you get out of it”.

David is often quoted as saying, “Magic is the cumulative effect of hundreds of apparently inconsequential details”, and he deftly demonstrated this sentiment as he showed the 1,200 member audience exactly how he solved the mysterious magic move – all in just seven minutes.

Some tweetables:

“His presentation comes with a bonus instructional video on how to do some card tricks. Mind blowing.” —  Jaelyn Molyneux, “Overheard at The Walrus Talks” on Culturesnack.

@Davidpleonard: “David Ben goes from cheating at cards to the concept of tacit knowledge. The basic things that we learn to make it all easier. #WalrusTalks”

@naomigrattan: “I think my favourite was the conjurer. #hprodeo #WalrusTalks”

@theconjuror (David Ben): “It’s not how you do the move. It’s how you get into it and get out of it. If you want to improve performance, take a page from card cheats and study the transition.”

Read more from #thewalrustalks on What Was Overheard at the Walrus Talks.

Congratulations to all the speakers. Clearly, it was a very successful event and we look forward to following future Walrus Talks!