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Harapan Ong – Principia – review

Phil Sweeting — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:11:15 +0000

Principia is a book I’ve been excited about reading for over a year. Unfortunately life circumstances have prevented me from spending any time within its beautiful covers… until now. So here, probably in time for the second print run (!), is our Principia review…

If you’ve not come across Harapan Ong, he is a Physics teacher from Singapore, and also a very talented magician. And in this unusual book, he merges those two worlds by teaching some of his excellent magical material in the style of a series of science papers.

Excursus on style

I think reading John Bannon’s seminal Dear Mr Fantasy was my first introduction into the world of quirkily written magic books – and I loved it then. I’m a die-hard magic book fan with more magic books than you can shake a stick at (ask my wife – she’ll tell you…) – but I have never come across one like this.

In truth, the description of the method (in Principia terms, the ‘result’) is fairly conventional. However, it is the elements around it which contribute to the overall style. Each ‘paper’ begins with an abstract giving you an overview of the effect and some comment on method. An introduction then analyses the background/inspiration/development of the effect and a section called ‘methodoloy’ summarises the requirements. After the main description of the handling (the ‘result’) there is some analysis (strengths and weaknesses of the handling) and a conclusion. Both the abstract and the conclusion often highlight areas for future exploration/development.

Although I am not a scientist in the professional sense, I studied some science in the past, and I definitely have an analytical and problem-solving-shaped brain. So this structure to the book, though unusual at first, really grew on me. I’m a firm believer that any magician worth his salt ought to be thinking about developing their own routines, and twists on existing routines etc. And this style of description was very stimulating in that regard. The ‘academic’ style also includes excellent referencing/crediting – which is another important concern of mine in magic.

Back to first Principias

This is a big book – large format (dimensions) running to over 250 pages. It is lavishly illustrated and the 2-column format works really well to ensure the beautiful line-drawings are in an appropriate place in relation to the explanatory text. A suitably scientific-looking illustration adorns the orange cover. My only slight negative note on the look of the thing is the ‘puffy’ nature of the covers. I prefer simple board covers – but this is entirely subjective and affects nothing!

I’m reviewing the first edition – which came with an accompanying packet of gaffed cards to do some of the effects described. If you’re too late for the second edition, most of these gaffs are readily available in standard Bicycle gaffs – but there are one or two which are a little harder to get hold of. I don’t really know why Vanishing Inc don’t sell these separately – and I’m sure they will do before long.

The book opens with a generous forward from Joshua Jay – who has been something of a mentor in Harapan’s development as a magician. This is followed by a brief introduction from the author which explains some of the book’s form and inspiration.

Before we get to the tricks, there is an introductory essay called Thinking Like a Physicist. This draws out some of Harapan’s philosophy of magic as well as making some interesting comparisons between the two fields of magic and physics. He emphasises three priorities in striving for ‘beauty’ – economy, unexpectedness and inevitability. Whilst those last two might seem to be contradictory I find myself with a lot of sympathy for these priorities.

There are far too many effects to describe in detail. So I will describe the shape of the contents and then simply highlight some of the effects which appealed to me.

Classical Mechanics

The first section of the book describes some of Ong’s thinking on classic plots in card magic. He often starts with an existing move or routine and seeks to streamline the handling or add a new twist. You’ll find Ace effects, Sandwich tricks, Triumph routines, four of a kind productions and much more.

There were many strong effects here. I particularly enjoyed the blending of Dr Daley’s Last Trick with a Sandwich effect (3 variations) – which seemed like an excellent addition to a trick which is already strong. If you like ‘Twisting the Aces’ type effects, then Twisting Morph adds an extra kicker to this plot and is economically routined. I also enjoyed Direct Triple Prediction (which does what it says on the tin!) – and was amused that the idea that occurred to me as I was reading it was then highlighted in the analysis at the end! I could see this going straight in to my repertoire.

Condensed Matter

The subheading for this chapter is ‘More involved and unconventional card plots’ and that feels like a fair summary. I’ll be honest, I was less-grabbed by some of these routines, though there were some routines with clever gimmicks (you need to make or in some cases buy) to produce some fun visual effects.

I was probably most taken with Perspective – which is a really interesting twist on the Do as I Do plot – with lots of magical moments. I also enjoyed the plot of a little packet trick called Countdown Packet – where the face values of the cards change with the number of cards in the packet as you keep removing cards. This felt like a great plot and a decent method.

Particle Physics

The packet tricks have landed. I have been a packet trick junkie since I first discovered Rainbow Cascade in Davenports in the 80s or 90s. So I was looking forward to this chapter. But when I got to it I was a little disappointed. It felt like there was a bit of an over-reliance on a 2 for 4 count which doesn’t seem that strong to me. On the other hand, I really appreciated the attempts to routine small packets with the random extra cards that come with some of the many new decks. That is something I have meant to have a go at for some time. I didn’t think these were amazing, but they were a good starting point for further exploration.

