magic books – MagicShow.Tips

Stealing the PreSale?!

I was curious if Dan Harlan’s Masterworks book set had come out yet and a magic site that sells pirated magic effect that are illegal copies had them listed for sale.

The crazy thing to me is that this set hasn’t been released. They’re preselling a pirated copy of a book that doesn’t exist yet!

That’s insane to me. Why would anyone buy a copy of something that hasn’t been put out yet and why would anyone sell it? If I recall from a thread on TheMagicCafe the books are already late in coming out, so as the person selling the illegal copies, it’s gotta be a customer service nightmare to deal with anyone who bought them wanting to know the status of the book.

If you buy direct from Dan at least you can bug him. If you buy an illegal copy, there’s really no one you can be mad at (except yourself).

-Louie

Magic at Powell’s Books

On Sunday I made the drive to Powell’s Books in Portland, OR.

They always have an interesting selection of used magic books. They have a range of beginner stuff to more advanced magic books.

A couple of the more advanced books they had were:

And then my personal favorite book that’s with the magic books:

I picked up a The Magic Catalogue by William Doerflinger for $10.

The Magic Catalogue is an interesting book based on what I’ve seen flipping through it. It’s a brief magic history and then reproductions of older and current (at the time of printing) magic catalog pages. I’m not sure who the market is for this, besides me!

If you’re in Portland, OR it’s totally worth popping by Powell’s!

-Louie

Dynamite In a Small Package by Doc Dixon

A month of so ago I picked up the book Dynamite In a Small Package by Doc Dixon. It’s lived in my backpack since I bought it and I’ve finally read it. It’s a quick read and a GREAT book!

The book covers five card tricks with a regular deck of cards. Each of the card tricks has a different flavor and are distinctly different tricks. The big thing for this is that each of the tricks was designed for the stage and plays bigger than you average card trick.

The book has a script for the tricks, and Doc does a good job of not only teaching the WHY, but how to apply his thinking to other tricks. I’m a fan of Doc’s stuff, the guy is a worker and has been for years and it shows in his marketed magic stuff.

For $35, this book is a great part of your emergency plan for when the airline loses your luggage!

-Louie

The Magic Shop and More!

Last week I was doing a show in Astoria, OR. Whenever I’m in that area I swing by and visit Seth who owns the shop.

It’s really a pitch shop that sells magic tricks to tourists, however they really well stocked with a lot of magic that’s for non-beginners.

When I was there I picked up a Rainbow Deck and a copy of the reprint of the book Mind Myth & Magick by TA Waters. This book when it first came out in the mid 1990’s sold for $60. When I was a teenager working in the magic shop, we had a couple of copies of this book and they took probably a decade to sell. This book wasn’t a hot item at the time. While it is a giant book, $60 was about double what a magic book sold for at that time. Then over the next few decades this book became harder to find with copies selling for over $300! This reprint at $99.95 is a great deal!

The only thing that I don’t like about the book is that I’m taking it on the road with me, and it’s the size of a phone book and I’ll be lugging it around the country in my backpack!

-Louie

Something from the East by Haruhito Hirata

I came across the book Something from the East by Haruhito Hirata in a box of magic stuff that I had bought recently. There wasn’t a lot of stuff that I liked in the book, but one thing did catch my eye. There’s an oil and water trick in there that has a slightly different mixing procedure that most.

Here’s what it looks like as written:

@louiefoxx Card trick from Japan! #cardtrick #magic #japan #magictrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like the two columns of cards and then mixing them one at a time. I don’t like how much process and how confusing the whole routine is. I also don’t like that you can’t show the second packet at the end.

I tried to streamline the effect to make it less confusing and here’s what I initially came up with:

@louiefoxx Replying to @Voyager Jim ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s not the best, but I think it’s better.

I do have two more versions that are inspired by Haruhito’s routine, and I’ll post about them later. These two version are very different in method, but keep the two columns of cards.

-Louie

Math Magic

A friend gave me the bound version of The Bat magazine that has issues 1-50. The opening trick in the first issue of the magazine is an interesting math trick. Basically if you use the number 142857 and multiply it by 1 through 6 you will get the same number, just “cut” like a deck of cards. The sequence is the same, it’s just the starting point isn’t the one (unless 1 is picked).

The trick in The Bat is OK, it uses two stacks of number cards. One is in that order and you false shuffle them, then lay them out as a “random” number. It’s multiplied by a number 1-6 from the other packet and that’s the audience’s number . The first packet is mixed and dealt out and and it matches the audiences number.

