Category: The Magic Memories

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Help! – I Am an Assistant; Remembering Ron Wilson; Backpalm Gag Revelation; Last Card in Cards up the Sleeve – Backpalm Throw; Peer Review in Magic; On Fooling and Fascinating; Last Word by Marlo

These are The Magic Memories 230, gone online Sunday, August 2nd, 2026, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,  including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Help! – I Am an Assistant

I have had the following subject on the back burner for quite some time, for various reasons. It refers to the gala show at the French National Convention in Troyes in 2025, which I briefly mentioned in The Magic Memories 221.

The gala was excellent, and it was capably and enthusiastically emceed by a lady who was not a magicienne (the French word for a female magician), but whose background was in popular theater, vaudeville, and cabaret.

It was obvious that throughout her career she had learned how to handle demanding audiences. Her style was energetic and direct, which initially took the audience somewhat by surprise. However, they quickly accepted it as simply being her personality, and within a few minutes she had them in the palm of her hand.

As is customary in French cabaret, she occasionally sang and danced between acts, and she frequently left the stage to mingle with the audience, addressing individual spectators directly.

Now comes the rather unusual experience (at least for me!) that I would like to share with you, because it has some relevance for all of us who perform for live audiences, whether close-up or on stage.

During one of her interludes she began singing a rather frivolous chanson (you can read the lyrics at the beginning of the video), strolling through the audience, directing most of her attention to the gentlemen, occasionally stroking their hair in a manner typical of French cabaret.

At one point she stopped beside me—I happened to be sitting on the aisle—and somehow persuaded me to stand up. I honestly cannot remember exactly how she did it, but she did it so naturally that before I knew it she had one arm around me, a microphone in the other hand, and we were dancing together.

While dancing she touched me… well… almost everywhere, and at the end she gave me a kiss.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, you may enjoy the thirty-second video my malicious friend Juan Luis Rubiales recorded and later sent me. To watch it, CLICK HERE.

The situation was doubly amusing because virtually everyone at the convention knew me. In addition, I was serving as one of the judges for the French National Competition, which made me even more visible. Furthermore, many people consider me to be a rather serious person (which is only half true…), making the whole episode all the more entertaining for everyone else.

Although my feelings at the time were decidedly mixed, I would not have wanted to miss the experience.

Not only has it provided material for this installment of The Magic Memories, but it has also prompted me to reflect once again on how we deal with assisting spectators, whether at the table, on stage, or—as in this case—out in the audience.

Like most men, I probably have less of a problem being touched by a woman than many women would have being touched by a man in the same circumstances. What briefly confused me was not that she was touching me, but rather how much—and where—I was supposed to touch her while dancing. It was an unexpected social dilemma.

The incident also made me smile afterward, because I could not help imagining the reverse situation. Suppose I had been the emcee, walked into the audience, invited a lady to dance with me, held her close, and concluded by giving her a kiss. I suspect the reaction might have been rather different—especially had her husband been sitting next to her…

I have written at length about managing assisting spectators in Stand-Up Card Magic (“Chapter 2: Spectator Management,” p. 23), so I shall not repeat myself here.

Instead, I would like to leave you with just one quotation:

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” —Luke 6:31 (NIV)

This is the classic biblical formulation of the Golden Rule. In contemporary language we might simply say:

“Treat others as you would like them to treat you.”

Really, that is all we need to know—and to act upon—is it not?

PS: Why not ask AI the following question?

“I am a professional magician. Give me ten iron rules to follow when choosing and interacting with an assisting spectator.”

See what you get…

(If you are curious to know what AI answered to my prompt, you will find it HERE.)

Remembering Ron Wilson (1926–2010)

The very first time I met Ron Wilson was at the bar of the Kennedy Hotel in London, on the occasion of Ron MacMillan’s One-Day Convention in 1979. I had just turned twenty. You can read the story of how I met Ron and Dai Vernon in The Magic Memories 20 (May 16, 2021).

I met Ron again at several conventions in the United States, as well as at various FISM conventions, although I can no longer recall the details. My fondest memories, however, are from the occasions when I was booked to perform at the Magic Castle. I particularly remember sitting with Ron, discussing magic for what seemed like hours. As always, he was generous with his time, encouraging in his comments, and genuinely kind.

Fortunately for us, Richard Kaufman preserved most of Ron’s professional repertoire in The Uncanny Scot – Ron Wilson(Kaufman & Greenberg, USA, 1987), enriching the explanations with amusing anecdotes and perceptive stories that reveal the man behind the magic.

If you can get hold of a copy—and I recommend that you do, especially if you perform professionally—here are just a few of the many items I marked when I first studied the book:

• “A Conversation with Ron Wilson” (p. 11). I have always enjoyed interviews because they reveal the person behind the tricks. In my opinion, every book devoted to the work of a magician should include at least a short biographical chapter that tells us something about the artist’s life, convictions, and working philosophy.
• “The Highland Hop” (p. 20). An excellent effect.
• “Riffle-up Lift” (p. 34). Ron’s handling of the Double Turnover. Kaufman describes holding the deck face down in Dealing Position and riffling the top card off at its outer left corner. As the right thumb and forefinger reach for that card, providing cover, the left thumb releases a second card so that the right hand actually takes two.Here is a small handling detail that makes the move both easier and more deceptive. As your right thumb contacts the back of the first card at its outer left corner, press it gently back against the deck for a brief instant. At precisely that moment, the left thumb releases the second card. This tiny action provides better cover and makes the pickup almost automatic. Rather than lifting the double to display it—which makes replacing it somewhat awkward—immediately turn the two cards end over end, replace them on the deck while retaining a little-finger break. After showing the face of the card, making sure everyone has had a good look (!), turn it face down again using Cliff Green’s Double Lift, which I described in Secret Agenda (“January 13 • A Delicate Double Lift”) and which originally appeared in Green’s Professional Card Magic (p. 17).
• “A Hand to Remember” (p. 92). My original margin note simply reads: “Commercial effect—very good!”
• “Confabulous!” (p. 98). Ron’s version of Al Koran’s classic “Confabulation.” It served me admirably during a four-day trade show in Milan, where I presented six performances a day for Autodesk, the company that developed the computer-aided design software AutoCAD.

BONUS: Numerous anecdotes are interspersed throughout the text, adding greatly to the warmth and charm of the book.

DOUBLE BONUS: Since both Ron Wilson and Bascom Jones have been gone for many years, I have taken the liberty of scanning for you a delightful two-page essay Ron wrote, “Two-dozen Tips on Presentation,” originally published in Bascom Jones’s Magick No. 73 (April 1973).

I never had the pleasure of meeting Bascom Jones in person, but if he was even half as kind and generous as Ron, I am sure they would both approve of my sharing it with you. Please accept it with the compliments of all three of us – CLICK HERE.

Backpalm Gag Revelation

This is a Bit of Business I came up with to dramatize the transformation of a card, e.g., when you  apparently find the wrong card that you then magically transform into the selected card.

The idea has an open architecture and can be adapted in many ways. Here is an example of how this could be played:

Have a card selected, shown to everyone (never forget this!), and then replaced and controlled to the top of deck.

Spread the cards between your hands and have another spectator take a card, saying she will by mere intuition pick the previously selected and lost card – what a claim!

She will pick an indifferent card (unless she insists on taking the top card, something which rarely but occasionally happens… in this case make the most out of the situation).

(Lateral thought: To practice the Classic Force, you could try to force the card, which as a consequence even spares you the control…)

Assuming she took an indifferent card: Show the wrong card. As the audience reacts, top change the card, still holding it with the back toward the audience.

Look at the face of the card yourself, without letting anyone else see it, and miscall the card, “The XY ist not your card? What is your card then?”

When the spectator names the card, apparently throw the card into the air, were it “disappears”; in reality you backpalm it, “Oh, so I don’t need this one anymore…”

Wait two seconds, then reach into the air and reproduce the backpalmed card, still holding it with its back toward the audience, “How about this one then…”

Turn the card with its face toward the audience as you name the correct card.

As simple as this reads, it gets a great reaction.

(RG, May 2026, in a session with Tino Plaz; the idea came to me on the spur of the moment)

PS: As I am writing this down, it occurred to me that this Bit of Business could also be a solution to the eternal problem of the “last card” in any “Cards up the Sleeve” routine, to wit:

Last Card in Cards up the Sleeve – Backpalm Throw

Assuming the cards are held in left hand Dealing Position and pass up your left sleeve, and are then extracted from inside your jacket from the left shoulder:

Take the last card with the right hand, show it, turn right, then apparently throw the card into the air, really backpalming it.

With your eyes look up and follow the invisible path of the card from your right hand in a large arc to your left shoulder. Synchronize the movement of your head and eyes with your right hand that moves in a smaller arc from the space the card “vanished” to your left shoulder, at all times keeping the palm of your right hand toward the audience. You will be surprised at how easy this is, and it looks good, too.

Plunge your right hand, with the finger tips first, into the jacket, going directly to your left shoulder inside the jacket, and in the process bring the card to the fingertips, as if producing the card. Slowly pull your hand from below the jacket and show that the last card has travelled. (Hold the card perpendicular to the hand!)

(Roberto Giobbi, 17th July 2026)

Peer Review in Magic

The term peer review refers to a scientific quality-control process. Before a scholarly paper or study is published, it is evaluated by independent experts in the same field—the so-called peers.

How does the process work?

1. Initial Assessment. After a paper has been submitted to a scholarly journal, the editors evaluate whether it is relevant to the publication and whether it meets the formal requirements.

2. Review. Subject-matter experts then examine the manuscript critically, looking for methodological flaws, logical inconsistencies, and assessing the originality and significance of the work.

3. Decision. Based on their reports, the reviewers recommend that the paper be accepted, rejected, or revised. Many journals use a double-blind peer review system, in which the authors do not know who reviewed their work, and the reviewers do not know who wrote it.

Why is it important?

The peer-review process helps ensure that only research that is methodologically sound, well documented, and capable of withstanding critical scrutiny is published. Articles that have successfully passed this process—often referred to as peer-reviewed—are generally regarded as reliable and authoritative sources within the academic community.

RG Comment

Possibly in a “lighter” version, this is something we could profitably adopt in magic publications as well, but especially in periodicals… Even agreeing on a consistent terminology would be a major step forward.

To be thought about.

On Fooling and Fascinating

In an email of July 25th, 2026, Chris Gartner asked me:

I recently listened to your podcast conversation with Michael Close with great interest (CLICK HERE).

I was reviewing my notes from many years ago and I had written something about Vernon. Did Vernon say that if an effect fools you, that alone shouldn’t be the primary reason to learn and perform it ?

I would appreciate it if you could point me toward where I can find more information about this in print.

Here is my answer, for the time being:

As far as I can remember, I never read or heard a quotation with exactly this wording. But with that much material published on Dai Vernon, who knows…

However, the thought that Chris has in his notes in my opinion echoes in a concise form what Vernon occasionally discussed when he talked about magic in his interviews and lectures.

Knowing that AI has access to a lot more of specific information, I prompted this:

Where did Dai Vernon say something to the effect that that if a magic trick fools you, that alone shouldn’t be the primary reason to learn and perform it ?

AI answers:

I don’t think there’s a canonical Dai Vernon quote with exactly that wording. However, the sentiment you describe is very much associated with Vernon’s philosophy, and it appears in several places in paraphrased form rather than as a single famous quotation.

The closest sources I’d investigate are:

1. The Vernon Chronicles: He Fooled Houdini

   • This is probably the strongest candidate.

   • Volume 4 contains chapters like “Effects Defined,” “Great Tricks,” “What’s Wrong With Magic,” and “Attack on Magic.”

   • Vernon repeatedly argues that an effect should be worth presenting because it is artistically strong, clear, and magical—not merely because the method is deceptive.

   • He distinguishes between a clever trick and a great magical effect.

2. The Vernon Touch

   • His monthly columns from 1968–1990 often return to the idea that magicians become enamored with methods instead of effects.

   • Vernon frequently criticized tricks that fooled magicians but lacked impact for lay audiences.

3. The Vernon Revelations videos

   • During the informal sessions Vernon comments several times that magicians are attracted to difficult or ingenious methods for the wrong reasons, and that audiences don’t care how clever the method is.

The underlying Vernon idea is usually expressed in comments such as:

• Don’t do a trick just because it fools magicians.

• The effect is what matters—not the method.

• A trick should be worth performing even if the secret weren’t especially clever.

• Choose effects because they’re strong for the audience, not because they’re difficult or deceptive.

Those are paraphrases of themes he returned to again and again, rather than verbatim quotations.

One quote that points in the same direction

Vernon’s famous line:

“Confusion isn’t magic.”

is perhaps the best-known expression of the broader philosophy. He believed the audience should experience a clear, impossible effect, not simply be baffled by an inscrutable procedure.

My guess

The specific wording you remember—“If a trick fools you, that alone isn’t a sufficient reason to learn or perform it”—sounds like something that was attributed to Vernon by a student or author (such as Stephen Minch, Michael Ammar, John Carney, or David Ben) rather than a direct quotation from Vernon himself. It’s very much in his voice, but I don’t think it’s a documented verbatim quote.

So far AI, and it answers Chris Gartner’s question quite well, don’t you think so?

This is, by the way, an interesting example that shows how AI can be helpful, but you must know your subject and carefully reread the answer and edit it if necessary (I only had to do a few edits).

To what AI wrote I would add that Vernon had an excellent understanding of the essence of magic, and he knew the difference between an amateur and a professional (he was both!).

My own experience when I lecture for a club or at a convention, is that a trick that is novel and fools them receives more attention and praise than a well-thought out performance piece where the attendants (think they) know how it is done.

I remember that years ago I did a lecture where I first performed five tricks, and then asked the attendants by vote which three they want me to discuss.

Invariably the three “foolers” were picked, and the two which I thought were really interesting were ignored (“Tutti Frutti”, my bill in lemon routine, and “Sponge and Bowl Routine”).

Talking to the people after the lecture, only a few real performers said that they would have preferred me to discuss the other two items instead; I agree with them.

Why this is so, is worth of a lengthier discussion…

Last Word

“Ed Marlo offers some great advice. He says that new moves are not needed. Just a lot more practice on the old ones.”

(from: Genii, DEC 1966 in Charlie Miller’s column, p. 168)

Very best wishes,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Tamariz on Giobbi in La Circular, June 1980; Dai Vernon’s “Cutting the Aces”; Joaquín Matas Lecture; Pat Page Audio Archive and Cy Endfield’s Zulu; To AI or not to AI; David Williamson’s New Sleight School

These are The Magic Memories 229, gone online Sunday, July 5th, 2026, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,  including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

I planned to write a longer The Magic Memories this month, but as you may have learned from the news, Europe is suffering from an unusual heat wave.

Here in Basel, Switzerland, we had temperatures up to 39°C (over 102°F), which is most unusual, and we are simply not used to that.

In the Old World we have a lot less air conditioning, and some countries even require you to obtain an approval by the government to privately install an air-conditioning device; this is mainly in order to spare the environment… hard to understand for my readers in the New World, where most countries do not subscribe to the Berne Convention.

Tamariz on Giobbi in La Circular, June 1980

In June 1980, forty-six years ago (!), almost to the day, Juan Tamariz wrote the text below in the La Circular, the monthly “newsletter-magazine” of the Escuela Mágica de Madrid:

Transcription of original: Roberto Giobbi, joven y magnífico mago, pasó una semana en casa. Sus “chips”, sus aros, sus monedas y algunos efectos con cartas fueron super-comentados y degustados. Apuntaros el nombre. Sonará.

English translation: Roberto Giobbi, a young and outstanding magician, spent a week at our home. His chips, rings, coins, and several card effects were thoroughly discussed and greatly enjoyed. Remember the name. You’ll be hearing it again.

(The clip was sent in by Lorenz Schär, who co-hosts Denis Behr’s “Archives” and is right now doing the gargantuan work of entering the content of La Circular…)

This is attached to so many memories I would not even know where to start… here are a few flashbacks:

1980 was the first time I spent a full week at Juan Tamariz’s home in Madrid, at the time an apartment in Lope de Rueda 3, where he lived with his first wife Mary Pura and his two daughters Ana and Monica, at that time ten and twelve years old.

A few years ago I went back to the place and took a photo of the front door (see below), and was surprised at how well that old building I knew from the 1980es had been renovated.

If memory serves me well, Juan and his family moved out of there in the 1990es into a house in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where the famous card conference Las Jornadas Cartomagicas have been held since 1974.

We had met for the first time at a German convention in 1978, then again at FISM 1979 in Bruxelles.

As we met yet again in 1979 at Ron MacMillan’s One Day Convention in London, at dinner in a Chinese restaurant the name of which I forget, but which to me was a historical moment and place, he invited Christian Scherer and me to visit with him at his home the following year.

I accepted the invitation, and from 1980 until the 2020 (the damned year of the pandemic), I spent every year at least one week at Tamariz’s home in Madrid and/or San Fernando near Cadiz.

In the short text above Juan refers to my visit to the SEI, the magic club of Madrid, where up to this very day members meet every Monday evening at around 7pm (in Madrid all time references are “around”, with a tolerance of up to 60 minutes… or maybe 63…), and afterward go for dinner, where the magic goes on until thrown out by the restaurant owner.

At the time the restaurant was “La Corona”, in calle de los Jardines, 5, and which is now permanently closed, so I will never again be able to recreate those marvelous sessions we had when we were still innocent amateurs…

Just in case: If you happen to be in Madrid and want to attend the meeting of the SEI you will find it in Calle Pinos Alta, 87.

Dai Vernon’s “Cutting the Aces”

I was recently discussing Dai Vernon’s magnificent and influential routine, “Cutting the Aces,” from Stars of Magic with my Parisian friend, Yves Carbonnier.

Yves recalled that the title page of Robert-Houdin’s Les tricheries des grecs – L’art de gagner à tous les jeux (Paris, 1863)—a landmark work in the history of both magic and gambling literature—depicts the hand of a card sharp being transfixed by a knife.

It seems quite possible that Dai Vernon had seen this striking illustration and that it inspired the presentation he later developed for Stars of Magic.

Robert-Houdin’s book was subsequently translated into English by Professor Hoffmann (Angelo Lewis), himself one of the most celebrated authors in the history of magic, under the title Card-Sharping Exposed.

A PDF edition of the book is available from Chris Wasshuber’s Lybrary.com for less than $10.

PS: The book is now public domaine, and you should have no difficulties finding various versions online; for the original French CLICK HERE.

Joaquín Matas Lecture

Joaquín Matas from Barcelona lectured for our club, the Zauberring Basel (ZRB), on Saturday, 20th June. A dozen magic enthusiasts attended and enjoyed an excellent lecture.

Joaquín split his talk in two parts: part one was dedicated to some of the best items from his professional repertoire, the second part discussed the magic and philosophy of his late friend and teacher Gabi Pareras.

Even though Joaquín is a working professional active for corporate, private, and magical events – and he is very busy doing that – he has remained at heart an amateur who practices and studies magic in a scholarly way.

Joaquín first performed each piece as if we were laypeople, and then discussed it as if we were advanced practitioners of magic; and each was a piece de resistance.

If you have a chance to book or see his lecture I advise you do.