Beyond the Standard Model

This one is subtitled ‘Curious effects and gags for card magic.’ It contains some interesting ideas but they sometimes feel more theoretically elegant than practical. First is an exploration of that curious phenomenon of ‘Ambigrams’ – writing which says two things depending on which way up the writing is. It felt, here, like he had set himself some constraints and found a solution without really giving much thought to entertaining magic – this was clever but a little contrived.

Checkmate takes the idea of an 8-ball production and changes the gag to streamline the production – the chess piece produced being smaller. I can see some reasons to do this, but it seems to lose some of the impact. Have a break is an amusing idea if you want to make magicians laugh but I’m not sure I would use it in the real world. I really liked the Flexacard concept – which appeals to the maths geek in me (I’ve always been fascinated by these kind of objects) – but again I think probably more of a private amusement than something for performance.

Optics

The effects in this chapter are designed specifically for performing on video – which is very much home territory for Harapan who first launched his work in this arena. I liked the fun concept of the Frog Price – and the clever use of a principle normally used in a quite different way for 2 + 2 = 4. The ‘Hybrid Flexagon’ described under the heading of 4,3,2,1 is something I will almost certainly have a go at making, but I’m not sure it really fits the criteria of the chapter.

Fluid Dynamics

This final chapter was a really interesting one for me. In it Harapan explores the concept of multiple pathways in magic effects, with particular reference to the Trick That Cannot Be Explained. I enjoyed reading his thoughts from the point of view of the construction (and interpretation) of magic effects and some of the ideas there are worth pondering if you are serious about shaping your magic for greater effect.

I had some philosophical disagreements with his discussion of evolution and intelligent design in some of the essays – and not just because I am coming from a somewhat different worldview to his. I feel that the analogy was somewhat strained – not least because (as he identifies on p224) the magician himself plays a significant role in the artificial selection of the optimum path. The relative weakness (to my mind) of some of the argument in these essays doesn’t detract from the usefulness of the ideas and concepts he explores.

In conclusion

Principia is a beautiful and stimulating book which would grace any magician’s library. I was impressed by the clarity of the explanations – his background in teaching definitely comes into play here. This is a book you will want to peruse slowly – with a deck of cards and a bottle of wine (or your own favourite tipple) – since there is much to enjoy and reflect upon. For my money the first (and largest – almost 36%) section of the book contained the strongest material. But there is plenty within the rest of the book to get you thinking and exploring. Highly recommended.

You can pick up Principia from MagicShop.co.uk for £48.99 (at the time of writing).

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

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Gary Jones – Life’s a Beach – Vol 2 – review

Phil Sweeting — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 00:01:04 +0000

It doesn’t seem that long since we look at Life’s a Beach Vol 1 – but given how strong the material in that book was I was very excited to get my hands on Vol 2. So let’s get on with the review!

After a down-to-earth foreword by Gary’s good friend Mark Bendell (and by the way if you still haven’t seen The Unknown – you really must – it is brilliant!) and a brief encouragement from Gary to actually try the things out (!) we get straight into the tricks.

First up is a cracking self-worker called B’Waver. If you can imagine B’Wave plus card to impossible location you’ve got the idea. And it’s so easy to do. Great start!

Crazy Card Trick is basically a chance for Gary to show off how many ways he can show four cards to be the same card! After two cards are selected and lost in the deck, four cards constantly change into different cards – including the selections – which then vanish and reappear in the card box. This is worth studying just for the individual sequences even if you don’t like the routine. Which you should, because it’s a good one!

Pocket Aces involves the four Aces jumping around and ending up in the spectator’s pocket. You’ll need to be confident with palming for this one, but it makes a nice change from some of the more common four ace plots.

Thoughts is a somewhat ballsy mentalism effect where a card the spectator names a card and it is the one you have placed on the table in front of them. Gary’s given some thought to outs so you can give this a go. You know you want to!

Card in Balloon does exactly what it says on the tin. It reminds me of a routine I used to perform years ago (though the method is completely different!) – and there really is something very appealing about a chosen card appearing in this way. You have the drama of the balloon popping combined with a very visual appearance. Worth a look.

Mystery Card 2.0 is a no gimmick version of the mystery card effect. Briefly – a card is reversed in the face up deck. The spectator chooses (and signs if they wish) a card which is then lost in the deck. When the deck is spread the face down ‘mystery card’ is found to be the spectator’s selection. This is really strong – and I love the cheeky method for getting everything into the right place. Excellent effect. Gary says he uses this as an intro to his Ambitious Card and I imagine that is a great way to do it.

