Just had to say this:

Elliot's Classic Secrets of Magic is a real classic. Worth every penny/cent/paisa we pay for it... ;-)

And Harry, that was a great detailed review.

Bob and Turk, OK guys, what do you think? Did you actually take a routine from the book and use it yet? Do you have any favorite trick from those pages yet? Any tricks that you think suck?

I would like to hear your unvarnished views.

I performed at a fundraiser last night with maybe 500 people at a sit down dinner. There was a small, elevated platform at one end of the room. There were several performers each given just a few minutes to do their bit.

A couple of musicians (folk-singers), a ventriloquist (very funny using a pig figure!), an illusionist that did one big illusion (mini-tube-zag) and a torn and restored newspaper (his beautiful assistant made the act!), two comedians (one was actually very funny), and me right in the middle of it all.

There was plenty of booze at the event (booze makes people give more?) and people were eating during the program. I felt that it must be what an old night club restaurant show might have been like.

Any way, I did the glass production to Misers Dream, Corncob pipes (talked myself back into that one!), and the Egg Bag (Benson) right from the book. The only thing I added was to the Misers Dream where I ended with two fans of paper bills (stage 100’s).

It was a quick, visual, fairly simple, and magical act. Plus the whole thing packed flat and played big! I took the whole act to the venue in a cigar box! Plus I carried a very elegant (and no longer made), single leg, Owen’s side table (breaks down to almost nothing).

What are you putting together from the book?

Harry,

I always look forward to your posts. You inform me so much.

I still remember your impromptu magic/mentalism post as one of the all-time Café greats.

Thanks for taking the time to post. I learn something from you every time.

Hey AX! Thanks for the kind words! You have one of my favorite avatars!

Harry,

Give me a break! I haven't even received the book yet. (grin)

As an aside, I have to tell the story about Vinny Marini (vinsmagic here on the Café). I had never really heard about Bruce Elliott other than that I knew that he was the editor of The Phoenix. Vinny and I were brainstorming and just shooting the **** (bull) the other day when he told me that Bruce had been his mentor in magic!

It started years ago when Vinny, as a teenager, first walked into a magic store and was given a hard time by the person behind the counter. (You know, the typical "get out of here kid and come back when you know some magic and can prove that you deserve to be talked to" type of treatment").

Vinny dejectedly left the store but was quickly followed outside by a customer who had been in the store at the time. It was Bruce Elliott. Bruce apologized for the way Vinny had been treated, talked with him awhile. He showed Vinny a magic trick and gave him a magic trick he just happened to have on him.

Next, Bruce offered to work with Vinny and teach him magic on the weekends. Vinny took him up on his offer, a lifetime friendship was established and, as they say in the trade, "The rest is history".

Mike

P.S. BTW, Geno Munari, owner of Houdini's Magic Shop (http://www.houdini.com/home.cfm?Featured=Yes) has the complete Phoenix and New Phoenix on CD for the ridiculous price of $19.95 (member price of $15.95)! This is a great deal! Note also that Geno offers the complete Jinx on CD for the same ridiculous low price.

Just thought I would mention two of Mr. Elliott's other books---"Professional Magic Made Easy" and "Magic as a Hobby".

Van

Gentlemen,

I subscribe to all you are saying. I had the pleasure of knowing Bruce. In fact, I had lunch with him earlier on the day he was hit by a car and went into a coma from which he never recovered. He was a great guy and one of the best magic writers in the business in terms of combining wit and accuracy. We all miss him.

We used to have 'Magic as a Hobby' in our library, and all I can say about this book is brilliant. I am going to buy it to add to my own collection.

Andre

Hi Harry,

Not that I plan on doing the pipe trick, but I've always been curious about it. What was the spectators reaction to it ? Did it go over well ? (I'm sure it did or you wouldn't have performed it so often.) I've never known anyone who performed it.

I wonder if one could still do the trick by talking about how "smokeless tobacco", has been replaced by "tobacco-less smoke" which doesn't break any local no-smoking ordinances. (Probably not, eh?)

Thanks,

Joe

Based on all the great info contained in this thread, I purchased Classic Secrets of Magic, from Magic, Inc.

It is a great book, filled with many gems. I am working now to add the multiple egg production as a finale to my variation of a ken brookes egg bag routine.

Thanks again for the recommendations. The book is a terrific buy. I love finding older and forgotten routines that seem so "New".

Could someone tell me about another of Bruce's Books...
THE BEST IN MAGIC
I've heard it's another GREAT book...
Is it?

Thanks
Dennis

I realize I'm coming a bit late to this thread (I just found it), but here is a list of the magic books Elliott wrote:

The Best in Magic
Classic Secrets of Magic (also titled Great Secrets of the Master Magicians)
Magic as a Hobby
Professional Magic Made Easy

To the best of my knowledge, these are all the magic books he wrote (he also wrote several of "The Shadow" stories, etc).
All of them are great! In early editions of "Magic as a Hobby" there is an introduction by Orson Wells. Wells laments that such a great book is being made available to the general public. Most of the effects in the books come from Elliott's time as the editor of "The Phoenix"

John Cannon, Aladdin Books, usually has copies for sale.

Frank

I do a lot of material from "Classic Secrets of Magic" including the wonderful Dr Sack Dice trick and I don't care what James Munton says about it.

I suspect "The Best in Magic" is another name for "Magic. 100 New Tricks" which is actually a pretty terrific book.

I never liked Magic as a Hobby simply because I couldn't do a single trick in it. It described all sorts of tricks with objects that you would have to get from a magic shop or were not otherwise found around the home. It did describe a card trick that was too difficult for me to do and out of curiousity I went back to it a few days ago, 54 years later and I STILL can't do the bloody thing!

But there is another reason that some of you are going to detest "Magic as a Hobby". It is the book that started me off in magic in the very first place. I saw it in a public library by sheer chance and took it out on loan. From that point on my life was bloody ruined. If I hadn't come across that book, useless as it was, I wouldn't have taken up magic in the first place.

I just glanced through this book, and saw only a trick that used a coin shell , and one that used a folding coin. Seemed like most of the rest were things that could be made from things around the house.

I was hoping this was my own little known secret. I got this book as well 1974 edition and love it. One of the first books I got as a kid along with The Amateurs Magician's Handbook, The Magic Book, Mark Wilson's Course, and several Bill Severn ones. Many followed after that for the next 35 years all of which I still have. I saved up for the Tarbell Course the following year as well and still got both editions today and brand new editions. Still got several thousand books on magic alone.

I alos have the full Phoenix and I am not sure if every trick in these books is in that or not, but I heard these were taken from the Phoenix. But I am not sure if anything is in the books that are not in the Phoenix as I never had time to research it.

The dice routine and the Benson Bowl routine are pretty much verbatim from The Phoenix. I don't know about the rest.