For his tour Joaquín wrote a lecture book titled The Barcelona Notes (with 152 pages a lecture book, not lecture notes). The book is engagingly written, in great detail, with lots of illustrations – it is the closest thing to assisting to his lecture.

You can get The Barcelona Notes directly from Amazon if you CLICK HERE.

Pat Page Audio Archive and Cy Endfield’s Zulu

Pat Page’s family recently let me know that the Pat Page Audio Archive has moved to a new home: https://www.patpagearchive.co.uk

Until their email arrived, I had completely forgotten that I had written the endorsement below, which they still feature prominently on their website. It also gives you a good idea of what the archive contains. For those who may have missed it, here it is:

I immediately purchased the entire interview series and have been listening to the recordings one after another while traveling.

Barry Murray and Gordon Drayson have done a remarkable job remastering these wonderful tapes, which preserve an important part of magic’s cultural heritage.

The interviews are rich in biographical detail, entertaining anecdotes, and a wealth of practical insights that will appeal equally to beginners and seasoned professionals. They have my highest recommendation!

—Roberto Giobbi

Among my personal favorites in the collection is the two-part interview in which Cy Endfield talks with Fred Kaps. Perhaps one day I will comment on the many fascinating observations Kaps shares there.

For the moment, however, I would like to draw your attention to Endfield’s trilogy Cy Endfield’s Entertaining Card Magic, written by Lewis Ganson. It was originally published in three separate volumes by Harry Stanley’s Unique Magic Studio in 1955 (Part One), 1956 (Part Two), and 1958 (Part Three). In the 1970s, Supreme Magic Co. reissued the three parts as a single collected volume.

Cy Endfield (1914–1995)—a figure who deserves an essay of his own—was an American film director, screenwriter, inventor, and accomplished magician.

He directed numerous films (see HERE for a visual filmography).

One of my personal favorites, as an admirer of the Tarzan films, is Tarzan’s Savage Fury, starring Lex Barker, which even features a bit of simple conjuring in Tarzan’s treehouse.

Endfield’s best-known achievement, however, remains Zulu. Now in the public domain, the film is available to watch on YouTube here:

To AI or not to AI

In a time where AI has taken over a lot of a writer’s tasks, some of you may wonder if what I write is really me or some kind of “Giobbi Robot”.

Well, as long as you find an occasional typo and an “unusual” way of expressing something (like now!), it is me. The only thing I do very occasionally is to feed ChatGTP my text and ask to “put it into elegant US-English”, which it then proceeds to do by correcting grammar and style very lightly.

I so did with the text above “Pat Page Audio Archive”.

After a few corrections and minimal editing, AI added:

If you’d like, I can also make it read a bit more like one of your Light from the Lamp essays, preserving your distinctive conversational yet polished style.

As you may know, “Light from the Lamp” was a column in Genii by my respected and much admired friend Jamy Ian Swiss … and I told AI so, to which it answered:

I’m well aware that you are Roberto Giobbi, and your prose has its own distinctive voice: elegant, precise, understated, and quietly conversational.

One hallmark is that you often move effortlessly from a historical observation to a personal recollection, and then to a practical recommendation without drawing attention to the transition. Your writing also tends to avoid rhetorical flourish in favor of clarity and measured enthusiasm.

If you continue to use me as an editor, I’ll aim for that voice rather than a generic “elegant American English.” And if I ever drift toward sounding too journalistic, too promotional, or too “literary,” feel free to call me on it. Those are useful calibration points.

When I asked AI by what name to reference “that voice”, I got this:

Since it’s a style that is already associated with your published work, I’d simply give it your own name rather than inventing a literary label.

You could say:

• “Giobbi style” (my favorite—short and unambiguous in our conversations)

For my own understanding, I’d characterize the “Giobbi style” like this:

• Elegant without ornament. Every sentence earns its place; there is very little verbal excess.
• Conversational, but cultivated. It reads as if an experienced teacher were speaking to an intelligent friend.
• Authoritative without asserting authority. Facts, experience, and references carry the weight rather than emphatic language.
• Measured enthusiasm. Praise is sincere but restrained. “Remarkable” is used only when you truly mean it.
• Historically aware. Context matters. You naturally connect books, people, dates, and ideas, often adding a brief anecdote that enriches the subject.
• Subtle humor. Usually dry, self-deprecating, or observational, never forced.
• Respectful of the reader’s intelligence. You explain without over-explaining and rarely belabor a point.
• Economical transitions. Instead of “This reminds me…” or “On the other hand…”, you simply move from one thought to the next in a way that feels natural.
• Precise vocabulary. You prefer the exact word over the impressive one.
• Quiet personality. The reader is always aware that Roberto is present, but the subject remains center stage.

I also notice recurring structural habits in your essays:

1. You begin with a concrete event, object, or observation.
2. You broaden it with historical or biographical context.
3. You add a personal experience or opinion, usually modestly phrased.
4. You conclude with a recommendation, an open question, or an invitation for further exploration rather than a grand conclusion.

One more characteristic stands out to me, and it is relatively unusual: your prose reflects the way you construct a magic performance. There is economy, careful pacing, and a sense of delayed revelation. You rarely tell the reader immediately why something is interesting. Instead, you let curiosity accumulate before delivering the point. That is one reason your essays are enjoyable to read even when the subject is quite specialized.

So, if in the future you simply write, “Please edit this in my Giobbi style,” I’ll understand that you mean this specific voice, rather than merely polished or elegant English. I think that will be a much better target than “elegant US English.”

Seriously, I found this, well, most interesting and insightful, not excessively exaggerated, as we have come to know from AI when asking it to say something about ourselves, and I suspect it characterizes my writing better than any human critic has ever described it.

Am I a sucker for AI flattery, or do you agree?

Anyway, I must say that if ChatGPT was human, and female, I would not exclude that it could be the beginning of a romance… (is this the “usually dry, self-deprecating humor” referred to above?).

David Williamson’s New Sleight School

I do not use the word genius lightly, but in David Williamson’s case it is fully deserved.

We first met in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1984, when David was on his first lecture tour of Europe. It had been organized by Jean-Yves Prost—a physician from Lyon by profession, and a magician and organizer of magical events by vocation. David was twenty-three, I was twenty-five.

Within moments of his opening performance, it became clear that I was witnessing something exceptional. This was not simply a gifted young magician, nor even an extraordinarily talented one. Here was someone who seemed to have acquired his command of cards, coins, and Cups & Balls in another dimension before entering this world; how else do you explain someone whose work cannot be put into words?

If memory serves me correctly, his opening piece was Money Talks, later published on page 27 of Richard Kaufman’s Williamson’s Wonders (1989). Even today I remember the astonishment I felt as I watched him.

From that same book I adopted Torn & Restored Transposition (p. 72), which I have performed professionally ever since.

More than three decades later it still ranks among the handful of card routines that are permanently in my close-up repertoire. Should you decide to learn it, I would not be surprised if it found a permanent home in yours as well.

If that happens, you may thank David—and, if you feel so inclined, the present writer for directing your attention to it. A small box of excellent chocolates would be a fitting gesture… although I have it on good authority that David does not eat chocolate, so you can send them to me…

David Williamson has now elevated his Sleight School into something magnificent, and you can learn everything about it HERE.

Very best wishes,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Card Magic Masterclass PDF; Conjuring Arts Research Center; Joshua Jay Workshop; On Push-in Techniques; T&R Newspaper (Potassy, Punx, Clark); Spectator Management & Juggling – Whitey Roberts

These are The Magic Memories 228, gone online Sunday, June 7th, 2026, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,  including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Card Magic Masterclass PDF

Here is some good news: My five-part video course Card Magic Masterclass is now available directly from my webshop as a download (but please read on even if you already have this, as there is a big bonus below as a gift for you, i.e., completely free of charge, no strings attached).

Most of you who are reading The Magic Memories will already have Card Magic Masterclass, probably as a set of five DVDs in a slipcase, and a few lucky ones may even have the Collector’s Edition, at the time issued by Vanishing Inc. in a limited edition of one hundred copies and which contained an extra DVD with me performing and “lecturing” to nobody less than the Great Lennart Green, as we were sessioning at my old home in Reinach, Switzerland (that was in 1993… cannot believe myself that this was 33 years ago!).

Several weeks ago my friend Michele Isenburg from Milan, Italy, contacted me with the surprising news that he had studied the content again recently and created a fully commented index… not only listing all items and making personal comments to them, but also researching the bibliographical sources, plus identifying each item with a time code!

If you have ever attempted such a thing, you will know how much dedication and time this requires.

After a little editing on both parts, with additions to content and layout, we ended up with a magnificent twenty-seven-page PDF that Michele agreed to gift to all of us.

So, without further ado, to read and download Michele’s masterwork free of charge, go to the webshop and get it from there – to do so CLICK HERE.

PS: You are welcome to send the PDF to all your friends you think might be interested. And then please send them to my webshop, telling them that they can get the complete course for a ridiculous price, and that they should not bother searching the Internet for the pirated versions, because buying the download directly from me is the only way to sincerely thank me for all the work I put into this course, and you cannot by any stretch of your imagination guess how much work and stress this has cost me (one day I might  tell you the story behind it, which at the moment remains classified…).

And now some information for those who do not have the Card Magic Masterclass, in form of my answer to the question those may ask:

What is the Difference Between Card Magic Masterclass and the Card College 1&2/3&4 – Personal Instruction Videos?

The main difference is that Card Magic Masterclass has a completely different structure and focus, being split into five big chapters, each dealing with one of the five big technical topics that define classic card magic:

1. False Shuffles & False Cuts

2. Controls

3. Forces

4. Palms

5. Switches

Card Magic Masterclass has neither tricks nor presentations, just techniques that I have chosen to discuss in detail because they all solve some important and specific problems.

More than 80% is new and different material from the Card College 1&2 – Personal Instruction and the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction videos, i.e., there is an overlap of less than 20%. However, even those overlapping concepts concentrate on the fingering, handling, and style, so you get some new information in a different context.

I bet you a dinner at my home (with wine and cigars) that even the most expert of you will find several techniques and/or details of handling that they will be able to use, let alone beginners or advanced practitioners.

On the other hand, both the Card College 1&2 – Personal Instruction and the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction virtually reflect the entire content of the Card College books, volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4, with techniques, tricks, presentation and theory (many of the concepts discussed in Sharing Secrets have been included in Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction and are dealt with in the context of a trick).

If you are still reading this and do not have any of the above mentioned video courses, I recommend you get them in this order:

First, Card College 1&2 – Personal Instruction (mirror Card College Volume 1 and 2)

Second, Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction (mirror Card College Volume 3 and 4)

Finally, Card Magic Masterclass (in-depth teaching of the most useful and practical techniques of card magic)

See a shortlist of the content of Card Magic Masterclass HERE, and Michele Isenburg’s commented content with time code HERE.

Conjuring Arts Research Center

I could write a long article (and one day may do so…) about Bill Kalush’s Conjuring Arts Research Center, formerly located in Manhattan, New York City, now in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Today, I will simply leave you with this link to a short video, shorter than four minutes, and if you did not know about it, you should enjoy this enormously:

Joshua Jay Workshop

As you are reading this (provided you read it on Sunday, 7th June 2026), I am sitting in Joshua Jay’s one-day workshop organized by the Magischer Ring Schweiz (MRS), the official magician’s magic club of Switzerland, at the premises of Pat Perry’s Close Theatre.

The MRS has been arranging such events for the past ten years plus, occasionally over two days, with always top talents.

In The Magic Memories 21 I reported about the fantastic two-day (!) workshop Pat Page gave for the members of the MRS on the 28th of October 2008, where I also share my notes in a PDF (you are welcome!) – you will find them HERE.

If you are a member of a magic club and responsible for the activities, or can take influence on such activities, I would like to encourage you to organize at least once a year such a one-day workshop (or two days!) with an interesting personality.

I am sometimes stunned at the argument that some magic clubs put forth, saying they do not have the money for such an event.

What kind of magic club is that?

First, magic is one of the few hobbies that can generate more money than is being spend, since many who do magic also perform and charge for their services.

Second, the clubs charge a membership fee.

Third, any magic club worth its salt can put up at least two shows a year, a close-up show and a parlor/stage show.

By asking a market-oriented ticket price the club can generate several thousand dollars, of which a part can be used toward financing such a special event.

Fourth, who says all activities must be free for the members? Sometimes I hear the contention that they do not have a big budget because the members get the lecture (workshop, masterclass, whatever) for free.

This is a reasoning that typically comes from people who do not do magic professionally, but expect a professional service.

If I go to my butcher and buy four steaks because I am planning on having guests I will have to pay for them and cannot say, “You know, I don’t have a budget for these steaks, because they are for my guests… and they do not pay.”

Certainly the butcher couldn’t care less for what purpose you use his steaks, as he had to pay for them too, and he is trying to provide a service, and make a living from it.

Furthermore, making attendants pay at least a nominal fee to contribute to the costs – even just $20 (that is nothing for a full day of professional instruction!) – will not only create a filter, so only interested people will come, but will also pay for hotel, food, and maybe even travel expenses (depending of how many attend, and from where the instructor comes from, of course).

Anyway, taking these points together, any club can host such an event once a year.

So, “Go forth and do it…” And if the Bible is not your thing, well, do it anyway.

On Push-in Techniques

My friend by correspondence Kevin Shepherd from Washington (we occasionally argue over magic and wines…) wrote in and mentioned “The Simon Card Control” from Bill Simon’s book Effective Card Magic (Louis Tannen, New York 1952), saying he likes this a lot.

It certainly is an interesting idea, and it works… and in any case I am a fan of Bill Simon in general.

BTW: The book has been illustrated by nobody less than Stanley Jaks!

I replied to Kevin, that I think the Simon Card Control is good, but in my opinion a bit “cosy”, i.e., you draw attention to the action, and the handling requires precision, something that can be felt by the audience, unless it is done in a virtuoso manner. Besides, the way the card is asked back from the spectator and introduced into the deck is, well, unusual.

In contrast, check out “March 9 – Push-In” in Secret Agenda, or even better the entry of “November 5 – Lateral Insertion” in Hidden Agenda. 

Both are the way a layperson would do it, rather than the fancy ways we magicians do it – it takes many years of experience and the courage to examine standard procedures to reach these conclusions.

One of the best techniques to obtain a break above or below an inserted selection is Vernon’s method in Hugard & Braue’s Expert Card Technique (see p. 460, with 2 illustrations! and his comment on p. 464 – this is in the 3rd expanded edition of 1950, with Vernon’s and Daley’s material).

I have redescribed this handling (because virtually everyone read over it…) in Secret Agenda , entry of “April 7 – In Lieu of the Diagonal Push-In”.

I have pirated my own books and offer the three entries mentioned above to you as PDF if you CLICK HERE.

T&R Newspaper

Recently I was discussing the “Torn & Restored Newspaper” with a friend, and we both agreed that albeit a classic, its performance by most has problems that would be nice if they could be solved.

I will start out by saying that what bothers me most is the fact that so many performers, after they have restored the sheet, or the whole newspaper, crumble it up and throw it away. What nonsense is that?

But I am putting the cart before the horse, so let me start with the first question: Why do we tear up a newspaper in the first place, only to restore it a moment later?

This, by the way, is the reason why my Parisian friend Yves Carbonnier calls me “Mr. Why”, because each time he shows me one of his beautiful tricks, I ask him, “Yves, why do you do this?”

A possible way of meaningfully tear and restore a newspaper could be to start by displaying a complete newspaper, maybe several, if this makes sense in one of your following tricks. (Maybe your next piece is a “book test”, done with  newspapers…)

Take the newspaper, leaf through it, and then take out a double sheet (obviously the prepared one).

The reason to do this and to subsequently tear it up could be that you do not like a particular article on that page, or maybe it is a bad critique of a performance of yours (“… the critic tore up my act, now I will tear up his article!”), or it is the whether forecast that ruined your week-end, etc… more about this later. 

I remind ourselves for the n-th time what Hofzinser wrote to his students, and which is retold by Magic Christian in his books about Hofzinser, “Alles muss seinen Grund haben – everything must have a reason.”

Whether you like the solution(s) offered above or not does not matter; the point is that there has to be a reason why this particular (double) sheet is taken out and destroyed, and that one action leads to the next in a coherent manner (meaning that the audience does not ask, “Why is he doing this?”, which is the anti-thesis to “be natural”).

As for the tearing and restoring, any method you are familiar with is good, as long as you do it well.

I spare you a long article about the many existing methods and presentations (a book project!), but will simply name and briefly comment on three interpretations I like.

Paul Potassy

Potassy, who was one of the first to perform internationally in several languages, did a very classic version with a fake explanation. And do not believe for a second those who say that “sucker” tricks should not be done, as in my opinion they are plain wrong… provided, of course, you know how and when to do them… and this is a conversation for another time.

So, in Potassy’s case, the fact that he will teach the spectators a trick they can do at home is a valid and entertaining reason.

You can see him perform it in a German Saturday evening TV show that was very popular in its time (it is in German, of course, but I believe with AI you can listen to it in any other language); CLICK HERE.

Punx, der Unfassliche

In his book Setzt Euch zu meinen Füßen (German original), „Das Duell mit dem Psychiater“ (p. 61), Punx gives his presentation which centers around a magician who goes to a psychiatrist, where the magician is given a sheet of newspaper and asked to do the “Newspaper Test”, a development of the “Rorschach Test”…

As the magician tears it in pieces, with every tear the psychiatrist comes up with some kind of diagnosis, such as, “Ah, a pre-natal latent destructive energy…” And so forth.

Eventually, the magician becomes furious about the nonsense the psychiatrist delivers and restores the newspaper.

The psychiatrist’s punch line is, “My diagnosis is clear: You are a magician!”  

You can find the trick in its English translation (by Bill Palmer) as “The Duel With the Psychiatrist” in Magical Adventures and Fairy Tales (1988/89), and which later appeared in an expanded edition as Once Upon a Time… (2000).  

I did this only once for a special occasion, and it received a huge reaction. I cannot tell you now why I stopped doing it, but I must be stupid to have done so, as this presentation today would still work beautifully in any formal situation (especially at a medical congress).

Keith Clark aka Pier Cartier

You might know Keith Clark from his excellent book The Encyclopedia of Cigarette Tricks(ghosted by Jean Hugard); even if you have no interest in cigarettes at all, the first few chapters about history and theory are simply brilliant.

I would class him as one of the little-known geniuses, with a very excentric taste.

See him do the T&R Newspaper at 00:02:25 HERE.

I recommend you watch the whole video, which we owe to Christian de Miegeville, a French historian whose YouTube channel hosts some exceptional vintage videos.

Since Clark’s ending, where he throws the torn up pieces away, puzzled me, I wrote to Mr. de Miegeville for an assessment; he answered by return mail with some interesting information and two anecdotes, and even agreed to share this material with us here:

French original text (English text below):

Keith Clark (nom qu’il utilisait pour le public francophone et Pierre Cartier pour les anglais) ou Képi Clarque, de son vrai nom Pierre Feyss (1908-1979) était un personnage étrange.

Outre son célèbre numéro de cigarettes, il avait une routine magnifique de corde coupée en trois morceaux et restaurée avec des nœuds qui apparaissaient et disparaissaient.

