Tim,

You are discovering what percentage of the magic buying populace actually care about the minutia of detail and timing which make the pros their living.

Tom

Tim,

"The reason this Stencel thing has been publicized is entirely due to the evil influence Ron Bauer exerts in some people in the magic community. Few more destructive and malignant people exist in our field than Ron Bauer and he has hated Larry Jennings for many years." -Richard Kaufman, Genii Forum, Feb. 11, 2002(search:Robert Stencil. BTW, they then go on and compare RB with Jeff Busby)

Do I have your attention? Good. With Kaufman and his cronies making maliciously libel statements about Ron Bauer(RB) (and others), it's no wonder that anybody would purchase RB's material (it reminds me of hearing Mike Close saying that when somebody asks him about his occupation he says, "...musician."). And to reiterate the point that Doug Byrd stated about professional endorsement. RB should use the quotes that you, Tim, provided in the advertisements and on the booklet covers. He would sell a heck of a lot more. It's all about marketing. And using an endorsement for a product is a great marketing ploy, ask Dave Dee.

Personally, I love the series and all of RB's material found in the New Tops and in Charlie Miller's Magicana. As a matter of fact, I have all the articles that RB published. My only reservation about the "Series" is the lag time in-between the release of each booklet. If I could, I'd only perform RB's stuff in my close-up repertoire but it's hard to get by on only seven (that fit my persona) of the thirteen (that have been published) to the regular clientele.

Well, I've discovered how we can get RB to publish the rest of the series more quickly. On the MagicBunny.co.uk forum he writes, "As far as RPBS is concerned, the publication of the remaining titles really depends on the desire (legitimately demonstrated ONLY through purchases of the twelve -actually thirteen- currently available) of the magic "community". When the gang at E-Gads, the publisher, tells me the demand is there, I'll be back at the computer keyboard, pounding away. (BTW, all the scripts have been written and have been performed by me for many years, and, in some cases, by a variety of other magicians. Also, the illustrations are complete.)"

So, there you have it. Everyone start buying and harassing Dowdy and the gang at E-Gads to get RB working on those scripts!!!

Best...
HT

I have six of his booklets. All contain solid magic and excellent theory. My personal favorite is Bar Bill Stunt, which is a handling and presentation for what is commonly called the $100 Bill Switch.Bauer's(Paul Chosse's)handling does not use a TT. I had never learned the Bill Switch technique, but I was able to pick up the handling on this one in about an hour. I checked my moves on video and it looks totally natural and deceptive. There is no cozy or tight hand positioning. It makes me wonder why anyone would do it any other way. I highly, highly recommend this booklet.

I have never heard of his series. When I took a look it seemed it was mostly cards. I hate cards (not everything, but I don't seek for card effects). That's my reason, of course it's no explanation why OTHERS don't buy it

Mikael

Mikael,

Where did you look? When I visited the website I found plenty of card stuff but I also found several coin routines, one bill routine, a ring on stick routine, a hank trick, and a cups and balls trick, just to name a few. In fact, I found that there was enough on that site to more than satisfy my non-card interests.

HT- I don’t think Richard’s remarks have a huge effect here but I could be totally wrong. Something to at least think about. I respect Richard and his work but I think he’s just wrong here. I think he’s bringing in personal issues or dislikes. I also think it’s “dangerous” to make remarks like this, particularly in a position like Richard has, without providing absolute, verifiable FACTS to back up such a harsh statement. Verifiable facts speak for themselves but such statements without facts are, in my opinion, out of line and dangerous. But of course we have free speech. Unfortunately I see this type of thing happen more and more on various boards with the Internet because there is no accountability for what one says, no demand for facts, and people just accepting things blindly. I’m not saying this to bash Richard but I just feel it is imperative if you are going down such a path to thoroughly back up what you are saying. Interesting point though.

I have brought up to Ron prior that I felt that the way they were releasing booklets was a little disjointed. It was only fairly recently that they “closed the gap” and completed all of the first 12 volumes. From the beginning they have advertised the whole series and I believe many people might feel “well I’ll just wait for all of them”.

I DO agree that those of us who support this series should “encourage” Ron, John, Tom, and Sandra to finish up the remaining booklets and put these out. I for one would LOVE to see more of these.

Mikael – I was surprised by your post but you actually raise a very interesting point. Certainly there are a number of other items in the series besides cards (bills, rings, handkerchiefs, cups and balls, etc.). In fact, only 5 of the first 13 booklets (Vol. 1-12 and Vol. 18) are cards. The rest are non-card items. But I should point out that even the card items don’t FEEL like card items because they are such strong show pieces. Maybe this is not emphasized enough. So when you see/read/use the “Sudden Death Gypsy Curse” or “Feminine Side”, as an example, they don’t feel like a card trick… they are not some 4 ace thing or such but really convey a story without becoming a long, drawn out “story trick”.

Thanks for the input and time.

Tim

Yes, I saw there were coin routines (I hate coins too) bill routines (I hate bills too) and a ring routine (I hate ring routines too) . Hank tricks don't interest me. I missed out on the fact there was a cups and balls routine, but I have never been interested in cups and balls either .