Back Palm Thank you Mam. Apart from having an excellent title, this trick utilises one of the few more flourishy moves I ever got round to putting the effort in to learning. Can you guess which one from the title? Two cards are selected and lost in the deck. An indifferent card is removed from the deck – it vanishes – and then reappears in your hand changing into the first selection. This card then vanishes and reappears turning into the second selection. And if you want an optional kicker both cards can then re-appear in your pocket. That seems like overkill to me – but then I haven’t tried it in front of real people yet. Another nice plot.

Pause for thought

At this point I realise that if I’m going to describe every effect in the book this is going to be a long very long review indeed. So I’m going to give you some selected highlights followed by some final thoughts…

Gary’s in depth understanding of misdirection is on display in a number of effects (notably Card under Glass and Pocket to Pocket) and you will learn lots about constructing your routines to take the heat off your moves if you pay attention here.

Did we mention Gary’s bold methods? Vanishing Point is a super sandwich effect which requires a certain amount of Chutzpah!

One of the few non-card items in the book – Exact Change 2.0 – is also one of my favourites. A prediction routine where you predict the exact change from your spectator’s imaginary trip to the sweet shop.

Coins Predicted has possibly the least exciting title in the book but is a really commercial effect with an engaging hook. It includes a script by Christopher Williams who has provided some great scripts for a couple of the routines in the book – well written and effective.

Iphone 20 shows Gary’s knack for coming up with fun plots which are a bit different and also very commercial. This involves a spectator’s signed selection merging with an ‘iphone’ playing card.

Kickback Sandwich is a neat sandwich type effect with a merely thought of card and some built in comedy which also effectively enables the method. Great lateral thinking and a fun routine.

Rubik Revelation cashes in on all the interest in Rubik’s Cube magic at the moment and is a very straightforward and somewhat bold method of predicting the pattern on a cube the spectator has freely mixed.

Colour Diffusion is another fun effect where a small packet of cards change to all have different coloured backs. That is a very bald description – but the routine is nicely structured in a way which involves the audience really well and maxes out the psychological effect of the change. Oh, and did I mention It is dead easy to do?

Colour Remix is a great multi-phase oil and water routine using an idea I have never before seen (and I’ve seen a lot of oil and water effects over the years – though I may just have missed this idea) – where the red and black cards also have contrasting backs so that you can apparently tell from the front or the back whether the cards are mixed or not. A simple subtlety means this actually makes the routine much less sleight-heavy than most similar routines – and it also includes a multi-coloured backs finish. Neat.

Coin to Anywhere is an idea of pure cheek contributed by Chris Congreave. It enables you to vanish a borrowed and signed coin and have it appear anywhere – with precious little effort on your part. There’s a variation on this theme which might appeal to mentalists too…

And there’s loads more I haven’t even mentioned. Gary has a knack for coming up with direct plots or clever variations on existing plots. Some of the ideas might even stimulate your own creativity.

As before the book is packed with clear illustrations and also photos of Gary performing with amusing captions.

This is another fabulous release which will more than repay your investment of time and money studying it. I think performers at all levels will find multiple routines they can use here. They range from self-working effects to things which will require a bit more sleight of hand – but I would say that most things would be in the reach of most performers with a little bit of practise.

You can pick up Life’s a Beach Volume 2 direct from the publishers at MagicSeen for £25 (at the time of writing). I’m very grateful to Gary for supplying the review copy.

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Richy Roy – Maxims of a Magician – review

Phil Sweeting — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 20:14:04 +0000

Maxims of a Magician is the second book by Richy Roy that we have reviewed here. You can read our review of The Wealthy Magician here.

The Wealthy Magician was a very applied book – looking at the business side of marketing and sales and value for a magician. Maxims of a Magician is a very different kind of book. As its name implies it is full of short ‘maxims’ followed by a brief (paragraph) unpackings of the same. There are 116 maxims in all.

It is a very difficult book to review because of its format and content. Some of the maxims seem to obvious that they hardly need stating (e.g. “Every Magician will have bad shows”!) – yet at the same time there is something liberating in having the truth of such statements ‘confirmed’ in print.

There are maxims and there are maxims…

For every ‘state the obvious’ maxim there are plenty more that are more thought-provoking or profound. For my money, some of the maxims about relating to other magicians are well worth taking on board, and some of the maxims about the life of a magician beyond the stage are also worth reflecting on.