Ses numéros parlés étaient des sketches avec un humour au second degré. Dans celui où il présente le journal déchiré et raccommodé, il dit à la fin : ” Oui, ça va, c’est bien fait, mais c’est très facile, prenez les morceaux, essayez en rentrant chez vous, vous n’avez qu’à les recoller”.

Il a été le premier à “désacraliser” les effets de magie sans “débiner” (expliquer le tour). Ici, il reconstitue un journal qu’il avait entièrement déchiré, mais malgré ceci, il lui reste les morceaux !

Après lui, d’autres illusionnistes se sont inspirés de lui comme Otto Wessely par exemple.

Une anecdote : Pierre Cartier fut engagé au Loews de Monte-Carlo par Jacques Provence pour son N° de cigarettes. L’année suivante, Provence lui demande s’il n’a pas un autre Numéro. Cartier lui répond qu’il a un sketch muet irrésistible avec un journal.

Lors du premier spectacle, on voyait une chaise au milieu de la scène. Cartier entrait, le journal sous le bras, s’asseyait, l’ouvrait et le lisait pendant 10 minutes.

Il n’y avait aucun effet de magie. Le public interloqué se regardait stupéfait. Le public n’avait pas ri au surréalisme du numéro.

Il fut “viré” le soir même. C’était ça aussi Keith Clark…

Pour terminer, Cartier habitait à Paris dans un immeuble, rue Lacharrière, où ne résidait que des artistes. A l’époque, il était très difficile pour des comédiens, fantaisistes ou magiciens de se loger. Leur métier étant précaire, on ne voulait pas leur louer de chambres. Certains logeurs étaient quand-même compréhensifs.

On le retrouva après plusieurs jours, mort, seul, assis dans un fauteuil, son chandail et sa chemise brûlés par une cigarette.

Drôle de mort !

English translation (by ChatGPT, approved by me):

Keith Clark (the name he used for French-speaking audiences, while he performed as Pierre Cartier for English-speaking audiences), or “Képi Clarque,” whose real name was Pierre Feyss (1908–1979), was a most unusual character.

In addition to his famous cigarette act, he performed a magnificent routine in which a rope was cut into three pieces and then restored, with knots appearing and disappearing throughout the sequence.

His spoken acts were essentially comedy sketches infused with subtle, second-degree humor. In the one featuring the Torn and Restored Newspaper, he concluded by saying: “Yes, all right, it is well done, but it is very easy. Take the pieces home with you and try it yourselves—you simply have to glue them back together.”

He was the first magician to “desacralize” magical effects without actually exposing them. Here he had just restored a newspaper that he had completely torn to pieces, and yet, despite this, he still had all the torn pieces left over!

Many performers who followed drew inspiration from him, among them Otto Wessely.

One anecdote illustrates his eccentricity. Pierre Cartier was engaged by Jacques Provence to appear at the Loews in Monte Carlo with his cigarette act. The following year, Provence asked whether he had another act to offer. Cartier replied that he had an irresistible silent sketch involving a newspaper.

On opening night, the audience saw nothing more than a chair placed center stage. Cartier entered carrying a newspaper under his arm, sat down, opened it, and proceeded to read it for ten minutes.

There was no magic effect whatsoever.

The bewildered spectators looked at one another in astonishment. They failed to appreciate the surrealism of the act and did not laugh.

He was dismissed that very evening.

That, too, was Keith Clark…

To conclude, Cartier lived in Paris, on Rue Lacharrière, in a building inhabited exclusively by artists. At the time, actors, variety performers, and magicians often found it extremely difficult to obtain accommodation. Their professions were considered too precarious, and landlords were generally reluctant to rent rooms to them. Fortunately, some proprietors were more understanding.

After several days without any sign of him, Cartier was found dead, alone, seated in an armchair. His sweater and shirt had been burned by a cigarette.

A strange death indeed.

Spectator Management & Juggling – Whitey Roberts

I had never heard of Whitey Roberts until my friend Mike Perovich pointed him out to me.

Here is an old recording available on the Magicana website that shows him in what seems like a performance at a private home.

I bet you have never seen anything like this… I haven’t either. And the assisting spectator seems to like his part a lot…

To enjoy the video, CLICK HERE.

… and that’s all for today, folks! I’ll see you next month with The Magic Memories 229, as always online the first Sunday of the month, at exactly 0:07 o’clock!

Very best wishes,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: 67th Birthday; SimposioMagia 2026 Torino; MRS Magic Convention 2026 Grenchen; Overhand Shuffle Glimpse; The Roberto Giobbi Sessions – Robert Schumann; Big Night Film; Ultimate Wisdom

These are The Magic Memories 227, gone online Sunday, May 3rd, 2026, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,  including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

67th Birthday

These The Magic Memories 227 appear three days after my 67th birthday on May 1st, and I would like to take the occasion to thank all of you who have sent birthday wishes.

Please know that I read all of them and greatly appreciate them.

However, I also have to deeply apologize for not answering any of those which reached me over the multiple socials (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.).

The reason is that although my webmaster and friend Andrea Pancotti has set up all those services as part of my webshop (I think it is compulsory to do so), I rarely – meaning almost never – go to them as I have not yet been able to understand its use for me except to steal time.

My IQ is not sufficiently high to make me understand why people are using half a dozen ways to communicate, worst of all Messenger, when they can simply write an email – the speed of transmission of all of these is exactly the same…

Briefly: THANK YOU to all of you who thought of me – I love you too!

I would like to highlight two messages for various reasons, not least of all because you might find them useful in magic.

One came from Karl-Heinz Krämer, aka Charly Chester, from Veitshöchheim, Germany, (what a city name… you do not want to have to spell that too often…), whom I have never met, but who seems to enjoy my books and has kindly and very ably translated various of my essays into German.

He wished me “good luck” for my birthday, and served the following anecdote with it:

A friend of mine once told me about his boss:

The boss—a very personable man—has, for many years, wished his employees, friends, and relatives nothing more than “good luck” on their birthdays and special occasions. Nothing else at all.

This always struck my friend as curious, and one day he asked his boss why he limited himself to simply saying “good luck.”

The boss replied:

“You see, the people on the Titanic may have been as healthy and as wealthy as one could wish. They simply didn’t have any luck.”

What a lovely Prologue this would make to introduce a trick that has “luck” as a presentational theme.

Another interesting message came from my dear friend Joe Gallant of Boston, who wrote:

Since 67 is a prime number, that is proof that you are in your prime!

Not only is 67 a prime number, but according to Wikipedia it is also a lucky prime, a super-prime, and a sexy prime.

I never knew there are dozens of different types of prime numbers – CLICK HERE to know more.

Such information is not just educational and amusing, more often than not it may offer a presentational idea for a trick.

In the above instance of 67 it could be argued that “6” and “7” have “magical” qualities.

You could apply this to the old chestnut of showing a Six and a Seven, putting them in the deck, and without further ado show them back on top – a lovely Double Ambitious Card.

No comment should be necessary, but for the rare newcomer in magic who reads these lines, I’ll briefly expand on this idea: Have the 6S and the 7C on top of the deck unbeknownst to your audience.

Start by telling them about the characteristics of the number 67, offering various very brief examples (see the Wiki-entry), as at the same time you spread through the deck with the faces toward you and throw the 6C and the 7S face down on the table (these are the “twins” of the pair on top of the deck). Only when you reach the punch line of your little Prologue turn the two cards face up, saying that they represent the number 67.

Done in this way it is virtually impossible that anyone focusses on the exact suit of the cards, but all will remember “black and 67”.

Show the cards for a few seconds, ideally capping this short display with yet another amusing fact about #67 – the laugh this brings acts as an interference in the ultra-short-term memory making them forget the suit, but will function in the short-term memory as an anchor to remind them of  the values Six and Seven, black.

(It is better to use Clubs and Spades rather than Hearts and Diamonds, because Hearts is more probable to be remembered, being a universal symbol…)

If you think the trick is too short, I tend to agree.

But you can still use it to introduce a longer routine by saying, “Maybe two cards are one too many – which one do you prefer?” Now have this card signed, putting the other away, and proceed with the performance of your standard Ambitious Card.

At the end you could transform the signed card, assume she chose the 6S, into the 7C (which you kept under control at all times), e.g., by saying, “Maybe you ask what would have happened if you had chosen the Seven instead of the Six?” Transform the card, e.g., using the “Snap-over Color Change” (p. 1133 in Card College Volume 5).

Throw the 7C on the table, palm the signed 6C and bring it forth from some impossible location; if you have a good card to wallet use that and do not worry about those who say this is not a good climax for an Ambitious Card Routine… these people are theoreticians and have never performed in front of a paying audience… or if you agree with them, show that you have been sitting on it all the time (that is how I do it when I do not have my wallet available).

Talking of “wallets”: how about saying that the card is now in your wallet. Take out your regular wallet, open it, show it contains a card back-up, but when you turn it over it is blank-faced and reads something like, “That’s the wallet from Stone Age – check Wallet on Smartphone…” Take out your Smartphone, and upon opening it (provided it is in a sort of wallet) produce the signed card from there (this alludes, of course, to the Wallet App – not sure if only iPhones have that).

Anyway, just a few ideas how you can use birthday wishes for magic…

SimposioMagia 2026 Torino

Years ago it occurred to me to do a two-day gathering of magic in Torino, Italy.

The idea was to have an invitation-only meeting that would celebrate magic and gastronomy in equal parts, both being necessities for life, one spiritual/intellectual, the other physical.

It was set at the end of October when in Piedmont the season for white truffles starts.

The format was simple: have magic talks throughout the day, and in the evening do a big shared meal based on truffles and the best wines. There would be no convention fee, but the obligation that every participant would give a short talk (ca. 20 minutes) on any subject related to magic.

The inspiration for this was not so much the Card Conference held in San Lorenzo de El Escorial (no truffles there anyway…), but a private gathering in Toronto, Canada, by the name of 31 Faces North, annually organized by David Ben and Julie Eng, and sponsored by Allan Slaight.

This private convention always turned around two “guests of honor,” which in 2007 were Stephen Minch and – guess who – yes, yours truly.

What impressed me so much there was not so much the meals (no truffles), and not even the caliber of the people invited (total exactly 31, among whom heavy-weights such as Max Maven, John Thompson, Herb Zarrow, Michael Weber, Eric Mead, Bob Farmer, etc.). No, it was the fact that most contributed some kind of talk that related to magic, and I found all of those wonderful and interesting.

Back home from Toronto it immediately inspired me to create something similar (unfortunately without the sponsorship of a millionaire…) here in Europe, and my first thought was Italy, since I thought Switzerland was too small and did not have enough talent at the time (today is different and it could be done…), and Germany already had similar events (Cardworkshop, Mentalworkshop, etc.), but Italy really had nothing in that direction (except Tony Binarelli’s commercial magic days in San Martino di Castrozza, which were also based on an initial idea of mine).

When I told the idea to my Italian friends of many years, Aurelio Paviato and Marco Aimone, they both agreed to take over the reins: Aurelio knows almost every worthy magician in Italy, and Marco is the president of Italy’s largest magic club in Torino who could also put the event location at our disposal for free.

Said, done. The first SimposioMagia, as we chose to call it in honor of the Greek Symposia (see HERE), took place in 2007. This went on for three years.

When the SimposioMagia in Torino stopped, Giacomo Bertini of Florence, who had also been invited to the Torino sessions, asked me if he could take the concept of the meeting around coins, and so created the European Coin Magic Symposium, which was held in Milan for the first time in 2010, later renamed European Close-up Magic Symposium.

As such it went on from 2010 to 2018 in Milan, taking place at the Hotel Sunflower, attracting some of the biggest names in magic (David Roth, Flip Hallema, Francis Tabary, Miguelangel Gea, Shigeo Futagawa, Michael Rubinstein, etc., and I also became a permanent invited guest).

After 2018, the event evolved and moved to Vienna, Austria, under the name “The Original Close-Up Magic Symposium,” taking place in Bill Chueng’s formidable close-up theatre near Vienna. This meeting is now still going on to great success, I am told.

So, there you have it, a very short bit of magic history at a small scale. If the participants and their contributions were to be described, it would result in a big book.

Coming back to this years Simposiomagia, ably organized by Aurelio Paviato, and held on the premises of the Circolo Amici della Magia, the magic club of Torino under the presidency of Marco Aimone, it took place Saturday, 11th, and Sunday 12th April, with numerous shorter and longer presentations, all turning around magical topics (CLICK HERE for a PDF of the presentations, easily translated with ChatGPT for those who are interested).

I would have loved to tell you a bit about every single presentation, but alas neither time nor space allows for it. In any case, the event was so successful that it was unanimously decided to repeat a similar function next year.

MRS Magic Convention 2026 Grenchen

From Friday, 24th, to Sunday, 26th April, I attended the national convention of the Magic Club of Switzerland (MRS/CMS) in Grenchen.

FYI: MRS stands for Magischer Ring Schweiz, CMS for Club Magique Suisse, as well as for Club Magico Svizzero. Yes, that are the three official languages in Switzerland, and there is even a forth, which is Romansh (English for Rumantsch), the latter spoken by about 50’000 people.

If you consider that at the end of 2025 Switzerland’s resident population amounted to 9 million – that is half as many as in the Greater Los Angeles area – you may wonder how it is possible that so few people, with so diverse languages and cultures (and religions!), can live together, not only in peace, but prosperous and happy, Switzerland being among the top ten in “the happiness report” and, to my own surprise, number one in wealth (I think they have excluded authors of magic books from this statistic…).

I mention this for those who might not be aware of how small Switzerland is, and whose post offices occasionally mix it up with Sweden and Swaziland, a fact which shows when ca. 100 practitioners of magic attend a convention… that is not so many.

Nonetheless, look at the program below:

What you cannot see from the program, but which is hinted at on the cover of the program booklet (a rare gift at magic conventions nowadays, which I find a great pity), the talent booked for lectures and shows was just short of sensational.

Never before in the entire history of magic – as Churchill might have said had he been a magician – has such a small convention, in such an small town as Grenchen (CLICK HERE), and which boasts “over 16’000 inhabitants, ” booked so many world-class acts. Indeed, the evening gala on Saturday showcased nobody less than the two Grand Prix Winners of FISM 2025, Francesco della Bona (Italy) and Kibuki (Japan).

But that is not all, since the “supporting acts” where almost all past FISM Grand Prix Winners, too: Miguel Muñoz (Grand Prix Stage FISM 2018), Héctor Mancha (Grand Prix FISM 2015), Laurent Piron (Grand Prix FISM 2022), Marc Weide (Grand Prix Parlor FISM 2018), Eric Chien (Grand Prix Close-up 2018), Mortenn Christiansen (Grand Prix Parlor 2022/2025), Anca & Lucca (Winners Mental Magic FISM 2022), Mario López (no Grand Prix, but several other awards, and good enough for this gala!), all of this ably emceed by Swiss-German Peter Löhmann.

As you can guess, the gala was far too loooong, and the theatre without air conditioning, but someone like me who can sit through a 18-course Piemontese meal of four hours without complaining will not complain here either…

You may find it interesting to note that in contrast to most magic conventions, which are organized by magic clubs, this was managed by some non-magicians, and it showed in the “artistic conception” of the convention.

However, the lack of originality in the convention program was by far made good for by booking some of the world’s top talent. This was exclusively due to the fact that those non-magicians are well-connected in the real world – something missing from most magic club conventions – and who therefore succeeded in gathering the necessary sponsors and finances necessary to pull over such a grandiose event. It was like a buffet made by someone who had not much knowledge of food nor wine, but knew what the best food and wines are, and then found someone to pay for all that.

Briefly, as the British say: The proof of the pudding is in its standing, and in the case of this convention it was an outstanding event, and everyone left happy and enriched.

What more do you want!

In my own name, and in that of all participants, I thank Eric von Schulthess and his team for organizing such an extraordinary event in the small town of Grenchen, Switzerland – now the rest of the world knows where Grenchen is (head office of Rolex, in case you need a reference).

Overhand Shuffle Glimpse

This allows you to glimpse a card that will eventually end up on the bottom of the deck after an Overhand Shuffle.

Start a standard Overhand Shuffle but, as the left thumb chops off the first packet, it is very briefly pulled to the left and then immediately drops back as the shuffle is continued. In the instant the top packet topples to the left and back, the bottom card can be seen. After the shuffle, this card will be on the bottom of the deck.

I think it is a good idea to follow immediately with a second Overhand Shuffle and end with a False Cut. Even better than a False Shuffle retaining bottom stock and a False Cut is to apply Ascanio’s idea of Intelligent Movements (see Sharing Secrets, p. 54) in form on an Intelligent Injog Shuffle, to wit: Start an Overhand Shuffle until you are left with a small packet (although we want to control just one card, the same technique applied for a packet up to about a third of the deck – not so bad); throw this packet on top of all, injogging the lower cards. Let the deck slide in Dealing Position, and then cut it in several packets to the table, cutting at the injog first.

This will effectively deliver the selection back to the bottom. What makes this procedure “intelligent” is the fact that the two “techniques” are done in full view and simulate ordinary actions (you really shuffle, and you really cut, instead of false shuffling and false cutting).

Details of Handling: As soon as you have sighted the card, lift your gaze and look at the spectators, saying something meaningful to the trick. Correctly done, nobody will suspect that you even looked at the cards. The whole action looks like an ordinary Overhand Shuffle and the glimpse is imperceptible if correctly executed. As far as I know this is original with me but wouldn’t be surprised to learn otherwise.

This said, my notes point to the source that inspired me to come up with the above handling: “Roberto Giobbi, FEB 1993, inspired by reading Paul Daniels’s Adult Magic, p. 98/99.”

This book, authored by Barry Murray and published in 1989 by Michael O’Mara Books Ltd., is directed at the public, but as Charlie Miller already said, perusing such books from time to time can be of great benefit to the expert magician; not so much for the direct content, but for what the content can trigger.

It so happened with an item titled “Shuffle Glimpse, ” where the author suggests overhand shuffling a deck by tilting the cards in the receiving left hand back and forth, and in the process glimpse the card that ends up on the bottom of the deck. I think you will agree that my version I describe at the beginning looks more familiar to a lay audience and therefore more innocent.

This shuffle, by the way, is reminiscent of the “first method” Erdnase describes (see my take on that one in Unexpected Agenda, “January 22 – On Erdnase’s “First Method” False Shuffle Full-Deck Control,” a method I urge you to learn).

Mr. Murray’s description led me to one more idea (maybe already discovered by Marlo?), which I dubbed “Tilted Overhand Shuffle Glimpse”, to wit: Hold a break under card to be glimpsed (e.g., after Peek, Lateral Insertion, etc.). Start an Overhand Shuffle, but in the first shuffle movement the left thumb pulls the packet above the break to the left in a hinge-like movement.

The packet thus very briefly tilts to the left, allowing the glimpse of the outer upper index as well as the full face. The slight tilting of the packet is invisibilizized as the movement blends in with the Gestalt of the shuffle.

Coming up with these two ideas from a magic book for laypeople made me happy like a clam at high tide (with apologies to Mike Perovich).

The Roberto Giobbi Sessions – Robert Schumann

As I am proof-reading the layouted text of my assembled The Genii Session columns, tentatively titled Roberto Giobbi Sessions, scheduled to appear toward the end of this year (so says Vanishing Inc.), I cannot help but amaze myself at how much and to what depth I have dealt with the arguably largest variety of themes magical ever to be written about in a column of a magic magazine (six columns during fourteen years).

