Category: News

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:

1. Open The Magic Memories in Google Chrome
2. click on “…” at the top right corner of the screen
3. choose your language
4. 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

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Magic Stuttgart; Sharing Secrets in Japanese; Any Questions or Criticisms?; Poetic AI; Studies in Deception by Aurelio Paviato; Magic Convention in San Marino; Seven Ways of Being Understood; Albert Hofmann

These are The Magic Memories 214, gone online Sunday, April 6th, 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.

As you are reading this, I am on my way back from the Spanish magic convention in Almussafes, near Valencia (Santiago Calatrava!), after having done a full-day seminar in Reus (the natal city of Antoni Gaudí); between the two week-ends I have spent time in beautiful Barcelona, the capital of the Catalan country, to visit with magic friends and doing a talk at the magic club of Barcelona, the SEI (you may practice your Catalan HERE). I plan to report about my adventures in The Magic Memories 215 (mark May 4th in your calendar).

Magic Stuttgart

In February I travelled to Stuttgart with my magic friend Claudio Viotto: We went there to see Thomas Otto, an outstanding professional magician from Steinhorst (Germany), who emceed Harald Wohlfahrt’s Palazzo Show, a four-hour plus affair in an upscale circus-like setting, with a four-course dinner and virtually non-stop music and show.

I have reported about similar shows in earlier The Magic Memories (see The Magic Memories 207 & 209), the concept being always the same: a dinner created by a Michelin-star chef, located in a beautiful classic-old-fashioned luxury circus tent, and framed by a high-class variety program.

It would go beyond the scope of this short report to tell you about the complete show, which had an impressive cast.

I will just mention my friend Thomas Otto’s achievements: Not only did he lead through the lengthy program all night, in itself a feat to behold, he also had a spot of his own where he performed some of his impeccable magic.

I am really not exaggerating here: Think of performing inside of a classic circus arena, where you are three-quarters (at least!) surrounded, and have to communicate with ca. 350 spectators sitting at tables (and some drinking more than necessary…). Just the communication of it is as difficult a task as it can get. But Thomas not only did this with the ability of a consummate professional, he also managed to do this with great charm and sincerity, the contrary of the Las Vegas style hammy magniloquence, which I personally just do not appreciate, and neither does the average European spectator.

Within the first minute he had the audience in the palm of his hand, and managed to keep their attention and enthusiasm until the flamboyant finale.

I hope that some of you one day get to see Thomas’ Egg Bag and Miser’s Dream, the latter being the best routine of this kind I have ever seen. He would make a great addition to any magic convention, his English being fluent enough, and it would certainly be a new face to most.

The next evening we attended Thorsten Strotmann’s show in his Magic Lounge – since pictures say more than a thousand words, CLICK HERE.

I have reported several times (see The Magic Memories 102 & 103) about this talented entrepreneur and performer who has – as far as I know – the largest close-up theatre in Europe; the place takes 190 seats, and you can see a Coin Assembly routine from every seat… quite remarkable.

The seats cost up to $80, and even after the pandemic the shows are almost all sold out – the man certainly knows what he is doing… and he does it very well 🙂

He is now into his seventh full-evening show, and I have no idea how he does that. If you are in Stuttgart or nearby, by all means go there!

On the next day Claudio and I had lunch with Thomas and Thorsten in a lovely Italian restaurant in the historical center of Stuttgart.

It is certainly one of the great additional benefits of having written all those books to be able to get together with all those very talented chaps of the younger generation and getting to learn them better. Many of them, including Thomas and Thorsten, meanwhile have become very good friends.

BTW: Although Stuttgart will not be your first choice of cities to visit in Germany if you have little time, there are still at least two attractions that make it worthwhile. I just mentioned the first (to us magicians): Strotmann’s Magic lounge.

The second is the Mercedes Benz museum. As you might know, Stuttgart is the home and base of Mercedes and Porsche (Porsche also has a museum).

I cannot imagine any curious and educated person not being absolutely fascinated by the Mercedes museum. I myself couldn’t care less for cars (…although I would neither refuse a Jaguar XK-E nor an Aston Martin DB5).

However, the architecture of the building and the didactics of the exposition are simply one of the very best I have seen in a museum, where the challenge is to not only have superb exhibits, but above all to create an interaction between the exhibit and the visitor, and also to put the exhibits in a historical and cultural context.

All this – and more – is capably and beautifully implemented in this amazing museum. If you go, make a reservation through Internet, as it will speed up everything and even save you a penny or two…

Sharing Secrets in Japanese

As you are reading this – I always assume that you do so on the day of publication – the Japanese version of Sharing Secrets is hitting the shores of the archipelago of Japan.

It took two years of assiduous work to complete it, ably translated by Shigeru Tashiro – he found typos and little inattentions no-one else found! Tashiro-san is also financing, publishing and distributing the book. Atsushi Takizawa – of Script Maneuver fame – did the layout (with a little help from my Italian publisher Francesco Mugnai, who is now entitled to an extra-huge “Bistecca alla Fiorentina”).

The photo below shows a man who is happy like a clam at high tide, showing that size indeed matters…

The book was printed and bound in Florence, Italy, published by Florence Art Edizioni (the best!), and if you want to learn or just practice your Japanese, the Japanese edition of Sharing Secrets will be available for purchase starting Thursday, April 24, 2025, at major magic shops across Japan (listed below – the websites of these magic shops are available only in Japanese, however, we believe you can still enjoy “window shopping” through their sites… those Japanese icons are so beautiful 🙂

STREETMAGICIAN (Tokyo) https://www.streetmagician.net/

Magic Fantasia (Tokyo) http://magicfan.shop21.makeshop.jp/

Panora Magic (Tokyo) http://panoramagic.shop-pro.jp/

Magic House (Yokohama) https://www.magichouse.biz/

French Drop (Osaka) https://www.frenchdrop.com/

Feather Touch Magic (Shiga) https://www.ftmagic.jp/

SEO Magic (Hiroshima) https://www.seomagic-jp.com/

FUN MAGIC (Fukuoka) https://funmagic.co.jp/

If you are interested in purchasing the Japanese edition of this book – even if you cannot read Japanese but would still like to own it (collectors!!!) – please feel free to contact Shigeru Tashiro at magic@kk.iij4u.or.jp. He will be happy to ship it to you via DHL.

Any Questions or Criticisms?

Whenever I travel by train or plane, I have my laptop computer with me and watch at least one magic lecture. Over the years I have watched many…

On my recent train ride to Milan I saw the lecture of a very well-known magician (who shall remain unnamen) recorded at a Ron MacMillan International Convention in London years ago. After each explanation he asked, “Does anyone have a question or criticism?”

I had to smile at the “criticism”, as this is certainly the last thing you want to hear – generally, and especially not at a lecture – and if you were to get a “criticism” it could easily get out of hand resulting in a lengthy and undesirable discussion.

Our above-mentioned lecturer got several questions, none of which could be heard. And that is my point here.

The same thing happens quite often at conventions: The lecturer asks if there are any questions, and when someone asks, most cannot hear what the interlocutor just said.

In both cases – video or live – the answer is a waste of time, as the larger part of the audience does not know what the lecturer is talking about, not having heard the question.

To this there are two solutions.

One: Have an assistant ready who takes a microphone to the interpellators so they can be heard. This is what you have seen done on TV programs where members of the audience participate in a discussion, etc.

Two: Repeat the question yourself for all to hear.

The second option is the one I use. Not only is it simpler (you do not need an extra mic, let alone an extra person) and faster (you do not have to wait for the mic to reach the spectator), above all you can rephrase the question, which more often than not is either clumsy or too long (some interpellators include in their question a short auto-biography that is of no interest to anyone present).

Now answer the question as succinctly as possible. As you know, this is not easy for me🙂 However, knowing myself, I usually reply, “There is a short and a long answer to this. I’ll give you the short answer now, but shall be happy to continue our conversation at the bar… you pay the drinks!”

I hope that all those among you who occasionally give a lecture or even a short talk can use this very simple but useful piece of advice.

Poetic AI

As most of you will not know – except those who have the German edition – the original German edition of Card College was called Grosse Kartenschule (volumes 1&2 were published in 1992, volumes 3&4 in 1994, and volume 5 in 2003).

The German version did not have photos and a quote as chapter headings as the English version has, but a poem and a “cartoon” as seen in the illustration below.  The Joker is supposed to be a caricature of me as represented on my exlibris 🙂

Poems are very hard to translate, which is why we decided to replace them with a photo and a quote, much to the relief of Richard Hatch, who at the time had taken up the Herculean task of translating the first four volumes (it took him several years to do so…).

In view of the advances made by AI, however, it occurred to me to have a go at translating these poems. Below is the German poem going with the chapter on the Top Change.

“Im Filieren ist die Frieda

allen Zauberern voraus.

Nächtlich tauscht sie immer wieda

heimlich ihre Buben aus.”

Translation by ChatGPT:

“In top change, Frieda,

leads all wizards by far.

Each night, she secretly swaps her boys

like a star.”

While this translation may not be brilliant, it is, if I may say so, good enough – if you are a native speaker of English you may make your own judgement. It would undoubtedly be a great pleasure to have all of Dieter Ebel’s poems translated into English, as I believe many of you would greatly appreciate them.

Furthermore, if they could be included in the Card College series, replacing the quotes and photographs used to introduce the respective chapters, it would symbolically unite poetry and magic. This would echo Hofzinser’s renowned assertion that ‘card magic is the poetry of magic,’ all while maintaining a lighthearted tone that embodies the entertainment aspect.

I will keep that in mind for future reprints… (volume 1 is now in about its thirtieth reprint, I believe…).

Studies in Deception by Aurelio Paviato

On my short visit to Milan I spent a pleasant dinner-evening with my friends Aurelio Paviato and Gianfranco Preverino, both of whom have been mentioned several times in these The Magic Memories.

Aurelio kindly gave me a copy of his book Studies in Deception, that has just seen publication (edited by Stephen Minch and published by Penguin Magic).

Aurelio and I are both members of the exclusive Escuela Mágica de Madrid, for many years the world’s only think tank of magic, with Juan Tamariz being our most influential teacher.

This certainly shows not only in the choice of material, but also in the detailed and intelligent descriptions, polished by Stephen Minch, arguably still magic’s best writer-editor (with the possible exception of Maxwell Pritchard).

For anyone who has a more than passing interest in magic, Aurelio’s book is a goldmine of techniques, tricks, presentations, details of handling, and theories.

It will neither be an easy nor a quick read, as most descriptions are intricate and lengthy, but those who persevere will be amply rewarded with deep insights into the art and science of magic.

I greatly enjoyed Aurelio’s book and was pleasantly reminded of the many sessions we had when we were younger; quite a few of the solutions to the problems discussed then can be found here.

For more info on the book CLICK HERE.

To listen to a conversation Michael Close had with Aurelio CLICK HERE.

BTW – For those interested in this type of thing take note of the above-mentioned restaurant we had dinner in Milan, Italy: Osteria Brunello (details CLICK HERE).

By all means take the “COTOLETTA DI VITELLO ALLA MILANESE”, a veal steak on the bone, breaded and prepared similar to a Wiener Schnitzel, at the ridiculous price of EURO 29 (includes tip and tax, for my friends in the New World…).

You may then spend what you have saved on the cutlet on any of the available Brunello di Montalcino wines (there are about one hundred to choose from!), meanwhile an overpriced but still excellent wine… remembering Goethe’s words that “life is too short to drink bad wines”, and in view of the terrible international situation, spending a good part of our money on excellent wines (and drink them!)  may bring in the highest revenues…

Magic Convention in San Marino

In 2023 I reported about the convention in the micro state of San Marino and you can find most information there (see The Magic Memories 122).

This year Gabriel, the festival’s organizer, asked me to sit in the jury of their competition. Since I had good memories of my stay in 2023, I joined my friend José Ángel Suarez (the organizer of Magialdia, Europe’s oldest magic festival in the Basque country) in Milan, and together with Pedro and Xarly – two friends from the Magialdia-team – we drove down to San Marino. This was a five-hour drive, which we fortunately interrupted by a visit at “il ristorante della nonna” (grandma’s restaurant), which fortunately was as good as the title suggests.

