Category: The Magic Memories

Hello everyone!

This is the 4th installment of The Magic Memories, and I thank all those who wrote in to say that they like it.

Let’s talk “Cups & Balls”. In the video clip below you will see me performing my own “Cups & Balls Opener”, which is published in my book Confidences (Hermetic Press 2012), there titled “Overture for Cups and Balls”. The video is by Giacomo Bertini, of coin magic fame, who recorded it at his “European Close-up Magic Symposium” in Milan (Italy) on NOV 10 & 11, 2012. This was a gathering that took place from 2010 to 2018 and was inspired by my own “Magic Symposium” in Torino (also Italy), which in turn was inspirited by the “31Faces North” private gathering organized by David Ben and Julie Eng, sponsored by Allan Slaight; as you can see all things connect somehow 🙂

This opener in its slender, minimalistic structure has its merits precisely in its outward simplicity that harbors great complexity, to paraphrase one of Ascanio’s favorite quotes by Miguel de Unamuno (1864 – 1936). You can simply enjoy it, or dwell a bit deeper into its internal structure by studying my thoughts exposed in Confidences. The book is out of print, but you can get one of the last copies HERE, autographed on request. However, as promised in the “Mission Statement” to The Magic Memories, this project has no commercial purpose, but I will mention the sources for the convenience of those who want a bit more. To prove that this is true, you can find the explanation of this C&B opening inside the lecture-PDF I gave you in the Magic Advent Calendar of December 7 absolutely free 🙂

To me, the epitome of a C&B routine is still Dai Vernon’s version described by Lewis Ganson in The Dai Vernon Book of Magic, and which I have thoroughly discussed in my DVD project The Dai Vernon Seminar. It is still the template on which almost all modern versions build on. Anyway, my little opening sequence leads elegantly into it, if I may say so myself, and as a bonus it pre-loads the first cup with the fourth ball, so you can go into the first vanish as clean as a whistle. This has a nice intra-personal benefit, as by “starting clean” you build self-confidence; add to this that the opening sequence itself is almost self-working and you have a truly practical way of starting a successful performance.

If you want still more on the subject, see Sam Horowitz’s fine C&B routine in the Magic Advent Calendar of December 9. I came up with my handling totally independently, so you can imagine my surprise when I read that Horowitz had an almost identical handling decades before I was even born!

Have an excellent week!

Hello everyone!

One of my books, the success of which surprised me most, is The Art of Switching Decks – A Guide for the Beginner and the Expert – it is now in its third printing, and has appeared in English, Spanish, Italian and French, with other languages in preparation. Neither me nor my publisher, at the time Hermetic Press now Penguin Magic, had expected this. Meanwhile, I have received lots of feedback from readers and found myself plenty more, so I could write another volume, or fill the next 50 installments of these The Magic Memories with deck switches. But fear not, I won’t 🙂 , well,  I might give away one of two more, if some of you insist…

A personal comment, if I may: Besides the content, I believe that the structure of the book is of great use to the discriminating reader, as it exemplifies how a single subject can be approached by first creating a taxonomy, and then trying to identify the problems specific to each category. This allows for a systematic and at the same time free-flowing creative process, which results in practical solutions, in this case feasible deck switches.

One of the categories I was most pleased with was what I dubbed the “No-switch-deck-switches” (pp. 127), i.e. procedures which would naturally motivate putting a deck in use aside, and then taking another (cold) deck. The simplicity of the concept is inverse proportional to its use in real-life performing. How this came to be is a typical example of a “Butterfly Effect”: a small event yields a far more important consequence. It started with a question someone asked Dai Vernon in his column, which made me aware that this is a category, which then started a first list, mentioned in one of my Genii columns, later expanded in Secret Agenda and Hidden Agenda (SEP 28), and eventually grew into a full-fledged chapter in The Art of Switching Decks.

Anyway, here are two more ideas.

1. The Out-of-necessity Deck Switch: After any trick that leaves the deck unusable, there is a good reason – out of necessity – to use a new one. Such tricks can be Card Stabbing, where all the cards are spilled on the floor, or a trick where all cards turn blank, or after the Razor Deck Trick, where all the cards end up cut-up. Try this for a stand-up situation: Control a selection and palm it. As a spectator shuffles the balance, you have plenty of time and cover to get the card in back-palm. Take the deck back and holding it with the hand concealing the selection in End Grip, spring the cards in the air. As the cards are falling, reach into the card shower with the obviously empty hand and produce the back-palmed card. Do a non-card trick, or tell an anecdote, then offer to perform another card miracle. Obviously, the cards being spilled all over, you produce a “new” deck..
2. Miniature Deck Switch … and Jumbo Deck: This was triggered by reading an idea by Fred Braue  in his column  «Roundabout” in Hugard’s Magic Monthly (1946), where he wrote: “Why not make up the Brainwave Deck in the small half-size cards. Explain that they were given you by Dr. Rhine of Duke University for ESP testing. For close-upping, eliminates a pack switch . . .” As you can see, this short comment already contains the concept of the “No-switch-deck-switch”, long before Vernon’s column! As a general idea, introduce a miniature deck, which is an intriguing thing to a lay audience anyway, and then perform any type of adequate trick with it. Meanwhile you put the deck in use in its case and in your pocket, from where you later extract apparently the same deck, but of course… As an analogous idea use a Jumbo Deck, maybe explaining this has been invented to make sure there is no sleight of hand involved in the proceedings. Different, but exactly the same 🙂

PS: If you don’t have the book and would like to order a copy before it goes out of print again, get it directly from Penguin Magic (free shipping worldwide), or if you want to support the author (me!) order it from my webshop (CLICK HERE). In the English edition the book comes with a free DVD that has my two-hour lecture on the subject recorded at the  Genii 75th Anniversary Convention, Orlando, Florida, October 4–6, 2012.