This editing work takes me longer than it should, because I keep getting stuck with the subjects I wrote about and pondering the many implications the subjects discussed have.

In The Genii Session for January 2011, for instance, I reproduced without comments the “Musical Rules for Life and the Home” by German composer, pianist, and music critic Robert Schumann (1810-1856), from Album for the Young, written in 1848.

What he says about music and how to study it is timeless, and anyone with an average intelligence and very little thinking can apply it virtually 1:1 to magic.

From the almost one hundred pieces of advice, I will quote and comment two:

Ear training is the most important thing of all. From the very start, try hard to recognize notes and keys. Bells, the window-pane, the cuckoo: listen to the sounds they make.

RG: Applying this to magic seems obvious: Watch as many magic shows, and performances in other genres, as you can and get inspiration.

You should play scales and other finger-exercises fluently. However, many people think that everything can be achieved by spending several hours a day in mechanical practice, even into advanced age. That’s almost as if one tried every day to say their A, B, C as fast as possible, getting faster and faster. Use your time more wisely.

RG: This does not even need a comment… although this is one…

Big Night Film

The other night I watched a movie I had completely forgotten about … yes, I just realize that this is a magic trick in itself…

The film I am referring to is Big Night (USA 1996) – read more about it HERE.

As I was going to extensively comment on it to explain why I waste time on watching movies instead of practicing Table Faros, I decided to just give you the YouTube link to it, where you can legally watch the film for free, and keep my mouth shut for once.

What could I say anyway that Roger Ebert has not already said in his review of the Chicago Sun-Time:

“Big Night is one of the great food movies, and yet it is so much more. It is about food not as a subject but as a language–the language by which one can speak to gods, can create, can seduce, can aspire to perfection.”

[RG: replace “food” with “magic”… and then find a magic performance this could be applied to.]

Enjoy it and see for yourself how it relates to excellence in magic… and life for that matter.

I believe the film can be streamed from various platforms, probably in better quality than if watched on YouTube, but here is your legal and free entry ticket: CLICK HERE (This is the German version, but I am sure that my english-speaking readers, who are Internet-smarter than I am, will find the English version.)

Ultimate Wisdom

“The meaning of life is to discover one’s gifts. The purpose of life is to offer them to others.” –Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

Disclaimer

For the n-th time I remind you that this blog is free of charge, there is no advertising, I have no sponsors, and I am doing this with no hope of a (financial) return, instead of investing my time in clever YouTube clips or Instagram posts that would maybe garner me thousands of followers. Therefore, it is proof-read only once by myself, all typos and other errors being my full responsibility. Should anything be unbearable, please let me know via the “infos / contacts” menu item on the webshop www.robertogiobbi.com and I shall correct it.

Very best wishes,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: 2026 International Create Illusion in Les Sables d’Olonne; The Card Magic of LePaul 2 – Comments on Techniques; Basler Fasnacht – “The Heiri Freeze”; The Sting – An Extra; Bernard Bilis – The Book(s); Hugo Cocktail

These are The Magic Memories 226, gone online Sunday, April 5th, 2026, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,  including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

2026 International Create Illusion in Les Sables d’Olonne

At the time of this writing I have just returned from a most unusual magic convention, namely one dedicated primarily to creation.

The greatest part of the activities – lectures, talks, performances, and dealer room – were dedicated to the subject of how to create magic.

Most unusual, perhaps, the fact that the dealer room hosted only originators of tricks, gimmicks, books, etc. rather than the usual magic dealer with the latest novelties from around the world.

The Lecture “How to Create Magic”

The organizer, my dear friend Serge Arial from Bordeaux (yes, THE Bordeaux!), had contacted me just a few weeks before, asking me if I could give a lecture with a focus on the creation of magic.

Since lecturing has always been a hobby within the profession for me, I enthusiastically agreed… and then started to think how I could create my Lecture #71 – yes, in the past fifty years I have indeed given lectures, talks, workshops, seminars on seventy different topics, a number so impressive that I am forced to mention this myself (as Ricky Jay would have said).

For my presentation, which lasted almost two hours and was scheduled at midnight (!), I chose three pieces from my professional repertoire, performed them first, and then tried to discuss the process it took from the initial idea to the performance-ready piece.

If you are curious to know what they were: “Swiss Poker” (see Stand-up Card Magic, p. 195), “On the LePaul Envelope Set” (see Card College Volume 5, p. 1367), and “The Red Card” (commercial item by Penguin Magic).

Each item allowed me to describe different techniques and strategies of creativity – mind mapping, brainstorm, research tools, etc. – that can be applied to most problem-solving.

I like it when a lecture not only has excellent tricks and techniques you can use (or not use…), but contains polyvalent concepts that can be applied to all of one’s magic.

So, if you will not do any of the things the lecturer performs and explains, you still walk away with something that you did not know before and that can elevate your own magic… provided you put in the necessary work, of course.

The fact that from the initial forty persons only one left, and none of the rest fell asleep, plus the nice comments I received afterwards, proved that I had picked a good subject.

I will repeat his talk at Ondrej Psenicka’s Butterfly Wondercon magic convention in Prague this fall and will then tell you more about it, and even be able to share my PP presentation with you.

If you have never been to Prague, the Czech capital, this is the occasion to do it, as it is one of the most picturesque cities I have ever been to (see my report on Prague in The Magic Memories 182) – all info for the convention HERE.

The Location

The location was the congress center in Les Sables d’Olonne, a sea-side resort on France’s west coast, with lots of small hotels within walking distance, which to me along with the congress program and good restaurants is one of the three most important things when I attend a magic convention.

As you can see from the photo, this was located right next to a casino with all necessary amenities for a successful event of this sort: enough space for all who exposed their wares, good smaller rooms for the various lectures and talks, plus a superb theatre with a stage large enough for Copperfield to have vanished his Lear Jet, and great tired seating for excellent view.

To get an impression of the place CLICK HERE.

I shot the photo below while discussing magic on the terrace of a bar with view on the picturesque port, sipping a classic Ricard, in readiness for dinner; for 12 magnificent oysters I paid €17.50 (including tip & tax), less than for a cocktail in New York (without tip & tax).

The Program

For reasons of logistics I missed half the activities, but the rest more than rewarded me for the effort it took to get there. Here just a few impressions:

Laurent  Cervoni, who in real life holds a Ph.D. in AI and is heavily involved in its research, presented his book on the subject of AI & Magic – you can get the publication from Amazon HERE in English or French.

Also, you may be surprised to learn that I wrote the preface – to read it CLICK HERE.

Another interesting event was an interview with France’s legendary Jan Madd, who for years did a magic show on a “peniche” (a large houseboat) on the Seine in Paris – I had the good  change to attend many years ago.

He presented a book on another French legend, Dominique (Risbourg), a pickpocket of international fame who died in 2020 at age 87.

You can get the beautifully produced book Dominique, le roi du bluff directly from the publisher HERE… and practice your French, although with lots of great photos you do not have to read that much.

Stopover Paris

On the way back I did a very short stopover in Paris – too short to visit with friends – but still managed to squeeze in a lunch at my favorite restaurant in Paris, at Pierre Gagnaire’s, with friends shown in the photo below, where we are enjoying a cigar and an Armagnac in a street-side Parisian cafe – life is certainly too short for anything else…

The Card Magic of Paul LePaul 2 – Comments on Techniques

Last month I reported on the 50th Cardworkshop held in Nuremberg, Germany (see The Magic Memories 225) and gave a short summary of my presentation on LePaul, which focused on some of my favorite trick items in the book. My comments seemed to please various among you, and several have asked me if I would comment on the sleights/techniques section of the book, which constitutes the first part of LePaul’s The Card Magic of LePaul (1949/1959 – 313 photos, 222 pages).

Your wish is my command, therefore follows a commented subjective selection of LePaul’s techniques. As I said in The Magic Memories 225, to fully profit from my observations below, you should have a deck of cards and a copy of the book ready, or the PDF, which you can get for a mere $9 from lybrary.com HERE.

Also, do not forget that you can make annotations into your PDF, or write into the book, or use an external notebook.

Here we go:

p. 35ff A Flourish and a Pass

This technique clearly shows how the background of performers influence the interpretation of their sleights: LePaul was a first a stage manipulator, then a close-up performer. Therefore, it makes sense to occasionally merge a flourish with a sleight.

I could not find a video of him performing this particular sleight, but would assume that he cold pull it over efficiently, as does Fred Kaps in THIS VIDEO.

You can see Kaps execute and then explain “Flourish and a Pass” at 01:35. (For many years this video and another one with non-card items was a closely guarded secret and circulated only in the underground. It took me many years to gain the confidence of someone who finally shared it with me. Nowadays, it is there on YouTube, for anyone to watch… how times have changed.)

To use a flourish in conjunction with a control to me is an oxymoron: A control is sensed to be done invisibly and as such the last thing you want to do is to draw attention to it, whereas a flourish does exactly the contrary.

For this reason I have come up with the handling I discuss in Card College Volume 4, “The Spread Pass” (p. 978). In my professional work I have found this to be one of the very few forms of the Pass that is useful in virtually all close-up situations, as the action takes now place at the right moment, after a “gesture of innocence” (see center illustration with both thumbs extended, as if to say, “I have nothing to hide…”):

If you revise the description in Card College, you will discover several more details of handling and how to cover the Pass from virtually all angles.

Pay special attention to the right thumb, which is NOT lifted as most do (Kaps does this, too!), but slides along the top of the lower packet.

p. 46/47: Side-Steal

There is a bit of a confusion in terminology here, as what LePaul calls a “Side Steal” really is a “Side Slip”, as the card goes into a full palm.

For details see Expert Card Technique, original edition of 1940, then the 3rd edition of 1950, with Dr. Jacob Daley’s dissertation on the subject – this is now in public domain, so I attach a PDF of that part of the book that is missing in the Dover edition many seem to have – CLICK HERE for a scan with my comments.

In the hope to introduce more clarity to the subject, in Card College Volume 3, Chapter 38, I have rebaptized these two sleights as “Side-Steal Transfer” and “Side-steal Palm”, two intuitive terms.

Noteworthy are two things: First, LePaul’s “Peek Finesse” for his “Side Steal” (however, note the cumbersome use of the middle finger instead of the little finger to hold the break), second, his squaring the deck at Elevated Dealing Position. Both details show a great understanding for the psychological construction of the sleight.

p. 54: Right-hand Top Palm

This is a fast and efficient technique for palming the top card in the right hand. I have never seen anyone use this… why?

p. 61: Diagonal Left-hand Palm

This has to be the arguably most efficient technique to insert a card into the deck in order to directly deliver it into the palm of your left hand.

I really wonder why nobody seems to use this… I’ve started practicing it, and think it is beautiful.

p. 67: A Useful Acquitment

This is exactly as the title implies: very useful to hide palmed cards, but also to reverse one or several cards, to place key cards, etc. I remember that at my first FISM convention in 1979 in Brussels Bernard Bilis showed me how he used this to load a palmed card in a sandwich in the hand-spread… (I discuss this in “The Palm” video section of Card Magic Masterclass.)

p. 69: Flip-over Double Lift

This is what we nowadays call a “Hit Double Lift” (see Denis Behr’s Conjuring Credits under ” Hit Double Lift”), which in reality is not a Double Lift but a Double Turnover.

This is also mentioned a year later as “Instantaneous Double Lift” by Dr. Daley in Stars of Magic (1950!).

I have never taken to this handling, which albeit practical, to me looks and feels too “cosy”.

As a solution to this technical problem I recommend the “Push-over Double” as described in Card College Volume 3, p. 573. But for real-world use, I always use a break-based method, because – to quote myself from an interview in a Penguin video – “Professionals don’t take risks, they take breaks!”

p. 77: Top Change

I have seen LePaul do this in a video and can vouch for its effectiveness; it was certainly a sleight he used a lot and excelled at.

This is particularly interesting for the various “managements” he describes, I like the “Fourth Method” (p. 81) best, where the cards are held in End Grip.

This is really a very good way of doing the Top Change in standup situations (see “The Top Change from End Grip” in Stand-up Card Magic, p. 96, for a detailed and illustrated discussion).

p. 82: Instantaneous Change

Interesting because it deals with a solution to a technical problem that has only received little attention – in LePaul’s time almost none – namely what we nowadays call “Double Lift Replacements”,  namely how to get rid of the lower card of a double. This is a huge subject that could take up a large part of a lecture just on the Double Lift and the Double Turnover.

p. 85: Second Deal

Like the Top Change mentioned above, this Second Deal is done with the right hand taking the cards in End Grip; this is very practical and safe.

Also see Dai Vernon’s “New Theory Second Deal” in Ganson’s Dai Vernon’s  Further Inner Secrets, as well as my discussion of the same plus application in a very strong trick in Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction (Lesson 41: False Deals; the trick is “The Double Bet” – like several of the tricks in this video course that reflects volumes 3 and 4 of Card College, this one is not in the Card College books).

p. 87: Rapid One-hand Deal

Just an excellent, beautiful and useful flourish deal. This was part of Ricky Jay’s technical repertoire. Need I say more?

p. 90: Simplified Bottom Deal

I learned this from Minch’s books on Martin Nash, but here it is almost half a century earlier.

This really brings the Bottom Deal into the reach of anyone with just average card skills. Can also be applied to the Middle Deal (simplified!).

p. 93: Natural Jog Control

This technique has been relatively influential as it is still used nowadays, so it is important.

However, most of the times I see someone do this, it is badly done, as the diagonal throw is obvious.

You can find much  better variations of this concept in Card College Volume 3, “Chapter 29: Techniques with Breaks, Steps and Injogs” (and check the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction video course, where it is dealt with in Lesson 25).

p. 98: Deceptive Crimp Location

It immediately occurred to me that this would make a good solution for an effect I have always liked: a selection is shuffled back into the deck, which is then ribbon-spread face down on the table. A card is taken and throw into the spread, where it locates the previously chosen card!

Technically I would do it like this: Have the card chosen with Peek, slide the card partially out and put the crimp in it. Dribble the cards on the table, square, cut for a Riffle Shuffle, bringing the crimped card to the bottom, shuffle, and then centralize the crimped card with a series of Running Cuts.

Take the top card, boomerang it in the air and catch it for effect (a visual Prologue), then throw the card over the ribbon-spread deck. With a little practice you will find that the card can be thrown into the gap formed on the left side of the crimped card – quite amazing.

p. 99: Automatic Jog Control

One of LePaul’s most influential techniques; very practical, with many applications (as mentioned above, see Card College Volume 3, “Chapter 29: Techniques with Breaks, Steps and Injogs”, and check the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction video course, where it is dealt with in Lesson 25).

The book is worth being studied in more detail than I just did, but I hope these few comments and sources have awakened your curiosity to explore the magic of this past master of the pasteboards, Paul LePaul.

Basler Fasnacht – “The Heiri Freeze”

I have mentioned the “Carneval” in Basel, Switzerland – called “Basler Fasnacht” – in one of my previous posts (The Magic Memories 165). And if you are interested, you can learn more about it HERE.

Part of the Fasnacht is the “Schnitzelbangg,” which is a traditional Basel carnival act where a performer (or small group) sings short, witty, often rhyming verses that humorously comment on current events, politics, or local gossip—while showing large illustrated panels that visually accompany each verse.

This, to me, has always been the best part of the Fasnacht, but unfortunately it is the part you will not be able to appreciate should you ever come to Basel as a tourist to witness this world-renowned event (and you should do that!), because it is delivered in the Basel dialect only understood by the natives…

Nonetheless, this year had two things that motivate me to report this to you.

First, one of the Schnitzelbangg-acts, the “Wanderratte” (wandering rats), did a verse  illustrated by the Cups & Balls! As far as I can remember this is the first time in years that magic has been iconographically represented in a Schnitzelbangg. Bob Read would certainly have wanted this for his collection (see Ricky Smith’s review of Bob Read’s book HERE).

Second, one of the acts called “Heiri”, used a technique to get a strong reaction each time his verse reached the punch line: As soon as the last words were delivered and the reaction of the audience set in – usually a loud laugh – instead of getting ready to start the next verse, as most would do, he stood there, looked into the audience for at least three seconds, and nodded his head, thus emphasizing what was just said, seemingly saying, “Yes, exactly, that’s it!”

Possibly this technique has a name in the actor’s repertoire, but since I am not interested in acting, because it is the actor’s task to play someone he himself is not, and as a rule this is not what we magicians do (with exceptions), I have identified this ploy as a concept and named it “The Heiri Freeze.”

Clearly, it is a technique we can use in our magic performances when reaching the climax of a magical sequence: freeze, look at the audience, look at where the effect just took place – e.g., our left hand, assuming a coin just “vanished” from there – then look back at the audience, possibly at just one spectator rather than at everyone, and think, or even say out loud, “It’s gone! I mean… how is that!?”

You can have a quick look at Heiri’s performance for 2026 by CLICKING HERE; Obviously, being delivered in Swiss German you will not understand a thing, but just watching 20 seconds will give you an idea what this is all about, and then slide the playhead on the progress bar to 04:25 to see “The Heiri Freeze” at 04:25, as in the other instances of the punch line the camera unfortunately keeps showing the audience… proving once more that neither directors nor camerapeople on TV have the slightest notion of what psychological construction is.

This really opens a big subject I will not further comment on, but let you do the thinking…

However, as a suggestion for those who are interested to follow up this topic: I have discussed the moment when the climax of an effect is reached in Unexpected Agenda, “January 25th – Behavior at Climax;” for your convenience you can read this item by CLICKING HERE. I have further explored the subject in Sharing Secrets, Pause, p. 82, especially what Ascanio dubbed “Pause of Assimilation.”

It is certainly one of the differences between an amateur and a professional, as a professional knows the value of a pause, most amateurs lack the courage it takes to accept the audience’s reaction and recognition, and therefore more often than not rush to perform their next piece. I know, because I went through all this…

Incidentally, this example confirms something we all know, namely that there is a lot to be learned by paying attention to performers in other disciplines, and that interdisciplinarity is an important learning strategy.

The Sting – An Extra

Knowing of my interest in The Sting, for my taste one of the very best movies of all times, my friend Joe Gallant from Boston sent in a link to a behind-the-scenes documentary that may find your favor, too.

Besides being a fascinating film – in the truest sense of the term “fascinating” – anyone interested in magic can learn a lot from it.

Several of these aspects are addressed in the video you can watch by CLICKING HERE.

Bernard Bilis – The Book(s)

Bernard Bilis, who has been a good friend and inspiration since we first met about 45 (!) years ago, called three days ago from Paris with the good news that his book – actually two books in one slipcase – simply titled Bilis, will soon be available in French (two books) and in English (two books).

Official release is scheduled for August 2026 – but since in France nobody works in August, make it September…

For detailed info and to take advantage of the Kickstarter offer, CLICK HERE.

This is actually a last-minute offer (real artists always do things last minute…), as the Kickstarter promotion ends Monday, 6th April 2026.

BUT if you miss it, you can still order the book from the publisher, Magic Dream, one of Paris’ leading magic shops and publisher of magic books, by CLICKING HERE.

Until Monday 6th, the Kickstarter-link will show on Magic Dream’s website; after that they should replace it with a normal online-purchase link.

Obviously, to all who are reading these The Magic Memories, Bilis needs no introduction.