Due to several commitments I missed most of the lectures at the convention, but caught Laurent Cervoni’s on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in magic.

This was a most interesting talk and I hope more convention organizers will book him to speak, his lecture being in English will make this quite feasible. Cervoni is a professor in IT engineering and at the head of the research of AI in France.

In his lecture he demonstrated how AI can be helpful in solving trick problems, create new tricks, and even how to assist in writing books. The technology is not yet fully developed (what is, anyway…), but – who knows – maybe my next book will be written by some kind of Robogiobbi…

To know more about Cervoni CLICK HERE.

There were two competitions, stage and close-up, with the level of the close-up participants being clearly higher than stage.

It seems to me that the competitors would be well-served if their acts where video-taped and afterwards a coaching offered to those who want. I realize this will require some effort, but it is a question that should be considered, especially for regional competitions.

As in 2023, the evening show in the theatre of San Marino was the highlight of the conventions, emceed by Alexander, a well-known magician and TV personality in Italy.

All acts registered well in the sold-out theatre, with France’s Jerome Murat (watch his act HERE) and Marko Karvo and his assisting wife Vanessa (watch HERE) standing out. In my opinion Karvo’s act is in a class with that of Cardini or Channing Pollock, and arguably today’s best magic act over all – if I was sitting in a FISM jury he would get my vote for the Grand Prix. This act is so complex, and so well done, that it comes close to perfection.

At the dinner following the show I had a short conversation with Marko, but wish we had had more time. Since he lives in Germany, I hope to catch his act soon again, and then spend more time with him. This is a man I would like to know more about.

I apologize for keeping this report short, but you can get an impression of the convention, which is also a festival, by CLICKING HERE.

Seven Ways of Being Understood

Sitting in the jury in San Marino and listening to some of the competitors speak, in a break between two acts I made the following note in my notebook regarding speaking and voice.

In order to be understood consider seven points:

1. Volume. Do not shout, but learn to speak naturally and loud enough so that your seventy-year-old aunt in the last row can hear you.
2. Diction. Practice a clear diction, pronounce clearly. If you speak at the same time as having a background music or any kind of background sounds, make sure the background does not interfere with what you are saying. Most people over fifty find it hard to hear a spoken text that is accompanied to music. Young people just do not understand this… (the same thing happens in modern movies).
3. Pause. A pause in speaking is as important as a pause in music.
4. Rhythm. Alternate various rhythms, fast to slow, to emphasize, get and keep attention, and to avoid monotony. Same thing if you have an accompanying music.
5. Interpretation. Put emotion in your voice, enthusiasm and warmth.
6. Verbal and body language. Synchronize what you say with what your body expresses.
7. Content. What you say should appeal to the mind and the heart of the audience, and be delivered with sincerity and competence.

Albert Hofmann

Wednesday, April 19th, the world celebrated “Bicycle Day”, honors the anniversary of the first ever LSD trip, undergone by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann on April 19, 1943 in Basel, Switzerland (my place of birth and hometown).

In 2007, at age 101, Hofmann was elected the greatest living genius by the renowned British daily newspaper The Guardian. Hofmann’s lapidary comment, “Not me, LSD was elected.”

I had the pleasure of meeting him twice and perform magic for him and a small group of friends in an upscale bar in Basel named Classico, where for several years I performed close-up at the tables.

After performing I got them to sign my guest book (some of you might also recognize the signature of Hans Saner, the Swiss philosopher, and Rolf Hochhut, the German dramatist).

If you are a performing magician, by all means check my entries on the subject of the “Magic Guest Book” in Secret Agenda (November 28 & 29) as well as in Hidden Agenda  (January 11); if you do not know it, I promise that it will make your day 🙂

CLICK HERE for more info and photos of Albert Hofmann.

Now, that was a long one, wasn’t it? Still, I hope you enjoyed it and found some useful ideas. See you all again on the occasion of The Magic Memories 215, May 4th.

All the best!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Palindromic Flashback; Autobiographies of Women in Magic; Comments on “Peek & Glimpse Do as I Do”; Swiss National Magic Convention; The Vernon Companion by Mike Perovich; Remembering Dave Solomon; Review of Unexpected Agenda; On the Philosophy of Magic

These are The Magic Memories 213, gone online Sunday, March 2nd, 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.

Palindromic Flashback

First and foremost, thank you to those who wrote in with comments on last month’s The Magic Memories, the one with the palindromic number 212, a fact that I forgot to mention, but will do so now, as it reminds me of one of my favorite “natural packet tricks” (these are those which can be logically created from the deck in use, rather than taking out some strange looking sets from a plastic wallet and then doing something meaningless to them…).

I hope you will forgive the (un-)intentional sarcasm… I was thinking of “The Palindrome Card” from Card College Volume 3, p. 585 (a palindromic page number!!!).

I wrote up the trick in 1994 (31 years ago!!!); meanwhile I have come up with a few more subtle details of handling, as well as with a better paced presentation that adds sophistication. When I showed this to Dave Williamson on the occasion of a common gig we did in Barcelona for a Swiss bank years ago, he insisted that I teach it to him.

This is certainly one of the pieces that are easily overread, but where a video clip will show what a pearl this is (I am not blowing my own horn here, as the concept of the tricks is not mine, but is the synergy of several creators – I have just newly choreographed them and added a text that hopefully makes this more meaningful).

You can see my latest version in my Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction (Lesson 28: Double Lift – Part 3) project.

However, keeping with my self-imposed restriction of not using The Magic Memories to force anyone to buy any of my products – just to mention some IF the context asks for it – you do not have to obtain the complete course, but can watch the three-minute clip for free: CLICK HERE.

I was saying: Let me start today’s The Magic Memories with comments that were sent in reference to some of last month’s topics.

Autobiographies of Women in Magic

In last month’s article about the autobiography of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin I wrote that I did not know about any autobiographies of women in magic, and to “please notify me if you know on an autobiography of a magicienne”.

The first “notification” came from my well-informed friend Denis Behr of Munich, Germany, who reminded me that Frances Ireland has not only written one, but two autobiographical works: You Don’t Have to be Crazy But it Helps (1946) and My First Fifty Years (1981). These are not readily available, but a search on Internet will lead you to some secondhand offers that are acceptable.

And both Pekka Gunst from Helsinki, Finland, and Marco Pusterla from Italy via UK, reminded me of England’s Romany Diva of Magic, Spun Into Gold: This one is still easily available from the author herself, CLICK HERE.

I cannot comment on any of these titles, as I have not read them (shame on me!), but have heard good things about them and will try to get them soon – I actually ordered Romany’s paperback version right now 🙂

Comments on “Peek & Glimpse Do as I Do”

I received a few pertinent comments on last month’s trick “Peek & Glimpse Do as I Do”.

For a quick check-back I made a PDF of just the entry, so you do not have to wade through the entire month’s content; to read CLICK HERE.

I really liked your speedy handling of Do as I Do.

This morning, since I only had one deck available, I performed a one-deck version of “Peek & Glimpse Do as I Do” for my wife.

Once I had “memorized” my card , I took the deck back from her, gave it a quick shuffle, and told her that we should both take out our cards and leave them face down on the table.

I placed the 4H (her selection) face down and handed her the deck to do the same.

She went through the deck once and said, “It’s not here…” Then, she started to go through it again, stopped halfway, and pointed to the face-down card, saying, “If this is the 4H, I’m going to kill you!”

I let her turn the card over and she burst out laughing—it was a great moment!

I’m not sure if I did justice to your effect by performing it this way (since I saw it more as a gag), but it was well received by my wife, who’s seen a lot of magic and is hard to impress.

[RG comments: That’s a lovely idea! We should give it a few performance trials… the only drawback I see, is that it is a bit short. But why not use it to get into something else with a similar theme, as a Prologue, or even repeat the effect, but now with a second deck.]

I think most of you who read so far, will now grab the first available spectator and try this on him or her 🙂 Warning: I tried it on my cat, but it did not work…

A few days later Claudio Imperiale (BTW: if you look up the etymology of “Claudio” and “Imperial”, you will find the names to be interesting opposites) sent an extension of his idea, and I believe it will please you and/or make you think:

You’re very welcome to write up the trick and mention my name.

I’ve performed the effect several more times, and it has been well received. The elements of comedy and surprise were often present as my sober presentation did not telegraph that the selections would be the same.

However, one spectator suggested that I had simply ignored the card I looked at and instead pulled out the one he had chosen.

When I asked him to elaborate on how that would be possible, he had no answer —he couldn’t determine how I knew his card— though he felt it was the logical conclusion.

I don’t see this as a major issue though, particularly if the trick serves as a prelude to a more elaborate routine, as you suggested. Nevertheless, I believe I have found a satisfactory solution.

Solution: The performer selects a card first and writes its name on a piece of paper.

Handling: Have the spectator thoroughly shuffle the deck.

[RG reminder: This is still the version using one deck only!]

Explain that you want them to riffle through the deck [they have shuffled and cut!] and stop when you say “stop,” so you can note the card at that point.

When they stop, pretend to write down the selected card name on a piece of paper (or business card), but actually jot down the name of the bottom card. Fold the paper and leave it on the table.

Get the deck back, shuffle [and cut] it to bring the bottom card about one-third from the top, and get a break under it.

Force the card using the Peek Force [Card College Volume 4, p. 796].

Hand the deck back to the spectator for shuffling, then retrieve it—or perhaps simply give it a quick shuffle yourself.

Remove the forced card and place it face down on the table next to the folded piece of paper.

Hand the deck back to the spectator so they can take out their own selection.

Finally, turn over the card on the table to reveal that you both selected the same card. The written prediction serves as verification in case anyone questions the process.

I think this handling could serve as a repeat or an “out” if the original method is questioned. Since the modus operandi is different, there is little risk of the audience catching on.

[RG Comment, which is similar to what Claudio wrote in a separate mail: Wonder how this would look, if both write their “card you have in our minds” on a piece of paper. The billets are then opened simultaneously to show the same card… what happens to the card in the deck… the card could reverse itself in the deck when placed in the card case along with the two billets… or it is shown to be in the zip of the wallet (from which the billets are taken initially). P: A Mental Mirage… using the white triangle optical illusion: We can see things that do not exist. You can see me do a different trick using that premise as a presentation HERE.

In my original text of “Peek & Glimpse Do as I Do” I wrote that my inspiration for that trick came from a deck switch I dubbed “Do As I Do Double No Switch Deck Switch”. It is a very simple thing, but maybe you find a use for it. So , here it is: To read or download the PDF CLICK HERE.

There is more to say about this subject (with further ideas by Claudio), but I will leave it at that, or else this will be endless 🙂

Swiss National Magic Convention

Last month I mentioned the Swiss Magic Convention in Baden; so, here is a quick report with a few pieces of information that might be interesting to even those who do not care about such reports…

The affair took place on two days. The first day used a small theatre as the location, one that takes about 80 spectators, and it had my favorite format, namely that of a symposium that plays to the entire audience.

Similar to the TED talks, various speakers talked (and performed!) about a great variety of subjects.

All in all, I found this an excellent idea, one that I favor over those conventions where you have lots of activities going on at the same time in different rooms.

I would love to give you a more detailed rundown of the events, but considering my time and above all yours I will stick to just a few items.

The History of Card Magic in Switzerland

A few years back Lorenz Schär and I gave a 75-minute talk about the history of card magic in Switzerland on the occasion of an Escorial Card Conference, where one of the subjects was precisely the history of card magic in various countries.

The “big” countries of card magic such as France, Italy, Spain, England, Germany, Austria and USA had been dealt with in an earlier edition of the conference.

This time we had a look at the “smaller” countries, such as Sweden, Switzerland and Swaziland…

As a matter of fact we immediately got the audience’s attention when we speculated that Switzerland’s country Code, CH, which as everyone does (not) know means Confederatio Helvetica (Helvetic Confederation in Latin) really means “Cartomagicae Helvetica” (Helvetic Cardmagic!).

