Today’s topics are: Snow In Muttenz; “Old” Stuff – An Impromptu Trick; Rules in Art; Preview to Strotmann’s Magic Lounge; A Professional’s Travel Advice
These are The Magic Memories 102, gone online Sunday, December 11th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
Snow in Muttenz
I’m about to leave for a show tonight, fortunately near by, BUT yesterday it started snowing, and below is how it looks from my studio, at the top of the house.
In the near background you can see the town of Muttenz, in the far background beneath the mist, France, and a bit to the right Germany, all seen from Switzerland.
Due to snowfall I need to leave earlier, so these Magic Memories will have to be shorter – I’ll catch up next week, hopefully đ
A View from my Magic Studio – 10th DEC 2022
“Old” Stuff – An Impromptu Trick
In one of his lecture notes Gaetan Bloom, one of the most creative people in our specialty, writes the following:
…the more I try to find new things, the more I discover that almost everything has already been invented by old masters.
So, in one word, if you want to find new tricks… read old books… A gold mine of ideas is in there.”
I couldn’t agree more, even though not having even a fraction of Gaetan’s inventive genius.
I ran across these lines as I was sorting out a huge pile of old lecture notes and pamphlets, mostly “minor” publications that had a low run, so reached only few.
In one of them, Trickkiste Nr. 6 by Jochen Zmeck, a famous performer and prolific author from the former German Democratic Republic (talk about misnomers…), and whom I had the pleasure of meeting once when he gave a lecture at our magic club in Basel many years ago, is the following idea (my own rendition of a German text):
The performer tears three pieces of paper from a newspaper, rolls each into a ball, and then places them on the table.
He next asks the guests at the table – say five or seven – to each hand you a personal object: These are then placed on the table in a row (e.g., a watch, a key, a ring etc.).
A female spectator is asked to choose anyone of the visible objects, a male spectator to choose one of the three paper balls.
Let’s assume the lady chooses a finger ring. Next the gentleman chooses one of the three balls of paper, which, upon being opened, reveals… a finger ring! The other paper balls are, obviously, empty.
Method?
The Conjuror’s Choice! Twice!
I think that’s a neat “impromptu” piece we might try after-dinner on the occasion of the upcoming festive days đ Seriously, try it, as I think this will produce a very favorable reaction.
Rules in Art
Can there be rules in any art? Here is what I wrote in Sharing Secrets (p. 128):
To save you the time to look them up in the book – as a reader of this blog you certainly own a legal, printed copy đ – CLICK HERE to read the PDF.
Below are the 24 Rules of Magic as formulated by Maskelyne and Devant in their classic Our Magic (2nd revised and enlarged edition, Fleming Book Co., USA 1946):
(1) Never set aside any accepted rule, unless it is absolutely necessary to do so for some clearly defined reason.
(2) Always endeavor to form an accurate conception of the point of view most likely to be adopted by a disinterested spectator.
(3) Avoid complexity of procedure, and never tax either the patience or the memory of the audience.
(4) Never produce two simultaneous effects, and let no effect be obscured by any subsidiary distraction.
(5) Let each magical act represent a complete, distinct, and separate entity; compromising of nothing beyond one continuous chain of essential details, leading to one definite effect.
(6) Let every accessory and incidental detail be kept well âwithin the picture,â and in harmony with the general impression which is intended to be conveyed.
(7) Let nothing occur without an apparently substantial cause, and let every potential cause produce some apparently consequent effect.
(8) Always remember that avoidable defects are incapable of justification.
(9) Always remember that a plea of justification is ordinarily an acknowledgement of error, and consequently demands every possible reparation.
(10) Cut your coat according to your cloth, but spare no pains in the cutting, or your procedure cannot be justified.
(11) Always remember that a notable surprise is incapable of repetition; and that the repetition of an effect, of any kind whatever, cannot create surprise.
(12) A minor conception ordinarily demands the cumulative effect of repetition; a conception important in itself should usually create a distinct surprise.
(13) The simultaneous presentation of two independent feats is permissible when one of them is associated with cumulative effect and the other in a final surprise.
(14) Unless good reason can be shown, never explain, UPON THE STAGE, precisely what you are about to accomplish.
(15) When presenting an effect of pure transition, the first and most important essential is the avoidance of every possible cause of distraction.
(16) When an effect of transition ends with a sudden revelation or surprise, the course of the transition should be punctuated by actions or sounds leading up to and accentuating the final impression.
(17) In every effect of pure transition, the beginning and end of the process involved should be distinctly indicated by some coincident occurrence.
(18) In each presentation, the procedure should lead up to culminating point of interest, at which point the magical effect should be produced and after which nothing magically interesting should occur.
(19) When a presentation includes a number of effects in series, the final effect should represent a true climax, and its predecessors successive steps whereby that climax is reached.
(20) When Magic and Drama are combined in one presentation, the stage procedure should primarily be governed by Dramatic requirements of the case, rather than the normal principles of Art in Magic.
(21) When, in a combination of the two arts, the primary requirements of drama have been satisfied, all subsidiary details of procedure should be dictated by the normal principles of Art in Magic.
(22) No magician should ever present, in public, any magical feat in which the procedure cannot be, or has not been, adapted to his own personal characteristics and abilities.
(23) Never attempt, in public, anything that cannot be performed with the utmost ease in private.
(24) Never present in public any performance which has not been most perfectly rehearsedâfirst in detail, and finally as a whole.
Wish everyone an excellent week!
Festive food for thought.
Preview to Strotmann’s Magic Lounge
I’m just back from a short trip to Stuttgart and will tell you a bit more in the upcoming The Magic Memories (103): A visit at Thorsten Strotmann’s Magic Lounge, an exceptional “Close-up” theatre that takes 199 seats, yes, close-up for 199, no typo…
Thorsten and Roberto at Strotmann’s Magic Lounge
… and how Barbara personalizes her Orimotos now: Orimoto is a book where every page is hand-cut to result in a relief motif (my definition…).
Barbara’s Orimoto for “Roland”
A Professional’s Travel Advice
After my “Giro d’Italia” report (see The Magic Memories 100) I was asked if I had more travel tips to give for travelers.
Yes, I do, check to make sure you don’t pack the cat, as at airport security they don’t let live animals through…
Jimmy, the Cat, in the bag!
All back issues of The Magic Memories can be found HERE.
Chat again next Sunday – until then take care and do good magic đ
These are The Magic Memories 101, gone online Sunday, December 4th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
Thank you to all who sent in comments about last week’s post about my “Giro d’Italia”, apparently my travel notes find the favor of some, and so I’ll keep posting them, provided I get to travel…
Looking for Erdnase
The Expert at the Card Table – Looking for Erdnase is a documentary-drama (2022, Â 84 Min.) by German director Hans-Joachim Brucherseifer (the film is in english). Currently it is available in a streaming format only, but will hopefully also be released as a commercial DVD later for us who collect such things.
Looking for Erdnase
A few weeks ago we asked and were granted permission by the director to show the movie at our magic club in Basel: We paid âŹ40 for this, and you could do the same for your club, as it is an unusual and worthwhile activity.
I gave a short introduction to set it into the historical context for those not so familiar with the book, then we showed the film (with popcorn and drinks :-), and after a short break I would answer questions and demonstrate various contents, techniques and effects.
Before you read further you might want to take the two and a half minutes necessary to watch the official trailer; to do so CLICK HERE .
A Classic of the Magic Literature
If you are interested in my introductory remarks to the movie, read on: There is no doubt that the book The Expert at the Card Table (Chicago 1902), briefly referred to as Erdnase, is a Classic of the magical literature, and nothing and nobody will ever take away this status from the book and his (her?) anonymous author. There are multiple reasons for this.
Erdnase marks the definite shift of the supremacy in the technical literature from the Old World to the New World.
Starting with Erdnase a large part of the important and influential literature comes from the USA (Sphinx magazine, Tarbell Course in Magic, Art of Magic, Greater Magic etc.), although several landmark books keep coming from European authors (d’Hotel, Conradi, Fischer, Willmann, Goldston, Maskelyne, Gaultier etc.).
Although there had been books of relative importance published in the USA before 1902, several of these were from European authors, such as the US-editions of Sach’s Sleight-of-hand, or some of Professor Hoffman’s works. Others, such as Roterberg’s New Era Card Tricks (1897) where greatly influenced by European sources (August Roterberg, as the name suggests, was of German descent, born in Hamburg, during the time of Carl Willmann, who published important and influential books and magazines during that time…).
But assuming that Erdnase was written by an US-author (who knows, maybe not…), for its details descriptions, the originality and quality of the content – techniques, tricks, presentations and theories – it clearly marks a turning point.
This can be understood by the illustrations: The first artwork trying to visualize the abstract descriptions, especially of sleight-of-hand, were woodcuts, and rather crude. These can be seen in the publications of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and up to the 18th century.
Decremps on Palming (1789)
A better rendering occurred with the advent of copper etchings such as can be seen in the publications of Conradi, Hoffmann etc. However, the authors lacked the degree of insights into the subtleties of technical handling to provide the engraver with adequate hand models.