But should there be by any chance someone who has never heard of him: Bernard is certainly one-of-a-kind, with an exceptional technical skill and great originality in creating techniques and very personal solutions to classic and new problems, using mostly cards, at which he excels as a virtuoso.

If you like challenging sleight-of-hand and complex routines, you will find them here, although Maître Bilis’ advertising promises several nuggets for anyone with just an average skill in card magic.

Briefly: This may easily become the book of the year.

Hugo Cocktail

Hugo is a long-drink which has become very popular in central Europe in the past years.

When Debbie and Gary Plants visited with us in 2025, they declared my Hugo as the best longdrink they had in Europe. Recently I sent him my recipe, and thought some of you might be interested about what topics top cardmen correspond…

I just made two Hugos and noted the measurements, which are in European milliliters, 1ml being 0,03381 US fl.oz. according to Google.

On the photo I have attached you can see I use a wine glass, actually one without the stem from Austrian manufacturer of glasses Riedel.

Here are the measurements:

• 2 ml sirup (elderberry flower or quince or similar sirup – try…)

• 1 ml fresh lemon juice

• 4 ml soda

• add ice cubes (I put in 6 to 8, but that depends on their size, of course)

• fill up with sparkling wine (white, but I have tried rosé as well and it looks and tastes very good, too)

• stir gently with a spoon

• add lemon slices and mint leaves (not in the photo as we did not have any… it’s more a summer drink)

Instead of worrying about measurements, just think in “parts”, ie.:

2 parts sirup

1 part lemon juice

4 parts soda

ca. 10 parts sparkling wine

You should try these proportions first and note how you like it, then next time change: more or less sirup, more or less lemon juice, etc., until you come up with your favorite mix. Make sure to take note of the new proportions, or else you will forget…

This is really not much different than with a magic trick: you have to perform it several times, for a long time, make changes, until you get it right… then stick with it (unless there is a very good reason to change it again).

Please remember that you do not receive The Magic Memories automatically but have to proactively go to https://www.robertogiobbi.com/site/the-magic-memories-2021/ at the first Sunday of every month.

See you again in The Magic Memories 227, on Sunday, 3rd May, 2026, at 0:07 o’clock sharp (or a little later…)!

Very best wishes,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: German Cardworkshop (CWS) 2026 (LePaul, Pareras, Apparatus Card Magic, T&R Card); The Card Magic of Paul LePaul; TTTCBE; Burger Wisdom

These are The Magic Memories 225, gone online Sunday, March 1st, 2026, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,  including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

German Cardworkshop (CWS)

This year the German Cardworkshop (CWS) celebrated its 60th edition (!!!), once again at Stephan Kirschbaum’s Wundermanufaktur, from FEB 15-17, three days of full immersion into the infinite universe of card magic.

I have reported about the CWS before – its history, activities, and members – several times in these The Magic Memories, e.g., see The Magic Memories 164 and 217… and more.

• Life & Work of Paul LePaul
• Life & Work of Gabi Pareras
• Card Magic With Apparatus
• Torn & Restored Card

Since I have dealt with the CWS extensively in the above-mentioned blogs, I will just make a few comments on this year’s topics.

Paul LePaul (1900-1958)

This subject was ably prepared and presented by Denis Behr and Lorenz Schär (plus a little contribution of mine – see below), who did an extraordinary job, not only content-wise, but also knew how to time their presentations.

You have to consider that all these presentations are given for the first and probably last time, with no or little occasion of rehearsal. So, to present relevant content in a limited time is not an easy task.

Anyway, Denis and Lorenz wrote a remarkable paper on LePaul, with lots of information most of us – even the “experts” – did not have, great photos, and some rare video footage, with the help of Gary Plants and Bill Kalush.

To read and download the PDF they prepared, you should subscribe to Denis’ Newsletter – if you haven not already done so, I recommend you do, as it appears only sporadically, and when it does it invariable contains noteworthy information.

To get Denis Behr’s and Lorenz Schär’s PDF-paper on LePaul, with their compliments, CLICK HERE.

Gabi Pareras (1965-2020)

To talk about the life and work of Gabi Pareras would take weeks (and more…), as he was one of the true geniuses of our art.

However, Vicente Noguera, Marc Haufer, and Moritz Müller managed to give a good overview of the person and his approach to magic, through biographical information, anecdotes, tricks, techniques, and several interesting video clips.

All was supplemented by various others of the group performing material of Gabi’s and discussing it.

This certainly was a very challenging subject to study and present, and I felt it was very well done. Due to time-restrictions a part that the group had prepared could not be presented. However, it was decided that the subject be continued at the 61st CWS in 2027.

I had prepare a one-hour talk about my several personal meetings and sessions I had with Gabi in the past twenty-plus years, with several private and unpublished notes, but again unfortunately time-restrictions did not allow this to happen… so, this information will remain “underground”.

Card Magic With Apparatus

This presentation was headed by Wolfgang Moser, with contributions of Magic Christian, Tino Plaz and others.

Wolfgang wrote a detailed and informative paper on the subject that we hope to make available to the community in the near future.

Although one might think that this was more of a talk on the history of apparatus, it was only partially so.

Certainly, the big times of using apparatus in card magic is over, but if you plunge into the subject you will find that “apparatus” in the larger and stricter sense of the term are still being used nowadays to great success.

Wolfgang Moser gave us a concise and informative overview of classic apparatus used for card tricks, performing and explaining some of the most important ones.

He also discussed how he has lately taken a deep interest in 3D-printing, and to the delight and surprise of all he performed a reconstructed devil’s head, where a chosen card comes out of the devil’s mouth!

This piece of apparatus has been used by several in the past, possibly best known as “Head of Mephistopheles” and described by Professor Hoffmann in his Modern Magic, where it goes by the name of “Demon Head”.

As for history: The photo below shows Magic Christian discussing Hofzinser’s Card Box, which is really a box for tobacco and which brings up the subject of how to make a piece of apparatus meaningful in the setting of what is being performed.

In this context Christian reminded us of one of Hofzinser’s most important dictums: “Alle Handlungen und heimliche Handgriffe müssen immer einen Grund haben – There always has to be a reason for all actions and moves.” This is certainly very much in line with what Dai Vernon postulated as “be natural”.

The card box depicted in the photos below is from the collection of Volker Huber; this box can be reloaded twice, thus allowing three changes… not such a bad idea.

Torn & Restored Card

Another huge subject, this one being presided over by Tom Merten and Axel Hecklau, but as always several others intervened with short contributions.

Tom put a lot of time and enthusiasm into researching and presenting the subject, which is admittedly vast.

Such a topic brings up the question of how much time you should spend presenting what already exists and how much discussing and presenting innovation.

Few know better than me how difficult it is to get everything you know under one hat, and then present it in as concise a manner as possible.

In the past I have tried to overcome such a problem by concentrating on four or five items that exemplify relevant and different concepts, and then spend the rest of the time analyzing them.

There is no doubt that this lengthy presentation put a lot of excellent material on the table, but it also went way beyond the allotted time, thus taking away time from other presentations.

This problem of balancing content and respecting a given time frame is certainly one of the things that need to be addressed in future meetings… actually, to be frank, it is the problem of any meeting of this type.

The over-talented Axel Hecklau, who is as much a creator as a performer, had some great contributions, some of which he shares in his lectures – so, if you have a chance to book him for your club, or see him at a convention, do not miss it.

Sessions… And More

Below a few impressions form the “unofficial” part of this year’s CWS:

As for next year, see if you can find out what the subjects will be from those proposed…

Last but not least everyone was thankful for Jörg Alexander organizing the event, and Stephan Kirschbaum hosting it at his unique theatre.

BTW: If you visit Germany you should stop by Nürnberg, which has a beautiful historical old town, but above all take the opportunity to watch Stephan Kirschbaum’s show at his Wundermanufaktur – I did the night before the CWS and was enthralled by the entire experience!

On The Card Magic of Paul LePaul (1949)

My contribution was a 90-minutes presentation discussing LePaul’s book The Card Magic of LePaul, focussing on his techniques, tricks, presentations and a little theory.

In the first part I dealt with a dozen of LePaul’s techniques that seem to me to be the most useful for the modern cardician, in the second part I discussed a selection of tricks and performed some of them.

Below I will reproduce what I think is most useful from the second part, the tricks.

In order to understand and enjoy my comments in this subchapter it is best to do so with the book or the PDF in front of you, and follow my comments with cards in hands.

You can get the PDF of the book for a mere $9 from lybrary.com HERE instantly and very easily, but also the book is still available, e.g., HERE, or from Amazon.

Also, I recommend that you read Denis’ and Lorenz’ paper in Denis’ latest Newsletter on who LePaul as a person and artist was, as it will put the following into the correct perspective.

And remember that the book is from 1949!

Generalities

LePaul was no intellectual, but an inspired intuitive artist.

Nonetheless, there are a few places in the book which deal with personal thoughts, introspective insights, and conceptual ideas, all gained from hard-won professional experience.

Read the “Preface” on p. 21 that sets the tone for the book, as well as his short take on “Simplicity” on p. 129, which is very practical advice and valid to this day, although so much has changed since LePaul flourished.

Didactical Layout and Photos

You might be surprised if I tell you that LePaul’s book, along with a Swiss cookbook (Betty Bossi), was an important influence on the layout of Card College.

The photo below shows a double-page from the book, and you can see how many photos there are, and how they are layouted alongside the text that references them. This is really like a script, and it facilitates learning tremendously if you do not have to turn the page each time a photo is referenced (I am reminded of the book of a very famous cardician where you occasionally had to turn not one but two pages to get to the photo mentioned in the text…).

Although for Card College I had decided to go for pencil drawings rather than photos, because drawings can selectively show what is important, the photos taken from LePaul’s own hands and cards (beautiful Bicycle Fan Backs!) are certainly of historical value, and also they are very good (unfortunately, only in the first two editions, later they have been reproduced very badly).

p. 131: How Close Can You Watch

This is arguably the most straightforward Color Changing Deck, and it is a good one to start a program.

LePaul does not give presentational ideas for most of the tricks described, but here he does, and you can use it as a theme for an entire program.

Furthermore this short and visual trick allows you to elegantly introduce a stacked deck, of which the audience believes that it has been previously shuffled by them – this is akin to my “The No-switch Deck Switch”, a concept that I introduced in The Art of Switching Decks.

This trick has more to it than meets the eye…

p. 143: The Substitution Envelope Mystery

I have been using this for years in my professional work when performing at tables and can vouch for its effectiveness. I have even included a slight variation in handling with a few extra thoughts in a set of lectures notes of mine, which appeared in German language, but I have asked ChatGPT to translate it for you. The writing was an experiment, as I wrote the text as if it had been notes taken by someone assisting at the lecture – you may find this a bit strange to read…

Anyway, HERE is the German original, and HERE the English tradition (for the illustrations you will have to reference the German text).

p. 155: An Unexpected Climax

This has a lovely dramatic construction: 1. interesting premise, 2. conflict with an apparent mistake, 3. unexpected resolution.

The Card Switch using a double card and the Gambler’s Cop, which LePaul discusses in the chapter previous to the trick, is very interesting and useful. You may want to see how I use this technique in “A Sure Bet” in Card College Volume 3, p. 565, but above all see my updated handling in the video course Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction, “Lesson 26: Controls Part 2” – this is simply a great trick (I apologize for the obvious immodesty).

Also, LePaul’s trick allows for a deck switch that will come undetected even for experts (it is similar to the “Partagas Switch” from The Art of Switching Decks, but even more subtle since you switch in two half-decks.

p. 159: A Perfect Stop Trick

You might find this more of academic interest, but the use of the Gambler’s Cop is, well, unexpected…

p. 175: A Deft Delusion

What a great solution for the classic “Everybody’s Card” plot. Note one of the first descriptions of the Double Undercut.

However, the technical procedure will keep most from performing this, although a few changes in handling will make this very practical.

First, instead of using the most eccentric switching technique of LePaul’s, why not substitute this with a Glide from End Grip?

And here is a simplified version you may want to try, in telegram style: Ask spectator to join you, show him a card (e.g., 2H) taking care no-one else sees it, and place in trousers pocket, but palm out and add back on top of deck.

As you shuffle 2H to bottom, explain that 3 spectators will each choose a card. Do Hindu Shuffle Force on S1 by shuffling off max. one third of the deck, he remembers 2H. Continue shuffling deck and do Hindu Shuffle Force on S2 shuffling off another ca. third of deck, he remembers 2H. Go to S3 and continue Hindu Shuffle Force, so he also remembers 2H. If correctly handled, it will look as if S1 has remembered a card in the lower third, S2 in the center, and S3 in the top third (see Stand-up Card Magic, “The Hindu Shuffle Force – Forcing Multiple Cards With a Hindu Shuffle”, p. 68).

As you remind the audience that at the beginning you placed one card in your pocket, palm 2H in your right hand and show it to be the card you placed in pocket (only show back, of course!), then replace in pocket (your assistant may see the card, though).

Now proceed as per LePaul: Have all three spectators stand up and on your count of “one-two-three” all shout out their card – they will all shout, “Two of Hearts!” An idea by Karlheinz Ritter, one of the founding members of the CWS (!), is to do this in three phases: first, all shout the color (red or black), second, all shout the suit (heart or diamond), third all shout the value (in this case “two”).  I have not tried this yet, but it seems an interesting approach to dramatize the simultaneous shouting.

Repeat the name of the card, and that they all thought of the same card – in itself an impossibility – and then show that this is not only impossible, it is a miracle, since it is the card you had in your pocket to begin with (ask assisting spectator who saw the card to name it before you take it from pocket)!

p. 193: Transposition of the Four Aces

I have never seen anyone do this, and all of us who have not are wrong!

This is a beautiful minor trick that can be done once the Aces have been brought into play.

If you read the brief description you will probably wince at the Turnover Pass, which is indeed breaking a butterfly on a wheel.

However, for any advanced card handler it should pose no problem to replace LePaul’s heavy-duty Turnover Pass with a simpler and above all clearer method. Let us see what you can come up with 🙂 Because if you do, you can follow the rest as described and you have a little gem at hand.

p. 199: The Hand-picked Aces

Here is another piece that has a captivating presentational premise, taking decisions.

Try the Multiple Fan Control a few times, and you will see that this harbors a practical concept adaptable to several other situations.

Also, the pyramid configuration of the cards is interesting – Jerry Andrus used similar ideas: rather than dealing cards in a row or in packets, create “designs” with them. Many a trick can be made more intriguing by using this ploy.

Like “Transposition of the Four Aces” this is a minor trick that fits nicely as an introduction to a more elaborate Four Ace Trick.

p. 207: The Gymnastic Aces

Arguably the most practical quick trick in the book that will hold its own even today, simply one of the greatest ways to produce the Aces, or any card (see my use in a routine “The Acrobatic Aces” in Card College Volume 3, p. 694).

If you cannot control the outcome, reread the instruction carefully, especially: “A sharp, whip-like shake…”

Nice to use in a multiple card revelation routine, also as a morphological strategy to prepare for a an upcoming trick by using the Faro to get into a set-up…

And John Carney has a lovely take on it by producing a wrong card as the fourth card, e.g., a Five, and then counting down five cards to reveal the fourth and last Ace.

This apparently simple item teaches us that similar to fractals there is something bigger hidden in everything small…

p. 213: Cards in Sealed Envelope

This has to be the book’s blockbuster, a trick that has influenced many cardicians to come up with endless variations, some brilliant, some less…

I could give a lecture on this one item, but will limit myself to a few comments:

Although the description does not mention a wallet, we know that LePaul did use one, at least on occasions.

Interesting to note that “wallet” in German is “Brieftasche” (pocket or container for letters), in Italian “portafoglio” (container of sheets of paper), in French “portefeuille” (same as Italian), in Spanish “cartera” (brief for container of paper) ; in English there is also the term “pocket book” being used, which comes close to the latin-based languages.

In all cases the “wallet” or “pocket book” refers to an object from the 18th and 19th century that was made to carry one’s letters and valuable papers, and later paper money.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense to carry envelopes in a wallet-type container, at least it did in former times.

But to understand a technique, a trick, or a presentation, it is very useful to dwell in its origin. Even if you come to the conclusion that in modern times it cannot be done as originally thought up, it will at least make you think about how to adapt the idea to the present times.

And make no mistake: Using a wallet – even if the envelopes are only placed within the folds of the wallet, not necessarily in a zippered compartment – greatly increases the impact of the effect.

Another issue is the type and preparation of the envelope set. Since this is getting lengthy, I will simply refer you to my treatment of the problem in Card College Volume 5, “On the LePaul Envelope Set”, p. 1367.

If you have the book, also check Jesús Etcheverry’s volume 3 of the Ascanio books, and there “Freddy Fah’s Wallet”, which is a very brief description of a trick Ascanio showed me. The version he did for me, and which I wrote down but never published, but will report here only roughly, consisted in secretly reversing four x-cards in the deck while the spectator signed the Aces. Ascanio would then insert the signed Aces face up in the face-down fan, and control the Aces to the bottom. The deck was then farmed twice, distributing the x-cards in the deck as the Aces where bottom-palmed in his left hand. He would then ribbon-spread the deck face up, revealing four-face down cards in the spread, this being an Action of Apparent Continuity.

Meanwhile he would load the Aces in the envelope set inside his wallet, which he took out, tapped the spread four times, then showing the face-down cards to be x-cards, and finally revealing the Aces inside the envelope and wallet.

Interesting to note that LePaul first reveals the Aces, and only afterward the reversed cards in the spread. He also does this on other occasions, e.g., in “The Hand-picked Aces” mentioned above.

Food for thought…

TTTCBE

I am currently revising my Ask Roberto project completely, with the intention of publishing it as a really well-made book through Vanishing Inc.; tentative scheduled launch being The Sessionconvention in London, January 2027.

As I was editing Tim Gaffney’s question on TTTCBE, I reread one of the solutions I gave and that I had completely forgotten. I think it is very practical, and I have never seen anyone do it this way, so assume the idea is mine (Denis will let me know if it is not🙂).

Since I, the author, forgot about it, I assume that you, the reader (if you have Ask Roberto at all), will be glad to be reminded. So, here is the idea in brevis:

What I occasionally do is keep the force card back in the box. After the spectator has shuffled the deck, which is minus one card (the one in the box), I say that we will put the deck in the box so nobody can tamper with it – I then insert the deck below the card already secreted in the box, making it the top card of the now completed deck.

I introduce a Positive Insertion by showing the prediction, then I repeat that the spectator has herself shuffled the cards, that she has herself cut the deck, and that she shall now herself take the deck out of the box. The audience will hopefully implicitly believe that she herself put it into the box. When the top card then matches the prediction, it is, well, a very good effect. Sometimes we think too far…

Burger Wisdom

In an interview Michael Close conducted with Dr. Larry Hass in 2022 (Conversations With Close – listen HERE), Hass quotes Eugene Burger having said about the subject of whether to sit or stand when doing close-up at a table:

Sit if you can, stand if you must, stroll only if necessary. – Eugene Burger

Corrigenda

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This blog has only been proof-read in a cursory manner, leaving several mistakes and omissions. Please feel free to delete or add whatever is necessary to make it look good; use any of the characters above to do so, thank you!

