
Hello everyone!
Today’s topics are: Barcelona to Reus; Seminar “The Psychological Construction of Magic” in Salou; Barcelona and Talk at SEI/ACAI; Valencia; Almussafes Magic Convention; Double Deck Switch; Theory Vs. Practice; Okito in Joe Wildon’s “Magisches Magazin”, Confidences Reprint; Google Chrome and Safari Translator; FISM 2025
These are The Magic Memories 215, gone online Sunday, May 4th, 2025, at 0:07h sharp.
All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.
I am back from my little tour in Spain, which took me from Barcelona to Reus, back to Barcelona, then to Valencia and Almussafes. Following are a few memories and impressions.
Barcelona to Reus
It all started with my good friend Rafael Ferré, owner of the magic shop and magic school Art Magic Academia in Reus, suggesting to come back To Antoní Gaudi’s native city and give a full-day seminar. In the past I had already done so on the subjects of “Dai Vernon – Life & Work”, as well as on the topic of “Stand-up Card Magic”. Apparently those were well-received, so they called me back a third time 🙂
Rafael is a great host, so he picked me up at Barcelona airport, where we also met our good friend Toni Cachadiña, who stayed for the weekend and came to the seminar.
We spent the first evening in Reus, where Rafael Ferré invited Toni Cachadiña and myself to an excellent restaurant (what else?), preceded by an equally excellent Vermouth. I had completely forgotten that Reus is the world center of Vermouth!
The photo below shows the bar of the Vermouth museum in Reus, with hundreds (a thousand?) of Vermouths from different countries – apparently Vermouth was invented in Torino, Italy, by one Antonio Benedetto Carpano in 1786.

If you feel like having a Vermouth on your next visit to a well-furnished bar, first try it straight with ice cubes (not crushed ice!) and a slice of orange. Then one of the legendary cocktails, a “Negroni” (equal parts of red Vermouth, Gin, and Campari on ice), which is quite strong, so you might want to get a “Negroni sbagliato”, where the Gin is replaced by some kind of sparkling wine, usually Prosecco. (As always, consume responsibly.)
Clearly, a trip that starts with meeting old friends, Vermouth, a great dinner, and then a walk through the most charming old city center of Reus is a great omen… and it certainly was.
If you would like to learn more about Reus (and Vermouth…) CLICK HERE (and then use the translation function of your browser to change the text into English).
Seminar “The Psychological Construction of Magic” in Salou
The next morning we made our way to Salou to Rodney James Piper’s House of Illusions in Salou, only a short hop from Reus.

It belongs to one of the great pleasures of my chosen profession to discover great places I have never heard of before, and to meet interesting people.
Such was the case in Salou, where Rodney James Piper from the UK, together with his wife and talented son, runs a successful operation that involves gastronomy and magic.
To read an extensive interview about this man of many talents CLICK HERE.

Rodney is also a member of the local magic club, and as a most generous person he put his theater at our disposal, free of charge. The place was magnificent, and an ideal location for our purpose.
The topic of my seminar was about the psychological construction of magic.
What may read like a lot of theory was actually very practical – as I like to believe all my seminars are – because during the day I performed and taught about a dozen performance pieces, along with lots of techniques and other concepts, but with a focus on their psychological function.
Essentially, I selected ten topics from my book Sharing Secrets and explored them interactively by applying each to performance pieces.
Among the subjects we examined were “Prologue & Epilogue,” “How to Find Original Presentations,” “No Hands, Ma,” “Intelligent Moves,” “Memory Editing,” and others.
To my knowledge, these themes have rarely—if ever—been addressed in a similar format. In particular, the discussion on how spectators remember facts and later use them to reconstruct events—ultimately failing and thus entering a kind of ‘Wonderland’—is a concept that, to date, only Juan Tamariz has explored in such depth.
The event was sold out at twenty participants, the maximum I usually allow for this type of teaching session. Nobody left, nobody fell asleep, and at the end everyone seemed happy.
I would love to give this one-day seminar for your magic club or group of friends, so, if you are interested let me know through the “infos / contact” menu item on my webshop. I can do this in six languages (German, Swiss-German, Italian, Spanish, French and English). I promise that the cost per person will be far less than a single bottle of Opus One 🙂

In the evening Rodney invited Rafael, Toni and myself, along with a few others from the seminar, to stay and enjoy the dinner and show, which played to great success to a sold-out room.
If you happen to go to Reus and Salou, in the beautiful Costa Dorada, you will not regret spending an evening at Rodney’s House of Illusions, watching their evening show as you enjoy their multi-course dinner at a very reasonable price. For more information CLICK HERE.
What is nice about Spain is that the magic sessions go deep into the night…
In the photo below I am discussing “Daley’s Four Ace Trick Variation” (entry of June 7 in Unexpected Agenda) at ca. 3am in a coffee shop.

