Al,
Thanks for that personal recollection of Bobo. You must have felt disillusioned (no pun intended) when the man you admired through his book was underwhelming in a live performance. It hurts when you find out that an idol has feet of clay.

..and that was the birth of the matrix... excellent

Well, since these guys were too humble to promote their own work, allow me:

1. Jonathan Townsend. A coin MASTER, as I understand it. Any of his material would be great!
2. Al Schneider. Need I say more?
3. Larry Barnowsky: 21st Century Coin Mechanics. A MUST-HAVE!
4. Dan Watkins (where'd he go?)
5. Curtis Kam. Ever seen his stuff? I've got to look into this more...Palms of Steel...I gotta get that...
6. Michael Rubinstein (I can't say enough...see above), but he mentioned his DVD's
7. David Neighbors...only heard of his books, but check out Dan Watkins' review of him.

And, that's just from this forum! We have a gold mine right in our own Café!

:bg:

Doug

Al, great recollection here sir. It is way too often that men put much to much faith in the pages of books rather than themselves. It is easy to have turned Bobo into a demi-god and his book MCM into some sort of bible, many have done this and continue till this day, even here in the Café. Usually, when you look deeper, things are never what they seem. Varying levels of intelligence, ability and understanding open doors on works that might be rusted shut for others. Clearly Curtis Kam shows if you can get by the rust and trust of a thing you can more clearly assess it. I'm sure Bobo probably wasn't trying to fool anyone, just making his way with his magic and that of others...Simply, he wrote it down to his pleasing...The rest was done by the millions that read it.

Once as a somewhat noted sportswriter in NYC, I covered boxing and was around all the great champions from Willie Pep and Muhammad Ali to Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson and Roy Jones, Jr. All great fighters in their times. But I remember most meeting these men, and for most of them, never seeing the greatness in them that had been created by so many others. I suppose Ali carried the most magic for me...All the many others were good fighters to be sure but after lunch and dinner with them, they were just men really, besides champions, most were very nice guys at best.

So, "Where After Bobo's"??? Perhaps yourself...That's where all the real magic eventually happens anyway...

Anyway, thanks again for your comments. Please keep making them. Hey, gods are pretty easy for people to make, aren't they?

Personally, I feel there is a difference between writing a book of your own material...as opposed to compiling a book of many others effects. Just because Bobo couldn't do the contributions made by others doesn't mean the others who contributed it couldn't do it! I don't expect that an author can do everyones contributions...however, I do expect that the contributor can do his material. I seriously doubt nor expect that Hugard and Braue, or Anneman, or Hilliard etc. could do all the works of contributing magicians that they published. The only mistake Bobo made as told by Al was attempting to do stuff from the book that he obviously wasn't capable of handling. I have seen Bobo work...doing his own material and he handled it well...he should have just stood with that! It's sad to hear he went beyond his capabilities...but there is a lesson here to learn!

Mike

Thanks for putting me on the list of where to go after Bobo's.

My work evolved out of what I found in The Ramsay Legend and from the material David Roth offered in his lecture in December 1976. Taking a suggestion from David, I put my efforts into simple routines. Taking a cue from Sol Stone I kept my focus on very simple effects. Tony Slydini, Geoff Latta and Earl Johnson (presto) were also influences. You can find much of what I found inspiring in the books CoinMagic and David Roth's Expert Coin Magic.

Where would I suggest folks look for good coin material? The book The Stars of Magic is a trove of goodies. Have a look in the Hoffmann and Downs books too, they are availalbe in ebook form.