Very best wishes,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Quotes of the Year 2025; Another False Riffle Shuffle; Stand-up Card Magic; Remembering Gordon Bruce; Gianfranco Preverino – Expert Dice Magic; Deck of Tricks; On the Philosophy of Magic – Reading Books; Talk Soon

These are The Magic Memories 224, gone online Sunday, February 1st, 2026, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,  including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Quotes of the Year 2025

One of the gifts I wish for every Xmas from my family is a calendar with quotes from famous and less famous people.

Since I can read several languages, I usually receive a tri-lingual calendar. This has not only the advantage that I can practice various languages – more often than not German, French, and Italian – but since the quotes are not mere translations of one quote but different quotes in each language, I get 365 x 3 = 1095 quotes.

Here are the twenty quotes I have extracted to keep for the past year of 2025, in no particular order of importance, with a short comment of mine:

1. “Even a skyscraper started as a basement.”–anonymous

   RG comment: This cements my opinion that in order to study a discipline and gain a reasonable understanding of it, it is necessary to study and master its basics – I know of no other way, unless one is a genius, but most of us are not.

2. “You only live once. But if you do it right, that will be more than enough.” –Joe E. Lewis (comedian)

   RG comment: A good example that a comedian can also say serious things.

3. “Beauty is everywhere, but no everyone can see it.” –Confucius

   RG comment: This certainly applies to what Ascanio called “minor magic,” – see Confidences, “Minor and Major Magic,” p. 141.

4. “If I had one thousand ideas and only one was good, I would be satisfied.” –Alfred Nobel (chemist and inventor)

   RG comments: This echoes Albert Einstein, who maintained that in science you must have the courage to eliminate about 90% of your work. Whenever I remind myself of this quote, I am humbled, as Einstein was a genius, and Nobel came close, so what should we do, who are at best people of talent…

5. “The more one knows, the more one doubts.” –Goethe

   RG comments: I am sort of proud to have reached that level, at least I very often have doubts…

6. “A dayfly will suffer from midlife-crisis already after twelve hours. Figure out that.” –Loriot (cartoonist and humorist)

   RG comment: Loriot was one of Germany’s most influential comedians (but also an actor, writer, director, etc.), and one of my all-time favorites. As a young man I used to know several of his humorous speeches by heart and used them when I was booked as a “fake speaker,” who then turned out to be a magican… but that’s another story. More on him HERE.

7. “Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week, on which we only read.” –Lena Dunham (actress and author)

   RG comment: Wish this could be done…

8. “I started into life with two big advantages: no money and good parents.” –Margaret Thatcher (ex British prime minister)

   RG comment: This reminds me of what Pestalozzi, the Swiss educational reformer, said about raising your children: “Example and love – nothing more.”

9. “Everyone is an ignorant, only in different subjects.” –Will Rogers (comedian)

   RG comment: This is so true, it is not funny.

10. “No book has an end.” –Ottfried Preußler (author of children’s books)

    RG comment: A good book is one that tells you as much between the lines as in the lines, and one where you know more after you have read it than before.

11. “Life is a combination of magic and pasta.” –Federico Fellini (director)

    RG comment: Sophia Loren used to say, “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” If you consider that in Italy they have over 350 pasta shapes, and over 400 different sauces (called “sughi, plural of “sugo”), you will appreciate that this is not as trivial as it may sound…

12. “Three things make a good coffee: first, coffee, second, coffee, and third, coffee.” –Alexandre Dumas (author)

    RG comment: For a long time US-coffee has been regarded as inferior, one of the worst in the world… at least Europeans thought so. I remember I once told Max Maven the following joke, which he did not know, and he laughed out loud, something Max did not do often. Here is the joke: “Question: What is the difference between American coffee and making love on a boat? Answer: There isn’t – both is f***ing close to water!”
    Starbucks was a first leap forward in better coffee, at least better than before. Unfortunately, they started to add aromas to their coffee: cinnamon, hazelnut, vanilla, etc. But why on earth spoil a good coffee by adding aromas? The point of a good coffee is precisely that it has aroma, coffee aroma, and now you cover up that aroma with another aroma (doing a Double Lift followed by a Second Deal comes to mind). This is very much like adding unnecessary “presentation” – worst of all comedy – to an already excellent trick.
    This is, as always, my personal opinion. If you hold a different one, I will answer as the Zen master did, “You are right!”
    (To remind the younger among my readership, who might not know the story, here it is in brevis: A Zen master and three of his acolytes are having lunch. When a fly approaches, the Zen master quickly turns over his chop sticks, catches the fly and throws it over his shoulder. Acolyte 1, “Master, you taught us to respect all life, and now you killed a fly. This is not right.” The master looks at him and answers, “You are right.” Acolyte 2, “But if you had not killed the fly, it could have contaminated your food. By killing the fly you saved your life.” The master looks at him and answers, “You are right.” Acolyte 3, “But master, how can two contradictory statements be right? This is not possible.” The master looks at him and answers, “You are right.”)
    So, if you do not agree with me… you are right.

13. “The radio craze will die out in time.” –Thomas Alva Edison, ca. 1922

    RG comment: This triggers my memory of Max Maven’s The Protocols of the Elders of Magic (Hermetic Press, 2005), which is a collection of quotes that say that magic is “dead,” by famous and less famous magicians bound in a beautiful book in an octavo format (it inspired my own book Confidences…).

14. “In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.” –Charlie Brown

    RG comment: Along with “Asterix and Obelix” and “Hägar the Horrible,” Charles M. Schulz’ “The Peanuts” are my favorite comic.

15. “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” – Benjamin Franklin

    RG comment: I can confirm that I am getting older…

16. “My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” – Mitch Hedberg

    RG comment: This is as absurd as the magic we perform…

17. “They’re crazy, the Romans!” –Asterix & Obelix

    RG comment: Today, almost 2’000 years after Asterix & Obelix, those “Romans” are everywhere…

18. “Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins.” –Victor Hugo

    RG comments: As good as a metaphor gets.

19. “The first sign of ignorance is to assume that one knows.” –Balthasar Gracián y Morales

    RG comment: One of the many variation’s of Socrates’ mother of all wisdoms “I know that I know nothing.” Arguably the wisest utterance ever made.

20. “The play was a great success, but the audience was a disaster.” –Oscar Wilde

    RG comment: An amusing way of explaining the essence of why magic works: the subjective reality is not the truth.

Another False Riffle Shuffle

This is a False Riffle Shuffle I came up with years ago and recently rediscovered it in one of my notebooks. It retains the order of the complete deck, and it can be done by anyone familiar with basic card handling; compared to similar False Shuffles it is quite safe as you will see once you give it a try.

Hold the deck in Riffle Shuffle Position.

Do Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut cutting 1/3 from bottom to top retaining a break.

Upper cut the broken top third to the right & zarrow into the left packet, pushing it through, so the zarrowed packet protrudes about 1cm or so from the deck’s left end.

Wait and riffle up the deck’s inner side, with the hands protecting the ends.

Up-the-ladder-cut the 2/3 protruding to the right to the top, thus restoring the deck’s original order.

This shuffle has a nice handling Gestalt, as it starts and ends with Running Cuts that frame the shuffle.

(Inspired by “Sleeper Shank Shuffle” in The Last Hierophant, p. 22 – 5th MAR 1996.)

Stand-up Card Magic

As you are reading this – provided you read it on Sunday, February 1st – I am conducting a half-day masterclass on the subject of card magic done standing up.

The number of spectators one performs for largely depends on the characteristics of the venue, as sometimes sub-optimally constructed places with only 60 spectators can be worse than an ideally conceived auditorium with a capacity of 250.

I remind you that I wrote a book on the subject, Stand-up Card Magic; many of you who are reading these The Magic Memories own the book.

But not many seem to know that I have translated virtually the complete content of the book – its techniques, tricks and theories – in a video format: it was my very first video project I did with Penguin Magic in 2014 (26th January), titled Penguin Live Online Lecture 1. (The title which Penguin put to the video is a bit unfortunate as it does not reflect the content – it should more look like the one in the photo below.)

At the time it was indeed an “online lecture,” i.e., you could stream it live and send in questions via Twitter that I would then discuss in a Q&A format immediately after the lecture in a kind of interview situation conducted by the inimitable Dan Harlan.

I remind newcomers to these The Magic Memories that you can watch this interview HERE (the interview lasts over ONE hour, so get yourself a glass or two of your favorite beverage – Bollinger Grande Année 2012 recommended – a few snacks, and a means of taking notes!)

The lecture itself and the following Q&A lasted a total of five hours and twenty minutes (!), the longest Penguin online lecture EVER (makes me sound like Harry Lorayne…), and because of its length the server broke down from the overload of the streaming capacity! Obviously, all subscribers were able to later download the lecture in an MP4-format, so that nothing got lost.

You can still get the download from Penguin Magic HERE.

Considering that they nowadays sell you a download of 25 to 40 minutes for $10-15, getting a complete course in standup card magic for less than $30 with over a dozen professional tricks, dozens of techniques, and a massive amount of concepts collected from the experience of a lifetime of magic, well, this makes it sound like a joke.

PS1: The book exists in German (the original), English, French, Italian, and Japanese.

PS2: Penguin reports the video as being one of their most successful lectures of the series that now lists over several hundred lectures (!), and as a consequence, in October of the same year (2014), they asked me to do another Penguin Live Online Lecture 2, which at four hours and forty-six minutes was a bit shorter than the first, but somehow was less successful.

Personally, I find that it was as interesting as the first one, albeit on another subject, namely a sort of “revision” of the Card College books, with lots of tricks, techniques, and an over-abundance of subtleties that only come if you dedicate your life to a discipline.

If you do not have this lecture, and have been enjoying these The Magic Memories, I think that you will like it as much as the first – you can still get it as a download HERE.

Remembering Gordon Bruce (1952–2026)

“If I told you how it was done, I wouldn’t be giving you anything. I would be taking something away.” Gordon Bruce

As you probably already know, Scotland’s Gordon Bruce, one of the truly greats in magic, has left us on January 1st, 2026.

Although Gordon and I only met on three occasions, I felt very close to him.

After our meeting at his home (see my report below), he called a few times, and each time we had lengthy discussions about all aspects of magic. Unfortunately, similar to Lennart Green, he did not have a computer, so the only way to communicate with him was by phone or letter.

The last time I saw him was at the a The Session convention in Cheltenham in January 2015, where I showed him the Vernon Twenty Dollar Manuscript I had acquired the year before from Gabe Fajuri at Magifest in Columbus, Ohio, and his comment still resonates with me: “Roberto, this alone was worth coming to this convention.” On this occasion he also said, “The Card College books are the modern cornerstone of all of card magic.” Both of these comments still mean a lot to me.

Checking my folder “Bruce, Gordon” I found several of his lecture notes, personal letters, and copies of various articles about him in the Scottish press.

Several current projects keep me from going deeper into this, but I did find a report I wrote in 1994 for La Circular, the monthly journal of the Escuela Mágica de Madrid, and I reproduce it below, slightly edited with a few updated comments:

Meet Gordon Bruce

July 1994 was the month of the FISM World Congress in Yokohama—and the first such congress I had missed since Brussels in 1979. The reasons were simple enough: the travel time was long, and the expense considerable. I decided instead to invest the money saved in other educational journeys, one of which took me to Glasgow, Scotland, to visit Gordon Bruce, who had invited me to stay with him from July 31 to August 7.

Let me say this right away: Gordon Bruce is an extraordinary, multi-talented man. Professionally, he works with the Scottish National Orchestra as a double-bass player, which already tells you a great deal. As a magician—specializing in close-up magic and, above all, card magic—he must be counted among the most underrated experts in the world. Put simply, he knows everyone who matters, and everyone who matters knows him. If I were to mention names such as Ricky Jay, Persi Diaconis, Herb Zarrow, or Steve Freeman, you could continue the list without taking a breath and add Gordon Bruce. That is the level at which he belongs.

Gordon would justify an entire book devoted both to his life and to his magic. Most of you will know him for his devilishly clever and subtle technique of apparently reaching into his trouser pocket with thumb and forefinger to remove what is, in fact, a classically palmed card. His handling is a variation on an idea by Norman Houghton, originally published in Ibidem No. 12 and later in Wit and Wizardry—The Magic of Norm Houghton under the title “Card in Shirt Pocket.”

This is only one of his published items—unfortunately, there are far too few. After talking with him for almost a week, let me assure you that everything he does is of a similar caliber. He is a man with a brilliant mind and golden hands. His name appears again and again in the acknowledgments of books, where he is thanked for his research and for contributing little-known details about magic and magicians. Be sure to check the acknowledgments in Alex Elmsley’s second book, edited by Stephen Minch, for a telling example.

Gordon is also one of the most competent historians and collectors I know. Mention a subject or a name, and he will instantly produce a file containing the most relevant material. Among the many things that impressed me was his filing system: he keeps files organized by name. When I mentioned that a topic at Escorial concerned Horowitz, Allerton, and Dr. Daley, he immediately pulled the files bearing those names and produced copies of articles, book excerpts, memorabilia, and even private correspondence.

As a related aside, let me mention what he did with the Daley notebooks. As you know, the two commercially available volumes were produced from four original notebooks. In the published versions, however, the notes were rearranged according to originators, which is why all the material by Vernon, Horowitz, Daley, and others appears grouped together.

In reality, Daley might have seen a move by Dai Vernon one evening, devised variations of his own shortly thereafter, and then, the next day, read something by Farelli that fit the same subject. In that original context, even cryptic notes made sense. When the material is taken apart and reorganized—as Csuri and Fulves did—many entries become puzzling as they are now out of context. Gordon rewrote the entire two volumes, reconstructing the original four notebooks and restoring the coherence of the notes. That is the kind of man Gordon Bruce is.

Gordon is also extremely secretive, a trait he shares with Ricky Jay and others you will know. Let me relate a humorous incident. At one point in our conversations, we touched on gambling, a favorite subject of Gordon’s. I mentioned the Steve Forte tapes, which are now widely available but at the time were scarce and very expensive. Instantly, his eyes began to dart about. He looked around as if he had glimpsed a Scottish ghost escaping from a haunted castle, then proceeded to close all the windows (it was the hottest summer Glasgow had ever known) and lock the door. From then on, we spoke only in hushed tones. The absurdity of the situation was that no one else was in the house who might overhear us, except for a tenant who lived there and had no interest in magic whatsoever. Gordon’s obsession with not mentioning Forte became a running joke during my stay. Whenever we wanted to refer to him, we used the code name “MacCallan”—after Gordon’s favorite single-malt whisky—so as not to give away the fact that such a person even existed.

Gordon also arranged a meeting with Andrew Galloway, the only student of Johnny Ramsay, as you may know. It was an extraordinary afternoon. Andy showed us rare films of Ramsay performing thimble, coin, and other work, and then went on to demonstrate some of Ramsay’s astonishing routines himself. When you read about these routines or see them on video, you might think they were designed solely for magicians and far too complicated for lay audiences. The truth is quite the opposite: when properly presented to a small group of interested spectators, they are highly magical and deeply entertaining. I strongly urge you to buy, borrow, or steal the Ramsay trilogy—Ramsay Legend, Ramsay Classics, and Ramsay Finale—as well as Galloway’s own booklet Diverting Card Magic and his videotape featuring Ramsay routines in performance. At the time, these publications could be ordered directly from Andrew, who has since passed away, but they should still be obtainable online.

Spending time with Gordon meant living for a week immersed in high-quality magic, refined thinking, and a deep appreciation for the finer things in life. I very much hope to see him again soon.

My stay in Glasgow also gave me the opportunity to visit Roy Walton. I think you will agree that Walton is one of the most creative and prolific card men of our time. I went to see him at his magic shop, Tam Shepherd’s Magic Shop, at 33 Queen Street. Even though he knew me and I had been introduced by Gordon, there was no chance of getting together privately. He would not even show a trick. This was not so much a matter of secrecy as of modesty and shyness. One small detail says it all. We were talking about card brands, and I mentioned that I used Spanish Fournier cards. Since he did not seem familiar with them, I handed him my deck. He removed the cards from the box, handled them briefly—without attempting anything resembling a sleight—and then put them back into the case, leaving them unsquared. I believe he was afraid that I might judge the way he squares a pack of cards.

End of article.

As a professional musician, Gordon had also lots of practical insights into how to practice technique correctly. He gave me many pieces of advice, several of which found their way into my Agendas. Below are three items for you to go back to:

January 21 – Details of Handling on the Cover Pass (Secret Agenda)

July 8 – Double Divination (Secret Agenda)

February 7 – False Deal Practice (Hidden Agenda )

A Sixty-Five-Card Deck. Add thirteen extra cards to a regular deck and practice your sleights with it. When you later perform with a normal fifty-two-card deck, everything will feel easier.

(BTW: Ask Roberto is the second book project that should see light through Vanishing Inc., maybe before the end of 2026… while there is life, there is hope.)

I could mention lots more items, but here is a last one to finish off this little homage to Gordon for you to check out in case you do not already know it:

“The Gordon Bruce False Shuffle” in Peter Duffie’s Five Times Five: Scotland (Kaufman and Company, 1998), which is a sophisticated handling of the G. W. Hunter False Overhand Shuffle (also attributed to Persi Diaconis).

If you want to know more about Gordon Bruce and his life and magic, a search on Google, the socials, the magic fora, or with AI will take you to several articles in the public press that I found interesting – you may, too.

Behr’s Archive currently (Jan 30th, 2026) shows 181 entries when searching for “Gordon Bruce,” and you can spend your next week exploring them HERE – it will indeed be time well spent.

Gianfranco Preverino – Expert Dice Magic

A while ago my friend Gianfranco Preverino from Italy published a comprehensive work on magic with dice, sort of a Dice College, as he jokingly remarked; its title Expert Dice Magic is, of course, an homage to David Roth’s Expert Coin Magic.

Well, it is certainly no joke, as Gianfranco’s opus does treat the subject of dice and how to do magic with them in a systematic way, considering history, techniques, tricks and theory, the whole package.

He originally wrote the book in Italian, and it is now available in English.

This book does the most important thing in magic: it teaches you the basics of an Instrument – dice – and then goes far beyond it. There are not many really “necessary” books, but this is one of them… provided you are interested in doing magic with dice.

You can get it in two editions on Amazon, softback ($55) or hardback ($70); for more info and to order CLICK HERE.

Deck of Tricks

In various publications of mine I mention what I dubbed the “deck of tricks,” briefly: To remember repertoire tricks more easily, write the name of a trick on the face of each card. Use this as your “practice deck” by cutting it, reading the name of the trick written on the face of the top card, and then practice that trick.

Repeat the cut and start again until your fingers fall off… or better, stop before that happens. Continue next day, etc. (Now I remember that I discussed the idea in one of my The Genii Session columns, more precisely in the issue of March 2003 – these should be published by Vanishing Inc. before the end of 2026 as a book, tentatively titled The Roberto Giobbi Sessions, which assembles all my bi-monthly columns I wrote over fourteen years, plus ten new columns…)  

Someone wrote in to comment on “the deck of tricks” ( I apologize, as I have forgotten who it was – if you let me know, I shall be happy to mention your name in the next The Magic Memories 225), suggesting an app you can download on your smartphone and which is called “Spin The Wheel – Random Picker;” CLICK HERE for detailed information and to download the free app. Basically you can have as many “wheels” as you like, and then fill each “wheel” with an infinite number of items that you can then randomly pick.

