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Moyle with Parkinsons Loyal user Australia 281 Posts |
Ok so we agree that ebooks written by 18-year-olds are a crap read for theory. Currently I am trying to surround myself with good theory material so if crappy ebooks aren't the way to go, and I don't think there is any doubt that they aren't, then what is? What do you think is beneficial for every magician to read and remember when performing?
Moyle
"Signatures cause far too much trouble!" an original quote by Moyle With Parkinsons.
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Perhaps if they remembered what they learned from doing plays onstage and working with directors ...
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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kregg Inner circle 1950 Posts |
Know your audience, keep up to date and don't do what other magician's do.
POOF!
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Josh the Superfluous Inner circle The man of 1881 Posts |
"101 Ways to Pick Up Girls" It gets right to the point, without all that hokey magic stuff.
Other than that my top 3: "Strong Magic" by Ortiz - making your magic powerful, by editing out the unnecessary extras and logically choosing the methods. "Magic and Showmanship" by Nelms - theatrical tools to enhance your performance. "The Trick Brain" by Fitzkee - creating original effects, starting with what you wish to accomplish, and simplifying the ways to do it. Best, -Josh
What do you want in a site? "Honesty, integrity and decency." -Mike Doogan
"I hate it, I hate my ironic lovechild. I didn't even have anything to do with it" Josh #2 |
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Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24312 Posts |
Our Magic is one of the best.
I'm not as fond of Neo Magic, but some guys swear by it. Showmanship for Magicians by Fitzkee explains some ideas that, while they are dated, are very easy for anyone with an imagination to update. The principles still work. For example, he mentions using Hawaiian music to underscore what you are doing. This is obviously dated. But he points that out by saying that he chose that because it was popular when the book was written, and that a performer would do well to use whatever music was popular at the time they are performing. Makes sense to me. Poetics by Aristotle has ideas in it that, although they are over 2000 years old, still work to this day.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
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tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
Our Magic is great but it is out print but you get that as an ebook, so they are not all bad, but I like a real book.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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JackScratch Inner circle 2151 Posts |
I rather agree with Jonathan, there truely is nothing like theatrical; experience. Particularly in a non conventional form. Working as a character at a themed park provided me with experiences beyond value. By the time I started working as a magician, I had already been aclimatised to the experience of performing. Even some time in the community theatre would count greatly towards dues paid.
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Absolute Magic by Derren Brown
An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavsky If you're interested in mentalism, there are a few golden pages in Derren Brown's Pure Effect about mindreading which should be required reading. Jack Shalom
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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Dannydoyle Eternal Order 21219 Posts |
MAgic and showmanship for dummies?
101 ways to make a quick buck in magic. 1000 pick up lines guaranteed to work. Once I got my thumb tip and invisible deck I was a magician. Just some of the titles that have helped me over the years. It seems as if these are the books that the new generation are reading. Oh not forgetting the e book that spawned this thread itself. Joking aside yea many magic theory books are really crap. I would look outside the magic community to learn to perform if I were you, as Jonathan and Jack have suggested. (oh and Bill mentioned it too)
Danny Doyle
<BR>Semper Occultus <BR>In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act....George Orwell |
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RandyStewart Inner circle Texas (USA) 1989 Posts |
I've never owned an 'Invisible Deck'. Not even sure what it does.
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George Ledo Magic Café Columnist SF Bay Area 3042 Posts |
I'll second a couple of Bill's suggestions:
Magic and Showmanship is probably the best all-around book I've seen on the subject of presenting magic to an audience. Dariel gets right down to the nitty-gritty of how to make an impression on the audience in simple, plain English instead of overblown academic-wannabee theory-speak. However, as Bill said, the book is over fifty years old, so we need to read it in the context of entertainment fifty years ago and absorb the ideas (a lot of which are still very valid) and not the exact content (which is 'waaaay outdated). The Poetics is good too; it's still required reading in a lot of college acting and directing classes.
That's our departed buddy Burt, aka The Great Burtini, doing his famous Cups and Mice routine
www.georgefledo.net Latest column: "Sorry about the photos in my posts here" |
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Hostile18 Loyal user London 231 Posts |
I'd say Tommy Wonder and Richard Osterlind have written some pretty interesting stuff on magic as well.
I also believe 'Impro:Improvisation and the Theatre' by Keith Johnstone could give a lot of people some more things to think about. |
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cinemagician Inner circle Phila Metro Area 1094 Posts |
Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft
Memoirs of Robert Houdin Our Magic The Tarbell Course in Magic Vol. 1 chapters one and two Neo Magic S.H. Sharpe *(Never read it but I hear great things about it) The Fitzkee Trilogy Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms The 5 Points in Magic by Juan Tamariz The Magic Way by Juan Tamariz Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz
...The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity...
William Butler Yeats |
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Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24312 Posts |
Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft does not have ONE WORD about showmanship or presentation in it. It is not really a magic book. Only a small portion of it (Book 13) concerns conjuring at all, and that is entirely as an expose. Its purpose was not to teach magic, but to keep magicians from being killed as witches.
Hocus Pocus, Jr. has more information about showmanship and presentation in it than Scot does.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
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cinemagician Inner circle Phila Metro Area 1094 Posts |
Bill Palmer is right, Scot's Discoverie is not a book on magic theory, (neither was Houdin's book directly a book of theory)
However, for me book 13 reduces conjuring to it's lowest common denominator and it's really fun and interesting to read some of those passages especailly in the Olde English. A lot of the passages still hold true today... For example read the following quote in consideration of the age old debate of the "ethics" of our art form... "...But when these experiments growe to superstition or impietie, they are either to be forsaken as vaine, or denied as false. Howbeit, if these things be doone for mirth and recreation, and not to the hurt of our neighbor, nor to the abusing or prophaning of Gods name, in mine oppinion they are neither impious nor altogether unlawful: though herein or hereby a natural thing be made to seeme supernaturall. " That quote would be a good preface to almost any artice about magic theory that one might may have in mind. I find that one can flip through book 13 (say when nature calls, or under the branches of a shady tree) and consider some of these quotes as "meditations" on the art and theory of magic.
...The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity...
William Butler Yeats |
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Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24312 Posts |
Take a look at Hocus Pocus, Jr., if you want to see how a magician viewed it. Scot was not a magician. The author of the book, whoever he might have been, definitely was a worker, and his tips on addressing a crowd, as well as how to do sleight of hand are still of value today.
Just his information on how to hold the hand while concealing an article is of value these days.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
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tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
I think all good magic books contain some good theory. Expert at the Card Table is one.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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cinemagician Inner circle Phila Metro Area 1094 Posts |
Yes Tommy, Erdnase shold be read by all magicians wheather or not they are card guys. Erdnase is full of eloquent passages and sardonic humor.
I wonder what those outside the magic fraternity would think about it. Could the book be appreciated by non-magicians? I think so. I was thinking back at how well your knowledge of the book enabled us / contributed to better discussion in the "Whit Hayden/ Definition of Magic thread. Bill, could you elaborate a bit about Hocus Pocus Jr. ? What other/ relavant books on theory (say prior to Our Magic - 1911) would you consider adding to the "list" ? - Mark
...The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity...
William Butler Yeats |
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-06-18 21:39, cinemagician wrote: What is this about "should"? It's a book. It may be useful to those with the vocabulary and perhaps also as an example work for a study of precise communication as one explores writing out ones material. But "should"... perhaps though IMHO this is by no means a beginner's book.
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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cinemagician Inner circle Phila Metro Area 1094 Posts |
O.K. How about everyone should read the preface in the newest dover edition, and then file it away for a rainy day?
...The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity...
William Butler Yeats |
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