There are some maxims which seem a little repetitious. And, if I am completely honest, there are some which seem a little vague. There is a Yoda-like form to some of the sayings which is not always clarified in the explanatory paragraphs – sometimes it feels like terms are not clearly enough defined. This may be a deliberate strategy to encourage the reader to reflect further on the matter themselves, but I found myself a little confused at times.

For me, one of the overriding values of the book is the way it gently encourages you to keep improving and growing and reflecting on what you are doing. So many new/inexperienced magicians are happy simply to trot out the same old stuff as everyone else, but I think Maxims of a Magician encourages you to reflect more deeply on what you are doing and why you are doing it. Regular readers will know that this is an aspect of our art that I value deeply and so I applaud the sub-text behind many of these maxims.

For a magic book lover, there is also a list of 56 recommended magic books at the back (of which I have a slightly disappointing 28!). There are some good suggestions here – though the order seems entirely random.

This is the sort of book that I think is well worth reading for a beginner or even a slightly more experienced magician – and probably worth coming back to every year or two. It is nicely produced as a small perfect-bound paperback running to 148 pages. At this size it feels just a little-overpriced to me.

You can pick up Maxims of a Magician for £21.99 from our friends at MagicShop.co.uk.

(Or just a notch cheaper at Amazon – if you don’t want to support a real bricks and mortar magic shop!)

I’m grateful to Richy Roy for providing a review copy of this book.

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George Parker – Performing Magic with Impact – review

Phil Sweeting — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 23:01:08 +0000

Performing Magic with Impact is a difficult book to categorise. It makes a bold claim in its title? Does it deliver on the promise? Let’s get in to our review.

Speaking from experience

A great starting point for this book is that it is written by a practitioner. There are many books on magic theory, but not all are written by people who perform. This one is.

I’m going to walk you through the chapters because it is quite difficult to summarise.

The ‘introduction’ consists of an interview with George Parker. He explains the context for much of his work – which is in the field of corporate training and in particular helping people think about change. This is quite a specific field and brings a different focus from the regular magic gig of many magicians. However, some of the principles he expounds upon are really helpful in a subject which is close to my heart – thinking about the meaning and the ‘why’ of what we do.

Chapter One is all about Communication. This is a fundamental area for any performer to think about. He illustrates his theory with concrete examples which helps enormously.

Between many of the chapters are routines that George regularly performs. The first of these – Micro-Metamorphosis – is a very practical walkaround coin transposition.

Chapter Two is about the Impact to Effort Ratio. Again, for anyone performing for a living this is worth considering. You can pour an enormous amount of effort into an effect which never quite impacts the audience in the way you would like. And the opposite can also be true. Worth thinking about.

As an illustration of this he explains his routine The Bigger Picture – which is a nice twist on a commercially available routine which you would need to purchase.

Chapter Three is all about preparing for things going wrong. He analyses different possible areas for things to go wrong and some suggestions for minimising the risk.

Stimulating your imagination

The next chapter is all about a concept he has marketed called ‘TheSurvivalVersion’. He contends that the principle will help with creativity in coming up with routines. It may well help you.

By way of illustration he teaches a Torn and Restored Card routine developed using this technique. It’s a really nice, impromptu effect which is not too difficult to do but does require a certain amount of boldness! I liked it.

Chapter Six is all about interaction. Again, this is sort of applied communication theory. He explores something called the Leary Interpersonal Circumplex – which is a way of analysing character types/dynamics. I’d never come across this before and it is a helpful lens through which to consider how you ‘play’ your character throughout a routine. By consciously shifting ‘mode’ you can potentially make your performance more interesting for the spectator.

The next chapter provides another way of thinking creatively about your routines – imagining them done in multiple styles. He mentions a book called Exercises in Style – which I now want to read! He includes here a really nice Card to Card Box routine. I don’t really follow how it is related to the concept of style under consideration, but it is an excellent solution to this kind of prop. You don’t need to buy any special props – though you will need to make a very basic gimmick.

Chapter Eight explores the idea of taking an idea normally done with playing cards and performing it with a different prop (a bit like we saw on Dice, Dice, Baby). Again, this is a helpful lens to get your creativity flowing. He illustrates it with a routine involving postcards – which owes something to Eugene Burger’s excellent work on the ‘Black Envelope’ (which you can learn here). It’s a good routine.

Chapter Nine raises the question of openers. What are you communicating with your entrance on stage and very first routine? And how would you like to change that. He explains his 12321 routine – which is a sort of extended remix of the classic Professor’s Nightmare. It’s a good routine which I would like to try out. He illustrates it with several scripts to show how it could be used in different contexts.