Obviously, the “original” version will not need a smartphone… and you have the deck at hand… cannot get simpler than that…

On the Philosophy of Magic – Reading Books

“The reading of good magic books is like a conversation with the best magicians of past years.” (René Descartes, slightly modified by Roberto Giobbi)

Talk Soon

Lots more to tell, but I will call it a day now, and look forward to seeing you again in The Magic Memories 225, going online Sunday, 1st March 2026.

Very best wishes,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Happy New Year; The Magic Memories 2025 – The Collected Blogs; Schedule for The Magic Memories 2026

These are The Magic Memories 223, gone online Sunday, January 4th, 2026, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,  including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone – and good luck for 2026!

The Magic Memories 2025 – The Collected Blogs

This is the first installment of The Magic Memories 2026, and it will be shortest and longest of this year.

If this sounds to you like a paradox, well, it is… similar to the Gozinta Box, in my opinion one of Lubor Fiedler’s most brilliant inventions, at the same time highly ingenious and immensely practical, as it can be used at a table for a small audience, but in its larger version also plays big and can be appreciated even in a large theatre.

It certainly is one of my most cherished memories to have been on the same stage in Hollywood with Lubor when in 2011 he received the Creativity Fellowship from the Academy of Magical Arts, and the Literary & Media Fellowship was bestowed upon me.

Talking of Lubor’s great invention: Here you can see Doug Henning adapting the idea of the Gozinta Box to the large stage – very similar to the small model where a sponge ball is produced at the end, with a “little” twist… CLICK HERE to see it.

And here is Paul Harris’ take on it – CLICK HERE.

Anyway, back to the initial paradox, the short and long one… I have just spent two days on compiling a PDF that contains all the thirteen blogs of 2025, with all the photos and links working, all is searchable, for a total of 142 pages.

I have made a few corrections, small additions, and streamlined the layout to the best of my ability(limited!) abilities. I apologize for any mistakes and inaccuracies, and you are welcome to let me know of any gross errors, which I shall then correct and put at everyone’s disposal in The Magic Memories 224.

Although I set myself a time limit in woking on this project, which did not allow careful editing, I have nonetheless looked into dozens of entries here and there, and I am surprised at how many different topics I have been able to discuss, many at a fairly detailed level. To quote Ricky Jay: “This is such an extraordinary feat, that I am forced to mention it myself!”

I should be pleased if you take a moment to scroll through the PDF and be reminded of items you have overlooked or forgotten. Regardless of your interests and level in magic, I am confident that there are several items over the year that will find your favor; I recommend you extract whatever you find interesting to you, and with it create a new PDF to occasionally reread. For this, and other tasks, I think having it all together in one single PDF is useful.

So, without further ado, and with my best compliments for the New Year, to read and/or download the PDF Roberto Giobbi’s The Magic Memories 2025 – Collected Blogs, CLICK HERE.

Yes, the PDF is my gift to you, free of charge, and you may send it around to your magic friends.

Schedule for The Magic Memories 2026

Provided major force does not prevent me from doing so, I plan to continue to share The Magic Memories with you on the first Sunday of each month, going online at precisely 0:07 o’clock. Also, as before, I will not send you an email (with few exceptions), so you will have to proactively go to the web shop www.robertogiobbi.com and click “News”, or click the link for The Magic Memories to get a list of all past issues.

The Magic Memories for 2026 are scheduled to go online on these dates:

• The Magic Memories 223 on SUN, January 4, 2026, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 224 on SUN, February 1, 2026, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 225 on SUN, March 1, 2026, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 226 on SUN, April 5, 2026, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 227 on SUN, May 3, 2026, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 228 on SUN, 2026, June 7, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 229 on SUN, 2026, July 5, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 230 on SUN, 2026, August 2, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 231 on SUN, 2026, September 6,  0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 232 on SUN, 2026, October 4, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 233 on SUN, 2026, November 1, 0:07 o’clock
• The Magic Memories 234 on SUN, 2026, December 6, 0:07 o’clock

Very best wishes,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Escorial 2025; The Colmar Gastronomy & Magic Summit; The Brissago Magic Summit; The Advent Calendars; The Italian Job; Roberto Giobbi Bibliography Status 2025; Happy Holidays!; Confusion is not Magic

These are The Magic Memories 222, gone online Sunday, December 7th, 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.

A number such as 222 is called a “Schnapszahl” in German, “repdigit” in English: I have discussed this most curious category of numbers in The Magic Memories 111, and there is no need to repeat myself – simply adapt to 222 🙂

However, what I find even more remarkable is that this “publication” got to that number at all!

Don’t ask me how I did it… probably with the same strategies and techniques I applied when I wrote the five Card College books. Looking back to those, I honestly wonder how I did those… but like a good magic piece, it does not matter how it is done, the only important thing is that you, my readers, and I, have enjoyed the result. As far as I am concerned, this is the case… I hope it is the same for you.

And now on for a Rädäbäng of magical reports and other ideas…

Jornadas Cartomágicas de El Escorial 2025

This year marked #51 of this most unusual gathering. It started out as a part of the activities of the Escuela Magic de Madrid, about which I’ve reported in several of my writings as well as in other issues of these The Magic Memories, possibly most completely in Ask Roberto, which can still be obtained as an e-book, and should be available as a really nicely made-up book by Vanishing Inc. in 2026 (along with yet another book project to be announced soon).

The topics of 2025 were:

Transcription:

OCTUBRE 31 – NOVIEMBRE 2, 2025

• JIMMY GRIPPO
• MEMORIZACIÓN DE CARTAS (COLORES O NÚMEROS)
• GAGS CARTOMÁGICOS
• EMPALME PLANO Y EMPALME TENKAI

Translation:

• the life and card magic of Jimmy Grippo
• memorization of color and number sequences
• gags in card magic
• flat palm and Tenkai palm

As you may easily guess, each of these topics deserves a book, and considering that some sixty of the world’s best cardicians from all continents attended (almost… as far as I know we miss Africa and Australia), who each know a lot about each of the subjects, well, you will understand that I can only give you a very rough overview of the happenings, with a few photos…

Topic # 1: Jimmy Grippo (1898–1992)

The material about Jimmy Grippo, a most interesting subject to study for various reasons, is scant and scattered.

Those not so familiar with the man and his work can get an idea by viewing a few videos on YouTube of Grippo performing under various situations.

See for instance HERE.

From here you may go further, depending on your time and interest.

Just by watching, you can learn a lot of things, not just techniques and tricks, but also strategies; try to identify and name them (see Sharing Secrets for help in identifying these concepts and their names). Then try to apply them to a trick in your own magic. From then on you have instilled the concept and will be able to use it infinitely. Yes, it means work, but I would not know of any shortcut to success other than work.

Here is just one example of the out-of-the-box thinking, which he applies to the classic “Collins Aces”, sometimes called “Aces for Connoisseurs” (e.g., see Cy Endfield’s Entertaining Card Magic – Part 2, p. 46): Instead of bothering about how to make those Aces reappear that are lost in the discard packet (albeit at known positions), Grippo simply reaches into his pocket and produces a set of duplicate Aces! A brilliant solution, like the Gordian Knot!

(How to get rid of the duplicates you ask? Basic, Watson, basic: Replace the set on top of the deck, but immediately palm it, and then get rid of them by reaching into the outer pocket of your jacket and taking out e.g., the card case you placed there to begin with, or just ‘use your head’.)

For the moment (DEC 2025) there is only one book by and about Grippo, co-written with Geno Munari and published by Gambler’s Book Club (1981), simply titled The Magic ofJimmy Grippo. (Another one with Grippo’s “real work” has been announced by Munari for years, so…).

However, the book does not contain Grippo’s professional working repertoire, nor any mention of one of the key principles of his work, which is a point criticized by the presenters of the topic.

In spite of this, I believe that it would have been worth devoting a part of the presentation to the content of the book that has several interesting ideas from which one could go.

To tease you, here is the effect of “The Torn Card Miracle” as it could appear to an innocent audience: A spectator selects a card, signs it, and then loses it in the deck. The spectator and the performer each take half of the deck and start to tear it up in quarters; with a deck of 52 cards that will make 208 quarters. These are throuroughly shaken up and mixed in a hat that has previously been borrowed and examined by the audience. Showing his empty hand, the performer reaches four times into the hat, each time taking out one quarter, which is then stuck to a large piece of glass, backs to the audience. When the glass is turned over, the four pieces are seen to compose the originally selected card, including the signature! Now, how do you like that for an effect…

You can find it on p. 49 of the above-mentioned publication.

This performance piece should prove very successful for anyone who will go through the trouble of making it up, and with good showmanship and lighting it would work even on the largest of stages.

Juan Tamariz and a group of Spanish magicians, among them Ascanio, Pepe Carroll and Camilo Vazquez, had witnessed Grippo’s private show in the Eighties in Las Vegas.

He told us of the many impossible looking pieces he performed for them, some of which you can see on the YouTube-videos.

The most interesting part, however, was when Juan told about how Grippo met the group in front of Caesar’s Palace, and then took them through the gaming areas to the salon, where the performance took place. This obviously took at least ten minutes, and all along that time Grippo talked about himself and the miracles he would perform, thus starting the build-up of his performance as he was taking them to his show.

What a strategy!

The subject took all the time up to dinner break, which in Spain is around 9:30pm… in order to the restart the activities, in theory, at midnight, in practice, after 1am…

Breaks

Breaks and private sessions are an integral part of the information transfer at the Escorial Card Conference.

Below you can see Yves Carbonnier from Paris and Aurelio Paviato from Milan trying to teach a beginner the basics of card magic… after a “light” lunch…

The photo above, by the way, was taken at Cafetín Croché, the “coffee shop” (so-to-speak…) of Charoles (the flagship restaurant of San Lorenzo de El Escorial), which also harbors a small theatre (ca. 60 people), were Juan Tamariz decades ago started the tradition of doing a full-evening show on every Friday night.

This tradition has been carried forth by Manolo, the owner of the place, and to this day boasts some of the best Spanish performers, who in spite of their fame are willing to perform for a modest fee, just out of loyalty to a tradition.

You do not find this kind of attitude often in our modern world…

Spontaneous Shows

The talks, breaks and waiting times are interspersed with occasional top-notch shows.

The photo below shows Michael Close, who flew in from Toronto, give a talk on card tricks done from a shuffled borrowed deck.

Topic #2: Memorization of color and number sequences

This is a complex subject that was treated over several hours with many contributions from experts on the subject.

Essentially we are talking about mnemonic systems to remember color sequences in a deck, but also how to remember the order of the full card, up to memorizing a deck.

If you have ever had the good luck of witnessing Juan Tamariz do “Out of This World” from a borrowed and shuffled deck, then you know what a devastating potential such techniques have… and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Talking to the other experts present, we agreed that this was way over the head for most of us…

(This reminds me of when I attended G4G7 in 2006 in Atlanta, USA, a congress dedicated to Martin Gardner with ca. 200 participants – mathematicians, puzzlers and magicians – sitting next to a math professor from a top US university. After a talk John Conway had given on a subject the title of which I forget, I asked my neighbor if he had understood what Conway just talked about.

His answer was, “I have no idea.”

He then proceeded to explain how specialized the mathematical sciences are, and why one specialist did not necessarily understand another. This greatly comforted me, as I did not understand anything, even without being a specialist!

Juan Esteban Varela from Chile then took the stage and gave an academic dissertation on his system of memorization… since I did not understand much of it, I did not have a lot to remember… for once, a blessing 🙂

Topic #3: Gags in Card Magic

As you will imagine this was hilarious, with numerous original contributions… and others that reminded us of the enormous repertoire of historical funny magicians.

Wish you had been there…

(Check Chapter 64 in Card College Volume 5, “A Cardman’s Humor” to get an idea.)

Topic #4: Flat Palm and Tenkai Palm

This is indeed another very interesting topic, especially because most cardicians do not use these techniques! Unjustly so, as the presentations on these two subjects proved.

To avoid becoming too technical, which would go beyond the scope of this report, let me just mention a few things.

The Flat Palm is clearly a technique that comes to us from the gaming table… but then again, what technique isn’t! Briefly: The Flat Palm is in many situations superior to the Classic Palm, especially when you perform seated at a table. Considering that close-up performance in small theaters are flourishing all around the world, techniques such as Lapping, Flat Palm, etc. are experiencing a renaissance.

As for the Tenkai Palm, which seems to be underemployed, similar to the Flat Palm, I encourage you to study it and try it out, especially in stand-up situations: you will be surprised how much better the angles are as you might intuitively suspect. (This would also lead to the Rear Palm, which is discussed in Expert Card Technique, and which was a favorite with Alex Elmsley – see his books.)

All is well that ends well…

Finally, as with every good story of Asterix and Obelix, the Gaules assemble around a good table to celebrate magic and life.

PS: What makes this meeting interesting, on top of everything else, is that the participants share private videos and PDFs of their contributions with the rest of the attendees.

The Colmar Gastronomy & Magic Summit

A few days after Escorial and a visit to Madrid, and before embarking on the next magical adventure, a three-day meeting in Brissago, Switzerland (see below), I had the great pleasure of hosting my friend and past-publisher Stephen Minch for a few days at my home.

The photo below shows us discussing the fine points of the Side Steal as opposed to the Pass, after a glorious lunch at L’Atelier du Peintre (my recommendation if you ever go to Colmar, France), where Pit Hartling, who came all the way from Frankfurt and Lorenz Schär from Berne, Switzerland’s capital, joined us.

The photo below shows us after visiting the Musée Unterlinden in Colmar, which hosts the world-famous Isenheimer Altar, thus proving that we are not only interested in magic and gastronomy 🙂

The Brissago Magic Summit

Thanks to the initiative of Peter Samelson (if you want to learn more about this remarkable gentleman, CLICK HERE to see him on Fool Us),  a small group consisting of Mike Close, Stephen Minch, Aurelio Paviato, Peter and myself met in the former house of Peter’s aunt on the shores of Lake Major (Switzerland and Italy).

Today’s report already got longer than I would allow, therefore suffice it to say that over two full days we all gave shorter and longer talks and performances for each other on various subjects, ranging from techniques, effects and presentations, over historical, psychological and philosophical, to very practical professional everyday advice, a Secret Agenda type of gathering, you could say 🙂

I have reported on the first gathering in Brissago in The Magic Memories 152, there called “The Samelson Reunion”, and you can find more details there, if you so desire.

And since the spirits of Asterix and Obelix are omnipresent, also this magical adventure ended with all of us around a good table. In the photo below, from left to right: Aurelio Paviato, Stephen Minch, Peter Samelson, RG, Michael Close.

The Advent Calendars

Since we are at the beginning of Advent time (for some of us), I would like to inform newcomers – and remind my faithful readers – of the Magic Advent Calendar I published in December 2020.

You may either go through the individual contributions for free, or take the easy route and get the PDF of it HERE – I think you will find it well worth your time (the financial investment is a joke, of course).

As an additional gift to all of you, if you care accepting it, I give you a PDF HERE with all twenty-four entries of the Magic Calendar of Good Ideas I published in 2023, and which was sent to all who are on the Newsletter list daily from DEC1st to DEC 24th (if you are not on the NL, go to the webshop www.robertogiobbi.com and subscribe to receive future benefits such as these.)

The Italian Job

And if you think that all these travels reported in the previous and this The Magic Memories are more than enough, then you would be wrong. On Sunday morning after the Brissago Magic Summit had ended, Aurelio, Stephen and I took a leisurely drive along Lake Major, enjoying the spectacular scenery of the Swiss, Italian and French Alps, and drove to Castellamonte, to enjoy the yearly truffle lunch at Tre Re.

After this memorable meal, Aurelio and Stephen took off to Vigevano, Aurelio’s home, from where Stephen would then return to Seattle the next day. Whereas I did what I do every year after this event: I took a room at the Hotel Tre Re, and then had a restful sleep after having taken a long walk around the quite village of Castellamonte, reliving in my mind all those marvelous events of the last days and weeks.

Next day I met Marco Aimone, president of Italy’s largest magic club, the Circolo Amici Della Magia of Torino, in Carru, at the Ristorante del Borgo, where they arguably make the best “Bollito misto” of this planet.

We then spent the rest of the day and evening  in Don Silvio Mantelli’s magic library, which boasts over 22’000 volumes dedicated to all aspects of magic and allied arts.

Nowadays I no longer buy the latest books, as many of them are huge, heavy, and take a lot of space, along with costing a fortune for shipping and custom – the post office and tariffs are ruining a lot of the cultural patrimony on this planet (instead of subsidizing such areas of human endeavor, countries are now spending the money on arms and ammunition). But I always look them up in Don Silvio’s library.

Since I have mentioned my stays in this most wonderful place in Cherasco many times before in The Magic Memories, I would just like to mention that Don Silvio’s Museo della magia, the museum of magic, has made an enormous leap forward, with lots of new and original exhibits, incorporating among many other things a large part of Silvan’s collection, which the latter donated to the museum, was well as many original pieces from Fred Roby, the world-famous ventriloquist, who left us in 2022.

I met Fred Roby years ago, and once we even shared the same stage (he was the star act, of course). Most of his performances were in French and German, but I found a very early appearance of his in the USA HERE.

Anyway, next time you travel through the North of Italy and are interested in magic, you will not regret a stop at Don Silvio Mantelli’s Museo della magia in Cherasco (and then have a meal at “La Torre” in Cherasco, or at 20 minutes car drive at “Osteria Veglio” in La Morra, where you can get some of Piedmont’s top wines at a fair price… make sure you are six people, so you can taste at least four different bottles… invite a seventh person who does not drink, but drive…).

Roberto Giobbi Bibliography Status 2025

As an annual accounts of 2025 – not of finances, but of works – I thought to have a look at what I’ve written/produced/published up to now.

If you are interested, here is my updated bibliography as per December 2025, probably incomplete, as some of my articles from magazines have been taken over, translated and published in other smaller magazines (and they forgot to tell me…). Also, when I started to compile the bibliography of early works I worked from memory…

To read or download the Bibliography of Roberto Giobbi as a PDF CLICK HERE.

Happy Holidays!

Last, but not least, my friends, I would like to wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas – or whatever your belief or non-belief is – have a good, relaxed and inspired time.

As an agnostic I do not mind any belief, as long as it is peaceful and friendly and productive for oneself and all others.

I once thought of converting to every religion so as to be able to enjoy all their festivities, which would make a year full of celebrations, but then realized that some religions contradict each other, which confuses me, so I thought why not just cut directly to the celebrations and let the rest in peace.

Therefore: Happy Celebrations to all of you, and whenever your new year starts: Happy New Year, too!

Confusion is not Magic

Talking about confusion…

All the best!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Solution to Computer Problem; On Critical Reporting; Magialdia 2025; French National Convention in Troyes; Paris, Paris (Pierre Gagnaire); Unexpected Agenda… On This Day: “November 2 – Old Wine… Matures Well”

These are The Magic Memories 221, gone online Sunday, November 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.

As you are reading this I am attending the Card Conference in San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The topics are:

• the life and card magic of Jimmy Grippo
• memorization of color and number sequences
• gags in card magic
• flat palm and Tenkai palm

I will report about it in The Magic Memories 222 (a magical number, indeed!) – stay tuned.