Hoffman on the Top Change
Additionally, photos have been used to facilitate the learning of book contents: One of the very first to make good use of it was C. Lang Neil in his landmark book The Modern Conjuror (1903). The photos show Charles Bertram and Mademoiselle Patrice (the author’s wife) perform in a Parlor setting, the preferred performance mode of the time – there is a guy out there who wrote a whole book just on card magic for parlor and stage đ Photos are indeed very good to show how the performer stands and his body language and facial expression, but are usually inferior to depict hand-details.
Charles Bertram in C. Lang Neils’ Modern Conjuror
In Erdnase, however, we find simple but very accurate hand-made drawings that depict with baffling precision the degree of detail necessary to master the sleight correctly.
At some point in the research of the anonymous author, Martin Gardner was able to locate the man who made the drawings for Erdnase, and to get him to attend a magic convention, where even stars of magic, such as Dai Vernon, brought their copies to have signed by M. D. Smith. The latter, unfortunately, due to his age and the fact that over four decades had elapsed since he had done the drawings, was unable to provide any clues that would allow the disclosure of who the author of Erdnase was.
Erdnase on the Injog
Erdnase is possibly the only magic book to have generated such a large amount of secondary literature, i.e., works about the book Erdnase.
As a matter of fact, I am not able right now to name any other book other than those by Hofzinser and Robert-Houdin that have generated secondary literature at all, at least not in that number. That’s quite an achievement, most of it, thought, admittedly due to the anonymity of the author. This latter aspect is in my opinion the key factor that keeps Erdnase in the front row up to this very day, as I do not think the pure content deserves this status (see below for my reasoning on this).
Also, the anonymous author of Erdnase has brought about several biographies (!), which sounds like a paradox: How can you write a biography about someone you don’t know?
In Erdnase we find one of the first attempts to establish a coherent terminology of card magic (although it lacks the maps of hands and the deck, something which I consider basic, but it was not until Card College 1992 that this was done in detail). Although in Erdnase we find what I think is a good and practical terminology, not all made it into the vocabulary of future authors of magic books on card magic. On the contrary, it is a sign of immaturity that most authors keep reinventing their own terms, or use such redundant terms as “long side” instead of simple “side” (a side is long, the other one is the end, and it isn’t short either). And then there have been some ridiculous terms that were created seemingly out of nowhere, such as “Biddle Grip”, as if Mr. Biddle had invented holding a deck by its ends… I know, this is a favorite quibble of mine đ
In my introduction I also mentioned and showed various editions in English and other languages, as well as videos and books on Erdnase.
Unnecessary for the Beginner
The question most will obviously ask is: Do I need to read Erdnase?
My short answer is: No – you can become world champion of card magic and the highest paid performer in the universe without even knowing that Erdnase exists.
The long answer is a bit more complicated, as everything in life…
There is nothing in Erdnase, not one single idea, technique, trick or presentation that you can’t either find in another more modern book, and better explained and illustrated at that, or that addresses a problem that cannot be resolved with another approach, be it technical or presentational, explained in the modern literature (including magazines, lectures, videos, podcasts).
I would even go so far as to say that in the fist five to ten years you’d better stay away from Erdnase, as it might confuse and discourage you. There are much better sources to get to black-belt level with cards!
Now, once you’ve spent your 10’000 hours, or about ten years, practicing card magic every day, that’s when you might start to get an interest into the higher spheres of magic: history, biographies, theory.
This is also when studying the ancient, hidden sources of magic can give you additional insights, produce valuable connections between pieces of information which up to then were scattered units in the infinite universe of magic, especially in the galaxy of card magic. You will start to create interfaces and recognize hitherto invisible networks and patterns, and cross-reference seemingly unrelated topics.
And suddenly the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts in which you were swimming around aimlessly during the first ten years.
To my understanding there are two factors that keep Erdnase topical.
First, many experts still talk about the book in the highest tones. Yes, it still is a good book, but in the meantime there are much better books on every aspect covered in Erdnase: Hugard & Braue, Vernon, Marlo, Forte, Tamariz, Ascanio, to mention just a few luminaries. I guess, that many of these experts – and they do have my full admiration and respect – simply need a belief system, like many human beings need that in other areas of life (politics, economy, religion, etc.)
Second, the author is not known. I would bet my first edition of Erdnase (which I still need to find…) that the moment the author becomes known, 96.45% of the fascination will vanish like a cheap brand of margarine on a hot summer day, to paraphrase Paul Harris (who owes nothing of his genius to Erdnase). Just imagine for a moment that someone can conclusively prove that, e.g., Charles Bertram (with the aid of Charlier) was the author. So what? Puff – dream over, time to get up.
Of course this raises the question if, in order to become proficient in magic, you need to have read all those “Classics” by Ozanam, Guyot, Decremps, Ponsin, Sachs, Goldston, Hoffman etc.
What is your opinion?
I’ll give you a clue: I have not read any of these from cover to cover, although I own them all and have looked into them here and there. But I have read Hofzinser, Bertram, Maskelyne and Robert-Houdin from A to Z, several times.
Why? (Clue: Some authors are academics, others real performers…).
To Sum it up
Anyone interested in card magic, and in Erdnase in particular, will enjoy watching this documentary-movie.
At some point the director might listen to the feedback he’ll certainly receive, mostly positive, I hope, but still do what Jay Marshall always answered to performers who asked him for advice on how to improve their act: “Cut, cut, cut.” The 90 minutes cut down to 75 minutes will make this a better film, especially getting rid of redundant and irrelevant scenes towards the end.
Reminder: All of this is purely my personal opinion đ
Card Illustration Tool
Chris Wasshuber from library.com just sent a mail discussing a programme he devised that allows you to make drawings depicting playing cards: Fans, Spreads, etc. Very useful, it seems to me.
The tool is free to use for anyone, provided you credit Chris and his lybrary.com (“library” is misspelled on purpose as “lybrary” – I assume because the domaine name was already taken).
The sad news came in of Volker Huber passing on December 1st. He was one of the most important collectors and historians in our specialty.
I had the good fortune of meeting him on several occasions, with extensive dinners and “sobre-mesas”, the chatter after dinner, at the dinner table – an important tradition of the Old Wold that unfortunately got lost in the New World, where the waiter brings you the check before you even finish your Espresso, a culture shock for any European crossing for the first time the Atlantic.
On two occasions I visited with Volker at his home near Frankfurt. He had bought TWO houses, because one was not enough to host his extensive collection, which went from magnificent paintings, sculptures, books, props to what have you, obviously all related to magic, and all of the highest caliber. My estimate is that his collection is worth close to ten million Dollars.
However, the most remarkable thing about all this to me was that Volker could tell me something about every and each of the exhibits in his collection, its provenience, how he got it, what role it played in the context of magic history etc. This is, in my opinion, the most important thing when you collect. I mean, any idiot with lots of money could have bought what Volker had, but to know what Volker knew, well, that’s another conversation.
I am by no definition of the term a collector, but meeting him taught me to look at these “old things” differently. He was a true gentleman and a great, great connoisseur, and I will miss him, and so will the magic world.
When I visited with him he showed me his complete Hofzinser collection, which is breathtaking. To me, of course, the most impressive thing was to see decks of cards and tricks cards originally used by Hofzinser himself, and being able to touch and handle them. I wish a spark of Hofzinser’s genius could have sprung over to me đ Anyway, what a treat.
I then had the privilege of spending hours in his eclectic library, handling and reading (perusing) those old books, some of which I had only heard of.
At some point in our conversations I told Volker I wanted to make a study of the history of card magic. Volker was very enthusiastic about and agreed that a serious study would only have a chance if it was limited to an area of magic, such as card magic. And he was willing to let me use his library as much as I wanted, which shows just part of his incredible generosity.
I have started to summarize the content of dozens of old magic books in Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and English, being in the fortunate position of reading these languages, but need to do a lot more. Clearly, this is a project that needs several years of research and writing time, and since it will hardly be a commercial success, but I need to make a living from my work, there is only a slim change that this will ever by accomplished, at least not by me…
It is to be greatly regretted that in 2022 we still have no organization nor foundation that would provide the funds, infrastructure and logistics necessary to put such a project into practice. I’ll leave it at this, for the moment…
In the photo below you can see Volker Huber standing among the other participants of the German History Conference that took place in Vienna (Austria) in summer 2015.
Magic Christian (do you find him in the photo?) had organized a visit to the oldest playing card manufactory in Vienna, Piatnik, for whom he has created so many wonderful special decks, including a three-deck-box of Hofzinser Magic Cards (I have a still sealed extra set to sell at $ 100 including shipping worldwide, if anyone is interested).
History Conference Vienna 2015
If you would like to know more about Volker, a bit about his life and a few of his achievements, Wittus Witt has made up a special issue of his Magische Welt (16 pages) with some lovely photos and worthwhile information to be freely downloaded – for the PDF in English CLICK HERE (on the same page there is also the original German version if you prefer).
These are The Magic Memories 100, gone online Sunday, November 27th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
100th Anniversary
Officially, this is issue # 100 of The Magic Memories, with issue # 1 having started on SUN, 3rd JAN 2021, but a real count shows that the idea of these “blogs” already began on 10th JAN 2019 as Secret Newsletter. These were a combination of advertising a few new products and short essays on various subjects that are still of interest, in my opinion.
That’s how it all started 10th JAN 2019
So, if you want to look them up, and maybe extract the pure information (there is a lot!) and make a new PDF of it, go ahead – CLICK HERE: And you may share it, of course.