What a day!
Barcelona and Talk at SEI/ACAI
On the following Monday, Rafael drove me back to Barcelona, where I took us to a restaurant I remembered from my previous visits, the “Racó d’en Cesc”. What is remarkable about this one-star Michelin restaurant is not only the very affordable lunch menu with four courses, but above all the two beer sommeliers, who recommended a beer marriage, rather than the typical wine marriage. So, with each course we had a beer from a different country (Spain, France, Germany and Japan), and that was quite an experience (although I will stay a wine drinker…).
I stayed at a hotel I had never been to before in Barcelona – the Sonder Paseo de Gracia – but which I can recommend, as it is in the heart of the city… just in case you plan a trip to Barcelona next 🙂
In the evening (Monday, 31st March 2025), I gave a 120-minute talk to the members of the local club, the SEI/ACAI (BTW: This club has 250 members (!), and is one of the biggest I have ever been to.)
I am pleased to say that with ca. 50 attendants the event was sold out, as their small but charming theatre only allows that many guests.
They say that the Catalans are the Swiss in Spain. For sure, my talk that was scheduled to start at 19:30 and did at 19:32 🙂
Maybe I should specify that this was not a lecture, because I suggested to the group that I would like to do more of an informal talk with people asking me questions. And this is what we did, under the wise guidance of Alfredo Alvarez, who had prepared some interesting question touching on effects, techniques and also some theoretical concepts.
I will spare you the details but was quite happy with the format and the results, and would not mind doing this more often.
I stayed another two full days in Barcelona, which is truly one of the most beautiful and interesting cities I have ever been to (and I have been to quite a few…), mostly in the company of my good friend Toni Cachadiña. Toni, who is the same age as Juan Tamariz, was a FISM winner and still does some great magic.
To see Toni do one of his original pieces, CLICK HERE.
On Tuesday evening, before dinner, Toni took me to meet old friends at a private magic club they have in Barcelona, and where Ricardo Vizcarra did some of his superb and original coin work.
He gave part of his lecture “The Three Sides of a Coin” for us, most based on an original coin box he designed, and which I am almost tempted to call an “Examinable Universal Coin Box”, and yes, you can really hand it out, even to those in the know and there is noting suspicious to be seen.
You can see some of his work in a short video HERE (one of the cleanest coin assemblies I have seen), or a bit a longer one HERE – all in Castilian, but the IT-smarter among you will know how to get that into English… I do not belong to those… but I understand the language 🙂
Valencia
From Barcelona, I took the high-speed train down to Valencia, a region that had been severely affected by violent storms earlier this year. Fortunately, the rebuilding efforts were carried out efficiently, and almost everything was back up and running. The taxi driver who later took me to the airport shared that his village had been largely destroyed, and his car completely wrecked. However, within a short time, the government had provided him—and other professionals—with a new taxi. While many people gripe about taxes, hearing stories like this offers a fresh perspective on their importance and the role they play in recovery.
My long-time friends Pepe Monfort and Alfredo Blasco waited for me at the train station and took me straight away to Valencia’s Central Market, which has to be one of the most spectacular indoor food markets in Europe.
We had various aperitifs, among other things oysters, sea urchin and the mixed cheese and ham platter you can see in the photo below, with great Cava – the “Champagne” of the Catalans – and some fine red wine Pepe bought from another stand.