Seriously now, I won’t reproduce the talk which was scheduled to run for 30 minutes, but took 60…

Here are just a few pieces of information that you might not be aware of.

First of all, Switzerland has one of the very earliest documentations of the use of playing cards in the world. 1370 sees the first prohibition of card play in an Italian document, but it is possible that there was one already in Switzerland in 1367, banning the use of cards and dice from play. And 1759 saw the publication of Carlo Antonio’s book „Trésor des Jeux“ in Geneva, which contained card tricks.

The famous Louis Comte, mentioned in Robert-Houdin’s autobiography, was born in Geneva in 1788, and Juan Mieg, better known as Tío Cigüeño, was born in Basel (my hometown) in 1780. Juan Tamariz maintains that his book Juegos de manos from 1839 is one of the most important books in early Spanish literature (along with Minguet and Zamorano).

I am certain that many who are interested in the history of magic will be surprised to learn that Edward Victor (1887- 1964) of Magic of the Hands fame was Edward Victor Neuschwander, of Swiss parentage.

And Howard de Courcy’s (1914 – 1990) real name was Martin Veglio, born in Corzoneso, the Swiss speaking part of Switzerland (Ticino).

Carlos Bucheli (1903 – 1981), another native of Switzerland, immigrated to Spain and took over their oldest magic shop, “El rey de la magia”, from Partagas, and held the shop from 1932 to 1981.

In 1982 Flip Hallema of Holland took over the shop… etc… and you may now understand, that bringing all these people and events into a cultural and historical context, is a most interesting endeavor… but I’m digressing.

Lorenz and I then mentioned various people in Switzerland – performers and authors – who played a more or less important role in the propagation of card magic, such as Ron Wohl and Piet Forton.

As many of you know, Pavel Lubomir Pomezny (1945–2011) left his native Czechoslovakia during the political turmoil in the sixties and in 1969 came to live in Geneva, Switzerland, where he conducted a successful career as an inventor and dealer of things magical.

Albeit not a card expert, in each of his (excellent!!!) lectures he would perform and explain several original and interesting card tricks. As an example I did the following trick of Pavel’s:

A spectator shuffles an invisible deck of cards. The performer shows one card after the other, naming them, and the spectator can call ‘stop’ anytime he likes; in this case I had asked Fridolin Kalt aka Calindo to assist me, and he choose the Seven of Diamonds. I placed his freely chosen invisible card into the invisible card case, and the case into my pocket. After a moment I took the card case again from the pocket (Calindo put his hand into the pocket to check that there was only one card case)… the card case had now become visible.

I handed Calindo the card case, he shook it, and everyone could hear that there was something in it. Upon opening it, he confirmed that it contained one card, and one card only: the Seven of Diamonds!

I am glad to say that this trick became the talk of the day… and I did of course not explain it 🙂

If you are curious and would maybe even like to put this fabulous trick into your repertoire, you can find it under the title of “(In)Visible Card in Case” in the fourth DVD of The Creative Magic of Pavel, produced by L&L Publishing (not sure if this still exists after Louis Falanga left us).

Maybe Lorenz and I will be invited to some international convention to give this talk… and you will have a chance to (hopefully) enjoy it.

The photo below shows the new generation of Swiss cardicians, from top left clockwise: Marco Bertolla, Pat Perry, Jan Imhof, Borsalino Lupetto, Tino Plaz, Pierric Tenthorey, Lorenz Schär, Blake Eduardo, Peter Marvey, Michel Gammenthaler

Saturday Evening Gala

A gala at a magic convention is typically hosted by an emcee who introduces several acts over the course of two to three hours—often a bit too long, as I can attest after attending nearly a hundred magic conventions over five decades.

For this event, however, organizers Kevin Stieger and Lorenz Schär (co-presidents of the Magic Ring Switzerland) and their team made a bold choice: they entrusted the entire evening to Wolfgang Moser from Vienna, Austria.

Simply put, it was an inspired decision. Wolfgang captivated the sold-out theater audience from the very first minute and held their attention for nearly two hours (including a 20-minute intermission). Many of you are likely familiar with his award-winning FISM act featuring a teapot, but rather than detailing it here, I encourage you to search “Wolfgang Moser magic” on YouTube—or simply CLICK HERE.

The night before, I had the pleasure of spending time with Wolfgang, as we share an appreciation for the finer aspects of gastronomy. If you ever have the chance to see him perform, I wholeheartedly recommend seizing the opportunity.

Sunday Lecture

On Sunday the activities were transferred to the convention hotel – now only about 40 registrants attending – and consisted of three lectures. One by Christian Scherer, an inspired amateur who has been studying and practicing magic for now over six decades and has had a great influence on card and close-up magic in Switzerland. Vanishing Inc. will soon publish a big book about him and his magic called Mosaic– it is actually there already, awaiting its release whenever the publishers are ready… it has been on their back-burner for several years now, as I wrote the foreword dated October 2022…

Anyway, Scherer’s lecture was mainly on card magic, with some coin magic interspersed, with lots of practical advice and subtleties, the result of a lifetime in magic. I have met Christian for the first time at a Swiss magic convention in ca. 1978, and ever since I have had a great admiration for his profound knowledge, his creative output, and his impeccable technique. It is hard to find such a combination of passion and talent in one person. The photo below was taken by Jean Garance (1937 – 2010).

The other two lectures were from Andreas Fleckenstein, each almost 2 hours long, one dealing with the life and work of Stanley Jaks, the other on standup magic. Both were very well presented; I particularly like the one on Jaks, and would recommend it to any convention. I am convinced that magic conventions need at least one talk that presents topics other than the performance and explanation of tricks.

The Vernon Companion by Mike Perovich

In the intro to The Magic Memories 212 (February 2025) I mentioned that instead of buying new books I am going back to my own library, and that it would take me until age 145 to read it all…

Well, I received quite a bit of feedback on that utterance, so thought you would be interested to know what books I have recently reread. Besides a few crime fiction and thrillers, which I also enjoy reading, I just finished rereading Mike Perovich’s The Vernon Companion (Hermetic Press, Seattle 2014).

Not only do I find this a delightful book – and so do all to whom I have spoken and who have read the book – it also has lots of very practical advice, subtleties, techniques, presentations and tricks.

It is in the nature of this work that all these items are not described in detail, but the mere mention of them will more than please the reader, especially if you have an advanced knowledge of magic and know Vernon’s work a bit (see my double-DVD-set “The Vernon Seminar” for a crash-course on the life and work of Dai Vernon).

To wet your appetite here is such a pearl of wisdom that I enjoyed, and where Perovich gives an additional interpretation of the well-known Vernonian concept of “naturalness”:

But there was another side to Vernon’s naturalness: the way he moved his hands. There was nothing of the carnival huckster in it, none of the dramatics of the Veg-O-Matic demo man, nor the suave, deft moves of the stage manipulator, nor the slowed, soft handling techniques often associated with the modern close-up performer. Certainly, there are renowned card workers with chunky fingers and a somewhat studied clumsiness, but this was not Dai Vernon either. No, Vernon handled things naturally.

Perhaps “craftsman-like” is as close a description as can be given. Vemon handled cards and coins as a woodworker handles his spokeshave or a clockmaker his precision screwdrivers: with the knowledge of a lifetime. He handled them naturally and with utilitarian directness.

After reading the book for the first time in 2014 I wrote Perovich a lengthy letter pestering him with endless questions I had about the book and its content, not thinking that he would ever answer. Imagine my surprise when shortly afterwards he indeed replied… with an even lengthier letter!

We then met for the first time in person in 2015 at the FISM convention in Rimini, Italy, a year or so later at the Magic Castle, of which he is a well-respected member, and where I gave a two-day seminar on the subject of deck switches and stand-up card magic. Ever since we have kept up a lively correspondence.

I assume that some of you are now curious about the questions I asked and the answers he gave. So I just wrote to Mike to ask his kind permission to reproduce some of them in my The Magic Memories. As is typical of him he graciously agreed, and also sent in additional information and some great photos, all of which will be one of the topics in The Magic Memories 214 in April. Stay tuned.

Remembering Dave Solomon

Last week I received the sad new of the passing of my good friend Dave Solomon (1944 – 2025) of Chicago.

I cannot say enough good things about the man and his magic, but I admit that writing about him at the moment is too taxing for me, as we were kindred spirits, sharing not only a passion for subtle card magic, but also other areas of interest; among other things he was a wine expert, and I will never forget the first bootle of Mondavi’s Opus One I had with him.

I’m moved to tears right now.

I intend to write more about him and our relationship, which was quite wonderful, with him and his wife Madeleine visiting with us in Switzerland, and me visiting with them several times in their home in Chicago.

Meanwhile, I refer you back to The Magic Memories 9 (!) of February 28th, 2021, where you can access an interview I did with Dave and which will give you an idea of his philosophy in magic and in life: CLICK HERE.

I took the photo below of Dave and his great friend Simon Aronson (1943–2019) on the occasion of my first visit to Chicago in 1996, where I stayed in Ginny’s and Simon’s apartment, and where I met Dave for the first time.

Review of Unexpected Agenda

Several reviews have appeared meanwhile on my Unexpected Agenda.

Here is one in English by Reviewer EndersGame that was published on various fora. Wonder if you agree with it 🙂

To read and download the review CLICK HERE.

On the Philosophy of Magic

For those who have not got Unexpected Agenda, and for those who do not read forewords (…), to close today’s The Magic Memories 213, I will quote from my own foreword, if I may.

The meaning of magic

People often ask why I practice magic, and after many years of dedication, I am beginning to grasp the answer. I engage in magic because of its inherent beauty. Everything about our craft possesses a unique beauty: the centuries-old manuscripts, books and teachings that have been handed down; the tools we use, such as decks of cards, intricately designed coins, and elegantly crafted props; and the precision of a well-executed sleight, the delicate handling of a deck and the artistry involved in creating illusions. Our workspaces, adorned with the tools of our trade – props that become instruments in the hands of the inspired performer – reflect the beauty of our art.

The finest magical performances are also beautiful. The moments of astonishment they create, the reactions they evoke and the connections they forge with an audience are all manifestations of beauty. Our methods of practice, the relentless pursuit of perfection and the ability to evoke wonder are beautiful as well. In a world often marked by division, selfishness and deception, the pursuit of beauty through magic might be one of the most endangered yet essential endeavors.

Dai Vernon once said that to excel at anything, one must devote one’s life to it. When, at the age of fourteen, I first discovered a magic book in the public library and fell in love with magic, I had no idea it would open the door to my future. I have indeed devoted my life to magic and though I never planned to become what I am, perhaps this lack of premeditation has contributed to my success.

Wish you all the best for the month of March!

I will be back with The Magic Memories 214 un Sunday, 6th April, at 0:07h sharp – make a note in your calendar so as not to miss it.

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Une vie d’artiste by Robert-Houdin; The Golden Rabbit Show; Peek & Glimpse Do as I Do

These are The Magic Memories 212, gone online Sunday, February 2nd, 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.

Here we are, at the beginning of the second month of the new year with a mixed bag of bits & pieces that currently occupy my time and mind.

Considering today’s shipping rates for books that are going through the roof, the higher costs for producing books, and the fact that a good portion of the recent publications recycle old ideas, I decided to go back to my own library and started rereading what I have, at least a small part of it… with over 3’500 volumes and more than thirty yards of magazines that should keep me busy for the rest of my life 🙂

A rough estimate that takes into account the slow reading pace that characterizes me, brings me to a theoretical life expectation of ca. 145 years, clearly a case where the difference between practice and theory is even bigger in practice than in theory.

What this means for you, dear reader, and these The Magic Memories, is that you will occasionally get a few flashbacks on classic and not-so-classic books, most of them obviously magic books (but not only).

I will start this month with one my all-time favorite books, Robert-Houdin’s autobiography.

Une vie d’artiste by Robert-Houdin

The original French title is Une vie d’artiste – Confidences d’un prestidigitateur (1858); one year later, in 1859, saw the publication in English as Memoirs of Robert-Houdin – Ambassador, Author, and Conjurer, edited by R. Shelton Mackenzie.