Actually, if someone does the work and wants to share it, please send the finished PDF to me, and then I’ll upload it in an upcoming The Magic Memories for all to access (with your name).
However, between the Secret Newsletter and The Magic Memories was still another hefty item, The Magic Advent Calendar 2020, were I posted a substantial item every day from DEC 1st to 24th, with PDFs and video clips – you can still access those for free by CLICKING HERE, or if you want to show your support and say “Thank you” you can buy the collected PDF by CLICKING HERE – I just lowered the price from 24 to 10 to make this really easy and affordable đ
Anyway, here we go with a report on my ten-day Italian Tour, and then we’ll see how far I’ll get…
Giro d’Italia 2022
During all my professional life my philosophy has been: Never perform the same day you travel, and stay at least one extra day in any place you go to.
As a matter of fact, for practically every show I’ve done around the world, in the most beautiful cities and places, I convinced those who booked me to pay for two nights – occasionally, if the place was of particular interest, I would add a third night that I would cover myself.
I remember asking my dear and missed friend Daryl once if he had been to Florence, and his answer was “Oh, yes!”. And Rome, Madrid, Paris, London, all cities I had been, too, and he answered, “Oh, yes” each time – he had actually done a “World Lecture Tour” that had taken him virtually around the world. But when I asked him what he had seen on these occasions, he explained, “Not much. I usually came in in the afternoon, went to the hotel, prepared the lecture, was picked up for an early dinner, did the lecture, was taken back to the hotel, and next morning took off for the next city, one city a day most of the time.”
I decided then and there that I would never do that, and recommend anyone who plans to do magic professionally to do likewise, as there is more to life than magic, as Ascanio used to remind us youngsters when we sat around a good table with him handling cards instead of enjoying the meal.
Daryl and Roberto, Muttenz 1997
Having said that, this trip broke this rule several times, reminding me that Art does not follow any rule, which is something Groucho Marx had to know when he uttered this epochal wisdom: “I have my principles, but if they don’t fit, I have others.”
Lugano
THU, 10th NOV, I hit the road and drove from Muttenz to Lugano, in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, bordering to Italy.
With nine different events ahead – shows, lectures, masterclass – I admit having been a bit apprehensive about it. After all, I have – like many of us – performed very little in the past two and a half years, something that had never happened in the past 35 years of my professional life. Anyone performing knows that practicing and rehearsing is just not the same than standing in front of a real audience – all those nuances of how to stand, look, pause, deliver punch lines etc. can only be learned by combining intelligent practice with real-world performing.
Add to this that I was going to perform and lecture all in Italian. Although Italian, by linguistic definition, is my native language, I rarely use it, as at home we speak Swiss-German, and German has become the language I speak best. As an aside, you might be surprised to learn that Switzerland, with only eight millions inhabitants in a relatively small area, has four official languages and cultures. German, French, Italian and Romansh. And we all get along quite well… possibly this is Switzerland’s most important message to the world đ Maybe the secret is like that of all good magic: Do the right things, and do things right.
Anyway, as I was driving down I was more nervous than usual. And rereading my own essay on the subject (CLICK HERE) did not help much… But then I reminded myself in what an incredibly privileged situation I am: I have been able to turn my hobby into a profession, actually living what Confucius had said over 2’500 years ago: “If you do what you love doing, you’ll never have to work in your life.” This is what I have been doing since 1988 when I turned professional. In all these years I have not done anything else than magic to spend my days and earn my life, not just for me, but also for my family: a wife, children, a house, a car – in Zorba’s words “the complete catastrophe”, which was not so bad after all đ
I’m neither a dreamer nor particularly romantic, but rather down-to-earth. Nonetheless, I’m fully aware of the poetry contained in my life when I think that as a child and youngster I was reading these magic tricks, imagining how it would feel to be a magician who could do all these wonderful things, and how they must look for the audience, and had to admit that I am doing exactly that, right now, living my passion, transferring it to my audiences, sharing my experience and knowledge and not keeping it all to myself, through my performances and books and videos, and honestly paying taxes to contribute to my country’s welfare. Meanwhile, I’ve come to believe that the Meaning of Life, the Trinity of Life, resides in finding your talent, developing it to its best, and to then share it with others.
I have neglected to put these thoughts into my above-mentioned essay on how to master nervousness. But as I pondered these questions while driving the burden literally fell from my shoulders, and I was also reminded what Cato the Elder had told his son as they discussed speaking in front of an audience: Rem tene, verba sequentur – if you master your topic, the words will follow.
I can honestly say that I have dedicated the past forty years of my life to the study and performance of magic, never putting fame or money first, but love of magic before anything else, the rest having somehow followed in various proportions that allowed me and my family to live a happy and satisfying life. Not so bad, after all đ My nervousness vanished like a mirage on the hot desert sand, to paraphrase Albert Goshman đ
Lake Lugano with view of the Alps
The almost three-hour car drive flew by on these thoughts, and below you can see the view from the lovely hotel I stayed in, which looks like an island in the Mediterranean, but is a village in the hills of Lugano. I arrived early, had a proper lunch in a “Grotto”, the equivalent of a Bistrot in this region, checked out the performance location (see below), and still had time to walk around the beautiful city of Lugano (see photo above) for a few hours enjoying a late Cappuccino (only tourists have a Cappuccino after 11 in the morning… but I was a tourist, so…). Back to the hotel, Siesta (with capital “S” and part of my “success ritual”), and then off to the event, with the show starting at around 10 pm.
Comano above Lugano
The show in front of 60 people in Lugano went well, although I had to draw on all my experience and authority to obtain a setting that would result in a satisfying performance. The room was long and rectangular with eight tables one next to the other, without the possibility of special lighting nor microphone, a truly sub-optimal situation that would have caused great aggravation to less experienced performers.
I politely explained the situation and made them change the orientation of the tables, and just before the show started I had the host move the guests from the two extremes of the room to the center, some sitting, some standing. This resulted in a compact audience configuration that could hear and see well. Furthermore I quickly adapted my tricks substituting a strong mental effect (conceptional) with the Linking Rings (visual), and together with my Rope Routine as an opener, the Card Stab as a closer and the message cut from a large paper as an encore (Kirigami) I had the ideal act for the situation.
The magical phrase to use in such cases and to make even difficult customers listen to you is: “In my professional experience of many years…” Take note.
Lecture at CLAM , Milan
Milan is just a good hour’s drive from Lugano, so I was at the Hotel Sunflower (where the “European Close-up Magic Symposium” organized by Giacomo Bertini had taken place for several years) and was able to enjoy the full afternoon as a tourist in Milan with weather and temperature like in spring.
Below you can see the breathtaking beauty of the world-famous Cathedral of Milan. Needless to say that visiting Milan is a top priority if you ever travel to Italy. The specialty is “Cotoletta alla Milanese”, which I had at “Brunello” said to have the best in town – it certainly was good (white wine recommended over red as its acidity balances out the slight fat in the veal and fried bread-crumbs).
Milan is a city that still boast lots of privately owned shops and not only the big brands you can find anywhere and which are everywhere the same.
Il Duomo di Milano
In the evening I gave an almost 3-hour lecture on Stand-up Card Magic at CLAM (Club Arte Magica). President Jordan (Giordano RiccĂČ) who had welcomed me before several times to his club, was the perfect host. We started the lecture at 9:30 pm and it lasted to almost midnight.
Jordan said they had not had such a large turnout in a long time – the room had ca. 60 seats, and some had to stand. I take it as a success that all stayed until the end, and beyond to take photos and sign books: Twelve of my seventeen books are translated in Italian, so I’m the Italian author with the largest number of magic books đ
CLAM is the club I have possibly given the most lectures over the past forty-plus years, having been “discovered” early in my career by the then President Ottorino Bai. I have since made many wonderful friends in Milan but won’t name them here for fear of missing one or two!
Busca and Dronero
The next day was arguably the toughest of my tour: I had to travel about four hours by car to the village of Busca, a small hour from the world-famous city of Alba, which is known for its white truffles. CLICK HEREÂ to see how a large white truffle is auctioned off at 184’000 Euro (over US $ 190’000).
At Busca the local magic club BLINK! – tag line: “The happiest magic club in the world” – had organized a show at the local theatre, which was sold out at its 150 seats.
This was the event I was most afraid of, as I’m not a theatre magician, although I have done hundreds of corporate shows before even larger audiences, but the expectations of theatre-going audiences are different and would warrant a lengthy essay of its own which I’m not doing now đ
Briefly: The show started with the short performance of four club members, and I then did a small hours, resulting in a ca. 80-minute event which I can say without exaggerating was enthusiastically received – and everyone was happy, even I was!
On hold were Linking Rings (Dai Vernon and Richard Ross) and The Red Card (Roberto Giobbi), which I did not perform, as the show was already running late (in Italy they start the shows at 9 pm, this one started at 9:15 pm).
If you like to practice your Italian and read a short review of the show and see some action photos, CLICK HERE.
And to watch a 20-second-clip of the show CLICK HERE.