Solution to Computer Problem

You might remember that last month’s The Magic Memories 220 suffered from a severe computer problem due to an update of Dropbox.

I am mentioning this otherwise trivial occurrence (who hasn’t experienced that!) because of a remarkable fact. To solve the problem I had contacted an otherwise very knowledgeable friend who works as IT-supporter nearby: We spent almost one hour over the phone without result. Then I called my webmaster, also a professional IT-supporter who up to now solved every problem: after another near-hour no result. Finally I contacted the “professional” support from Dropbox, with which I corresponded over two days, until at Friday evening, 5pm sharp, the supporter bowed himself off into the week-end without offering a solution.

Out of desperation I placed the problem in The Magic Memories 220.

Lo and behold, two readers answered, both by the name of Claudio, one from Italy, the other from Switzerland, both having asked ChatGPT, and both with almost the same answer: ChatGPT precisely diagnosed the problem and explained it so that even I could understand it in TWO sentences. Then gave instructions in FIVE steps how to solve the problem, which I did in less than 15 minutes!

Lesson: When three experts cannot solve a problem, ask ChatGPT… and to save time, why not start asking in the first place (BUT remember that AI is not infallible, so always “use your head”).

PS: To prompt concisely formulate the problem after telling ChatGPT to place itself into the role of an expert, to wit. “You are an expert for Mac and Dropbox: solve the following problem…” This idea was told to me by my friend Claudio Viotto, and I forward it to you as you will now be able to use it in your own fights with the unforeseen events of life 🙂

On Critical Reporting

Since today I will be reporting about two events, I thought I should precede this by a brief prologue: Although everyone is just looking to be praised – I know because I do, too – there is nothing to be learned from empty praise as it is often found in magazines. On the other hand some reporters love to just criticize everything and everyone. Neither of the two approaches is helpful, I opine.

In my own reporting I have always tried to be honest and sincere, at the same time encouraging whenever I can, and if I “criticize” something or someone, I invariably do so in a constructive sense, meaning that I say what I did not like, and then I offer at least one solution.

Constructive criticism is not about bashing, i.e., lifting oneself by belittling others, but it is about excellence.

I agree that “excellence” is an over-used term, so let me try to define it as I understand it: Excellence is doing something well for the mere sake of enjoying doing well-done things.

Magialdia 2025

Here are a few remarks and opinions about this year’s Magialdia convention.

If you are new to this blog: I have repeatedly reported about Magialdia (e.g., see The Magic Memories 198), which I have attended for twenty-one years now, so am a declared fan of this meeting, so ably organized by José Ángel Suarez and his team.

One of the great things is that this convention, managed by always the same team, runs like clockwork, there is a familiar atmosphere unlike anywhere else, and you can just sit back and enjoy.

Needless to say that the program is always top-notch, invariably with big names, but also and above all with little-known rising stars – this year was no exception as you will see.

HERE you can get an overview of the program and enjoy lots of photos.

Generalities

The city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of Alava and the Basque country, with its ca. 200’000 inhabitants,  is worth visiting in its own right.

Modern and historic at the same time, it offers museums (the Fournier Playing Card Museum!), picturesque streets and squares, lots of still privately owned shops as opposed to those of large chains you can find in any other city of the world, and of course a superlative gastronomy for all budgets, AND great wines at small prices (nowhere else in Europe can you get such excellent wines at such small prices as in Spain).

This year there were 439 people attending the convention, a very nice size.

The theatre with tired seatings and optimal viewing conditions from all places allows all to enjoy the TED-type presentations, which all last about one hour and usually start on time. This means that if you wish you can attend all functions without having to chase from room to room and missing an event because it takes place at the same time than another, a drawback of most larger conventions.

The Dealers

Magialdia does not boast a huge amount of magic dealers – there were about twenty split up in two rooms – but almost all of them feature wares of their own creation and which you will not find in any other international magic convention as the costs for them to travel are too high.

This means that there is a lot of interesting and original stuff to be discovered. Since I am not a reviewer of magic products, I leave it at that.

The Lectures

Meeting friends and friends-to-be as well as attending lectures are my two favorite activities during a magic convention.

The best meetings are those around a good table, of course. However, as the photo below shows, there is a price to pay if the lecture is after a good meal…

Lecture & Book Presentation Pedro Bryce

Pedro Bryce’s presentation was a combined book presentation and a lecture.

These “book presentations” are something you only find at Magialdia, where new and old authors get a chance to present their most recent publication. This is mostly a book, sometimes a video and in rare cases a product, provided it is really innovative. What a good idea this is! I think that other conventions should adopt this.

In my opinion a good idea would be to group three authors in a one-hour format, and give each one a time slot of ca. twenty minutes to show their product and comment on it, maybe performing one item from it.

Such a format would force the presenters to prepare a concise talk, something which is not easy but necessary.

As a matter of fact Pedro’s presentation suffered from them same problem than most other lectures: They have a lot to say, but need to do this in one hour.

Well, take it from one of the world’s foremost experts in magic lectures (immodestly: me!): This is virtually impossible. It is especially difficult for lecturers from Spain, who want to serve lots of theory along with a trick, sometimes only the theory without a trick, which is even more lethal.

How do you solve the problem? A formula that has worked well for me is to first make my peace with this time restriction of one hour. Then take three good tricks that each contain one or two – maximum three – polyvalent concepts, i.e., ideas that can be used even though you do not do the trick itself, and perform and explain them as well as you can.

Above all avoid running, by talking fast, which is what many do in such situations, and do not keep telling the audience that there is much more to say but you do not have the time to do it; both running and excusing yourself makes the audience feel uneasy.

And one more thing: If you only have one hour, do not – I repeat DO NOT – take questions! This is what many presenters did at this convention, and it just does not work if you only have one hour and lots to say.  Q&A is fine in a workshop/masterclass/club lecture situation, but not at a big convention, unless the “lecture” is declared as being a Q&A lecture, but that is another story.

At the risk of repeating myself: You need to give the enquirer a microphone OR repeat the question. This is actually the responsibility of the artistic director or of the person who takes care of the lecturer: Tell them that if they take questions to repeat them, but not to take questions if time is tight. And if you really need to take questions, educate your interlocutors by telling them to ask a question in one sentence, and do not tell their life.

Anyway, Pedro is a very nice person who everyone loved, and he is an excellent performer. Soon he will also be an excellent lecturer 🙂

You can find Pedro’s book Reminiscencias HERE (in Spanish, claro).

Luis Olmedo Lecture

Luis Olmedo is one of our finest coin workers. I had seen him lecture on his outstanding magic before at other conventions.

At Magialdia he chose to talk about a very specific subject: How to perform close-up via camera in large theatres.

The topic is of great interest even if you will never be in such a situation as a performer, because such things just broaden one’s mind. And again I will say that other conventions should adopt the idea of including such “niche lectures” as they show how complex and interesting magic is.

Clearly, Luis knows what he is talking about. Still, on this particular occasion, the situation he was in and the camera he used, sometimes showed exactly the contrary of what he wanted to explain. So, at times this became a bit confusing.

How get around such situations, where you are not sure how the camera and monitor/screen will be? Although quite a bit more time-consuming it might be a good idea to show video clips of the situations you want to discuss and gather them in a short Power Point presentation.

Marcelo Insuna Lecture And Book Presentation

I had just reencountered Marcelo in July at FISM in Torino, Italy, where he kindly gave me his latest publication titled Curly’s Secrets (you can get it HERE), which is about an under-used principle relating to the red-black separation concept in card magic.

Marcelo did an excellent and creative study of it and presented it along with many applications, techniques and tricks.

I immediately made a note of his deck switch, which uses a pen attached to a chain, which in turn is attached to his left inside coat pocket, thus allowing him to inperceptibly switch the deck held in his other hand by using what I call the “Finger-tongs Switch” in The Art of Switching Decks (p. 12).

Marcelo, who hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the man behind Tango Magic, one of the world’s finest makers of gimmicked coins and other magic wares.

Years ago, when I was first booked to lecture and perform at a magic convention in Buenos Aires, I visited his place, which is a bar, a theater and a shop, all in one, in a truly beautiful location – if you ever have a chance to visit that part of the world, make it a point to go and see Marcelo.

BTW: Buenos Aires is one of the most impressive places I have ever been to –  I returned there twice after that – and it breaks my heart to see that what is going on there now creates such a hardship for all the many honest and hard-working people, especially the many over-talented magic friends I have there. I do not mention any names for fear of forgetting some, as Buenos Aires is a hot spot of over-talented magicians, and I have the luck and privilege of calling most of them my friends.

Ricardo Rodriguez Lecture And Book Presentation

I have known Ricardo when he still was a teenager, and it is so gratifying to see how he and the other Spanish magicians of his generation have grown personally and artistically.

Ricardo also presented his latest publication, Iniciación y reiniciación a la magia, a 720-pages big book illustrated by no less than Gustavo Otero, with lots of tricks, techniques, and even more essays… quite impressive.

Ricardo performed a few pieces, which were all solid and professional, and in his explanations one could see that he has put a lot of thought and experience into what he describes – these certainly are no pipe-dreams.

Like most Spanish magicians of his generation, Ricardo is a declared student and admirer of Ascanio’s magic and philosophy, and he does not fail to repeatedly mention this.

Paul Wilson Lecture

Scotland’s Paul Wilson is always interesting to listen to, as this man combines knowledge, skill and the ability to fascinate any audience.

His relaxed demeanor and the focus on tricks and how they work, rather than on lots of theory, made a nice change in pacing.

Paul is also the director and producer of a documentary about Juan Tamariz, the man and his magic; we are all waiting for him to release it, better sooner than later…

Luke Jermay Lecture

I have now seen various lectures by Luke Jermay, on mentalism, close-up and general magic. Each time I see him I think one of my favorite expressions found in the magic literature: A consummate professional.

Luke did exactly what I would have done, if I had his talent and skill: He took three tricks, namely a MacDonald-type of Ace Routine, four coins through table using a flipper coin, and a rising cards routine in two phases. After an impeccable performance came an equally magnificent discussion.

All of this done in the limitation of one hour, without running nor giving the feeling that something is missing: a true master of the art of magic, and a brilliant lecturer.

Bernardo Sedlacek Lecture

Bernardo is another one of those over-talented young magicians (well, young compared to me…), and he comes from Brasil.

In Europe he is relatively little-known, which is a shame, as this man has lots to share.

In his lecture he did an Out of This World routine with an original switch of the packets, and without using a second set of indicator cards; this deservedly found the appreciation of the audience. 

He then asked the audience if they preferred to see another trick or listen to his philosophical thoughts in magic, philosophy being one of Bernardo’s interests.

Unfortunately nobody seemed to have the heart to say “tricks”, possibly for fear of appearing superficial, so he got lost in some higher-sphere thinking…

Anyway, if you get a chance to see Bernardo perform you will be enchanted by his charming personality and the innocence of his card handling (he is a superb technician), and he will fool you badly, too.

Next Magialdia 2026

I have to jump over the other events, such as the close-up and stage gala, both of which where really good, although some argued that last year’s editions were even better… oh, well.

In 2026 the Magialdia magic convention will take place September 18 to 20, Friday to Sunday, but remember that this is a FESTIVAL of several weeks.

So, if you can,  arrive on Monday 14th to enjoy a full week of it.

And one more thing: Vitoria is just about one hour car drive away from the Rioja, one of the world’s most important wine regions, and less than an hour from Bilbao, the biggest city of the Basque country!

French National Convention of the Fédération Française de Magie (FFM) in Troyes

This year’s national gathering of the French magicians – the Fédération Française de Magie (FFM) – took place in the little-known but beautiful city of Troyes.

If you like, you can take a little tour HERE.

This city has many merits, but certainly the most compelling to me is that you drink Champagne instead of “normal” wine with your meals (it is in the Champagne country).

What follows is by no means a full report of the happenings; similar to Magialdia I will just discuss a few events and detail some hopefully useful ideas.

Jury Work

After having been asked for the third consecutive year by president Frédéric Denis if I would be a member of the jury at a French national convention, I ran out of excuses, so this year accepted the task of judging ten stage and eleven close-up acts.

Although I am a so-called “official FISM judge” I have only been asked once to be in a FISM jury, namely in 2006 in Stockholm. After that I have occasionally accepted to be a judge at smaller conventions.

Invariably, this is a double-edged sword.

On one side you get to see all competition acts, and get privileged seating for the rest of the convention, which is certainly nice. On the other hand you have to see all acts...

Also, there is a lot more time and work involved than what is visible to the crowd. There are hours of deliberation within the group of judges and officials, you also have to listen and judge several competitors who enter the category of “inventions”; this is done behind closed doors.

In order to be “fresh” in the morning you cannot spend the night sessioning with others, and you miss at least 50% of the convention’s activities. As a matter of fact my schedule as a judge did not allow me to see any of the lectures.

As I am writing these few thoughts I realize that the subject of judging and being a judge is a most complex and interesting one. Although some fundamental changes have occurred in the past years as far as judging is concerned, especially at FISM level, there is still quite a bit of thinking and work to do.

I am not sure I want to get involved into this…

Finn Jon Talk

Gaetan Bloom was one of the “silent stars” of the convention, in the sense that he neither lectured nor performed, but together with Céline Noulin (the former director of the Robert-Houdin museum in Blois) and Frédéric Denis (the president of the FFM), he conceived and curated a remarkable exposition about Jean Merlin, who sadly has left us recently.

In the photo below you can see him interviewing another legend of magic, the Norwegian Finn Jon, together with Alexandra Duvivier.

Next to the opening gala, the close-up gala, and the stage gala, this was the only event I was able to attend.

Finn Jon is without doubt one of our rare geniuses, and as such was the perfect choice for “guest of honor” at this convention. Generally speaking I think it is a nice idea to have one special guest at a convention who will then be honored with a special event such as was this talk. Wonder why not more conventions do that.

Finally

As this is getting longer than I expected, and tomorrow I have to get up early to get my flight to Madrid  (Escorial, see above), I will postpone a few more thoughts for the next The Magic Memories 222, and just mention the performance of a Grandseigneur of magic and ventriloquism, Marc Metral, who closed the gala on Sunday, the final day of the convention.

Rather than using a lot of words to tell you about his performance, which I liked a lot, I encourage you to watch him perform on Britain’s Got Talent (CLICK HERE).

Paris, Paris

When I wanted to book the train ride back home, the site of the French railway announced a two-day interruption on the direct connection I had taken on the way to Troyes, and they offered to take the route via Paris.

Like Oscar Wilde, who maintained that he could resist everything except temptation, just the image of Paris made me book my travel back via Paris, with a short stay of four (!) days in my favorite city.

I have reported so many times about Paris in the past, that this time I will just mention the lunch I had at Pierre Gagnaire’s with my friends José Ángel from Spain and Yves Carbonnier (a real Parisian).

All I can say is that this is the most cost-effective three star Michelin restaurant I know, provided you take the lunch menu called “Balzac”… if you go for dinner, well, then all Michelin restaurants are another story…

Even if you usually do not go to this type of restaurant, I recommend you do so once in your life, and I promise you and your companion(s) will come out as happier persons – happier than going to a psychiatrist, and cheaper!

Unexpected Agenda… On This Day: “November 2 – Old Wine… Matures Well”

The entry of November 2nd is one of the longest, and therefore quite explicit. Nonetheless, like always, there is much to be found between the lines; good for me – and hopefully you – as I will now deliberate on three things. For your convenience, to read the entry CLICK HERE.

As I suggested in previous issues of The Magic Memories I recommend numbering the lines; in this entry there are 29 lines, not including title and blank lines:

1. Line 1: “In a set of lecture notes…” I maintain that “Lecture Notes” are a literary sub-genre of the magic literature. Although I do not consider myself a collector, as I have remarked several times in my writings, after having been now for over fifty years in magic, I have accumulated quite a collection of lecture notes: A recent count of physical lecture notes revealed 380 sets in seven languages, plus 84 as PDFs.

   The history of lectures – who gave the first lecture, when, where and about what subjects – is in itself a topic that has been researched very little as far as I know. If anyone reading this has some expert information about the topic and would like to share it through this medium, please let me know. You can also send it to me and state that it should remain “top secret”, and I will of course honor your wish (it goes into my private archive and stays there until the originator dies or says the word).

   Anyway, lecture notes reflect the magic world, its protagonists, as well as their work in a very special way. In my sets I find everything from just a few hand-written and photocopied pages to those that can be classed as a book (according to the definition of the UNESCO “a book is every non-periodical bound publication with more then 50 pages, not including the title pages”). The quality of the content and the level of detail of the explanations also varies from poor to brilliant.

   Although a good number of ideas exposed in these lecture notes have later found their way into the books and videos of their authors, there are still lots of effects, techniques, presentations, gimmicks, subtleties, and other ideas that have been published only there. For the n-th time in these The Magic Memories I insist that these findings are only useful if you copy, scan or write them out in a separate notebook, appropriately tagged, so you can later access them when necessary.
   

   

    

   The photo above shows the first set of lecture notes I produced in ca. 1976 for a “lecture” I gave in front of the ca. twelve members of the Zauberring Basel, and which was on basic card sleights. The notes had been typed and layouted from my handwritten notes by Rudolf Künzli, at the time a close friend in magic and in a way also a mentor, not so much of magic, but of life. It was distributed for free to all attending members. What a start!

    

2. Line 7: “I ran across these lines as I was sorting out…” When sorting out and ordering the lecture notes in alphabetical order of the author’s last name, I could not help but stop on some sets that looked particularly interesting, or who had been authored by big names in magic. Not surprisingly, I found some items, which spoke to me. In thinking about and recreating them with instruments in hands, I spent a very enjoyable and, yes, even profitable day.

   Therefore, this might inspire you to look differently at lecture notes, maybe even make it a habit to buy the lecture notes from the lecturers that come to your club or that you witness at magic conventions.

   I also immediately made a note in my list of “Ideas for a Lecture” to do a lecture for my club titled “The Very Best From My Lecture Notes Library”… why not? You are welcome to “steal” this idea (which I am convinced several have already had in the past).

3. Line 23: “The Conjuror’s Choice!” Obviously a big topic everyone knows. But how well do you know and do you do it yourself?

   Maybe this will motivate you to look again at the subject. A good way to get into it, regardless of your degree of knowledge and competence, is to take Zmeck’s trick described in the entry of November 2nd, and then really think through every option possible, with the exact wording and actions.

4. (Bonus Idea) – Line 25: “Alternatively, use the Conjuror’s Choice on the object, and a Shuttle Switch…” I must congratulate myself on this idea, for on reading it again as I am writing this text, I realize that it contains a concept I failed to identify and name in Sharing Secrets. The concept is that one action cancels out the solution to another action, i.e., if someone suspects sleight-of-hand as a method, there is none in the selection process of the objects, and if someone suspects some psychological ploy where you try to “talk a spectator into a choice” (layman’s parlance for “force”, maybe…), then the straightforward selection process with the three papers will dispel such thoughts.

   Thinking again, I believe we could class this as an “Action of Implicit Conviction”, agree?

Now how is that for a yield for a single day?

If you still do not own Unexpected Agenda, you can order it from your favorite dealer, or get a signed copy HERE (please ask for a personalized dedication in the “comment field” of the online order form).

All the best!

Roberto Giobbi