David,
one of our Café faithful (rtgreen) is not able to be here due to a booking and has asked me to post the following for him.
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"David,

Brain Food is one of my favorite books in my magic library. It's always nice to read a magic writer who has a literary and conversational quality in his writing. Are you thinking of putting out anything else in the near future?

Also, have you done much thinking about stage magic or structuring longer shows? I think this could be an excellent subject for you to write about.

Thanks,
Richard Green"
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Hi Richard. Thanks for the kind words about Brain Food. I have gotten in the habit, as Bob Neale has, of writing up material that I add to my repertoire as if it were to be included in a book. So, while I have no immediate plans for a follow-up to Brain Food, I am gradually amassing potential material for publication. When it reaches critical mass, I'll start to hammer it into a manuscript. But that's probably several years down the line.

Have I thought much about stage magic? That depends what you mean by "stage magic." I tend to think most about the type of magic in which I am actively engaged at the time. I'm currently preparing for my Halloween show, which magicians would probably classify as a parlor performance (oops, almost spelled it "parlour" out of habit; that was the way I saw it spelled in books when I was a kid) so these days my thoughts are mostly occupied with parlor magic.

I think one of the major milestones in our magical development is finding the setting and circumstances to which we are best suited as performers. I feel I am at my best in parlor and close-up settings, with smaller audiences, where I can more easily develop a relationship with people and involve them more in the performance. And for me the ideal show is sixty minutes. This is enough time for the audience to get the sense that they know me, but not enough time to take the mystery out of my character.

But who knows? I may someday experiment with longer shows, larger audiences. There are always possibilities, new avenues to pursue.

David