Roberto at Teatro Civico Busca performing “Tutti Frutti”
The next day was supposed to be a “morning lecture” – it ended up being a full-day masterclass starting at 10 am and ending after 6 pm, with a lovely lunch break in-between… and if you say “lunch-break” in Italy you mean a two-hour lunch with aperitivo, four courses, wine, coffee and lots of amicable chatter about magic and life. This was exhausting, but it is exactly the way I like it!
Lecture in the morning and session in the afternoon at Blink
In the evening I undertook the one-hour drive to Cherasco to visit and stay with my good friend Don Silvio Mantelli, a Salesian priest, who has a magic theatre, a magic museum and one of the largest magic libraries in the world with well over 10’000 titles, not counting the hundreds of magazines in countless languages. I reported about Don Silvio and my experience in earlier The Magic Memories and let you find them…
MON, TUE & WED were days off, which I spent in the library studying, discussing magic with my friend Marco Aimone, and sharing a few meals, the Italian way… no comment đ The highlight being the yearly truffle lunch at Tre Re in Castellamonte.
Chef Roberto Marchello preparing the best Zabaglione in the world
Livorno
Next stop was Livorno, a lovely port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany. Although all regions in Italy have something extraordinary to offer, Tuscany seems to have the ideal balance between the sea, hills, magnificent cities like Florence, Siena, Volterra, Pisa, even some a bit too “touristic” like San Giminiano, but still worth visiting, and, naturalmente, stellar food and some of the best wines in the world.
On the way to Livorno I made a 30-minute stop at the city of Recco, right at the coast of the Mediterranean, and the place of choice for many retired North-Italians in the cold months of January and February as the climate is mild with lovely weather. If you have a “travel notebook” make a note to go there, in virtually any bakery, and buy a “Focaccia di Recco” which is the most simple and delicious Focaccia on this planet. As the “Guide Michelin” would say: “Worth a stop” (and even a detour).
Lecture at “La corte dei miracoli”, Livorno
I had to get up at six in the morning in order to arrive in Livorno just in time to have their specialty for lunch, Cacciucco, a fish and seafood soup reminiscent of Bouillabaisse, but with an identity of its own. Luciano Donzella and Francesco Fontanelli were my gracious and generous hosts.
I spent the late afternoon until the lecture at Luciano’s splendid home discussing magic and admiring his impressive collection. Luciano is a journalist by profession with some remarkable books to his credit, and the president of the club called “la corte dei miracoli”, the court of miracles, nothing less!
Indeed, their club location is a small theatre, with fully equipped stage, where I gave my lecture on Stand-up Card Magic to a full house. Again, it ran until almost midnight, and the audience was most appreciative to say the least.
Florence
Next morning I left Livorno and reached Florence after a short ride to meet my good friend and publisher Francesco Maria Mugnai, of Florence Art Edizioni fame, who has been of great help in publishing and printing my German books as well as my latest literary effort, Sharing Secrets.
As a little thank you I invited him to the legendary “Bistecca alla Fiorentina“, for lunch, with a worthy Brunello di Montalcino, one of the great Tuscan wines. (BTW: I’m just back from Berne, Switzerland, where such a piece weighting over three pounds costs over three times as much and is half as good – now you do the math…and it reminds me of what Vernon once said to his friend Tony Giorgio in jest: “Tony, if you were only half as good as you think you are, that would still be twice as good as you really are!”).
After coffee – in my opinion the best in the world is in Italy – and a Grappa, of course, a short Siesta (Spain’s most important contribution to a healthy lifestyle), I gave another almost three-hour lecture to a group of about 30 people. The topic I choose for them, since they had already seen my lecture on Stand-up Card Magic a few years earlier (I have a standing invitation in Florence…), was “How to find original presentations” (this is now number 63 in a series of original lectures…).
As so often it ended up being a mixed lecture, as I have long since stopped adhering to a strict curriculum: I consider magic a complex and infinite universe, and everything connects to many other topics. Therefore, although following a guiding thread, I also mention ideas and concepts on how to practice, how to take notes, how to prepare and construct an act, how to handle difficult audience members, how to deal with nervousness, and a myriad of other relevant topics.
From Ascanio I learned that a lecture must never have a commercial purpose, at least not as its top priority, but rather be structured like a university lecture and discuss a subject in an academic way, without ever losing the connection to the real, professional performing world. Like a good book, I believe that after a good lecture the audience must leave knowing more than before, having been given information and an experience which goes beyond what has been said and done. I’m glad that the feedback I received confirmed that I am successful in doing this most of the time.
The following day was a rainy day, so unfortunately I could not enjoy the city of Florence, one of the most remarkable in the world, but fortunately could get together with a few of my friends for another memorable dinner.
Below you can see, from left to right: Alessandro Daloisio, an inspired amateur magician, student of Paolo Morelli (see The Magic Memories 75), Giacomo Bertini, organizer of the European Close-up Symposium and author of System of Amazement, Francesco Di Luciano, a lawyer by trade, who translated Erdnase into Italian, transcribed the complete Revelations video tapes (!) and other prodigies, as well as Francesco Maria Mugnai, Italy’s foremost publisher of magic books and an accomplished theatre performer. So, you see, I keep good company đ
Alex Daloisio, Giacomo Bertini, Francesco Di Luciano, me, Francesco Maria Mugnai
Milano e Ciao Bella Italia
Finally, the last day arrived. Magician extraordinaire Hernan Maccagno from Buenos Aires had just completed his lecture tour through a few Italian cities and met me in Florence, from where we drove together to Milan. The conversations we had would make an interesting book!
In the evening I did a very special private show for just 12 people whose identity I’m not supposed to disclose, suffice it to say that it was exclusive company…
I did my “act” as can be seen on my Penguin project “The Act”, plus a few extra items, and Hernan did, as an encore, his very original Cups & Balls Routine, and I hope that you get to see it at some point, as it is truly astounding.
Next morning we hit the road, and after a five-hour plus trip arrived at my home in Muttenz, near Basel, where Hernan did his excellent lecture to an intimate group of only 5 people. This is really a shame, as he would have deserved a full house, but attendance at lectures has dramatically dropped in the past years (not to speak of Corona, of course), and we are seriously thinking about dropping the tradition of having from five to six lecturers a year, a tradition that I started about forty years ago, when we used to have forty or so attendants!
Arrivederci!
I hope today’s The Magic Memories are not too long (yes, they are…), but, to paraphrase Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662): “I did not have time to write a shorter one.”
Wish everyone an excellent week and hope to see you back in seven days (always on Sundays, always at 0:07 o’clock)!
Today’s topics are: More Italian memories (photos).
These are The Magic Memories 99, gone online Sunday, November 20th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
La Dolce Vita in Italia (Episode II)
I’m still touring Italy, almost finished as you’re reading this, and back home on Monday, 21st November to translate Hernan Maccagno’s great lecture in Basel.
Meanwhile, here are a few more reminiscences from my Italian travels in the past – I could certainly write a book about my magical adventures there!
Lecturing on Secret Agenda at CADM Torino 2016…after a Masterclass with Juan Tamariz and me (Torino 2019)Dinner with Silvan (ca. 1995)A friendly table in Italy: Juan, Carmen, Roberto, Aurelio, Vanni (ca. 1990)
Remember to check back here for The Magic Memories (100) – The Anniversary Edition, on SUN, 27th November!
Today’s topics are: Italian Memories (photos);Â The Magic Memories go on a two-week vacation as I’m on a show & lecture tour through Italy.
These are The Magic Memories 98, gone online Sunday, November 13th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
Italian memories – Tanti saluti dalla bella Italia
This week and the next one I’m touring through Italy, from Lugano (Switzerland), to Milano, then Busca and Drionero in the Langhe, Cherasco (Magic Museum and Bollito Misto), Castellamonte (yearly truffle lunch), Livorno, Florence, Milano, and back to Switzerland with Hernan Maccagno who will lecture at the Zauberring Basel on MON, 21st November.
Italian Memories: Tony Binarelli and Lamberto Desideri (Rome 1991)Talk with Cachadiña and Don Silvio at Museo della Magia, Cherasco 2019Saint Vincent Convention 1984: Ascanio, Costi, Paviato, Giobbi
Star of the table: White Truffle! (San Miniato, Tuscany, 2018)
Today’s topics are: Escorial Card Conference 2022; Michele Isenburg does magic; Remembering Max Maven.
These are The Magic Memories 97, gone online Sunday, November 6th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
Escorial Card Conference 2022
After having taken a forced pause of two years, due to the Pandemic, the Escorial Card Conference is back and took place at the Hotel Lanceros in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, from Friday 28th to Sunday, 30th October 2022. This is a three-day meeting, by invitation only, of ca. 50 of the most talented magicians in the universe of card magic.
Escorial 2022 – Group photo 8photo: Consuelo Lorgia
I write “talented”, because some who have attended the “Jornadas”, as the event is called among the attendees, are truly world-famous, such as Alex Elmsley, Arturo Ascanio, Herb Zarrow, Bernard Bilis, Reinhard MĂŒller, Magic Christian, Paul Wilson, Rafael Benatar, etc., and, of course, the initiator himself, Juan Tamariz. Many, though, would be names you’ve never heard of, most young Spanish virtuosos who, nonetheless, are among the best in the world when it comes to the pasteboards.
This photo made it into the national newspaper “El Mundo” (ca. 1990)
Genesis
You might be interested how this meeting, that started in the mid-Seventies, came about in the first place.