Hello everyone!

It is SUN 10th January 2021 and time for the Magic Memories Number 2.

In my life I’ve given quite a few interviews, and if you find this one interesting I might upload another one or two in the course of this year’s 52 Magic Memories. Those in English, of course. I say “English” because I have text, audio and video interviews in six languages, a feat so remarkable, that I’m forced to mention it myself – with apologies to Ricky Jay 🙂

Personally, I prefer written interviews, especially those where they send me the questions, and I then have time to reflect, formulate, reread and eventually release the definite version. However, there are at least two major drawbacks to this type of interview: first, it takes a hell of a lot of time on my side, second, it lacks spontaneity. The reward to the reader, though, is that you get concise and to-the-point answers (provided the interviewer and the interviewee are any good…).

A live-interview, on the other hand, might have more “babble”, the interviewee will perhaps say things he later regrets etc., BUT it is arguably more fun to listen to, and you can do so while driving a car, practicing Tabled Faros or while stuffing a capon for your next dinner invitation (if you don’t know what a capon is, do the Graved Lax taught on the Magic Advent Calendar of DEC 21 &23). And this brings us to my interview I gave for Benji and Richard and their sensational Of Sleights and Men Podcast. Frankly, I have not had the courage to listen to the lengthy chat, for similar to videos I do not like to see or listen to myself….and I’m told I’m not the only one 🙂 But I certainly had a good time chatting with these two well-prepared and competent gentlemen, and if my memory serves me well, we’ve touched upon some fascinating subjects and I gave a few not-so-stupid answers. Possibly I also gave some not-so-clever answers, for which I apologize, but at least I can claim to be always sincere, which is why I never went into politics…

The podcast is 1 hour 22 minutes long, and you can find it here:

Muttenz, SUN 3rd JAN 2021

Hello everyone…

…and Happy New Year!

The Magic Advent Calendar, which ran from December 1 to 24 in 24 installments, was quite a success, and I would like to thank all those who kindly wrote in saying that they are missing it 🙂

The facts: at its outset the post got over 3’500 views, so the statistics of the site say; towards the end it was still almost 1’500. So, assuming that figures don’t lie, here is an attempt at continuing the experiment for the year 2021 with what I’ve dubbed The Magic Memories, and this is its first installment. It will go viral every Sunday at exactly 00:07 (with occasional exceptions, this being the first one…oh, my!)

Similar to the Magic Advent Calendar it will reflect the things I’m interested in and which I believe connect in one way or another to the complex world of magic, briefly it’s the kind of things I would like to read (texts, PDFs, web-links etc.) and see (film clips). Conceptually this is similar to my agendas (Secret Agenda, Hidden Agenda  and Secret Twitter) but with the infinite possibilities of Internet.

My first contribution is a PDF with the Treatment of my first Penguin Live Video Lecture that dealt with the topic of performing card magic in a stand-up situation and which reflects pretty much the content of my homonymous book Stand-up Card Magic. A “treatment”, for those who are new to this type of thing, is a concise description of what one intends to do, in this case in the instruction video: have a quick look at it, and you’ll immediately understand. You can put this to various uses:

1. If you have the lecture as a DVD or as a download, you can use the PDF as a table of content, where you can highlight the items you like and add short or lengthy comments of your own. The app I use for this is “PDF Expert” by Readdle, but I assume that any good PDF app will allow similar functions.
2. It is a very practical way (there are always several ways, of course) of preparing for any type of performance. It is not a script, although it could be turned into one by adding an extra column where you write what you intend to say.
3. It will give you an idea of how one can run through a performance process mentally, trying to identify potential problems.

Don’t worry, this is really all very simple, and by just looking through it you will learn several things. To read and/or download the Treatment for the Penguin Live Lecture 1 – Stand-up Card Magic CLICK HERE.

To see the trailer of the first Penguin Live Lecture 1 – Stand-up Card Magic CLICK HERE.

Hope you like it!

One last thing: The Magic Memories have no commercial purpose and are just a gift to those who have a similar taste as mine. However, more often than not, the content will be related to previous studies of mine (one reason why this is called “Memories”). And many of my studies of the past 48 years (!) have resulted in some type of publication (book, lecture, video etc.). So, I will reference them for those who are interested, and if I can will even offer a promotion to help in a year that starts out as difficult as the past one. In this particular case, you can download the lecture (5 hours 25 minutes – the longest Penguin lecture ever!) by CLICKING HERE, and I think it’s a real bargain, as you don’t just get a bunch of good trick, but a complete course, making it an investment rather than an expense. If you want the physical DVD you can get a copy signed to your name (please mention on order form) directly from me HERE. And if you get both Penguin Live Lectures, I have a promotion HERE.

PS: I appreciate if you leave a positive comment and click the “Like” button, as my webmaster – my dear friend Andrea – tells me it will make me successful and rich…I don’t understand why and how, but I don’t argue with him 🙂