The Final Chapter is perhaps what you might have expected given the title. It is about making things play bigger and thinking about different techniques and strategies to do that. There are some helpful checkpoints to run through to think about individual effects and indeed the structuring of your whole act. I would have liked to see a little more on that last section. But he does provide some suggested further resources (really on scriptwriting) to help you continue to think about it. The illustrative routine here is a surprisingly showy take on The Grandmother’s Necklace principle! To my surprise I could see this working really well.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed reading this. Disclaimer – I love pondering the theory of magic – and I’m already a fan of thinking carefully about what you are saying and doing as you perform. In that respect I think Parker’s work is a much condensed version of Scripting Magic.

Performing Magic with Impact is nicely produced – a 23x15cm perfect bound book – well illustrated and easy to read. The pricing is fair for a limited edition magic book.

If I had to sum up the intent of the book in a sentence I would put it like this: Creating Magic with Impact is written to help you unleash your creativity and think carefully about the presentation of your magic. And for my money it achieves that target pretty well.

If you’re the sort of person that just performs tricks ‘out of the box’ with the supplied ‘patter’ don’t bother. But if you’re the sort of person who likes to think carefully about their routines and scripts then I would highly commend spending a few hours of your time with this book.

You can pick up a copy of Performing Magic with Impact from MagicShop.co.uk for £22.99 (at the time of writing).

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

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Gary Jones – Life’s a Beach – Volume 1 – review

Phil Sweeting — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 23:01:50 +0000

Life’s a Beach is the first volume in a forthcoming collection gathering some of the brilliant ideas of Gary Jones in print. It’s a 135-page paper backed collection produced by the wonderful folk at MagicSeen – and it really does have something for everyone.

Gary is a very talented performer and creator of magic. He seems to have a knack for coming up with ideas which are really commercial – direct effects which audiences appreciate. Some of the effects in the book are self-working and some will require a bit more technical proficiency.

Let’s get into the tricks

First up, it’s worth mentioning that a few of the effects in print here have previously appeared on DVD. If you’ve seen the brilliant Automata series (you can read our reviews of Volume One, Volume Two and Volume Three) – then you will already know about the following: Aqua Ring (a self-working ring off string); Fireballs (an easy, portable, impactful cups and balls); Metal Sheep (clever self-working coin transposition); Lead Free (a neat little coin bend); No Luck (a prediction effect using dice); Peeky Blinders (a superb little mentalism routine); ESP-ionage (a clever and again more or less self-working ESP prediction effect).

But even if, like me, you’ve seen them already, I was pleased to have them in print to refer to more easily. They are all cracking effects! And there are still more than 30 other effects in the book too.

Something for everyone

There’s so much other material in Life’s a Beach that I can’t go into detail on all of it. Instead I’ll try to give you a flavour and some highlights. The book starts with a sneaky ACAAN type effect which uses a gaffed deck to great effect.

I really like the Paul Gordon Card To Wallet idea which gets rid of the need to palm. This is taught and then Gary’s variation is also explained. Both are real workers. There’s also a super little oil and water routine which I have already started playing with.

One of my favourites is Grater – which is a great example of how Gary combines different principles and adds entertainment. The spectator chooses a card – and then merely thinks of a different card in their mind. You can then show that you predicted their thought of card (in combination with a great pun) and then read their mind to reveal the original card. Love it.

Although the majority of effects are card, there are also tricks with coins (a no palm coins through table – would you believe!), silks (a colour changing silk effect which would be great for strolling), a bottle production (you can guess what that is, right?!) and several mentalism type effects.

There are variations on a number of classic plots and one that caught my eye was a really straightforward Card Under the Box routine which with one sneaky ruse gets you so far ahead it’s brilliant.

A cracking collection

I hope, by now, you have got the impression that I think this is a super collection. The writing style is easy and Gary is generous with his experience which shines through. Throughout the tricks are short tips which contain excellent advice if you are wanting to get into close up magic in a more professional way. There is also a longer article with Gary’s thoughts on being a pro. Well worth a read.

I know that I will keep coming back to this book as there are routines in here I definitely want to perfect to add to my strolling set – and I’m sure you will too. Life’s a Beach comes unreservedly recommended – in spite of the fact that the beach I sat on while I reviewed it was cold and miserable!

You can pick up Life’s a Beach direct from MagicSeen for £25 (at the time of writing) – or if you contact Gary directly he can fix you up and he might even sign it – though not necessarily in his own name! His address is Gary at Gary Jones Magic dot com. Type it as you read it people. Many thanks to Gary for providing the review copy.

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Christopher W Barnes – Be More Funny – review

Phil Sweeting — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:16:39 +0000

Be More Funny is the latest book from creative American magician Christopher W Barnes’ pen. As I read the book to review it I had a strange experience of deja vu. Around 18 months ago I found myself wondering why I had picked up his earlier volume Just for Fun – a book on Kids’ magic – and discovered to my surprise that I was in for a treat. Be More Funny was a more immediately relevant title for someone as limited in the humour stakes as me (I practically define the term Dad Joke). But once again I found myself thinking more and more that this was a brilliant read with wide application for anyone who wants to make their magic performance more entertaining.