It is understood that this was just a starter, because afterwards my friends took me to a place that is specialized in preparing the world-famous Paella Valenciana.
Here I should add that the term “Paella” simply refers to the large pan the rice is served, which is why in Spain on the menu you will usually find the term “Arrozes” (rices) and less often “Paella”. However, the name of the object in which the rice is cooked has become the name of the dish, Paella. Similar to “Counting Four as Four” that became “Elmsley Count”, “Culebreo” the “Ascanio Spread”, etc…
However, ordering a “Paella” in Spain, particularly in Valencia, would be like asking a magician to do a “Four Ace Trick”… “Yeah, but which one?”
Admittedly, there might be a few more versions of the “Ace Tricks” than “Paellas”, but if you go to a specialized place, you might still get your head spinning from the abundance of choice. You may have to choose between Paella Valenciana, Paella de marisco, Paella de pollo, Paella negra (arroz negro), Paella mixta, Paella de verduras, Paella de conejo, etc. – you get the idea…
We had a “classic” Paella Valencia, which is thin and dry, with autochthonous vegetables, pieces of chicken, rabbit and a few snails.
What was at least as special as the taste of it, was that it was eaten similar to a Swiss Fondue, i.e., you do not scoop your portion on your own plate, but all use their spoon to eat directly from the paella.
This is as communicative as gastronomy can get, and forms yet another point of commonality with the performance of magic, which is also an act of communion that is shared through an act of passion.
Below you can see us sharing what was possibly the best Paella I ever had.

Alfredo Blasco, the gentleman sitting next to me, is a man of the world, a retired physicist and successful businessman, who knows a lot about many things. On the way to Almussafes, which is about half an hour car ride from Valencia, he got AI to compose the following song, which celebrated our gastronomical-magical get-together in Valencia – to listen CLICK HERE.
Almussafes Magic Convention
This convention took place from April 3rd to 6th in Almussafes, an otherwise unspectacular town, were it not known as an important production site of the Ford Motor Company.
I was asked to be a member of the jury, which has the advantage that you not only get to see all the acts, but also do so from a privileged seating. The first night was devoted to a stage competition with a dozen acts, all of which were surprisingly good, some even had FISM-level (after having been a judge at the recent convention in San Marino I had lost my faith in magic competitions… but regained it here).
I wish I could remember all the acts… but I recall that there was a lady who did mentalism, and she did not put me asleep…
If you want to see the detailed program CLICK HERE.
There were more good and very good lectures and shows than I can tell you about, so will just mention Dani DaOrtiz, who always scores highly with magicians, Luis Olmedo with original and skillful coin work, Shimpei Katsuragawa with outstanding card work, and several others.
I was on Saturday afternoon. Since I do no longer want to perform at close-up or stage galas, I got the organizers to accept my “One-man Show and Lecture”, which really is a lecture with a short performance segment preceding it. As always I prefer to do lectures on a specific topic, as magic is so complex, and it can only be studied by focussing on certain sub-topics – in this case it was “Stand-up Card Magic”.
Even though I was given 90 minutes instead of the standard 60 minutes, a late beginning and the obligation to stop on time (!) left me with ca. 75 minutes.
For me, who thinks that a magic lecture should have an academic and pedagogical approach, and not be misused as a sales opportunity, such time restrictions are always a hassle.
Anyway, I managed to perform and discuss a few pieces, among other things “Card Call” and “And Yet It Is!” from Stand-up Card Magic, how to prepare a room for optimal performing conditions, how to handle an audience and get members to and from stage, how to adapt the five basic techniques Control, Force, False Shuffle, Top Change and Palm to stage conditions, plus two very practical deck switches, and hopefully a lot of extra advice from my many years of professional experience.
Although a lot was left unsaid, almost nobody left the theatre during the lecture, and I could not identify anyone falling asleep 🙂
Most unfortunately nowadays most magic conventions do no longer print a program, which makes it difficult afterwards to remember what happened. Still, I hope my reports – not just this one – will make you attend a Spanish magic convention someday, as the level is always very good and interesting.
The team around Dario Hueta did an excellent job, and many of the attendants already subscribed for next year.
Double Deck Switch
In The Art of Switching Decks I discuss a category of deck switches I have discovered and named “The No Switch Deck Switch” (p. 127), which is as useful as it is simple: You put the deck in use aside and introduce another (prepared!) deck, with which you perform your next miracle.
The big secret is of course not the mechanics of the switch, but how to intelligently stage the switch so that it is not recognized as such (Sharing Secrets, “Invisibility”).
Although I do mention the following idea in The Art of Switching Decks, when I wrote it the idea seemed to me so obvious that I did not emphasize it enough: Almost every “No Switch Deck Switch” is a double deck switch, in the sense that you are switching decks twice!
When you introduce the new (cold) deck, you will have to put the deck in use aside somehow. An absolutely legitimate way of doing it is to case it, and then put it in your pocket.
You then perform the piece with the newly introduced deck, the cold deck. When you are done, and since the deck you just used is a “special” deck (according to the staging), you will put it away and continue with the deck that was in use before, and that you had put away, e.g., in your pocket. Obviously, in your pocket you have another cold deck, which you now take out, everyone believing that this is the deck used initially.
You may refine this a bit more by applying the “Joker Deck Switch” (p. 87) to the situation, to wit: You begin by tabling the Jokers from the deck in use.
Do a few tricks.
Introduce the special deck (No Switch Deck Switch), but instead of putting the deck in use in your pocket, execute the Joker Deck Switch, i.e., start to put the cased deck in use in your pocket, smoothly switch it for the cold deck there (use “The Finger-tongs Switch”, p. 12), then immediately bring the cold deck out and insert the Jokers into the case. Place the deck aside, or hand it to a spectator (you retrieve the deck later…).
Obvious, Watson, obvious, I know… but sometimes we look, but we do not observe… so I thought I would mention it 🙂
A curiosity: The Art of Switching Decks is now in its third edition, and after the Card College and the Card College Light series my bestselling book… I did not expect that.
Theory Vs. Practice
“Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar’s gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through the world.
There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-halls, in the salons of the elegant, the stock exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul.” – Carl G. Jung (Swiss psychoanalyst, 1875–1961)
It made me think of neurosciences as applied to magic…
Okito in Joe Wildon’s “Magisches Magazin”
Joe Wildon (1922–2003) was a successful magic dealer in Germany who flourished in the 1950 and 1960. As part of his activities he published a quarterly magazine called “Magisches Magazin” with many interesting articles.
Recently I acquired a complete file of the magazine, and a book could be written about it, or at least a selective reprint done. Now, I won’t do it 🙂
However, here is a short article about Okito (Theo Bamberg), which reminded me of several facts about this legendary performer and inventor that I had forgotten.