It’s an OK, and mathy feeling trick. I think it can be improved a little bit to hide the method. Here’s my idea, you basically do the same trick, however you give them the option to multiply OR divide the two numbers. That’s asked at the beginning. If they choose to divide, you work backwards. you have the number 1-6 picked first, then you use the number 142857 and cut the packet so that it’s in the right order for that number. Divide them and you end up with 142857.

I think the free choices of multiply and a dice roll add layers to the trick that would make it harder to backtrack. Also the dice has less cards in the trick, and could give it more of a “game” feeling. I guess a coin with an X and ÷ could add another prop to the routine. Also with only six outcomes, a multiple out type prediction could work. If you had six dollar bills in your wallet that had the serials numbers each matching an outcome, that could be a fund ending.

I think it’s an interesting math problem, but the challenge is to make it not feel like math.

-Louie

Circus Rings Around Russia

Somewhere along the road I picked up the book Circus Rings Around Russia and recently started reading it. The book is a history of the circus in Russia.

It’s interesting to hear how political the circus was in Russia. Both state run and with views that were anti-government. Performers were essentially blackballed for how they express their political views through their performances.

It’s also interesting that the big pro-government circuses were flops with audiences. I think those shows took away the “heart” of the circus and left the audiences feeling cold.

The author of this book also relates how magicians and the side show are considered lower entertainment than traditional circus acts like trapeze or eve clowns. In the USA magic is a huge part of the circus!

This is a great read and I’m glad I picked it up!

-Louie

Magic in Theory – Book

In Portland OR there’s the legendary Powell’s Books. They have new and used books and their magic section always has something of interest to me! Last time I was there I picked up the book Magic in Theory by Peter Lamont and Richard Wiseman.

Magic in Theory by Peter Lamont and Richard Wiseman

This book is interesting in that it breaks down magic to step by step actions and explains those actions. I’m only on about page 50, so that’s what I’m getting so far.

This book isn’t specifically written for magicians, so it’s a bit clunky as they try to not reveal methods. I think the book would be better if it was written for magicians, or for non-magicians, but trying to straddle that line I feel makes the book not quite hit as hard as it could. There’s great information in it that’s dumbed down so low that I think magicians would gloss over some of the authors observations.

It’s a good read and a deal at what I paid for it as a used book. So far, it’s worth a peek if you can find a cheap copy!

-Louie

Paul Daniels and the Story of Magic

My airplane reading is Paul Daniels and the Story of Magic by John Fisher. This is essentially a book on magic history, with Paul Daniels added in.

I think it’s kinda strange how he’s shoehorned into all of the biographies in the book. It’s like, Vernon was good at card tricks, and Paul Daniels also did them. What I feel the book is lacking is Paul Daniels take on the topics of magicians.

One thing the book gets through, but it’s not clear if it’s Paul Daniels or John Fischer’s opinion and that one of them doesn’t like David Copperfield. I think I had read in Wayne Dobson‘s book that there was a bit of a feud between them at some point.

What I do like is that there are some very specific mentions magic history. Like who created the Sucker Silk to Egg routine that’s now a standard routine. I’m betting 99% of magicians who do the routine don’t know who created it.

If you don’t know it was Fred Culpitt, who also created the Doll House Illusion!

The book also attaches some stock lines to specific performers. I find this interesting, as the history of stock lines is very murky. Quite often they get credited to who popularized the line, and not who created the line. I don’t know how accurate the crediting is in the book, however it’s still great to see some of the history of a joke!

I picked this book up at Powell’s Books in Portland OR for $12 and for that price I’m happy with my purchase!

-Louie

David Hoy Biography

When I got married 23 years ago, the lady who ran the chapel mentioned she went to college with a magicians. I asked if she remembered who it was and I got the standard, “You wouldn’t know who it is”.

Then she said the name “David Hoy!”

She told me several stories and one that stuck with me (not sure why) was about David’s cards. He always had cards with him, but no one was allowed to touch them. Everyone knew that. Then one time a new kid saw David’s cards sitting on a table and shuffled them! David blew up at the kid and it was the talk of the campus for a week!

I got her a copy of David’s mass market biography. When I bought one for her, I bought one for me. That was 23 years ago and it’s been sitting on my shelf and I’ve never read it. Well, I’m took it with me on this trip and I’m going to read it!

Hope it’s good…

-Louie