Can anyone Be More Funny?

The starting point for the book is that some things are inherently funny. And if you can begin to think creatively along some of these lines then you will immediately become more funny! Whether you are a funny person or not.

The first section of the book is brief and general. It explores the idea of finding your character and developing that. There are some practical tips here – but having read widely on the theory of presentation there was nothing radically new here. On the other hand, it was presented in a fresh and engaging way.

The real gold comes in the second (and major) part of the book.

Tropes

The main part of the book – almost 430 pages – explores classic comedy tropes. In case you haven’t come across the word before, it basically means the ‘cliches’ that make comedy work. To give you some examples – tropes would include ideas like the audiences’ expectations being subverted, or adding ridiculous props, or making people jump.

He explores 29 different tropes. But what is brilliant is the way he does this. First he explains the essence of the trope. Then he illustrates with well known examples from the magic repertoire. This in itself is gold dust – because a few YouTube searches later and you will have watched some brilliant magic you may not already have known.

Then comes a ‘brainstorming’ section where he jazzes on the idea and comes up with some ieas – though not necessarily methods – which might utilise this trope. He then uses the classic ‘force and reveal a card’ routine to provide an idea utilising the trope. Again – sometimes with a method – sometimes without. By the end of the book there have been 42 of these! Yes FORTY TWO!

The final element of each chapter is a full routine – explained in great detail – built upon the trope. Some of these use commercially available dealer items. Some of these require you to make props yourself. There are some WONDERFUL routines here. Some are very funny. Most are extremely easy to do. Some I want to run out and make up immediately.

A treasure trove of creativity

I am really not exaggerating when I say this is a treasure trove. Quite apart from the many excellent routines in themselves, I found the whole process of working through the ideas incredibly stimulating for my own creativity. And I defy you not to get something you can use out of this book.

There are a few of the routines which definitely wouldn’t suit my style – he is a little more crude at places than I would like to be – but don’t let this put you off. It is worth persisting.

The final major section of the book is a closer look at what’s involved in writing a funny script of a good joke. Again, this is packed with gold dust from someone who has been doing this for a long time. You will get some good ideas here.

The fourth and final section is a short and impassioned plea to make our magic more entertaining and more unique. Don’t just trot out the same old routines and patter as everyone else does. This is a subject close to my heart – though I am still a long way from getting there in my own performance. And has inspired me to keep working.

Final Thoughts

The whole thing is written in his easy-going and amusing style. It is well illustrated and nicely bound as an oversized paperback. In fact the only thing I would criticize about the book is that the font is rather large and appears to be in bold – which somehow makes it feel like a kid’s book!

A large part of me wanted to keep Be More Funny to myself – I don’t want everyone using these routines or having access to the same inspiration. But at the same time I do – because like Christopher W Barnes I want more people to Cedar Point me. But you’ll have to read the book to work out what that means.

Be More Funny comes highly recommended and is available from the Merchant of Magic for £33.99 (at the time of writing).

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

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The Magic of Jonathan Friedman – The Musical – review

Phil Sweeting — Sun, 05 May 2019 23:01:11 +0000

The Magic of Jonathan Friedman – The Musical – is a beautiful magic book which immediately resonated with my twin passions of magic and music. It turns out Jonathan is another wierdo like me who has followed both paths simultaneously – though in my own case the music has dropped off somewhat in recent years. So I was eager to get between the covers. Here’s my review…

The Musical (I’m going to have to abbreviate – I can’t keep referring to the full title) is a book of 24 effects, almost all with a musical theme. Given the number I’m not going to give you a blow by blow account in this review, but I will just pick out some themes and highlights.

I’m going to start with one thing I love and one thing I hate – though both are highly personal. I love his writing style which is chatty, amusing and witty. It is an unusual gift to be able to write descriptions of tricks and methods in a way that is humorous and yet clear – but Friedman does it with style. On the downside, the book is printed in that glossy kind of paper which I dislike from both an aesthetic and smell point of view. But that may just be me…

Variations on a theme

There are a number of effects which utilise a similar method and enable words written with marker to change to different words not once but twice. A clever principle and some amusing plots that play on it.

Friedman is also great at taking a plot you’ve already seen elsewhere and re-imagining it with a musical theme. For example, balancing quitar picks in an impossible way. Or a sort of souped-up paddle trick with a drumstick!