A quick search in Google took me to “The Project Gutenberg”, where you can read and download for free and legally (since it is out of copyright) the English text – CLICK HERE.

Since I have the original book in French, as well as the transitions in English and German, I did not bother downloading the text, but if you do, you can bring it into a format easily readable on a tablet.

However, a quick search on bookfinder.com will enlighten you to the fact that softcover editions can be purchased at the price of a pizza and a coke (plus tax, plus tip for our friends in the New World… all included in the Old World). And those who like e-reading will find their luck for a mere $8 (!!!) at library.com HERE.

It’s in the Name

Since his name is often misspelled, occasionally even by historians, let me clarify something about his name. His first name was Jean-Eugène, written with a hyphen and an “è”. These double first names are typical in many European languages (Hans-Peter, Jean-Pierre, Gian Luca), but not so frequent in the English language.

His last name was Robert. So his full name BEFORE he married, was Jean-Eugène Robert.

His wife’s family name was Houdin, which he added to his last name, making it Robert-Houdin (with a hyphen), now in full Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.

Therefore, whenever you read Robert Houdin without a hyphen – meaning “Robert” as first name and “Houdin” as family name, and combinations thereof – it is simply wrong.

Possibly the Best Biography

I have over two hundred biographies of important and less important magicians in my lybrary, and I have read all of them, some of them several times, but in my opinion none of them can match Robert-Houdin’s for depth and insight.

I believe that an autobiography, i.e., one written by the subject himself (please notify me if you know on an autobiography of a magicienne), is (almost) always superior to a biography written by someone else.

With Robert-Houdin several factors come together, that are absoluetly unique:

First, we have a genius who has had the importance and influence only very few in the history of magic have had, in a class with Hofzinser and Vernon, or Juan Tamariz, to mention a living one.

Second, he had a far above average capacity of introspection. There have been several brilliant exponents of the art of magic, but only very few were able to tell us something about their brilliance: where that brilliance comes from, how it manifests itself, what events, people, books, etc. made them into what they then became. These, of course, are some of the big questions, and frankly, these are the very questions that interest me most when I read a biography. By reading this autobiography you can really trace the events, thoughts and emotions that made the author one of the most significant figures in the panorama of magic.

Third, he was an excellent writer and was able to transmit his insights and feelings in a fascinating way. Granted, the language of the 1850s is certainly a bit more baroque than today, whether you read it in the original French or in one of the translations, and some might need to consult the dictionary occasionally, but then this is like having to dress up when you go to the Magic Castle: most of us will not want to do this every day, but for that special occasion it is acceptable to suffer a little bit 🙂

A Flash

The text in this book provides so many insights, inspirations and plain information that I would not know where to start if I had to tell you about it all.

Therefore just a “flash”: P. T. Selbit (1881 – 1938) has often been credited with inventing the illusion “Sawing a Woman in Half”. He most certainly invented a specific way of doing it and gave a detailed explanation of its construction and working, but the idea of the effect is already in this book by Robert-Houdin.

He tells of Torrini (CLICK HERE for info) who performed for the Sultan Selim in Constantinople (now Istanbul). In one of his tricks he has his assistant Antonio enter a wooden box, which he then saws in two (there you have the effect). When the box is subsequently opened,  two Antonios come out (Antonio and his twin sister Antonia dressed alike)! The person sawn in half has therefore not only survived the ordeal, it has also been split into two: of course, what else 🙂

I cannot remember ever having seen an illusionist do this effect, nor have I read or heard about it. The only “similar” idea I can think of, is Kevin James’ illusion where he cuts a man in half with a chainsaw (CLICK HERE if you have strong nerves)… but for my personal taste, as incredible as the effect is, it is a bit too much…

Epilogue

Anyway, I will not delve into more intricacies of Robert-Houdin’s life here, because if I did, the text might become longer than our hero’s autobiography… and believe me, I’m a specialist at lengthy texts 🙂 My sole purpose is to wet your appetite, and to get you to read the book, at least start doing it as you will not risk much – if you buy the $8 PDF this will be painless and easy.

PS: Robert-Houdin’s second book, the one where he talks shop, The Secrets of Conjuring and Magic (original French 1868, English translation 1877), you can get that at $9 HERE. This book would deserve an entire semester, if there was anything close to a university of magic (there is not, although some have used and are still using that label).

The Golden Rabbit Show

Last week my friend Claudio Viotto called me up and suggested we go to Zurich to see “The Golden Rabbit Show”, a full-evening magic show put up by colleagues of us, Peter Honegger and Tino Plaz (I have mentioned Tino’s remarkable talents in other blogs).

What a good idea this was, as we spent a delightful afternoon in Zurich: Fortunately, it was raining cats and dogs, which spared us to do the tourist thing in Zurich, Switzerland’s most cosmopolitan city that certainly merits visiting, but which we already knew quite well. So, instead, we sat in the bar of the Marriott Hotel Zürich with coffee and cocktails, discussing the complexities hidden away in the Dr. Daley Notebooks, a topic I can recommend to any advanced magic session.

And before getting to the show, I should mention that we had a quick dinner (90 minutes in the Old World is considered a very quick meal…) at the White Elephant, an Asian restaurant inside the Marriott hotel.

If anyone reads this who will be visiting Zürich shortly, take note: we ordered the “Pearl of Andaman” menu for two.

Although the waiter might try to talk you into taking a starter, etc., don’t. The dishes that come as part of the menu will feed you and satisfy the most discriminate palate… it did mine, and as a further proof of my immodesty I will say that this should hold true for 98.5% of all palates on this planet… (it is hard to be more fastidious about food than I am).

The restaurant, by the way, was of course only chosen because of its proximity to the theater where the show would take place 🙂

After a brisk 15-minute walk we reached the location, which is a cosy room that has the charm of a private home, complete with a small entry area, a one-man reception desk as well as a tiny bar.

In the last two decades Europe has seen the advent of several such locations, in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and other countries. A book could be written about them, their hosts and the magic that happens inside, and it would be an interesting book.

Peter Honegger, who has been renting the place for the past twenty years as his studio, started to convert it into a performance area only during the pandemic.

Yes, it seems a paradox, but he began with shows for a tiny group of four or five people, then extended it to today’s format that can take up to 35 spectators who each pay 50 Swiss Francs (ca. US$ 55 on FEB 2025) for the ticket. This provides a healthy financial situation, which pays for the studio and gives the two performers a dignified fee (this does not go by itself in small theaters like these).

The photo below gives you a rough idea of the situation, and you can also see that there are some small tables that allow for drinks to be consumed, served by the host himself.

Peter Honegger and Tino Plaz in The Golden Rabbit Show

As for the show itself, I do not want to give away too much, so will just say that the show, which starts at 8pm and ends at ca. 10pm with a 20-minute break in-between, is set up as a kind of amusing competition.

The audience is divided into ten teams, who each time after a trick is performed gets to guess how the trick is done, based on three delightfully absurd answers the hosts offer. The team that scores highest at the end, will get The Golden Rabbit Award, along with some exquisite Swiss chocolates wrapped into golden rabbit form and paper.

I hasten to add that nothing is revealed about the real working of the tricks, and that the magic is never reduced to its secret or that the secret could be the most important thing in magic. This is very much unlike the Fool us format, which focuses a lot on the fact that a magic trick has a secret, and that this secret is the essence of magic, and that once it has been found out, well, that’s it. Also, I would like to add as a purely personal thought, the term “to fool” obviously has to do with making someone look like a fool, which is the last thing we want people to think magic is about, and which is one of the reasons the intelligentsia doesn’t consider magic as an art form.

I was talking about this with Peter Honegger after the show. Now, Peter is an actor and a mime that later found his way into magic.

The larger part of his life was spent in theater, acting and coaching young would-be-actors. And he said that in the environment of the theatre practically nobody considers magic to be at the same level. However, once these people have witnessed a really good magic show, they make allowances. Personally, I do not think that theatre and magic are the same thing, although they certainly share some common aspects. Another big subject with lots of prejudices in the magic world…

Back to the show: Peter was very competent in his magic, but his focus was clearly that of an actor using magic as the subject of short plays. This is clearly the actor’s approach, and it was met with great success.

Tino Plaz, on the other hand, has the mind and the hands of a sleight-of-hand artist, which results in a different emotion and reaction in the audience. All his tricks were excellent, as was his consummate technique.

As a highlight I will briefly tease you with his pièce de résistance, the card in sealed glass canning jar. A spectator gets to closely check the glass and the screw top that hermetically seals it – this is placed aside on a small table and is in full view at all times (this is really the jar and the top that they have carefully examined, no switches have taken place). A card is selected and shuffled back into the deck, from where it vanishes. The spectator herself holds the jar between her hands. Suddenly the jar starts to fill with smoke, and when the fog clears out, a card suddenly appears and fills the glass! This looks like trick photography and causes a huge reaction in the audience. Tino then takes the card out and hands it out to the spectator… That’s one for the books.

Peek & Glimpse Do as I Do

And here is one for the road, since we won’t meet again for another month, a trick to think about, or to do, or both.

Effect: As in the standard “Do As I Do”, you and the spectator each think of a card, which eventually turn out to be the same!

Method: This is a quick version of “Do As I Do”. You and your assisting spectator each have a deck of cards that you both shuffle thoroughly and then cut.

Exchange the decks, “In case you do not trust me, I shall take your deck, and you take mine.” Although on second thought this in no way explains the exchange, years of practical use have shown that saying this with taken-for-grantedness makes the ploy fly by unnoticed.

Hold the deck you now have face down in Dealing Position, and have the spectator peek at a card, retaining a break under the peeked-at card. Immediately do a Glimpse from the center of the deck (e.g., Card College Volume 2, p. 359). Now you know the spectator’s card, e.g., the Four of Hearts. Set the deck face down on the table.

Ask the spectator to do the same thing to you with his deck, i.e., he riffles the deck in some way or another, and you look at a card. It really does not matter how clumsy the spectator handles the deck, just make it clear that you are “thinking” of a card from his deck, and he’s “thinking” a card from your deck.

Each one of you now shuffles one’s own deck once again.

Now, if you go back to what happened up to now, you’ll find it quite extraordinary, because unlike most other versions of this plot, the deck is shuffled before and after the selection is made…

Once again exchange the decks, the “logic” being that you get the deck from which you are thinking of card, and the spectator gets the deck from which he is thinking of a card.

Each one of you now places his thought-of card face down on the table: Upon turning them over they are seen to be miraculously the same!

The idea of this version occurred to me as I was running in my mind through my  Do As I Do Double Deck Switch, or any similar version of “Do As I Do” for that matter, and wondered what I would do if the spectator would insist in shuffling the deck once it had been exchanged and he was holding the stacked deck. Not that this ever happened to me, but it could, in theory…

Swiss Magic Convention

As you are reading this, I am still at the Swiss National Magic Convention organized by the Magischer Ring der Schweiz in Baden, a city between Basel and Zurich, and I will report about it in The Magic Memories 213.

Among other things, Lorenz Schär and I will give a ca. forty minutes presentation on “The History of Card Magic in Switzerland” – I bet you did not think there is one. Well, there is! Stay tuned.

Wish you now a most successful and happy February.

All the best!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: The “New” Magic Memories; Two Videos from YouTube Channel – Roberto Giobbi on One-way Backs & The Horowitz Poker Demo; Card Case Force

These are The Magic Memories 211, gone online Sunday, January 12^th, 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.

The “New” Magic Memories

Good and bad news.

The bad news first: As I announced in The Magic Memories 210, I will drop this blog if I do not get at least 99 orders for The Magic Memories 2024 – The Complete File.

This was of course not put up with the intention of “selling” it as such, but its main purpose was – as I had made clear – as a way to see how many cared for this blog to continue to the extent of spending five Euros.

I did receive less than fifty orders (although it occurred to one single person from Germany, who shall remain unnamed but profoundly thanked, to order FIVE copies of the PDF instead of just one, noting in the comment field that five Euros are ridiculous and not enough… I mention this not so much for the money, but because this example shows great “out-of-the-box thinking”, something all of us – including myself! – should practice more, especially in these difficult times…).