Usually if I see someone markets more than one card effect I feel it's too much cards, and my enthusiasm for everything tends to be lessened. There are however card effects that interest me, and when I read the description of them I know if I like them. So saying I hate cards is not entirely true.

Mikael

Mikael,
Please don't hold back. Tell us what you really hate. LOL I'm sure there is something you like in the magic world. Just giving you a hard time, no offence intended.

Mikael.

OK, you don’t like a lot of card tricks, you don’t like tricks using money (coins or bills), you don’t like tricks using finger rings or handkerchiefs, and you don’t particularly care for cups and balls routines either. Please tell me what you do like? What do you perform? I honestly would like to know

Harry,

My sentiments, too!

-HT

OK, I wasn't even aware of this series until recently. I really want to get a few of them now. Can anyone recommend their favorites? I have no genre preference.

Unless you're all too selfish.

You have to remember, I do shows for children. I do rope, sponge balls, Magic coloring book, effects I can't tell about due to the difference in culture, effects that are unknown to others than a few Swedes, effects of my own, etc. I even do cards. But the card effects I do are VERY CLEAR and distinct from each other and very easy to follow. Something I think is missing in most of the existing card effects. The same with coins.

I'm in the process of gathering effects I can use for adults. It's a long and expensive process. But not even for adults I'm going to perform much of cards, coins, etc. I like my things to be as different from each other and as unique as possible. I think one of the things that has made me dislike cards is all those "XX's handling of invisible deck," the 14 different touches, nuances, handlings, etc. of coins across, etc. Often when someone performs coin routines my reaction is, "What's magical about this?" They do a large amount of movements, but not much magic happens. Too much repeating, too many instances of reactions like, "Was that supposed to be magical or not? Or was it just movements to make the show last longer?"

Mikael

Mikael,

Whew, friend I was worried! There wasn’t much left to play with!

I would be very interested in those effects that are unique to your culture, those things that seem to work there in Sweden but may not work elsewhere. That would be a true study!

Honestly, I agree with you on most card tricks and coin tricks. I am not a move maven either. If you have read my posts you will see that I strongly support the building of acts. To me an act has variety. Further, you will note that I follow the old Al Baker (but often credited to Dai Vernon) philosophy that the effect should be easy to follow and that there should be no extraneous movements (keep it natural).

I am glad to see that we share a similar performing philosophy.

Dia Vernon, she was Dai Vernon's mother, wasn't she?

When I wrote, "effects I can't tell about due to the difference in culture," I meant the Swedish culture compared to the American. I have been told by an American magician that "people would call the police if we did that." Now think about that...

Mikael

Marko,

Pick-up "Gadabout coins Revisited." It lays the groundwork for the key principles in the series. If you want to learn how to handle cards "Fair and Sloppy" is must. "The Cursed Ring" is a do anywhere, anytime trick that I use all the time. Really, all you have to do is go to http://www.thinklikeaconjurer.com , read the descriptions and pick out the ones that interest you. Keep in mind, only the first twelve and #18 are out. They're all well worth the small price of $10.00.

Hope that helps

Tom nailed 'em--exactly the ones I would have recommended, but I'd add "The Feminine Side" to the list.

You're right, "Feminine Side" is a great script. One that hardly anyone does, but I get a lot of reaction with, is "Butch, Ringo and the Sheep." It requires more time to learn the sleight-of-hand but isn't difficult. "Dixie" is another great one that's very topical now that Gods and Generals is in theatres.

Tim:
You ask, "Why Haven't I Bought This?"

Allow me an answer that will sound smart-alecky, but isn't meant to be; because I've already bought everything else.

I've largely declared a moratorium on more purchases; I have books that I've cracked but little more; DVDs where I've reviewed the material once or twice; and lecture notes where I bought them because the magician thought enough to come to my town, and I thought I should try to support his efforts.

Unfortunately, between all that stuff and my *real* life (such as it exists), very little of the stuff is being acted on. My copy of Darwin Ortiz' book is sitting on the floor. My copy of "Secrets Draun from Underground" is waiting for me on the shelf along with the DVD I bought from Steve. And my copy of Paul Hallas' notes are...well, Paul, never mind.

Here's my point...there's so much quality stuff out there that you can easily hit overload. And I'm painfully close. You've seen, perhaps, my recent postings suggesting that folks learn a set of quality effects rather than load up on quantity.

Keep in mind, we can only perform so much at one time; we're not Michael Skinner and this ain't the Magic Castle. I'm not suggesting that we stop learning, but (speaking only for myself) there's only so much room in the jar and I'm plumb filled up right now.

I don't doubt that Ron's series is worthwhile but I simply don't have the bandwidth right now. That's why I haven't bought.

What about others here? Are you at the same point or are you still buying?

An important point about the RBPS series I haven't seen mentioned is that these things are not simply tricks with patter. In reality they’re something quite different than anything else available to magicians.

These are performance scripts illustrated with magic (tricks). One of their best features is that you hardly even have to understand the thinking behind them, and they still go over if you follow the script.

I think part of the reason they are not selling better is that a lot of people already have the original series and do not feel they need to repurchase the new editions. I have been waiting for the unpublished booklets in the series for several years. If they released some of this material it would sell better than the rereleases.