Another of Friedman’s knacks is to come up with new plots or plot twists which work in an apparently impromptu style – with things which just happen to be around. For example I love his trick with a Fortune Cookie where the fortune is impossibly impaled on a chop stick.

Although it’s not a routine I would perform there’s also a neat one with a wad of chewing gum and its wrapper.

If you like card to impossible location you will love Air-Guitar Serenade – where the guitar pick which has been used throughout the effect turns into the spectator’s folded up card.

Strong Ideas

Some of the ideas are very strong and versatile. For example there’s a really sneaky force which allows a very fair-looking choice between one and ten without all those goofy spelling ‘outs’ you sometimes see. This is a principle I could see mentalists playing with and coming up with some cool effects.

There’s also a great twist on a torn-and-restored post it note which could be used with a variety of themes other than the musical one he goes for. And there’s a great method for the torn and restored playing card. Everything is well-illustrated and easy to follow.

The musical nature of many of the tricks mean they may not suit your style or interests. But the creative approaches may well stimulate your own variations which could fit your own theme.

Final Notes

This is one of the more unusual magic books I’ve read in recent years, and also one of the more refreshing. There are some great ideas and some of the little presentational touches will have applications beyond the effects in this book. There’s some strong magic which has clearly been road-tested in the real world. Oh, and it comes with a free quitar pick!

Pick up your copy of The Magic of Jonathan Friedman: The Musical – from the Merchant of Magic for £31.50 (at the time of writing).

(You may also like to take a look at his earlier book.)

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

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Mel Mellers – The Travelling Trickster – review

Phil Sweeting — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 21:52:34 +0000

The Travelling Trickster is so good that I seriously considered not writing the review, so that no one else would know about the great material in it. The book describes itself as “Thoughts, tricks, scripts and routines from the world’s most travelled comedy magician.” And whilst I have no idea if that last bit is true, it is a great description of what the book is all about.

If you don’t know who Mel Mellers is – then where have you been? (Check out his other material here.) He is an extremely talented and hilariously funny magician. And The Travelling Trickster demonstrates that he is also really thoughtful about his magic too.

Amusing Material

The tone is set immediately by a series of amusing forewords – including one by Houdini! It is followed by a brief biographical sketch, and then it’s straight in to the magic – and what a lot of that there is.

In slightly fewer than 150 lavishly illustrated pages (great job on production Phil Shaw and MagicSeen ) there is an absolute wealth of magic.

Many of Mel’s signature routines are here, along with some you may not have come across before. Most of them have detailed (and hilarious) scripts that go with them.

I suspect that there is one of the potential problems with the book. The scripts are so good that any readers will be tempted to lift them and use them as is. But they are so crafted to Mel’s unique personality that I have a feeling they wouldn’t work so well if anyone else tried them.

To help temper that, the book also contains much wisdom on topics like creativity and writing comedy – which will help to equip you to come up with your own ideas. But I fear many won’t bother.

Something for everyone

I’m not going to go through the routines blow by blow – suffice to say there is so much strong magic here. Much of the magic has a mental theme – but other genres are included too. One of the things I particularly admire is the way Mel can take a classic prop or trick and find a completely new take on it. This is one of the signs that a real craftsman is at work – you can see the thought (and experience) that has gone in to all of this wonderful material.

There are ideas for those working with children in addition to more ‘general’ routines – much of it pitched in the cabaret or stage arena. And of course some fantastic mentalism.

The Travelling Trickster had me laughing out loud as I read it on more than one occasion – Mel’s wicked sense of humour comes across even in his descriptions of the effects. Since it was such fun, I read it fairly quickly, and already think there are several routines I would like to take and make my own. And I suspect that if I read it again I’ll find some more.

Although these sort of phrases are often bandied about in reviews, I really do think there would be something for every kind of stage worker in here (not really for the close-upper – though even they would pick up some great insights on things like misdirection and scripting etc.).

I would highly recommend this for anyone who loves their art and wants to add to their stage act. You can pick up The Travelling Trickster from MagicShop.co.uk for £49.99 (at the time of writing) – and I would say it is worth every penny.

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

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Richy Roy – The Wealthy Magician – review

Phil Sweeting — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:11:11 +0000

I read a lot of magic books – but The Wealthy Magician is fairly unique within that genre. It is a book not about tricks (so I know lots of magicians won’t read it!) but about the business and commercial side of magic. As such, I have only read one or two things to compare, which makes it pretty well placed for a proper review.

Do you want to be a Wealthy Magician?

One of Roy’s main arguments is that a magician should be properly valued. So much of the first section of the book is a sustained plea to ask for higher fees, not lower, and to hold out for better quality gigs rather than being involved in a race for the bottom.