The good news (at least for the few who are reading this): First and foremost I would like to thank those who have “bought” the PDF, telling me loud and clearly that they enjoy The Magic Memories, and that they would like me to continue. Special thanks to all those who wrote in with warm words: Even though I might not have answered, please know that what you wrote is deeply appreciated. It breaks my heart to stop sharing The Magic Memories with you.

I have therefore decided to stop the weekly blog… and change it to a monthly installment, call it The “New” Magic Memories, thirteen issues, including this one and this year’s #210.

To read The “New” Magic Memories you have two options:

ONE: Make a note in your agenda to go to www.robertogiobbi.com, and click “News”, or access the list of ALL blogs, as you have done up to now, only that now it will be once a month (first Sunday of each month) instead of once a week.

Below are the publication dates you may want to note – FIRST Sunday of each month, as always at 0:07 o’clock sharp (Central European Time):

1. TMM 210 – JAN 5
2. TMM 211 – JAN 12
3. TMM 212 – FEB 2
4. TMM 213 – MAR 2
5. TMM 214 – APR 6
6. TMM 215 – MAY 4
7. TMM 216 – JUN 1
8. TMM 217 – JUL 6
9. TMM 218 – AUG 3
10. TMM 219 – SEP 7
11. TMM 220 – OCT 5
12. TMM 221 – NOV 2
13. TMM 222 – DEC 7

TWO: I plan on sending out a “Newsletter” as a reminder – with a direct link to the current issue of The Magic Memories for comfort 🙂 – to all who have officially registered for the “Newsletter”.

For reasons of data protection I am not allowed to put your email in that list. Also, laws having changed several times in the past few years, it might be that you are not on that list if you have not actively subscribed in the past 18 months or so.

So, please make sure you are on that list, and there is only one way of being sure: Take 20 seconds of your time, go to the webshop right now, and then put your email in the appropriate field as shown in the illustration below – you cannot miss it, TOP LEFT of the “home” screen, right under the “funny man with the fan” (me!).

Two Videos from YouTube Channel

As I was putting some order in the material I have uploaded to Internet in the past decade, I noticed that two videos from my YouTube Channel had “zero” clicks, which means that they were not visible (for reasons only IT knows…).

I have corrected this, and you can now view them, if you have the correct link (it is below).

Roberto Giobbi on One-way Backs

Video one is me giving a short talk on the use of one-way-back cards. This video is part of an online lecture I gave for Brent Geris’ The Magic Apple.

If you watch the clip, you will notice that I refer to the Card College Playing Cards, which have a one-way back design; very clever, if I may say so, as the mark is absolutely invisible, but if you know where to look, it will stick out like a sore thumb, exactly the way a secret marking needs to be – Brent Geris sent a deck to all participants who had registered for the lecture (what a man!).

Obviously, all I say can be applied to any type of one-way deck, no need to have the Card College Playing Cards.

One-way decks are little-used as far as I can say, but have some wonderful uses. If you have access to Hugard’s (ed.), Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, you will find a whole chapter on the subject which should keep you busy for several days… or you might want to check the 57 entries in Behr’s Archives HERE 🙂

Ref. the Card College Playing Cards: These decks are now no longer available except from me, as far as I know (CLICK HERE). Only 10’000 decks of each color have been produced, crimson red and royal blue. This is the minimal amount you have to print in order to get the manufacturer’s (USPC) premium stock, the best they have. And indeed, the cards are of superb quality (they faro out-of-the-box).

Furthermore, the Card College Playing Cards are standard cut top-down, the contrary to down-up (also called “traditionally cut”). The traditional cut has been hyped by card experts such as Richard Turner, who uses Tabled Faros a lot, and for that purpose such cards are not only excellent, but also imperative.

However, if you belong to the remainder 98% of the magicians doing card magic, and do not rely on your expertise to do a Tabled Faro in your paid performances in front of real people, but still want to use a Faro, most of all a Partial Faro (the most useful and frequent of all the Faro variations), and if you do that Faro top-down (not bottom-up), as taught in Card College Volume 3 – in my opinion the best way of doing it – then you want standard-cut cards, not traditionally-cut cards. Card College Playing Cards are standard cut cards.

To watch the 12-minute “mini-lecture” CLICK HERE.

The Horowitz Poker Demo

The second video is me performing the “Horowitz Poker Demonstration”. Although this trick is also part of the video course Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction,  this recording offers some different angles.

The original idea of the trick is in The Daley Notebooks (note #611), and I published my interpretation of it in Genii magazine (Vol. 7, No. 8). For details and access to credits and sources see Behr’s Archives by CLICKING HERE.

To watch the “Horowitz Poker Demo” from the Magic Apple Lecture CLICK HERE.

Card Case Force

This came about as a misunderstanding when searching for a related item in Stephen Minch’s Ken Krenzel’s Ingenuities and looking at the illustrations of “Shoe-in” (p. 31/32).

Krenzel’s handling forces the top card of the deck introduced face down into the card case. He attributes the inspiration to one Harry J. Smith, who had published his “Automatic Seconds” in Annemann’s The Jinx 1935 – 36 Winter Extra (p. 88). Upon closer studying Krenzel’s and Smith’s methods, I realized that my handling has a few interesting points in favor, so I submit it here for your perusal.

The card you want to force starts out on the bottom of the deck. The left hand holds the card case from above in Side Grip, flap on the underside, as the right hand introduces the deck face down into it. Immediately the deck is pulled out about a third of its length, and as it is adjusted, so that about half of the deck protrudes, the right forefinger engages the bottom card and pushes it back into the card case; it does not matter if you get several cards.

By briefly changing the hold on the case, the case can be shown from all sides, the flap effectively hiding the pushed-back card(s).

Start dealing cards from the bottom of the deck – drawing attention to this fact, of course, maybe saying that in this manner nobody could see marks on the backs of the cards, if there were any – until the spectator calls ‘stop’, whereupon you take out the balance of the deck and show the bottom card, apparently their selection. To take the cards out of the case, it is a natural action to slightly tilt the card case opening downward and “shake” the cards out of the case into the awaiting hand – almost every layperson does it that way (and too many “magicians”, too…). As you shake out the balance of the deck, the hidden card(s) will slide flush with the remaining cards.

Now show the bottom card.

Drop these cards on top of those already on the table, reinforcing the idea that the selection came from the center of the deck.

This is an interesting approach at having a card selected, but should only be used once in the same performance.

Naturally, you need a good reason to introduce the cards into the card case, and I leave it to your ingenuity to come up with one 🙂

That’s it for today. Make a note to come back to The Magic Memories (212) – a palindromic number I might add – make a note in your calendar for Sunday, February 2nd, 2025.

All the best!

Roberto Giobbi

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Happy New Year!

First and foremost, please receive my very best wishes – to you and your family – for 2025: May it bring you more good and memorable things and experiences, than anything else.

Unfortunately, the less welcome things are unavoidable, which makes me think of a very wise woman – St. Teresa of Ávila (1515 – 1582) – who maintained that one should not ask God for no burdens in life, but for strong shoulders to carry them (this quote has been varied and appropriated by many, but probably goes back to Greek mythology, where Atlas asked Zeus for broader shoulders to carry the world). This might not be as pleasant to hear as the lot of kitsch that is uttered and wished for in these first days of the year, but it certainly seems to be a very realistic assessment of how life really works.

Anyway, let’s make the best out of 2025 🙂

The Magic Memories 2024 – A Confession… and the PDF

As promised last week, I spent a few days drag & dropping each installment of last year’s The Magic Memories into one single word-file (later converted into a searchable PDF), then roughly correcting and reformatting the hundreds of photos and links contained therein, check their working, do small corrections, deletions and additions, etc.

I did keep these “changes” to a minimum, mainly corrected obvious typos and streamlined the basic layout, all this to preserve the flavor of the original, which is – like it or not – just what it is…

As I went through each page, I was reminded of the many entries I had forgotten about… and if I, as the author, forgot them, how about you, the reader 🙂

So I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of diverse material: techniques, tricks, presentational ideas, professional opinions and advice, anecdotes, biographies, reports of all types (conventions, travels, lectures, shows, etc.), trick problems to be solved…

Some of the blogs took me almost a full day to write, some took less (I did take off on about half a dozen occasions), but I estimate that I spent an enjoyable ca. three hours on average per blog, resulting in over 150 working hours. (The new minimal wage imposed by law in Switzerland as of 2025 is different in each of the 26 cantons, but averages a 23 Swiss Francs, i.e. $25.50/€24.50, so I let you do your own math…)

Yes, the time spent on writing the texts, researching the content, finding photos, videos and links, etc., created the elated feeling that any writer knows, and that can be compared to the euphoria some joggers report about, with the difference that as a writer you do not have to change clothes before and after jogging and also you do not have to take a shower after each good time – this saves a lot of time, in which books are written, some of which are entertaining and instructional, some even both. Whereas  I cannot think of any significant contribution to the history of civilization from a jogger, except that in the exertion of their sport they kill dozens of useful insects on their trails…

Nonetheless, despite all the pleasure involved in producing these Magic Memories, after a few years (four!) it wears off. Maybe for you as readers it does too?

I have thought several times about stopping this projects, and have also said so, but was then each time uplifted by the several reactions I got from some of you, my dear readers (you know who you are!).

I have therefore decided to try a little experiment: Instead of giving the PDF away for nothing, I will charge a little something. How much? Well, how about 52 (the number of blogs) with 7 (the number of days it can bring enjoyment), resulting in €752? Or, even better, how about €5.07 (yes, FIVE Euros and SEVEN Cents – I let you find the logic in this one…).

Obviously, you do not need this PDF, as the content of all blogs are readily available HERE.

So, why spend that horrendous amount of money (€5.07)?

First, for a practical reason: You get all together, you can search for any term you like (Fred Kaps, Pass, Escuela Magica de Madrid…); you can extract your favorite paragraphs and create your very own Favorite Memories 2024; you can highlight, underline, add comments, etc., to the PDF; you can flag the pages that have interesting content for you and thus create your very own “Table of Content”… and so much more.

Second, without too much effort nor sacrifice, you can tell me that you like The Magic Memories, and say “thank you” without having to search for words and write a letter with profuse comments 🙂 Essentially, you can show your support and consent.

I’m curious to see how this works. If I get over 99 “reactions”, I will interpret this as a positive sign that will motivate me to continue The Magic Memories, if I get less, I will drop the project.

To get the searchable complete file of The Magic Memories for the year 2024, CLICK HERE.

Corrigenda to Unexpected Agenda

Unexpected Agenda seems to have reached everyone who ordered it from me, and I thank everyone who sent in comments and words of praise (I assume that if there are readers, who are not pleased with the book, they have the decency of keeping their opinion to themselves).

Denis Behr sent a list of welcome comments and corrections, and I thought that some of you might be interested in those. So, here is a short PDF that lists everything we have found up to now (CLICK HERE).

If you find any obvious typos, errors or other things to comment on, please send them along, as always using the “contact” menu-item in the webshop. I very much doubt that there is going to be a second edition (the first edition is of 1’800 copies), but if there is, I will certainly incorporate all changes (and there might be an e-book/PDF available sometime in the future).

Also, it is a pleasure and an honor to know that so many top names in magic are reading my books… the photo below shows Joachim Solberg, one of Denmark’s top professionals, and an international underground legend, got Unexpected Agenda from his wife as a gift for Christmas (I deduct from this that they are having a happy marriage…).

How can I make my card handling appear relaxed and natural?

My dear friend Claudio Viotto keeps sending in good ideas. He informed me that AI, e.g. ChatGPT, could be instructed to assume the identity of a certain person, and then answer as if that person was asked. That is an interesting concept I did not know, and some of you might not either.

He gave ChatGPT the following instruction, and then asked a question:

Act as the world-renowned card magician and author, Roberto Giobbi. How can I make my card handling appear relaxed and natural?

