Update: The Trade Show Magician's Handbook

Seth Kramer has just been in touch and informed me that a copy of this book will be in the mail tomorrow following our President's Day holiday.

The polls are showing a desire for more book so I will do my best to get book reviews up!

A Review of an older book...

Actually, it's a set of lecture notes. I am a big fan of books in magic, they are efficient, beautiful, and often contain the detail and excellent tricks that people are looking for! The practical stuff, a magician's life of magic in a volume. Any magician who has accumulated a significant library knows there are certain hidden gems. Specific books that people disregard, but you know better than that. Under appreciated works full of information most people are constantly looking for.

A common day example would be the Dale Carnegie book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. I recently found a set of lecture notes by Denny of Denny and Lee's in a bargain bin at my local brick and mortar.

Let me tell you first what these notes are not, they are not full of tricks (there are actually no tricks at all!), this set of notes is a very concise clear set of instructions on defining yourself in the magic world and making a real living from magic.

My first impression was that these notes are dated, and this is true in many ways, the advice on using a tape player instead of recorder for example. Also these were written in a time before the Internet, so no info on that either.

But this book does write a few things that are must knows, a formula for a "club date act", how to charge 5 times more than everyone else doing close up magic and have the client be HAPPIER about it!
Some great tips on getting your publicity together, although he advocates black and white photos over colour, I'm not an expert in this field but from an expert, Paul Romhany, states in his cruise ship book, that a black and white is advisable but colour photos are worth the extra cost. I would wager that the artistic integrity and feel of the photo lends itself to being either black and white or color. Take a peek through some posters at a music store and you will see black and white and color ones, if either were the other way (black and white being in color instead) they would lose a certain flavor I'm sure.
The notes are 41 pages in length, and to be honest I was slapped in the face after reading these notes. The ins and outs of performing magic for a living are all covered and I couldn't be happier!

I would highly recommend these notes, although I would love to see them updated. At 12.50 from Denny and Lees I don't know how any working pro or wanting to be working magician can afford to be without these notes. I am sorry it has taken me so long to get them!

Verbal Magic by Juan Tamariz

The other books I have reviewed so far have had rather lengthy reviews. This book is a little bit different. I am going to attempt a rather brief review and see how I feel about it afterwards.

This is a remarkably difficult and amazing book to read. Sometimes the effects are mind blowing and other times you get the feeling the effect is a little bit childish and perhaps something is lost in translation or perhaps it is cultural. But I have never had so much fun fooling myself over and over again with the items in this book! I would recommend it ONLY to those who will be doing magic remotely, or to those who want to fool themselves and experience a childlike joy that we had upon our initial introduction to magic.
This book is a compilation of translated tricks that Juan delivered to audiences over the radio in Spanish. So you can imagine that a little bit will be lost to an English speaking audience. That is understandable. Many of the tricks float around an oil and water idea with cards separating. I enjoyed playing with many of the effects and some of them just left me bored, so I skipped them. But one thing is for sure, this book is a treasure trove of cool trick that will fool YOU! I've rarely come across a book like this.

Anyone who reads this bad boy, and likes it, would do well to get copies of Impuzzibilities and Further Impuzzibilities by Jim Steinmeyer. Both are very cheap and have very fun routines!
If you have every wanted to magic over the phone then the set of three books mentioned will be a treasure trove!

*Also if anyone has any other titles similar to these in nature please let me know! I'd love to read, review, and recommend them if they are good! Even individual items from magazines would be nice. Thanks!!*

So in short, this book will teach you the tricks by following along exactly as written, I first did them with my partner beside me following my reading from the book, cards in hand, and they all worked! I tried again with a conference call and found the tricks from Verbal Magic were better received than those from the Impuzzibilities books but I am sure that it was presentational and some refining could turn all these tricks into amazing miracles! That being said I would not be surprised to see many YouTube videos performing the tricks from Verbal Magic. It would be nice to see Juan doing a few videos like that online for us to follow along so the impostors get squashed before they ruin this brilliant, fun book!

For a nice change of magic, go get this book, then call a buddy on his cell phone and make sure he's got some business cards or better yet a deck of cards!

Smoke and Mirrors by Rick Marcelli

This book has received some significant hype but with one key problem. I have yet to find a review for it in a major magic magazine. Okay, so the book has yet to be reviewed by the big shots, Magic and Genii, but wait... that's odd, Magic gave Rick Marcelli a spread in the magazine to promote his book and it doesn't appear to be a paid advertisement. Something isn't right here. Let's take a look at this books introduction to the market. The first advertisement for this book was on page 3 of Magic magazine, and pg 49 of Genii both September 2008. Naturally this issue of Magic also contains an article by Mr. Marcelli on page 52, The Secrets of Show Biz, which gives your essentially some well edited excerpts from the book. A very good article for those wanting to know the feel of this book and type of information. October 2008 Magic Magazine has another ad on page 41 for the book but no article by Mr. Marcelli, an ad on pg 49 in Genii and once again no reviews! Nov. 08, Magic Magazine, ad on page 31, Genii magazine ad on pg. 46 but no reviews... no more ads from here on and as you can imagine no reviews!