You can read about the history of the Escuela Magica de Madrid (EMM) in one of the lengthier essays I published in my Ask Roberto, available as an e-book at a very modest price, but here it is in brevis:
In the early Seventies Juan Tamariz attended a magic convention in France. On his way back, thinking about what he had seen and experienced, he realized that magic, unlike other artistic disciplines, did not have any “schools of thought”, such as there would be in literature, painting, etc.
With Juan’s permission and with my initial help, the text was translated for the first time in English for Dan & Dave’s Magic Con 2011. You’ll find it as part of my essay in Ask Roberto, but for your convenience, and as a gift to you, CLICK HERE to read and/or download it.
Escorial 2007: Listening to a talk (photo: Magic Christian)
The group would study magic through all sorts of activities (see Ask Roberto), and at some point someone had the idea to find a way to extend the group beyond Madrid. This was when the idea was born to host a yearly meeting outside of Madrid – San Lorenzo de El Escorial at ca. 50 minutes car drive from Madrid was chosen – where other talented magicians could join the group in a three-day marathon dedicated entirely to card magic.
At first these were only magicians from Spain, but very soon they would invite experts from outside, among the first were Reinhard MĂŒller, Dieter Ebel and Erhard Liebenow from Germany, Bernard Bilis from France, etc. I had the privilege of joining the “Jornadas” in 1979 for the first time, after having met Tamariz for the second time at FISM 1979 in Brussels and being invited to his home in Madrid. You can imagine this was quite something for Young Giobbi, then twenty years of age. In spite of the honor it meant, and the opportunity to learn from the best, being still a student it was a lot of money I had to bring up: I remember that a flight to Madrid at that time cost around $ 700 (!). Only today do I realize that this was not an expense, but an investment, and that the Art of Living consists, at least partly, in being able to distinguish one from the other.
Discussing topics for Escorial (2002)
Las Jornadas
The idea of the meeting is that various groups study a specific subject throughout the year, and then present it in a talk-demonstration at the meeting.
Typically, there were four subjects: one technical (e.g. Riffle Shuffles, Glimpse, unusual Palms…), one related to an effect/theme (Card to Wallet, Thought-of Card…), one to a conceptual topic (misdirection, timing…), and one to some unusual subject (magic for TV, magic done by several…).
Occasionally, the entire Jornadas were dedicated to one single person, or to a single book. So, one year we had “The Card Magic of Alex Elmsley” as a subject, and Tamariz managed to get Elmsley to join us for three days of magical extravaganza. Another year we had Jerry Andrus, and yet another year we discussed Erdnase, well, his book, without the author…
From left to right: Alex Elmsley, Aurelio Paviato, Roberto Giobbi, Ron Wohl)
One of the most memorable presentations I was involved with, was about the Dr. Daley Notebooks, a three-hour presentation curated by Vanni Bossi, Aurelio Paviato and myself – we studied this most difficult work over the year, met several times in Italy and at my home in Switzerland, and then delivered a presentation with lots of performance pieces we had reconstructed and that found the favor of the group.
I still have the minutes of my part of the work, and if a few write in to manifest their interest, I will try to make it available as a readable PDF for the 100s anniversary issue of theses The Magic Memories.
Topics 2022
This year (2022) the topics were:
The Card Magic of Edward G. Brown
Unusual Trick Cards (no double-facers, double-backers or other current trick cards)
Magic Done by Several Performers Together (Two or More)
History of Card Magic in Europe (Countries Not Yet Discussed)
“The Magic of E. G. Brown”, a book written by his friend Trevor Hall in 1973, was presented by the Italian group, who focused on three of his best tricks: “The Poker Hand”, “The Twelve Card Thought Transition”, and “The Diminishing Cards”. Giancarlo Scaglia, one of the maybe lesser-known in the big world of magic, showed an excellent and original combination of “Diminishing Cards” and “Cutting the Aces”.
As usual there were quite a few comments from the attendees that complemented to talk. These “additional comments”, which come spontaneously from the (very knowledgeable!) group, is an internal part of the Jornadas.
I should mention that there is a beautiful new edition by Andi Gladwin of the book that I recommend. Personally, besides some excellent tricks, I found the transcription of Brown’s talks he gave at the Magic Circle of London to be worth the price of the book, especially his talk on the force is very, very good. Even by today’s standard this would be a splendid lecture.
BTW: This is a 25-page transcription that I have copiously annotated, and if it were not for copyright issues I should be happy to make it available… maybe someone wants to ask Vanishing Inc. (Andi Gladwin)?
Another subject with some remarkable contributions, especially from Argentina’s Hernan Maccagno, were unusual trick cards – amazing to see to what point Hernan has been able to put the most unusual looking cards to good use for astonishing and very entertaining effects.
Additionally, Camilo Vazquez presented a written contribution (a book!) that Reinhard MĂŒller had sent, which gave a historical and panoramic view of the subject of unusual trick cards. Reinhard has been attending the Jornadas for almost three decades, but in later years decided to travel less. Nonetheless, every year he sends in a huge work were he extensively researches one of the topics, and his writings are a highlight for everyone attending to take home. I will ask him how you can get hold of at least some of his work, as I know some among you would be greatly interested in it.
SchĂ€r & Giobbi – La Cartomagia en Suiza
Lorenz SchĂ€r and I did a one-hour presentation “The Card Magic in Switzerland” as part of an ongoing study about the origin of card magic in Europe. Lorenz is the arguably most promising young magician in Switzerland, with a vast knowledge and skill (he helps Denis Behr curate the “Magic Archives”).
Lorenz created a very attractive PP-presentation to which I have added a few pieces of information, so that it now gives quite a comprehensive picture of how card magic developed from an early mention of card magic in 1367 (!) in Berne, to today’s modern card magic. We found several pieces of information most were not aware of, such as some of the earliest card books in Switzerland, or that Ascanio had been inspired to come up with his Ascanio Spread after seeing Swiss magician Jean Garance, or that Edward Victor was really a Swiss (family name Neuschwander), and lots more that would surprise you. Also, Erdnase might have been a Swiss! (I assure you that the theory behind this is not crazier than some others – see the entry below about the movie…).
Lorenz and I plan to complete the PP-presentation with a few more details and might then put it at the disposal of all interested – I’ll keep you informed.
There was a highly emotional moment during this presentation when we talked about the few modern cardicians in Switzerland: Juan Tamariz rose and very kindly pointed out my merits in the matter, and then initiated a minute-long standing ovation. This is certainly something I’ll never forget, and I hope you’ll forgive the immodesty of mentioning this đ
Standing ovation at Escorial 2022 (photo: Christian Engblom)
On Sunday, the presentation about several magicians performing together done by a mixed group of German and Spanish magicians was highly entertaining and brought forth some very useful and unusual ideas – this is a lecture that would suit many a convention. I would even go so far as to say that about half of the presentations given would make attractive lectures at conventions, were it not for the fact that many convention organizers either do not have an academic interest in magic or they bother too much about thinking that the average conventioneer would not be interested in it – I think they are mistaken and underestimate the intelligence of their magic audience…
There were several other very interesting presentations, and the whole event would deserve a lengthy report, which I cannot give at this point, as I’m already preparing for my next “Giro d’Italia”, a ten-day tour from Milan, over Torino, Livorno, Florence, again Milan, and then back home, with lectures and shows.
To close, let me say that besides the most interesting subjects treated by some of the best cardicians on this planet (but not always presented with the same talent as they present their magic – because giving a talk is a profession of its own…), the possibly best part of it are the personal interactions as well as the great meals in some great restaurants, all at very moderate prices (compared to London or New York).
The photo below shows a typical late dinner – Spanish time – at 10:30 pm, so as to be back for 00:30 am to start the next session! From left to right, clockwise. Juan Tamariz, Consuelo Lorgia-Tamariz, Camilo Vazquez, Paul Wilson, Christian Engblom, unknown…
Escorial 2022 – Late dinner at Charoles
The talks used to start at noon, go until 2 pm, then lunch break, continue at 5 pm to 10 pm, then dinner break, and finish with a “gala” of many performing until 2 or 3 am. After that it’s sessioning… Now times have been adapted to the “Tamariz Rhythm” and the talks start at 7 pm and go until 4 or 5 am… Eccentric people, eccentric times đ
Escorial 2022 – Sessioning at 5 amAndrus deals us in…After Escorial 1995, at Ana Tamariz’ magic shop in Madrid
Michele Isenburg
In The Magic Memories (92) I reported about Roland Heuer using an idea from Secret Agenda to create Private Shows in his own home in a most creative way, combining his skills as a musician and a magician. Now my dear friend Michele Isenburg from Milan, Italy, sent in some photos and told me how he has adapted the idea by offering performances in shops.
Below you can see him perform at his Barber’s shop for the owners and a client. He’s about to perform “The Invisible Card” from Card College 3, p. 523, (you can watch a more recent version with additional details in Lesson of the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction videos).
“I’ll hang the imaginary card in the air…”
Below Michele performs a perennial audience pleaser:
…yet another happy customer!
Remembering Max Maven (1950 – 2022)
The magic world and I are immensely saddened by the departure of one of the truly most important and influential magicians in history, Max Maven, born Phil Goldstein, 1st November 2022.