In fact, the first section is a little repetitive, and a significant amount of it could be summed up in the following two sentences. Richy Roy thinks a magician is worth $2000 (Canadian Dollars – for my UK audience – that is about £1100) for a gig. And if you want to earn that, you have to ask for it!

Much of that section is about self-belief – and actually asking for what you think you should be worth – rather than what you think they might be prepared to pay.

If you read any good books on business (negotiating, marketing, advertising etc.) then many of the concepts here will be familiar to you. What Roy so helpfully does is apply the principles specifically to the context of the performing magician.

Realistic and (mainly) up to date

It is filled with illustrations from his own experience which brings the book to life and eloquently make the points.

Part 1 – then – is about Price Tag. Part 2 is about Marketing and Part 3 is about Sales. Some of the ideas will need a little contextualisation for a UK audience – but most I would say are broadly applicable.

I found The Wealthy Magician easy to read and full of helpful advice. There are some brilliant ideas here for diversifying and for building your brand.

It is ‘up to date’ in the sense that it does have an awareness of Social Media and the impact that is having on advertising and marketing. However, perhaps inevitably with a book, it already feels slightly out of date in that regard. Since I would say that the dominance of Facebook is already reducing – no doubt there will be another big thing before long.

With this small caveat notwithstanding, I would suggest this is compulsory reading for anyone contemplating the move to being a full time professional magician. If that is one of your aspirations then this book would greatly help you take the right approach from a business point of view.

I would recommend reading it alongside a book which might help you think through the more performance related side of things – and my top recommendation there would be The Approach (you can read our review here).

You can pick up a copy of the Wealthy Magician from the Merchant of Magic for £38.50 (at the time of writing).

Or possibly ever so slightly cheaper at Amazon.

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

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David and Sarah Trustman – The Memory Arts – review

Phil Sweeting — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 00:01:19 +0000

The Memory Arts is a book I might never have picked up, had it not been on my magic review list. But I’m very glad I did. And very glad that I waited until the beginning of January to do so. As I will explain in the review that follows…

What is it?

The Memory Arts is a beautifully produced (Vanishing Inc do produce nice magic books!) book which is all about how to develop a memory technique with specific reference to helping magicians memorise a deck of playing cards – though its applications are much broader.

The technique is based around the ancient technique of Mnemonics. It builds on a variety of ancient and more recent wisdom and packages it all in a highly accessible way. After a fascinating discussion of the history of this kind of technique, the book is straight in to a system of remembering 26 locations in a ‘Memory Palace’.

Memory Arts or Science?

This is facilitated by a unique drawing for each location alongside text to help you fix the image in your mind. In fact the use of illustration is a significant part of this book. You’re trying to remember images and pictures – which really helps the process. This view of the side of the book will give you a clue about how many pictures there are – the darker pages are all ones where the majority of the page is taken up with a picture.

After learning the 26 ‘locations’ there is a section on how you can turn any playing card into a memorable image. The next step is combing the card image with its location image.

The good, the bad, and the not so obvious…

The book has clearly been written with magicians in mind as the primary audience – so once the elements have been taught there are sections working the whole thing out for both the Aronson and the Mnemonica stack. The principles taught could be adapted for any stack you work with, but these are probably a good call as the most well known stacks used by magicians. (Although the Redford stack, and Woody Aragon’s Memorandum which builds on Mnemonica, are well worth a look in my opinion).

There are a few sections thinking about how you can use the technique in different ways – and I for one might well try it just to memorise the Kings of England in order, since that’s something I’ve always wanted to know!

The Memory Arts is well written, brilliantly illustrated and makes me believe that I could actually manage to memorise a deck – something I’ve always wanted to be able to do. That is why the timing is significant for me – it feels like a great New Year’s Resolution. And I currently believe I will be able to get this nailed within a few weeks or not much more. In fact, I have made an agreement with my 8-year old daughter and we’re both going to try to memorise it together! I’ll give you an update in a few weeks!

That takes me to what is probably my only minor criticism of the book. One or two of the images are not as immediately accessible as the others. For example one of the pictures includes a winch. My daughter had no idea what a winch is! Similarly there are one or two which have cultural connections or references which might not work for every reader. This is a tiny point – but worth mentioning. Of course, you can always come up with your own images. But half of the value of the book is that the images have already been done for you…

All in all, this is a great book, which comes highly recommended for anyone who would like to use their memory better. As I’ve said, it is well aimed at the magician who wants to learn a specific stack, but could also help memorise all kinds of other information easily.

You can pick up a copy of The Memory Arts from Merchant of Magic for only £37.50 (at the time of writing).

You can also purchase ebook editions for the specific stacks for £19.50 – but I’d always prefer a real book!

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

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