Assuming that it would interest some of you, I asked ChatGPT to translate it into English, and HERE IT IS. And if you are proficient in German, HERE IS the original article.
To know more about Joe Wildon CLICK HERE – use your browser’s translation function to instantly transform the German text into English (if you do not know how to do this, see my short article “Google Chrome and Safari Translator” at the end of these The Magic Memories).
Confidences
What a pleasant surprise it was to receive the new reprint of my book Confidences, which was originally published in 2012 by Stephen Minch’s Hermetic pRess, but which had been out of print now for almost ten years.
The new publisher, Penguin Magic, reprinted Confidences and will release it as soon as it hits their warehouse. Due to the new custom regulations on imported goods this might take another few weeks.

If you want to get a copy from me, signed to your name, plus a postcard with photo, also signed to your name, make sure you subscribe to the newsletter – put your email address in the box “Subscribe to the Newsletter” in the webshop (CLICK HERE).
I will let you know through the Newsletter as soon as Confidences is ready to ship.

If you are in the USA you can get a copy directly from the publisher Penguin Magic.
Please order directly through me or Penguin Magic, because if you order from any other dealer, I as the author will get less than $5 per book…
Google Chrome and Safari Translator
I am writing this for the benefit of all of you who read English (of course…), but who are not native speakers of English and who would like to read The Magic Memories in their own language.
Many of you will know this already, but here is how for the few who don’t know.
To display The Magic Memories in any language with a few clicks and in less than five seconds proceed as follows:
- Open The Magic Memories in Google Chrome
click on “…” at the top right corner of the screen choose your language the text will now be displayed in your chosen language. There will be a few mistakes regarding technical terms, but you will immediately recognize them and make the appropriate adjustment in your mind. I have done a few test with some of the past The Magic Memories and was quite pleased with the result. I hope that those among you who use this function will be, too.
I have tested this with Safari and Google Chrome, but assume this works with most of the available browsers under practically all operating systems.
FISM 2025
Just a short note to say that I plan on attending the FISM convention in Torino, Italy, this year July 13th to 19th.
For information, newsletter, etc. CLICK HERE .
If their organization will be only half as good as their homepage design, it will still be twice as good as what I expect it to be… FISM 2015 in Rimini, by the same organization, announced as the best magic convention ever, was the worst of the ten FISM conventions I have attended. So, it can only get better, we hope…
If you manage to identify me among the 2’000 plus attendants (the organizers are hoping for more), by all means come up and say “hello”.
All the best!
Roberto Giobbi