Max was a friend and mentor since my early years, responsible for quite a few important moments in my professional career, such as booking me for the first time at the Magic Castle when I still was in my Twenties, or getting me to the possibly most important magic convention ever held in Japan in 1989.
Lots more to tell and say, and I promise to do it in one of the upcoming The Magic Memories in more detail, as this one is already quite lengthy.
Wittus Witt has put together a lovely special issue of his magazine Magische Welt with an interesting interview – it is available both in German and in English. Go to Witt’s homepage where you can read and/or download the English or German PDF on Max, CLICK HERE.
With Max & friends at Joan Lawton’s home
The Magic Memories (98 and 99)
The next two The Magic Memories 98 and 99, due to go online on SUN, 13th and SUN, 20th November, will both pause, as I’m on a small Italian Magic Tour. Again, provided I did not catch Corona before…
So, I look very much forward to chat again with you on The Magic Memories (100), on SUN, 27th November, as always at 0:07 o’clock sharp! This then being the 100s edition will be “special”, I hope đ
Today’s topics are: No The Magic Memories this week, as I am attending the Card Conference in San Lorenzo de El Escorial… but a few photos!
These are The Magic Memories 96, gone online Sunday, October 30th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
Jornadas Cartomagicas del Escorial
“Jornadas Cartomagicas del Escorial” is the official title of this card conference, and I will report about it in the upcoming The Magic Memories (97).
Here are a few impressions of past editions:
Young Giobbi doing Zarrow Shuffle for Herb Zarrow (ca. 1985)Quick lunch in good companyLate night session at Escorial (2013)
Today’s topics are: Card College books again in stock; Card on Sword by Crauwels (free PDF); Picasso inspired by El Greco; Guest Book reviewed; The Magic Memories 96 pauses.
These are The Magic Memories 95, gone online Sunday, October 23rd, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
Card College Back in Stock
…back in stock!
Just a short notice to tell all of you who asked about the availability of the Card College books: They are all back now, and you can order for yourself and your friends (great Xmas Gift)!
Remember that if you order form me directly, you can ask for the book to be signed to your name, and you always get some free bookmarks, plus a signed photo đ
If you don’t order from me, order from Penguin Magic. You may, of course, order from your favorite dealer, but be aware that if you order from any dealer (except Penguin who is my publisher), in the case, e.g., of CC1 that costs you $ 40, I’ll receive $ 3.20 (yes, three Dollars and twenty Cents). This is because most dealers buy from a jobber like Murphy’s who gets a discount of 60% from the publisher and resells at 40%. So far for numbers…
It seems hard to believe, but for months Card College Volumes 1, 2, 3, 5, as well as Stand-up Card Magic had been out of print. This is due to the still very difficult situation in the printing business, where there is paper shortage, paper has multiplied its costs. logistics, binding, job shortage, well, as Alexis Zorba the Greek laments, in accented English, “Am I not a man? And is not a man stupid? I’m a man, so I’m married. Wife, children, house–everything. The full catastrophe.” This is all true for me, too, but on top of that I’m also an author of books at the mercy of his publishers đ
BTW: The Penguins, my major publisher, have promised to reprint Confidences early next year (they said the same thing in 2021…), and Card College Light, also out of print, is scheduled to arrive before the end of the year, 2022, I mean…
Card on Sword by Crauwels
Danny Crauwels from Belgium wrote in, as he has kindly done several times before, always with some pertinent comment, to generously share a work of his. Danny is  a specialist in memory deck magic, and his alias “Maigret” may hint at his former profession đ
He makes reference to my The Magic Memories 87, where I briefly discussed an idea for “Card on Sword”, well, titled there “A Little Idea” (there’s also an idea with an umbrella used as a sword).
Danny Crauwels’ (Maigret) Card Sword
It so happens that Danny has authored a most interesting – and I would say almost comprehensive – work on the history, technique, effect and presentation of the classic “Card Sword”.
In Danny’s own words:
“As stated in the copyright notices, this is a free eBook for all magicians interested in it.
The creation of the eBook is actually a story in itself. It was never my intention to write this eBook. In it you can read on page 88 (epilogue) how things went. Thank you for paying attention to the eBook that is indeed intended for everyone who is interested.”
End of quote.
If you are interested in more of Mr. Crauwels’ work, especially memdeck, and want to know a little more about the man, CLICK HERE.
Picasso Inspired by El Greco
A few weeks ago Barbara and I visited the Basel Kunstmuseum, the Basel Museum of Art, where they have a most inspiring special exhibition on “Picasso and El Greco”. On one of his visits to my home, Bill Kalush, of Conjuring Arts Research Center fame, declared this museum one of the best he had seen – who am I to argue…
Years ago I happened to be in Madrid, where the Museo Reina Sofia, one of the three in the “magical” “Museum Triangle”, had an exhibition dedicated to “Picasso and Goya”; that was quite something, especially the room where they displayed Picasso’s “Guernica” against Goya’s “The Executions of the Third of May” – hugely impressive (for reasons of copyright I’m not allowed to show the paintings here, but a quick search on Google will show them in a few seconds).
In Basel things are less dramatic, but equally fascinating.
Works of Picasso (1881 – 1973) are displayed opposite works of El Greco (1541 – 1614) that did inspire Picasso. The exhibition tells of the themes and techniques used by El Greco, and that inspired Picasso to interpret them in his very own way.
It reminds me of the quote, âNothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”, often attributed to Antoine Lavoisier (1743 – 1794), but possibly such a truism has already been pronounced by some Greek philosopher, or Confucius etc. This is similar to magic, where most intelligent thoughts can be traced back to Robert-Houdin or Hofzinser, and if it’s a technique obviously to Marlo đ
Giobbi Devant Picasso
PS: For those among my readers who are new to magic, I’ll explain the “Giobbi Devant Picasso” caption above: As the anecdote goes, David Devant (1868 – 1941), the famous British conjuror, and one of his students go to an art museum. At one point they watch a painting depicting David fighting against Goliath. The painting, being from a French artist, bears the title “David Devant Goliath” (David in front of Goliath). Whereupon the student admiringly says to Devant, “Mister Devant, that’s incredible, you are not only a great magician, but also a famous painter!” Apparently, he was serious…
Inevitably, admiring Picasso’s paintings and his open admission (great quotes with each painting) to have virtually “copied” another great artist’s work, made me think of how our greatest performers are inspired by other famous performers before them. If I was the artistic director of a magic convention (I was twice, and will never again be…), I’d think about a ca. 45-minute format where four or five very good performers would each perform the same trick. It would then be possible to experience that no trick can be done in the same way twice, and that there are infinite variables that make up a performance. I’m sure this has never been done, and that it would prove quite a hit for an intelligent audience.
Another idea I had, again as artistic director, is to ask four performers to perform a trick that has been directly inspired by a trick of a past master, and to explain the thinking that went with it. The could be done in a 90-minute session in front of the plenum.
Below is an example of a comparative exhibit: On the left El Greco’s “Christ driving the traders from the temple”, on the right Picasso’s inspiration from it “The crucifixion”. If you look closely you can see the soldiers playing dice on the lower right (see painting HERE).
El Greco inspires Picasso
Due to Corona I hadn’t been in a museum in almost three years, but I must say that each time I go to a museum, regardless of the subject, I come out with new insights and ideas.
I highly recommend that you do likewise, especially to my younger readers I’ll say that a good educational background is as important as your skill and understanding of magic. An all-round education, as the British call it, is part of your person (not persona!), and your person is the only one thing that is unique to you and nobody can copy, it is and remains the most important thing, before a good trick, before impeccable technical execution, and before presentation (in that order!).
Guest Book Reviewed
In Secret Agenda, entry of November 28, I briefly discuss an idea that Gaetan Bloom gave me when I visited Paris the first time around forty (!) years ago, namely a Guest Book you leave on the table after you’ve performed close-up. I won’t say more, look it up, it is worth its weight in gold for any performing magician. You can thank me later – it’s soon Xmas… (anything considered unhealthy is absolutely fine).
Roland Heuer (see The Magic Memories 92) sent in two photos of his interpretation of the idea, very nice. Note the custom-made brass label, the ultimate class đ
Roland Heuer’s hand-bound guestbookGuest’s inscription in guest-book (Roland Heuer)
The Magic Memories (96)
The next The Magic Memories 96, due to go online on SUN, 30th October, will go on a one-week hiatus, as I’m attending the Card Conference in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid. The advantage for you, I hope, is, that I will report on it on my comeback (provided I did not catch Corona on the trip or during the stay). Keep your fingers crossed…
So, I look very much forward to chat again with you on The Magic Memories (97), on SUN, 6th November, as always at 0:07 o’clock sharp; some of you may think this is “Swiss Precision”, but this is far from true, it is a feature of WordPress, the web content management system of USA-UK origin I use to create and publish this blog!
Today’s topics are: Paris, Paris, Paris;Â Simplex Force; Robert-Houdin’s (Partagas) “Card at Number From Pocket”.
These are The Magic Memories 94, gone online Sunday, October 16th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
Paris, Paris, Paris
I’m just back from three days in Paris, after a forced absence (Corona!) of three years!
