Dear Friends in Magic,
As you receive this, the holiday season is well underway. I'm sure it’s busy with shopping, parties, and shows, but I hope you’ll make time for…
A BIG IDEA
Fairly early in Max Maven’s Thinking in Person show, he dropped the name of yet another obscure writer and the audience starts to laugh because it finally tumbles to the running joke. After a pitch-perfect pause, Max landed it with, “You people need to stay in more!”
That line was hilarious—although it probably belongs to the pre-lockdown world in which Max delivered it. Yet there is still something true about the line, which was impressed on me recently when I was researching a mentalism technique commonly attributed to the late nineteenth century. I discovered, in fact, that it goes back at least to 1593, when it appeared in Horatio Galasso’s Most Beautiful Card Games (Giochi di Carte Bellissimi).
This discrepancy was amazing to me; still more astonishing was that I just happened to have the English translation on my bookshelf; it was published in the Summer 2007 issue of Gibecière. And I’m embarrassed to say I'd never read it—a book that’s at least as significant for magic as Scot’s Discoverie. Apparently, I need to stay in more.
But it was a great moment to realize this, because the holidays will give me plenty of time to spend with overlooked or forgotten treasures on my shelves. In case a bit of library time calls to you, here are some items I've found especially rewarding. You might already have them on your shelf, but if not, consider adding them to your holiday wish list.
Gibecière is an embarrassment of riches. In addition to the Galasso book, study the magic passages from the Westcar Papyrus (Winter 2023), the “Sloane 424” manuscript (Summer 2010), and Max’s exceptional series “Tracking Slum Magic to its Lair” (Winter 2014, Summer 2014, Winter 2018, Summer 2019).
Jim Steinmeyer always makes me smarter. Consider Hiding the Elephant, The Conjuring Anthology, or The Science Behind the Ghost.
First-rate periodicals often sit there unread. I now have some “appointment reading” planned for The Magic Menu, Pallbearers Review, and The Compleat Magick.
If you want cons, hustles, and laughs: nothing beats Simon Lovell’s How to Cheat at Everything (AKA Billion-Dollar Bunko); it's available from Amazon in an inexpensive paperback edition.
Card magicians might wish to revisit three of my favorites: Paul Curry’s Worlds Beyond, Harry Lorayne’s Close-Up Card Magic, and in memory of Jon Racherbaumer, his Marlo Without Tears.
There you go! Spending good time with great magic books is a pleasure beyond measure—a little holiday gift to give yourself. Ho, ho, ho!
IN THE STUDIO
It has been a busy couple of months. Beyond needing to delay the release of Bob Neale’s new book (more on this below), last month Jeff McBride, Abigail McBride, and I delivered an invited symposium at the 2024 Science of Magic Association Conference in Las Vegas. We had a blast bringing our special brand of magic and mystery to this impressive group. |
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