Quote: bugjack, Nov.11th, 2008(You Ought To Be In Pictures thread)
Just came across this clip of Jay promoting his book on the D.C. Fox affiliate. Has a nice shout-out to my old favorite Al's Magic Shop and performances of "Extreme Burn," Ambitious Card, and the Kennedy Mystery Box.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/Insid......Id=5.2.1
End of quote: bugjack Nov. 11th, 2008
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Watch this clip. As mentioned above he performs "Extreme Burn/Hundy 500" and then he mentions that the secret can be found in his book in the "Money Section"

He also says that you can learn the secrets to the effects he performed, the ACR,
The Mystery box etc, but you have to buy his book.....A comment was made by one of the commentators about the simplicity of magic.

Listen to the one of the closing comments by one of the newscasters. They were talking about the economic woes of the country and the newscaster said "Buy the book and Josh's economic woes will be gone as well."

I have no problem with anyone making money. I have no problem with Josh Jay writing a book or promoting a book but I couldn't agree more more with Gianni's post above. READ HIS POST AGAIN. I too can't see or will ever agree with the other point of view.

It's all about the "Money" for Joshua Jay. Nice guy? Yes. He's human and in my opinion got bit by the "Bigger Badder Money Bug" and the "Good Magic Bug", the one that respects the art of magic and those that perform magic as well as the audiences who watch us,.....well Josh's good Magic Bug is dead. It's HOW he is marketing his book. You turn in to watch the news and he TRIVIALIZES the art to sell his book. I can't understand why you guys can't see that.
:confused:
DP

Extreme Burn (or any other version of easy money) is not in book, nor ACR. If he said they were its false advertising so I'll give you a point there.

I can't really understand how anyone could find this book more objectionable than any other mass marketed magic book. If you against all of them than that's one thing, but don't single out this one. It differs from its competitors only in that it provides better explanation, more theory, more tips on presentation. He is also very careful about crediting etc. The tricks are well chosen for beginners. I'm assuming that he had the inventors permission to use them--I certainly haven't heard anything to the contrary.

-Rob

So, who have I been selling this book to?

Young teen & pre-teen boys in love with performing magic.

What a great book to put in their hands ( or their mother's hands for a holiday gift )

Booksellers like me need more quality mainstream magic books to hand-sell. I believe it helps the magic world for books like this to exist.

Better for the magic world to expand instead of shrink.

Wow what a great performer and such a likable personality. That's nice to see in people like Josh promoting magic.

He did say that the tricks he did on the show is an art form and takes years to learn, but his book is more for the beginner.

At least that's what I saw.

Having just enjoyed Josh's deft and generous lecture at Twin Çities Magic and Costume in Saint Paul -- after devouring every page of "Magic: The Complete Course" with growing admiration and delight -- I'm baffled by any Magic Café'r who fools themself into believing that this remarkable book for the general public is anything but a boost for our art of magic. Josh writes with such a graceful affection and respect for magic, and the broad techniques he shares (a wonderful 'Coffee Conjuring'/Cup o' Joel effect by Joel Givens and a bic pen through bill themed to "psychic surgery" being among the highlights for me) are offered with such obvious love for the history and depth of conjuring. Most of all, how glorious that we can give young magicians a book that contains effects that DO NOT SUCK.

My only quibble: that Paul Curry's "Out of This World" is included. But that only means I'll have Dean Dill and Michael Weber's "A New World" in my pocket and ready to blow away anyone who claims they know the "secret" of Curry's original handling. If anything, Jay's "Magic: The Complete Course" should deepen the public's appreciation for the complexity of human deception -- reading the score of a Charlie Parker jazz solo doesn't 'spoil' the musician's skill for me, it only makes me marvel the more at his genius.
Paul

Does anyone know if this book has a lot of good, impromptu card effects?

Thanks

Matt

I'm sure this book is fantastic. I'll probably pick one up for myself. Josh has a great respect for magic and I'm sure emphasizes respect for the art in his book. I don't care how much it's promoted. The only people who will be reading this book are those interested in magic or magicians. I have never, ever heard of a lay person who has no interest in magic reading a magic book.

A lot of you are saying you're against magic books for the general public. Umm, weren't you part of the general public before you became a magician? I think what Josh is doing is good for magic. Instead of having kids going to youtube to look up a trick, he has written a book that addresses exposure, credits to the performers, teaches kids (and adults) GOOD tricks that will excite the "magic fire" in a person and make them want to continue their adventure in magic. Hopefully, some of the people who read this book will become aspiring magicians.

We NEED magic for the general public. Otherwise, magic will diminish greatly, all because of some stingy, crusty magicians never wanting the public to have the RIGHT resources.

Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! I wonder how many great magicians we would have never had they not had the opportunity to find a beginners or instructional magic book in a bookstore or library? Henry Hayes TAMHOM provides more real world performance insight & exposure then 90% of the books out there, what a shame if budding magicians would have never had an opportunity to peruse it's wonderful contents & it can be found in virtuALLY EVERY BOOKSTORE & LIBRARY ACROSS THE COUNTRY. Quit the whinning & go out & perfrom for someone.

To be honest, I would definitely advise beginners to buy this book rather than other magic books that available in the market.

The reason is, Josh provided a truly details credits behind on each of the effects, history and etc.

Unlike other books, most of the lack of the credits or histories and this book provides a very comprehensive information.

Thanks Josh and I wish to get this book during my younger days.

Andrew Loh

My first magic book was the Henry Hays: Amateur Magicians Handbook, purchased at a mall book store in paperback form. and my copy of the Mark Wilson course in Magic was purchased at a Costco. Go into any Bookstore there will be a few books about magic, including some of the classics from Dover.

There's a book by erdanese. It sits in every book shop across the land and has done since 1902.
Exposure, nonsense.

I live in a city of almost a million people. Our magic club has about 15 to 20 active members. I, for one, would love it if many more people became interested in performing magic. I would love to see our club and community grow. And I would love to see kids, young adults, and old adults experience so many of the joys I have experienced learning and studying magic.

But for that to happen, they must be introduced to magic in a positive way. If their introduction involves buying a crappy magic set or book with mediocre effects or being ripped off through a website selling one effect DVDs for ridiculous prices, neither with any context or insight into the history of magic or the process of creativity, then their interest will die there. And if this experience is sufficiently common, then so will the art of magic as a whole.

For magic to grow, we MUST find a way to popularize it to the mainstream. I am puzzled by magicians who talk about the joy they receive in bringing wonder and astonishment to people by performing effects, but seem so resistant to sharing the joys of studying and learning magic with those same people. While fooling people can be fun, I would rather spark an interest in the subject matter I enjoy so much and help someone begin a lifelong study of the art I love so much.

While I don't doubt that Mr. Jay is motivated to some extent by the profits he will reap from this book, I also have no doubt that he is in large part motivated as well by the same interests in sharing GOOD magic and inspiring an interest in the art of magic that I have discussed above.

Jay's book is one of the very few mass marketed magic books I have seen that so effectively conveys a love of magic and would, I believe, be likely to inspire the reader to continue his study of the art. If it can do this effectively for only one out of every one hundred readers, then it has been a success and has advanced the art.

And one additional point. I suppose that those who are opposed to books such as Mr. Jay's justify their opposition to some extent by the argument that learning the methods of several effects performed by working magicians will diminish the enjoyment or interest level of the reader in seeing magic performed. In other words, the danger is loss of enjoyment in the spectator that reads these books. But I ask you, who do you believe is more likely to make an effort so watch and enjoy a magic performance: one who has read Jay's book and learned a few effects, even if he knows those very effects, along with many others, will be performed by the magician he is going to see, or someone who has never read any magic book and thus has no greater interest in magic than any other of a thousand subjects he knows nothing about? There are many positive effect on magic of a book like Jay's. I think most of the negative effects speculated upon are, upon close examination, illusory.

Not worth spending any more time on this because those of us who favor doing everything possible to guard magic secrets can't do anything about the matter. But the idea that books like this are comparable to Henry Hay's book or even Mark Wilson's book is completely silly. Those books were written in another time. Today, with the internet and magic exposure on TV, finding magic secrets is so painfully easy that introductory magic books for the public are of no use except to pimp out the product to make money or get publicity.

Gianni

I'm having a hard time understanding your post. You acknowledge that magic secrets are readily accessible to anyone with cable or an internet connection, which would appear to make any "exposure" argument against Jay's book moot. You then criticize Jay's book because it is intended to make him money and generate publicity. Do you not think that every magician who writes a book hopes that it will generate money and some publicity? I think if you read Jay's book, you will see that he has a genuine love of magic and has gone much further than necessary to generate respect for the art and to encourage his readers to perform what they've learned and pursue the art of magic. The book is not simply a hack job exposing workhorse effect after workhorse effect.

Exposure on YouTube and other places on the Internet may expose secrets, but they don't give you any information about how to be a good performer. All they do is show poorly executed "tricks". Good beginner's books which talk about respect for magic are essential.

Do I hear an amen!

I will second that!

And if JJ can make a living while producing such books, than MORE power too him.

It is obvious that Gianni has never cracked the cover of the book. His comments would not have been so negative against Josh. That was like panning a movie you have never seen! Does he always talk just to be heard????