From Basel, Switzerland, I can reach Paris with the fast train TGV in three hours: If I leave at 08:30 I’m at the first meeting with a magician friend at 12:30 – needless to say that such meetings take place in a good restaurant!
Paris is my favorite city. Certainly, Barcelona, Florence, London, Madrid, New York, San Francisco, Torino, Vienna, Rome are unique, too, and much appreciated, and I have great friends there, which is the best reason to visit. But Paris, well, is “special”…
Today’s Magic Memories is an attempt at explaining why this is so, with the aid of my latest magical adventures:
Magic in Paris
There is no other city I have given so many (different!) lectures, workshops, masterclasses and performances, at least once a year in the past thirty plus years.
This is due to Paris having so many different magic clubs, associations and groups. Years ago I joked about having to go to Paris for four days in order to visit four magic friends: I know no other city with so many talented magicians, who do not get along with each other; at least when I was young this was the case. Quite the contrary to Madrid, where everyone was meeting with everyone and sharing their magic. I maintain that this is the reason why in Spain in general, and in Madrid in particular, there is arguably the highest level in close-up magic, especially card magic. And Juan Tamariz was the start of it all, but that’s another conversation.
I’m reminded of when I visited Vienna years ago for the German Cardworkshop, the pendant to the Escorial Card Conference which in that year exceptionally took place in Vienna at Magic Christian’s amazing magic club, located in the basement of his even more amazing home.
Anyway, I was walking through the streets and, surprise, surprise, meet Gary Kurtz, who said he was in Vienna to lecture.
Roberto, “How long will you be staying?”
Gary, “Five days.”
Roberto, “Oh, you do one lecture and stay five days?”
Gary, “No, I do five lectures, for five different clubs, one on each day!”
Gary Kurtz at Roberto Giobbi’s home with Rafael Giobbi, Reinach 1992
Yves Carbonnier
Yves has been a friend for decades, and he’s another reason for my frequent visits to Paris, as on several occasions he’s been organizing or at least facilitating my lectures, workshops etc.
In the documentary The Secret World of Magic you can see him along with several others from the Parisian magic scene (Georges Proust, Bebel).
I’ve been to several playing card museums, and I find this one to be the best, not only for the quality and quantity of the exhibits, but also for the architecture of the building, and above all for the didactical concept that enables the visitors to relate to the exhibits. Didactics is, in my opinion, the ultimate challenge for every museum, especially those that expose objects that are not immediately self-explanatory. This is certainly the case with playing cards and their history. It is worth visiting even for people who have absolutely no affinity for playing cards (such as your spouse, maybe), but I promise they will be delighted. Especially if you take them to a Parisian restaurant afterwards, which is very well possible, as the museum opens at 10, the visit can be completed in ca. 90 minutes (don’t forget to leave 20 minutes for the museum shop, small but interesting).
Two years ago Ludo Mignon and his “Marchand de Trucs” released Grand Livre de Cartomagie with Yves’ card magic that certainly deserves to be translated into English, and I wrote the foreword đ
Well, Yves is also quite a chef, and if he had a restaurant it would be on the Guide Michelin’s list for sure. Every time I come to Paris Yves invites me along with two or three other magician guests to his home where we celebrate the three most important things in life: Friendship (stands for love and respect), Magic (stands for finding your talent, refining its and then sharing it), and Gastronomy (stands for the environment and the universe).
Through the years I have shared these culinary-magical happenings with some of the most interesting people in Magic, such as Bernard Bilis, Jean-Jacques Sanvert, Abdul Alafrez, Georges Proust, Jacques Tandeau, Yann Frisch, Arnaud Mattern and so many more.
On my most recent visit Yves invites two young magicians, Arthur Chavaudret and Cyrille Savelief. The photo below shows us in Yves’ kitchen.
Arthur has some remarkable ideas, and he’s already well-know in his own country, but I predict an international career for this exceptionally talented young man. He handles cards and coins with equal virtuosity, and he did one of the best coin assemblies I’ve ever seen. I want to go back to Paris to catch his show which he tells me has some incredible effects – he showed me some video clips and it certainly did look incredible (the effect and the method).
As a teaser you can see Arthur do a lovely coin vanish – CLICK HERE.
Bernard Bilis
Bernard and I have known each other for over four decades now, and this paragraph cannot do justice neither to his genius in magic nor to our friendship.
I met him for the first time when I was around twenty and spent three weeks in Paris for my language studies. We met at Guy Lore’s magic shop, and he invited me to my first “Fondue Bourguignonne” (look it up in Wiki), with lots of magic into the wee hours, naturellement!
Over the years, we’ve met regularly, and each time he surprises me with never ending original creations. He certainly belongs to the top cardmen in the world, with an extraordinary technical virtuosity, but also with fooling original methods and effects. If you enter his name into YouTube you’ll be spoilt for choice, especially his appearances on the legendary Saturday evening TV show “Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde”, which he did several hundred times!
There are a few booklets of his work, e.g., Close-up French Style, and a Penguin Live Video Lecture, in English. If you read and understand French you can get one of his many DVDs for beginners and advanced cardicians. Be ready for some real knuckle-busters and mostly elaborate routines, but all quite brilliant.
The good news is that there will soon be a huge book documenting his work, written by Jean-Jacques Sanvert, edited by Darwin Ortiz, and published as soon as he gets around to do the extra almost eight hundred photos that are still missing… As a book author and publisher myself I know how hard this is, how much time and money it takes, and how relatively little the reward is, with very few exceptions, ask Steve Forte đ
We spent a morning and afternoon together, with a firework of his latest creations, and I’m so glad to see that after all these years he’s been into magic, with great commercial and public success, he is still as enthusiastic as a teenager!
Bernard and I also share gastronomy as a passion – how else – so had a great “Aligot“, a specialty from Auvergne, lamb, and a “Baba au rhum” to knock you out of your socks.
Below you can see us sitting outside of the restaurant (they kicked us out but said we could stay as long as we wanted on their terrace), after smoking a cigar, and still picking cards – notice Bernard uses my Card College Playing Cards đ
Bilis & Giobbi, Paris October 2022
So many more things to tell, but we’ll have to leave it at that… my four hours I can devote to the pleasing task of writing this blog are over… and I need to reread it all… and as always I beg your indulgence for any typos, clumsy wordings etc. – it’s a labor of love.
Simplex Robert-Houdin (Partagas)
To round off the “Parisian Tales”(part of it…) I’d like to offer a very simple piece that harbors some interesting thoughts.
First, I found it in a German magic book for children by Martin Michalski. The forcing technique, and the subsequent control, are of greatest simplicity, but I believe that it will fool most members of a magic club… and the work is minimal.
This will be especially convincing if you can do difficult sleight-of-hand: You’ll find you’ll pull this off with great conviction, confirming the adage that “the simple is the privilege of the Masters”.
Notice the subsequent effect that comes directly from Robert-Houdin’s landmark book Comment on devient sorcier (ha, this is the connection to Paris!); It’s the first card trick in the book explained on p. 195 of the original French edition, titled “La clairvoyance du toucher”, which has later been copied (among others!) by Joaquin Partagas and published in his also landmark book (for Spain) El prestidigitator optimus (1900). For many years I thought the trick was original with Partagas, and it inspired me for a trick and deck switch, until Yves pointed out to me that the trick is already in Robert-Houdin’s book from 1868!
Simplex Shuffle Force The card to be forced is on the bottom of the deck. Perform a Riffle Shuffle in the Air, retaining bottom card. Follow with an Injog Shuffle, cutting at the break to the table. The force card is still on the bottom. With the right hand pick up the tabled deck, turn your head away, and tell the audience to remember the card that the hazard of the shuffle has brought to the bottom. (Michalski, Hexerei mit Karten, “Die wievielte Karte soll es sein?”, p. 31).
Continue by another set of shuffles, simply retaining the bottom card at the bottom. Why not? That’s a lovely “control”, and similar to the McMillen Control (see Confidences or the Card Magic Masterclass video on Controls).
To do Robert-Houdin’s trick, place the deck in the pocket, have a number called out (x), take x-1 cards from the pocket, dropping them on the table, and then produce the selection at the number named.
To make this even more baffling apply exactly the same strategy discussed in last week’s The Magic Memories (93) as used in the trick explained there “Stop Trick With Back-palm”.
And obviously the whole thing can be made into a deck switch (see The Art of Switching Decks); I thought I had invented this, but Al Baker was first đ
Today’s topics are: “Dave Attwood visit & podcast 2015”; “Feedback on Card in Balloon”, “Reminding you of Behr’s archives”;Â “Stop trick with back-palm”; “Magialdia 2022”, “Vintage Chart”.
These are The Magic Memories 93, gone online Sunday, October 9th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.
Dave Attwood Visits & Podcast
One of the “additional benefits” (forgive the marketing language) of writing books is that I seem to have many more friends than I personally know! This is not a paradox, but reminiscent of what Jean Paul (1763 – 1825) once wrote: “Books are only thick letters to friends.”
It is indeed one of my great pleasures when someone comes up to me after a show or a lecture, especially at magic conventions, and says something like, “Your books are my bed-side read”. It certainly makes me feel close to such people although I’ve never met them before. This cannot be bought with money, but it comes free as a result of a lot of unpaid work.