Here is what ChatGPT answered:

As the world-renowned card magician and author Roberto Giobbi, I can say that achieving a natural and relaxed handling of playing cards is an art in itself, requiring patience, practice, and a precise methodology. Here are some fundamental principles that can help you master this skill:

1. Internalize the Technique
   • Practice each technique until it becomes second nature to you. The goal is to perform the movements without thinking.
   • Start slowly to learn the correct sequences. Speed is not the goal; rather, it’s a natural result of precise practice.
2. Observe Natural Card Handling
   • Watch how non-magicians hold, shuffle, and deal cards. Their movements often appear more natural because they’re not performing tricks.
   • Incorporate these natural movements into your repertoire, blending them seamlessly with your magical techniques.
3. Minimize Finger-Fidgeting
   • Avoid unnecessary or exaggerated movements with the cards. Every motion should serve a clear purpose.
   • Keep your hands calm and relaxed, even when executing secret actions.
4. Refine Your Dexterity
   • Regularly practice basic card handling skills, such as shuffling, fanning, or cutting, to develop a feel for the cards.
   • Play with the cards while doing other activities (like watching TV or listening to audiobooks) to make handling feel more intuitive.
5. Work on Your Posture
   • Your overall posture impacts how your card handling is perceived. Stand or sit in a relaxed manner, with open, inviting gestures.
   • Hold the cards loosely, without tension—this signals confidence.
6. Use Rhythm
   • Every movement should flow in a smooth rhythm. A natural, even tempo helps to mask any secret techniques.
   • Pauses can be just as important as the movements themselves. Use them to highlight key moments.
7. Record Yourself
   • Film yourself while practicing and performing. Observe how your movements come across and identify areas that seem unnatural or unsure.
   • Learn to assess yourself critically and objectively.
8. Perform for Laypeople
   • Performing for non-magicians is the ultimate test of naturalness. They respond to the overall presentation, not individual techniques.
   • Their feedback—whether conscious or unconscious—is invaluable in assessing the natural effect of your handling.
9. Consider the Context
   • Tailor your card handling to suit the context. When telling a story or in casual conversation, your handling should appear effortless and incidental.
10. Enjoy the Moment

• Magic arises from the connection between you and your audience. When you are relaxed and present in the moment, this will be reflected in your handling.

Remember: There is no shortcut to mastery. The journey itself is part of the joy. Practice intentionally but with ease, and over time, your card handling will be as magical as the effects you create with them.

End of Roberto Giobbi aka ChatGPT Sermon.

RG comments in two parts

I left the text by ChatGTP completely unchanged, and would like to make two comments.

Part 1: As you will agree, especially those of you who are already experts, practically all answers make sense, although some could be more specific. As such they are, in my opinion, more motivational than practically useful.

Part 2: What is missing in the otherwise fairly good advice, is the most important thing, namely how to instill that specific piece of advice. In order to really understand and make the information your own, you do need a specific sleight or even better a specific trick, which is described in such detail, that it will identify the concept and tell you how to practically use it.

And this can only be achieved in three ways, as far as I know: one, thorough written instruction, two, through video, three, through personal coaching.

Lots more to say, but let’s leave it at this for today 🙂

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Feedback on Automatic Placement Force; Genesis of “The Lucky Coin”; Ottos’ Double Lift & Otto’s Visio Magica (Otto’s Magical Nightmare); PDF of “The Complete The Magic Memories 2024”

These are The Magic Memories 209, gone online Sunday, December 29, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Did the year fly by for you as well?

You are now reading the final issue of the 2024 volume of The Magic Memories. This is the perfect moment to thank you – for your extraordinary loyalty, your kind letters, your suggestions, and your constructive criticism.

I thought I would use today’s The Magic Memories to wrap up a few issues that have still remained open, and provide some tentative answers – no answers being ever definitive – to questions that might have been left.

Feedback on Automatic Placement Force

In last week’s The Magic Memories (208) I posed a problem to be solved, namely how to avoid using a limited number of cards in the Automatic Placement Force, and instead use the entire deck. If you do not know what I am talking about or forgot, do a quick check-back HERE.

Two gentlemen sent in their solutions, and it is my pleasure to share them here with you.

The first comes from Claudio (with no more information on his person), and I’ll reproduce his two ideas below without editing – I think that both ideas are doable, provided you keep up a swift pacing as you are doing the counting, and, of course, put this into a presentational context that makes sense.

Here is what I believe are two viable solutions to the problem:

1. Say that you’ll need a few cards yourself and reverse count 20 cards. Then, as if changing your mind, say that to avoid suspicion that you are counting the remaining cards in the deck, you will actually use the entire deck (talon). You place the dealt cards on top of the left-hand cards and spread the deck out to make counting easier.

2. My preferred handling is this: memorise the 26th card from the bottom while using a faro check. Have the spectator cut a few cards from the top to count them. Meanwhile overhand shuffle the talon to peel the top 5 cards to the bottom, then say that you’ll need a few cards yourself and count 6 groups of 3 and one group of 2 cards, without reversing them, into right hand. Stop counting using the same pretext as in solution 1. and drop the 20 cards onto the table. Drop the remaining cards on top of it – it’s better to keep dropping packets until the cards are exhausted.

Put the deck near the spectator and spread the cards towards you. Ask them to count to their card starting from their end.

There are of course many other handlings using sleight of hand and Faros in particular.

By the way, if you don’t have to know before hand which card will be forced, you don’t have to peek at it as there are handlings that allow you to control the card to a specific position in the deck after the 21st (or whatever) card got forced.

The next solution comes courtesy of Victor Ruan, from Savas-Mépin in France (not so far from the city of Lyon):

‌Hello Mr Giobbi

I might have come up with a humble solution to the problem of naturalness of the counting of 20 cards you shared with us in your latest (and always appreciated) Magic Memories.
It could fit, I suppose, with a style of magic where the magician is a bit “lost”.

As the person (let’s say on the right) counts the packet of cards they just cut, the performer starts counting two piles of ten cards while saying something like “now we have to make a few piles of cards” and as if the perfomer just thought of it, or maybe a spectator has the time to notice it, “but you might think I could know the number, if I count all the rest”. The performer then takes the two packets of ten, puts them back on top of the deck, then ribbon spreads them all on the table, and then turns to the left while hiding his eyes with the right hand. “Now, look at the card at the position of your number” The position of the body and the spectator being on his right should force him to count from the right of the spread, and that way, counting to the force card.

I don’t know how practical it could be in real performance situation, but it appeared to be giving a reason to the counting. And the possible advantage is that no emphasis has to be made on the number 20.
The counting is still a bit long in my opinion, because you have to count one by one to reverse the cards. Another solution could be to start making a ribbon spread by counting one by one, and after 20 cards, going the same as before, after making the two packets.

I also take advantage of this message to thank you very much for signing Card College 5 you sent me not long ago, as I didn’t already.

I wish you the best, and Happy Holidays !

Victor Ruan

As you will appreciate, Victor’s solution is very similar to Claudio’s first idea… and there is a concept here: Counting off cards for some kind of not so apparent purpose.

Wonder if the counting of the 20 cards could be done as 4 times 5 cards (4 poker hands?), adding an in-between-effect before turning back to the first spectator who counted the cut-off packet, thus making the counting have a purpose?

Genesis of “The Lucky Coin”

In The Magic Memories 206 (CLICK HERE to backlink) I offered a few additional thoughts to “The Lucky Coin”, one of my reader’s favorite tricks from Card College Volume 1.

There I promised to shed some light on the genesis of this simple but most effective performance piece.

The idea of a coin and a miniature card, although as part of another effect, is mentioned in SPHINX, Vol 30, OCT 1931. For a more readable PDF of the photo below CLICK HERE.

Ravelli’s (Ronald Wohl) “A Matchin’ Card” in The Gen (Vol 11, No. 7, NOV 1955) has a card appear under a matchbox, but not yet the location/discovery sucker construction. For a PDF of the article CLICK HERE.

An expanded version of the trick published in The Gen (1955), still using a matchbox and not a coin,  but now with the presentational approach and final sucker effect as used by myself in Card College 1, is by Ravelli in Hokus Pokus (1958, Nr. 1, S. 611 ff). This is in German, but ChatGTP will translate the text in less than 10m seconds into English. The PDF OCRed, so you can do this swiftly. I give you the complete issue of the magazine, as it is of some historical relevance: Initiated by Ron Wohl, it was the first of a series of issues that had the members of a local club of the Swiss Magic Club introduce themselves with a short bio and a trick. You will find Ron’s trick under discussion on p. 611 (p. 40 of the PDF). CLICK HERE for the PDF.

Finally, there is Eddie Fields’s “Dropsy Diddle” (p. 65) from The Artful Dodges of Eddie Fields (1968), which features the coin, the gag and the Top Change. Thanks to Denis Behr for this addition, which brings the subject (almost) full circle. We still do not know who brought together the elements (where did Fields get the idea from?).

Also see The Magic Memories (106) for additional thoughts on this subject.

Ottos’ Double Lift

I just spent another pleasant afternoon with Otto Wessely, who is still performing with his wife Christa at the Palazzo Colombino in Basel.

Otto was determined to finally learn to do a Double Lift, and I agreed that 79 is certainly the right age to do so; furthermore he could do the trick next year, at his 80th birthday, and mystify everyone (provided he can still remember it).

Faced with the situation of seriously teaching the Double Lift to Otto, reminded me of Dai Vernon, who came up with the “Simple Turnover Switch” (Card College Volume 4, p. 813), after being asked for an alternative to the Curry Turnover Change by someone who found the latter too difficult.

Having only a fraction of Vernon’s genius, I still came up with a way of doing the Double Lift in a sort of “sleightless” manner, and I even tried to put this into the context of a little trick.

Maybe you are interested in what I came up with, in case you want to teach a layperson, or a child, or a member of a magic club (hey, just kidding!), a simple trick that involves a Control and a Double Lift, and will even mystify a well-disposed and favorable audience. For lack of a better title, let’s call this…

Otto’s Visio Magica (Otto’s Magical Nightmare)

Before starting, reverse the second card from the bottom of your deck, and you are all set; the two bottom cards are your “Key Card Block”. I told Otto to do this as the first trick, taking the set-up deck from the card case, so as not having to worry about the One-handed Half Pass of a Single Card (see Card College Volume 007), which I would teach him on his next visit…

In the first phase you will have a card selected, replaced, and in the process position the “Key Card Block” on top. A simple way of doing this is to deal cards face down in a heap on the table – singly or in small groups – and ask the spectator to call stop. When he does, have him look at the top card of the tabled packet, show it to everyone, and then replace it where he took it from. (If you are familiar with the “This-This-or-Any-Other-Card Strategy” from Confidences, this is the place to use it.)

To control the selection, simply use the “Whoops!” Control from Card College Volume 1 (p. 67), to wit: Spread the deck face down between your hands until you reach the face up card (“Whoops, that’s from the last trick…”), which you then righten, in the process cutting the deck at this point. The selection ends up second from the top of the deck. The following little shenanigan is a sleightless way of obtaining a break under two cards, in preparation for the upcoming Double Lift.

Deal the first two cards face down on the table, one on top of the other, thus reversing their order, as you explain, “What you are about to see is not one of those boring dealing tricks… but a miracle.” As you end this short sentence, you have already picked up the two cards and replaced them on top of the deck, however, you have retained a break underneath them. The top card is now the selection, and the second from the top an indifferent card.

“I take the card that happens to be on top…” With your right hand seize the two cards as one from above, holding them at their ends (End Grip), and show the face of the double, e.g., the Eight of Hearts.

Continue, “Please stretch out your hand.” Say, “Oh, put the hand 7.35 inches over the table, please…” In an In-transit Action replace the double on top of the deck, thus freeing your right hand, with which you adjust the spectator’s hand to the “correct height”…

Immediately take the top card of the deck in exactly the same grip as before, and then place it face down on the spectator’s palm, which you ask him to cover with his other hand.

Riffle the cards in your hands toward to spectator’s hand, and then ask him to turn it over – the Eight of Hearts will have magically transformed into the previously selected card… that’s the effect.

Some of you will recognize in this a simplified version of “A Double Lift” and “A Card in Hand” from Card College Volume 1 (p. 129 and p. 133).

