"There’s an old saying: “If a man fools me once, shame on him. If he fools me twice, it’s probably Jon Armstrong”. At least that’s my version. Let me explain why. Many moons ago, I happened to be in Las Vegas for the ‘World Magic Seminar’. Actually, let me correct myself. I wasn’t actually in Vegas for the WMS. I was there because I had a gig, but the WMS happened to be on at the same time. This has nothing to do with the story. It’s just a way to mention that I had a gig in Las Vegas. This may be small beer to some of you, but I was very impressed with myself at the time. So there I was, having a spiffingly good time at the WMS. There are two things I enjoy most about magic conventions. One is seeing Simon Lovell fail to attend any events except the opening and closing of the bar. The other is the way informal sessions spring up all over the place, with huddled groups – cards in hand and heads inclined – swapping miracles and flinging fingers as never were fingers flung before. At this particular convention, I was with one such group when Jon Armstrong strolled by and offered to show me something. In essence, I took out my own deck, shuffled it myself, picked a card myself and shuffled it back into the deck myself. All of this while Jon looked away. I then handed my deck to Jon and, being the sly sonofawitch that he is, he effortlessly located my card. I was clueless. Continuing the tale, last November here in London Jon gave an excellent lecture at the Macmillan International convention. In his lecture, he performed this same impossible location once more. I was watching like hawk, with every brain cell set to ‘Analyse and Solve’. I got precisely nowhere, and at this point my brain began to dribble out through my ears. This isn’t actually much of a tribute to Jon’s miracle, since fooling me is about as hard as slapping a kitten. Jon has cheerfully fried several gazillion people with this location in recent years. Luckily for them, and for what remains of my mental health, he has finally tipped the work in his new lecture notes (of which I have had a sneak preview), and my UK readers may like to note that Jon will be lecturing around these shores soon." - Ian Rowland, Magic Circular