Years ago Dave Attwood from Victoria, Canada, of “Dave Attwood Show” fame, one of the first magic podcasts before they became fashionable, did a two-part interview with me, one of the first on Internet, maybe the first for me… it was back in 2015, which by today’s software standards is medieval or earlier…
Anyway, Dave called saying he was on vacation in Europe and took upon himself a six-hour train ride from Munich, where he had attended the “Oktoberfest” for 3 days (!), to visit with me an evening and afternoon, before heading out to Vienna, and then back home over Paris – quite a trip.
Below is a photo, taken after a tasting of 5 Sherries (see Magialdia report below), and a great meal with venison ragout, a Swiss specialty (it’s game season). In the background part of the over 80 Giobbi-titles, including the foreign language versions and new editions đ
Attwood visits Giobbi
If you are new to these Magic Memories, you may want to liste to the first part of the podcast (CLICK HERE): You’ll have to fast forward through the opening chatter to get to the beginning of the interview at ca. 22:00 – to compensate for this, there is a part 2, which you can find on the long list of other guests.
Feedback on “Card in Balloon”
To discuss a trick from time to time seems to please my readership, therefore we’ll have another one on this week’s Magic Memories thanks to Leo Hevia from Silver Spring (USA) who wrote in to comment on last week’s item “Card in Balloon” (The Magic Memories 92) , which used the back-palm:
With the exception of Jim Steinmeyer’s version of Cards to Pocket from his Conjuring Anthology book, I’ve never before read a card trick that utilized the back palm as a secret maneuver.
So, if you have the book, look it up!
Reminding You of Behr’s Archives
I agree that the back-palm has not that many practical applications outside of stage manipulation, BUT there are more than you think đ
As always, when faced with such an issue, a first quick fix is to check on Denis Behr’s “Archives”. If you go to conjuringarchive and enter “back-palm” into the search field you get 18 entries (CLICK HERE). That’s far less than if you entered “thumb tip”, which yields 384 entries (!), but it’s a start…
Below is yet another idea which I’ve used to great success in the past to fool more than one knowledgeable individual – can’t remember where this is from, but you’ll want to try this on your wife, girlfriend, magic buddy, or other victim, as soon as you finish reading it.
Stop Trick With Back-palm
Stand behind two containers such as pots, Baseball caps etc. (originally two hats were used).
Have a card selected and control to 4th from top. Place the deck face down in the container to your left. Take the top card, hold it with the back towards the audience and say that they can call out ‘stop’ anytime they like, and that the card you are holding will then be their card.
Place the card in the container to your right without showing its face. As you take the hand out of the container hold it as if you had a card back-palmed, but as natural as possible. Then reach in the container on your left and repeat as you explain the procedure.
You’ll find that you have to take a small step back and stand a bit more behind the left container to make the hand movements look natural. Or hold the container with your left hand. Try different ways.
As always: Use your head!
Your “explanation” should be done by the time you’ve placed the 3rd card into the container on your right.
From now on back-palm the card – the selection – each time you apparently place it into the right container, and reproduce it as you reach into the left container as if it was a new card.
Whenever they call stop, you can show the card you are holding to be theirs!
The presentation is reminiscent of Vernon’s Stop Trick as detailed in Confidences (“Stop Trick With Second Deal”, p. 212 – palindromic!) or “The Double Bet” (“Lesson 41 – False Deals” in Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction).
You can considerably enhance the deceptiveness by initially controlling the selection to the top. Start to place the deck into the left container, but on second thought hand the container briefly out to check “that there is nobody inside”. Again, start to put the deck into the container, immediately thumb off the selection into the container, when on second thought you remember that the deck should be shuffled. Let them do so. Take the deck back and set it next to the selection already in the hat. Now proceed as per above. Thanks to this ruse the audience will be convinced that they shuffled the cards, and that the container is “free from guile”. For lack of another name I’ll call this the “Partagas Ploy”.
Try it – with a little attention to the angles this is quite practical and good!
(This is one of the many items that did not make it into Stand-up Card Magic.)
Magialdia 2022
I spent the days from September 14th to 20th in Vitoria, Basque Country, Spain. As those who have been following these posts over the past two years know, this is my favorite magic convention. As a reminder, here is a view over part of the historical center of the city that has a population of ca. 200’000.
View from convention headquarter NH Hotel Canciler
Again, for the newcomers, you may want to catch up on what I already wrote about this convention and the place in earlier installments of The Magic Memories #41 and #44 (I remind you that you can read all past posts HERE – scroll down on that page that lists every link individually).
Another reason for its success with the public is that many events are free, although you have to get a ticket as most activities take place in a theater, or in a bar-restaurant, in a library etc. with limited seating. This is of course quite exceptional and only possible thanks to the local sponsors and supportive government.
In 1990 I was artistic director of a convention we put up here in Basel, Switzerland, hosting about 250 people. After that I wrote a ten-page report with ideas on how to avoid certain mistakes, what could be improved, new ideas etc. I sent it out to the then president of the Swiss association and to the next organizers… never heard back from them.
As an example I’ll mention one small idea: Every convention has some kind of badge, most hanging from a cord around your neck, with a plastic envelope containing a printed cardboard in the format of a large playing card. The smarter ones place the schedule on it, and this works very well for a two- or three-day convention.
Question: What is the most important thing on the badge?
Answer: Your name!
Problem: You can bet your life on it (don’t!), that the name is only printed on one side of the badge, which means that 50% of the time it won’t show up. And when you see someone you know, but haven’t seen in many years and don’t remember the name, thanks to Murphy’s Law, his or her name won’t show.
Solution: Print the name on both sides on top of the badge, like a banner, and there will be plenty of space below to print the schedule… Also, print the name in a BIG type, with the first name above the family name, because most are on first name basis with each other, and print the first name even a bit larger.
This is just one of the many very simple things that cost nothing more and can be immediately implemented.
This reminds me of Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970), who once said; “All people can think. Some can think well. But only few think something through from beginning to end.”
This is, BTW, one of my favorite replies when after a show someone comes up and says something to the effect, “I know how you did it – you switched the bills, I didn’t see it, but that’s how it must work.” That’s when I quote Russell, followed by, “You see, even if I switched the bill, how does your bill from my pocket get into the lemon? And if it is another bill, how does your signature get on it? I believe even Professor Russell wouldn’t have been able to explain that, but I’m almost sure he would have agreed with Socrates, who said, ‘I know that I know nothing’! So, the best thing is to simply enjoy the magic.”
You may use this, if you like đ
Back to Magialdia: One of the highlights – and there are many (!) – is the final show on Sunday night that takes place on the beautiful plaza in the center of the old town – this is something you only get in the Old World: They put up a huge stage, similar to those used in large concerts, and then ca. 800 people or more, depending on the weather, gather on the plaza to enjoy the ca. 70-minute show.
Another idea that is debatable from an artistic point of view, but sells the convention to the sponsors, is to go to eight shops in the commercial center of the city and have them empty one of their front windows, which is then replaced by a small performing area where a magic performer will show his or her act. In the past there have been luminaries such as Otto Wessely, Sylvester the Jester, Armando Lucero and others.
To me personally, however, the highlights are the meetings with old and new friends, and these inevitably end up around a civilized table.
In Vitoria there are places that offer a 4-course gourmet meal for ⏠25, that’s less than $ 30, wine, water, coffee, tax & tip INCLUDED. This is just something else than having a Hamburger with Coke and industrial ice cream, for the same or more money, in a noisy, cheap eating place, where the waiter brings the check to the table before you’ve even finished your coffee. We from the Old World will never get used to that when we go to the New World đ
Below is a photo taken at a lunch, with Marco Aimone on my left, President of the magic club of Torino, Italy, the largest independent club in Italy with over 300 members. To my left are Lincoln Hiatt and Andrew Golder, producers of “Fool Us”, who come each year to Magialdia to scout and audition for talent (that’s the reason they put forth, in reality they come to eat the suckling pig from “El Portalon*, one of the best in Spain, and drink the wines from Remirez de Ganuza, one of the top Rioja winemakers), and then there is Paul Wilson, who is working on a documentary on Juan Tamariz (again a pretext…). We certainly had a blast.
In the center of the table see a bottle of “Predicador” from another of the most famous Rioja winemakers, Benjamin Romeo; his top wine, the “Contador”, consistently gets 100 points from Parker. I’m very lucky that Benjamin is an amateur magician, who is a fan of my books… once again a case of Schopenhauers dictum, “My philosophy never earned me anything, but it saved me a lot…”; these philosophers are just very smart…
Speaking of wines: I just received the latest vintage table from one of my wine shops. Even a novice will understand that this lists the wines according to their origin and year (vintage), and then classifies them from fair to exceptional and tells you whether to keep or drink them.
Vintage Table
It occurred to me that someone might want to adapt this to magic: On one axis you could list the classics (the “tricks”), such as “Ambitious Card”, “Cards Across”, “Coins Through Table”, etc., on the other axis list various performers, and then rate their interpretation of the respective “trick”.
I believe this has never been done before – maybe someone has the courage to make this up. If you do, send it along, and I’ll publish it with your photo in an upcoming Magic Memories.
Yet another idea could be to create a similar “chart or table” with your repertoire, and then have the audience choose which item they want to see in view of the “classification” made by the “International Academy of Performing Conjurors” (make up your own association…). Why not?
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