You may (or you may not) want to add a “kicker”: Just after riffling the deck, and as the audience reacts, you still have your right hand over the deck and can thus easily push its top card into the right hand that grabs it, and then pulls it out of the pocket, saying, “And the Eight of Hearts is obviously in my pocket… obvious, Watson, obvious…” Maybe. Or leisurely place it under your posterior, and a little later reveal that you have been sitting on it all the time…

PDF of “The Complete The Magic Memories 2024”

The past few days I have been working on putting together all of this year’s The Magic Memories in one single document (ca. 250 pages!!!), and am waiting to add this last one, as soon as it has gone online.

You will then have all of the contributions together and can search for the subject(s) you are most interested in, or peruse the whole thing again to extract what interests you most, thus creating your very own “Best of…”

So, check back on Sunday, 5th January 2025, as always at 00:07 o’clock sharp, to read The Magic Memories 210 and find out how to obtain the PDF!

Meanwhile… I wish you all a successful start into 2025!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Thank-You Letter; Automatic Placement Force; Happy Holidays!

These are The Magic Memories 208, gone online Sunday, December 22, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Thank-You Letter

A few Memories back, I mentioned thank-you-letters and that I would briefly discuss the topic if anyone was interested.

Meanwhile, a few wrote in, so, here are a few thoughts on the subject of writing a thank-you note after a booking.

Before, During, and After

The impression of professionalism isn’t confined to the performance itself. While the “show” is undeniably the essence of it all, your interaction with the client before and after the event is equally important.

I’ve previously discussed how vital the “pre-show” phase is—not the mentalist’s pre-show, but the time spent contacting and discussing the event’s execution with your client, from start to finish.

Based on what the client shares, you can recommend the type of performance that would best suit their function.

As I explained earlier, I manage this process with the help of a single call and a contact sheet. If you’re new to The Magic Memories, you can download the one-page PDF by CLICKING HERE.

After the Event

Today, let’s focus on closing the circle of interaction with your client after the (hopefully) successful event has concluded.

Over five decades of performing, my approach to this has evolved, but the essence has remained consistent: I write a thank-you letter (or, more recently, an email).

In the early years, I always wrote handwritten letters, which aligned with my style of living, performing, and the expectations of my generation. (For context, I began performing at around 15, became semi-professional at 18, turned professional at 28, and am now 65.)

When the internet arrived, email became the standard communication method. However, over the past decade or so, I’ve returned to sending handwritten cards featuring designs related to magic—most often playing card motifs.

In Hidden Agenda, entry for July 13th, I have briefly mentioned this subject. (For better readability CLICK HERE.)

When performing for private parties, I would always send a hand-written card, but for corporate events that require an invoice, I still resort to email and attach the invoice as a PDF.

Below you can see an example of such a letter. The [numbers in square brackets] refer to my comments below the letter, if you are interested.

Dear Mrs. xy

Thank you very much for kindly booking me on the occasion of your event. [1]

I am delighted that you and the guests in attendance enjoyed my magic so much, and I hope that some will occasionally remember it when reflecting on the event.[2]

As agreed, I am attaching the invoice as a PDF file and kindly request payment within 10 days.  [3]

Please send me a brief confirmation that you have received this email (email can unfortunately be unreliable at times).  [4]

I would be happy to hear from you again on another occasion and, until then, I wish you all the best.  [5]

With my warmest regards to you and the entire team!  [6]

Roberto Giobbi

Comments on Thank-You Letter

[1] I always address the email to the person who booked me, repeating the name of the event and its location. I usually add a comment about the beauty or originality of the venue. While this detail isn’t included in the example email, I mention it here because it adds a personal touch. Over the years, I’ve performed in some truly strange and unusual locations. Before GPS, part of the adventure was simply finding the place!

[2] I include a positive statement about my performance, subtly reminding the client how well the show was received and emphasizing its memorability. More often than not, my clients are repeat customers. During our conversations, they often mention seeing me at a past event—perhaps five years ago. I’ll jokingly respond that I sell memories, and that my fee isn’t just for the 40-minute show but for the years they’ll remember it. Of course, that’s not entirely a joke—it’s the truth! Feel free to use this approach if it resonates with you.

[3] I tactfully address the “necessary evil” of payment, weaving it into compliments and kind words. For many years—and still occasionally today—I’ve preferred being paid in cash after the show, providing a legal receipt or a pre-prepared invoice. In some parts of Europe, there has been a tradition (perhaps still alive) of paying theater actors and opera singers in cash during intermissions. I often mention this custom, even if it’s no longer prevalent, as most clients are unaware and usually accept the suggestion. Of course, if they prefer another payment method, I have a “no-hassle guarantee.” As I state during negotiations, I’ll accommodate their requests—within reason.

[4] A key subtext of my email is a request for an endorsement. Clients rarely reply without also mentioning how well the event went, how much they enjoyed the performance, and how happy they were to have me. In the days of snail mail, I used to include a “PS” asking for a short endorsement if they were pleased with my work. To encourage a response, I enclosed a self-addressed, elegant envelope featuring a rare stamp—making it hard to ignore or discard. Over the years, I’ve accumulated a binder full of glowing endorsements, many of which I featured in my brochures.

[5] Asking for repeat business is essential. For years, I included a second “PS”—a “PPS”—highlighting my additional offerings. I mentioned my talks on the psychology of deception, creativity, and communication, as well as my ability to create tailored presentations for kick-off meetings, product launches, and trade shows. This is a subject we can explore further if you’re interested.

[6] This final step is vital and must align with your personality and the relationship you’ve built with the client. I believe I’m a good communicator because I genuinely enjoy people and love what I do. When I sign off with “warm regards,” it’s a sincere and authentic sentiment. As in magic, the same principle applies to personal and business relationships: Be natural and be yourself, as Dai Vernon famously advised. A little exaggeration is permissible, but don’t overdo it.

There’s much more to be said on this subject and its related topics, but if even one idea from this discourse resonates with you, I trust your time reading it has been well spent.

Automatic Placement Force

Here is a technical concept with which you can play around during the holidays (among other things, I hope…), and if you manage to meet the challenge at the end of its description, let me know, so we can share your insight with the rest of the readership.

The “Automatic Placement Force” is a very old mathematical Force. I will first describe the “standard” handling of the principle, then comment on a few ideas of mine that could be used to make the proceedings more natural and interesting, and finally formulate  problem you might be able to solve.

Here is, first, the standard handling:

Place the card to be forced at position twenty-one from the top of the face-down deck. One way of achieving this result, is to glimpse the top card (force card), bring five x-cards on top with an Overhand Shuffle or a Riffle Shuffle, and then perform two Slough-off Faros, shuttling the force card to position twenty-one. Or gain knowledge of the twenty-first card in the course of a previous trick (see “The Circus Card Trick” in Card College Light, p. ).

Explain that you need a number, but in order not to take advantage that people keep saying the same number, like seven or three, ask a spectator to cut off a small packet from the top of the deck and to count it under the table to herself, e.g., nine.

Meanwhile deal twenty cards face down from left to right in a ribbon-spread configuration on the table.

Count from right to left, i.e., from the top of the ribbon-spread, to the ninth card: This will be the force card.

Now let me raise a few issues.

The forcing procedure just described has three problems:

First, a technical problem, i.e., how do you bring a known card to be forced to the twenty-first position from the top of the deck. In the explanation above I already gave you two solutions (there are more, of course).

Second, a dramatic problem, i.e., how do you motivate the procedural part of having to cut off a packet, counting the cards, etc., and make this interesting. I gave you one solution.

Third, a dramatic and psychological problem, i.e., why are you counting off a reduced number of cards (twenty). I did not give you a solution for this problem…

One solution is to find a presentational way of staging the twenty cards so that it makes sense, e.g., “Today is the 20th of the month, so I’ll count off twenty cards…”, or, “Since it is your twentieth birthday, I’ll count off twenty cards…”, or, “It is right now twenty past seven, so I’ll count off twenty cards…”.

Possible, but not that good…

Maybe, “According to a little-known theory, twenty is a magic number. The theory, by the way, is my own, and I have not yet been able to scientifically prove it…” Acceptable; at least that would work for my performance style.

However, would it not make more sense to use the complete balance of the deck, rather than counting off a specific amount of cards? However, the mathematical principle requires that the top twenty cards (general formula: x-1, x=21) be reverse counted, in which case you could indeed use the complete balance. But how do you reverse the order of the top twenty cards (running twenty cards during an Overhand Shuffle is lengthy… and risky)?

If you can come up with a solution, you will have contributed something original to this age-old force.

An excellent application of this force, by the way, is Paul Harris’ “Overkill” from his  Art of Astonishment 2 (p. 183), originally published in Close-up Fantasies 1.

Happy Holidays!

For all of you who celebrate Christmas I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas, and for all others Happy Holidays!

PS: Regardless of what you do believe or do not believe, it is simply nice and useful to take a little break, to get together with family and friends, and to have a special lunch and dinner, which you don’t have everyday, and to spend time together with uplifting conversations. (By all means try the “Sicilian-Blood-Orange Salad” described on December 24th in the Unexpected Agenda, p. 371, as this will please virtually every palate.)

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Otto Wessely and Christa (& Hans-Peter Wodarz); Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West; Irv Weiner Video (P. G. Varola); The Buzz

These are The Magic Memories 207, gone online Sunday, December 15, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

This week has seen quite a bit of activities, with visits from magic friends from different countries.

Otto Wessely and Christa

Otto Wessely and Christa, both originally from Vienna, but now from Paris – they have been living there for at least the last two decades – are currently appearing within the Palazzo Colombino dinner show in Basel, Switzerland. To see the artists of this year’s program CLICK HERE.

To get an idea of how the gorgeous setting looks, in which the dinner-show takes place, CLICK HERE.

As far as I know, the idea of bringing in a Michelin-star-level cuisine into a luxury show-tent was by Hans-Peter Wodarz who started out as a chef in Die Ente vom Lehel in Wiesbaden, Germany. This has now become a franchising thing with tents and dinner-shows in several European cities.

Speaking of Wodarz: Many years ago, in my beginnings as a professional (ca. 1989), the managementI I then had in Germany booked me to do close-up for a whole evening at the Ente vom Lehel, which celebrated a special event and was full of “special guests” (I performed until two o’clock in the morning).

I was paid a handsome fee, and the reason I remember this is that at the cocktail time preceding the evening dinner, they had also booked Harald Juhnke (1929–2005), a famous actor and TV-personality, who had a reputation to be able to hold his drink…

Herbert Löw, who was then my manager, took me aside at some point during the cocktail and said to me, “You see that man, Harald Juhnke, he’s booked for about one hour just to be here at the cocktail, shake hands with people and have a drink  (or two..) with the guests. For this he gets 10’000 Deutschmark.” A lesson in showbiz for Young Giobbi…

Back to Otto: Otto and Christa, along with André Hieronymus from Berlin – André is working in a similar event location as Otto in the east of Switzerland – came to our house for an extended brunch, and we spent a formidable afternoon with lots of stories and anecdotes.

A highlight was trying to teach Otto a Double Lift… we didn’t even get as far as how to obtain a break, let alone turning over two cards. This was partly my fault, as I tried to explain to Otto the difference between a Double Lift and a Double Turnover, and then got lost in a historical mini-lecture…

Otto certainly deserves a book, and there actually is one, an auto-biography, which he originally wrote in French, and that also appeared in German. They are planning an English edition, and I suggested as a sub-title: “… An Otto-biography”.

If you are reading this and belong to the young generation who has never heard of Otto Wessely (nor of Fred Kaps, Dai Vernon or Slydini… incredible but true), let alone seen his show, you can get an idea of why his comedy magic act is so innovative, brilliant and simply world-class – to watch CLICK HERE.

PS: Otto just wrote in sharing a link to his full-evening show at the Avignon Festival.

Warning: Otto does the vanishing cigarette naked (I remember seeing him do this live in a Swiss night club years ago), and Christa a (black light) striptease.

So, if you don’t mind nudity, this is something to behold 🙂 CLICK HERE.

Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West

In The Magic Memories 205, in the sub-chapter “Gastronomy and Magic”, I discussed gastronomy as a means of interdisciplinary study, i.e., looking at the structure and problems in other disciplines, and to then try to apply their solutions to our magic.

I’ve done this before, of course, and here is another short comment concerning construction in movie-making and magic.

The other night I was watching Once Upon a Time in the West for the n-th time – I think I have seen it about once a year in the past thirty years.

If the definition of a classic book is that you discover something new or something you have forgotten each time you read it, well, the same applies to a classic movie.

This is one reason why I don’t get tired of watching this particular movie, so many details… details being by far the most important thing (says Holmes to Watson).

Another reason is that it manages to catch my attention from the very beginning and retain it until the very end, where the conflicts(s) that were built up over a period of over two hours, are resolve within the last few minutes, so that everyone can understand it (unfortunately not the case with many modern films).

How does he – Sergio Leone – do it?

Mike Skinner used to say (correct me if I’m wrong), “Every move a picture.” He meant it as a comedic line, but in the context of this short discussion it receives a new connotation.

Focusing on the “pictorial construction” (not sure this is the technical term…), I am impressed by the fact that every single take is meaningful in some way: it provides us with a new piece of information, it reminds us of something we should not forget, it shows the same thing but from a different angle, it adds emotion creating suspense, etc.

Looking at the movie from this point of view, I realized that every scene – actually every take in every scene – is a “picture” in itself that speaks in words, music and image to our logos and pathos: it challenges our intelligence, evokes our emotions, and does this in a beautiful way.

Being a person sensible to explicit violence, I particularly appreciate that there is not one single moment/image (as far as I can remember!), that displays obvious violence, something modern films are full of.

One of the possibly most delicate moments is when Frank (Henry Fonda) shoots Patrick (Stefano Imparato), Brett McBain’s (Frank Wolff) son… shooting a child is sort of a tabu in film-making. Leone solves it in pure Hitchcock manner: nothing to see, all to imagine.

Now, in magic, in my opinion, the strongest and most memorable magic is the one that plays to the imagination, not just to the eye. As an example, most mental magic, for my taste, is too much abstraction, too verbose and too procedural.

On the other hand, flourish-type magic – especially as practiced by the young generation and on Internet – is too much “candy for the eye”.

To me, a mix is ideal, in various proportions, depending on the trick.

Take “Coins Through Table”: All props (instruments!) and procedures are visible to the eye, but the magic – the actual penetration – is left to the imagination. Intelligent, visual magic at its best.

Same thing with a color change: If you use a mechanical card with visibly moving pips it is certainly surprising and amusing, causing a reaction, but if you briefly cover a card with the hand, and it then changes, it is more mysterious, magical and memorable (come to think of it: these are “The Three Ms”…). Needless to say that all of this needs to be done technically impeccably… si capisce.

Anyway, you might want to watch the movie (again) under this aspect, and if you don’t agree, you have at least watched a great movie 🙂

Irv Weiner Video

Last week my friend P. G. Varola from Italy shared a rare private video with me.

P. G. might not be known to the majority in the magic world. As a matter of fact, you could say that he is famous for being unknown, as in the “underground”he is a respected scholar and performer.

The short private film he sent is available on YouTube, however, like other such pearls, you have to know where and how to find it…

The video shows Irv Weiner doing some pretty amazing things, possibly best of all his one-card vanish, perfect to make the last card travel in an “Cards up the Sleeve” routine (at ca. 04:00), which caused P.G. to quote Max Maven, who used to say of such things, “A thing of terrible beauty”.

To watch the video CLICK HERE.

PS: I’ve discussed Irv Weiner and some of his magic in The Magic Memories 158, in the sub-chapter titled “Irv Weiner aka Mr. Fingers”, with a link to another video showcasing this man’s talent, and you might want to take a look at that by CLICKING HERE.

The Buzz

Cannot remember if I ever mentioned this, but there are a few young chaps in the Netherlands who do some excellent magic (remember that Fred Kaps, Tonny van Dommelen, Di Sato, Richard Ross, Ger Copper, Scott the Magician and Muriel, all from the Dutch school of magic, were FISM Grand Prix winners…) – and they publish an e-magazine called The Buzz.

In their editorial they write: “Our magazine is meant to be read by everybody, so feel free to share.”

So, here it is – to download an issue of the The Buzz, CLICK HERE.

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Update & Comment on Unexpected Agenda; Advent Calendars; On “The Lucky Coin” from Card College Volume 1

These are The Magic Memories 206, gone online Sunday, December 8, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Update & Comment on Unexpected Agenda

All of you who are in Europe should have received Unexpected Agenda by now. I hope you like it 🙂

Most of you will start reading through it, but I encourage you to focus on the current day at the end of each reading to fully take advantage of the “trigger function” Unexpected Agenda and the other agendas have.

And don’t forget to flag your favorite days, in order to make a personal PDF at the end of the year (call it: My Personal Unexpected Agenda).

Those with an address in USA, Canada, or other countries outside of Europe, should receive it by the end of the next week.

If you do not receive the book by then, please send me a short email, and I’ll check the tracking (all books outside of Europe are tracked and insured, although I really hope not to have to use this feature, as it is time-consuming and laborious to go through all the forms necessary for the complaint process…).

One last thing: Several wrote in complimenting me on the production (Thank you!), saying that they look forward to start reading the book on January 1st.

Sure, you may do that, but who says you cannot start the very day you receive the agenda?

After all the term “agenda” has to be understood in a metaphorical sense: It is not a paper day planner”, or “calendar” as its virtual counterpart in form of apps are called, it is just what I hope is an attractive “dressing” for many good ideas.

So, if you have the book, by all means start reading it NOW!

…and make sure not to miss the item on December 24th, a recipe for a delicious starter at Xmas, and easy to do – even easier than the tricks in the Card College Light books 🙂

Talking of recipes: I’ll remind those of my readers who are new to the Magic Memories, that you can find two more tasty recipes on my YouTube channel, one is a watermelon gazpacho, the other a graved lax. As for the latter, I positively know that for some readers it has become a go-to recipe for the Holidays (thank you, JR, for reminding me of my own recipe!).

Advent Calendars

You will have noticed that there is no Advent Calendar this year. It is by no means that I’m out of ideas, quite the contrary is true, but believe me that writing, publishing and now signing and shipping Unexpected Agenda has taken an unproportional amount of my time, so…

BUT – and especially if you are new to the Magic Memories or have a bad memory (what of the two things is worse?) – you can go back to past Advent Calendars, of which there are at least two.

First, the Magic Calendar 2020, created in the First Pandemic Year, with a copious amount of material, ranging from free PDFs, audios, video clips, etc. To savor those, CLICK HERE.

Second, last year I created what I called The Advent Calendar of Good Ideas, which was sent out on every day of the Advent.

To get the complete PDF CLICK HERE. (Disclaimer: Similar to the Unexpected Agenda, it will not be the same thing to read the entries one after the other in one reading session, rather than receiving one every day, but you may still find two or three ideas that could influence your life – nothing less…).

On “The Lucky Coin” from Card College Volume 1

“The Lucky Coin” from Card College Volume 1 (p. 241), along with “The Homing Card Plus” from Volume 2, are possibly the two tricks from the Card College books that are most performed by those who work in front of real audiences.

“The Lucky Coin” has been extensively discussed and varied since it was first published in 1992 (first edition in German language!), and I know of at least three commercial versions that have been inspired by it, not all of them giving the proper credit…

Recently my friend by correspondence Kevin Shepherd from Washington DC wrote in – in the middle of the night as he usually does (he’s obviously six hours behind my time) – saying how much he liked the trick, and how effective it is at each performance.

However, he also remarked, “Let’s figure out the absolute BEST working for that jaw dropping trick. The spread cull HAS to go.”

I agree 🙂

Let me repeat something I have said several times before, but warrants repetition: The Card College books are conceived as a didactical work, call it even a “course” in card magic. Although some also use it as a reference work, it is not comprehensive, since it is not an encyclopedia (obvious, Watson, obvious).

Only very few card books in the history of magic have been conceived with that purpose of a course in mind, i.e., one that organizes the existing knowledge there is about a specific topic – in our case the infinite universe of Card Magic (capitalized on purpose) –  by identifying and naming the basic concepts (techniques, tricks, presentations and theories) and ordering them with the intention of taking someone, who has never done card magic before, by the hand, and walking him or her along the royal road to card magic (I write this with a tip of the hat to that great classic, which inspired me, but which is now mostly outdated, but not obsolete, of course, remaining a Classic).

With that philosophy in  mind, the tricks I chose to put in the books had to illustrate the use of the techniques described in the chapter itself, and had to use techniques taught in previous chapters, items that were taught later were not allowed. This did of course limit the methods described.

With “The Lucky Coin” the operational problem is that the same card must be forced and then controlled to the top of the deck.

To do so, in the book, I suggest the Classic Force to force the card, as this is described in a previous chapter (Chapter 15) and is a way of practicing the sleigt here, and then the Cull – also described in a previous chapter – to control it to the top of the deck, in readiness for the Top Change later on in the trick (the Top Change is the actual technical subject of that Chapter 16).

Obviously, once you know and master advanced methods, you may change the way of forcing and controlling the “selection”. One way of doing it, that comes to my mind as I’m writing this, is the Hindu Shuffle Force, as it will allow the card to be immediately controlled to the bottom, which can then be shuffled to the top with an Overhand Shuffle, and then retained there with a final Riffle Shuffle; you have thus used three different shuffles, which is not only quite convincing and will fool even the initiated, but could also be implemented into the presentation.

And there are so many more ways of achieving the same goal in a deceptive and elegant manner. In my video Card College 1&2 – Personal Instruction, “Lesson 20 – Top Change” I use two different techniques.

For the benefit of those who do not have the video course Card College 1&2 – Personal Instruction, and as a little gift, below is the clip I extracted from the eight-hour download (you can still purchase the complete Card College 1&2 – Personal Instruction legally and honestly at a very fait price, thus supporting and thanking the author, me, by CLICKING HERE – Thank you for not going to the pirated versions).

Comment on the video clip: As you can see, in the video performance I use two completely different methods: The Crisscross Force from Card College Volume 1 (p. 85) to force the target card – here the Five of Diamonds (take an easily recognizable card!) – and then the “Double Undercut Control” from Secret Agenda (p. 95).

As a further little gift to you in this Advent time, you can access for free the one-page explanation of the “Double Undercut Control” by CLICKING HERE.

All this said, it is clear that there are many ways of doing the same trick, from a technical and presentational point of view, which is why you always have to use your head, as Dai Vernon kept reminding us.

However, before “using your head” and “improving” a good trick, do it the original way, understand it, think about it, and only then change it, if necessary.

For this you must ask the correct questions, and this is what Kevin Shepherd did. I hope I have been abel to give a satisfactory answer, which is not the last word, not at all.

Speaking about “last words”: Here is a different presentational solution that you could use for “The Lucky Coin”. It simply used to be an old gag, but fits our problem like a glove.

Instead of using a coin, cut out the index of an old card, e.g., the Two of Diamonds, as depicted in the photo below. Apply some sticky substance to the backside of the cut-out piece and carry it in a convenient place, so that when ready to perform “The Lucky Coin” you surreptitiously stick it to the middle phalanx of your forefinger.

Now, instead of moving the coin over the card spread, you move your finger over it, back of the hand upward, si capisce, eh.

Eventually you ask, “Do you believe that your card is under my finger?” Show the cut-out index on your fingers, and as they react top change the x-card for the selection on top of the deck, all exactly as in the original description.

The effect might even be stronger than if you used a coin – you’ll have to do it at least once in order to know…

If you give this a try, you might be surprised to notice that you can execute the Top Change and most other handlings without difficulties and fear of being detected.

This means that you can “load” your finger even during a previous trick, and can then go “clean” into “The Lucky Coin”, which is now, of course a “Lucky Finger” (make up your own presentation).

Next week I plan to give you the genesis of “The Lucky Coin”, and I hope you’ll find that interesting, because if you don’t, there is hardly something I can do about it… (with apologies to Victor Borge, and thanks to Pit Hartling).

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Roberto Giobbi