This is a very unfortunate start for this book. The author claims he is David Copperfield's first manager and this is true. In forums online (The Magic Cafe) Rick Marcelli takes a bit of flack and Charlotte Pendragon chimes in on his behalf. There is something seriously strange going on here. Did all the magic magazines choose to ignore this book? It certainly seems that way.



Here is my take on this book. The book is a slim softcover book, 8.5 by 11, About 140 pages long. Here is where it gets scary, 75 bucks! 100 if you'd like it personally autographed. I will say this though, that includes shipping to the US and Canada. Which is an added bonus I suppose. I purchased the 75 dollar option.



The book is true to it's word, Secrets of Becoming a STAR in Magic! Let's take a peek at the table of contents shall we?



Ch. 1 Getting Started

Ch. 2 Getting Your Act Together

Ch. 3 Do You Need Representation?

Ch. 4 It's All In The Package

Ch. 5 What Makes a Star

Ch. 6 Show Biz Secrets for Magicians (sound familiar?)

Ch. 7 The Present

Ch. 8 The Future of Variety and Magic

Ch. 9 People I Sometimes Agree With

Ch. 10 Reading and Resources

Ch. 11 List of Contacts

Ch. 12 Final Thoughts



Well there it is, but at 140 pages this certainly seems like a lot of chapters and therefore not a lot of information per heading. Our first chapter takes us down the life story of the author, why you ask? Because it is to make a point, all celebrities were just like you and I at one point.



Our next chapter gets more into it! How to build an act, this means what lengths of time each trick should be and how long the act should be (20 minutes is suggested). We also go into some priceless information, including! How to spot trends in pop culture and television, where people really make it. If you want to be famous you have to be on TV there is no question about it. You also need to take risks and develop a persona, fortunately it is clearly explained how to do that.



Chapter three, Do YOU Need representation? In short, if you have an act, a look, and a promo package, YES you do need representation. This chapter goes into much more detail. A very good read! Truly lays out what your manager does and doesn't do. We finish this chapter with a five-step plan to jump-start your career at any level, it is very accurate and it works!



Chapter four, your promo package. It is covered in here head to toe. I'm not going to go into too much detail as that is the purpose of this book but it lays out everything you need, from what promo you need, how to get the best quality photos, even photographers to research to get pose ideas, website or no website? Choosing photos, writing bios, Video all these are addressed. I hate to say it but this really is invaluable to any performer! I'd pay the price of the book for this chapter alone.



Chapter five, What makes a star? If you ever wanted to know this chapters answers it. Enough said.



Chapter six, Show Biz Secrets for Magicians. Want to know why you aren't as big a success and the talk of the town as you think you deserve? This chapter has some answers, how to be professional (might surprise you), timing your career, your big break(s)!, it's all in here. This is where Magic magazine got there chapter from. I'd recommend reading Magic Sept. 08 to get some info before the big buy.



So far we are on page 60 roughly, the rest of the book is a little bit odd. Next we have a chapter titled The Present, a strange chapter telling us where big name magicians are, Las Vegas. Also where is Rick Marcelli now? It is clear that writing this book was about stroking one's own ego as much as providing very real, practical information. Chapter eight present Rick's assumptions about Magic in the future. Sort of useless for the time being but I suppose it is an assumption to consider.



After this we have a VERY long chapter titled, People I sometimes agree with. This is tales, stories, and testimonials from Rick's friends telling you how great he is. A bit tacky if you ask me. We signs of ego stroking going on. The pretentious title to this chapter doesn't help either. These tales go on for 37 pages!! Holy shit!



Following this we have reading resources, a VERY good chapter with fantastic book recommendations. I happened to own many of the titles given and they are truly spectacular reads. So my hat is off for this list!



The list of websites on the other hand is useless, I know pages like the Genii and Magic magazine websites, The Magic Circle website is not a needed website, anyone who has visited this site would agree it is utterly useless unless I wanted to book the space, not to mention the actual location only allows magicians to visit 1 night per week... Truly a shame!



The chapter on contacts is terrible, it is a list of magic clubs around the world basically, a contact name and phone number with address if available.



So you might think I am being harsh on this little book, I think it is a brilliant book, well the first half is. The second half could have been easily edited down to a handful of pages or improved. I don't need to know magic club info I am more interested in agents perhaps. Where to find agents and their information, the proper way to contact them etc.



I truly like, perhaps even love this book! It delivers what it promises and the information is invaluable IF you are a dedicated magician trying to make something of yourself. It will help you form a nice career. No doubt about it there. But you can't expect to do it being a lazy ass.



At 75 bucks I'd say it is steep compared to other magic books. You'd expect a hardbound book with glossy paper and colour photos perhaps. Well, this isn't a magic book, it's a business book and a small text book targeted to magicians. There are no tricks to perform, just tricks for success and real world advice from a real manager in the business. I do feel the book is a must buy, but 75 bucks is hefty. I'd say it would have flown off the shelves at $55 with a couple reviews in 2 unnamed magic magazines (Where's JIS when you need him?).



So the verdict? NOT GUILTY. If you are serious about performing magic on stage and making it a career, go buy this book, 75 bucks is not a lot of money compared to a career in magic and this information and advice will CERTAINLY improve your career!



Available at Smoke and Mirrors Book for $75 USD don't bother getting it signed.