Happy 137th Birthday Houdini

I came across today's Google doodle and I was surprised that it commemorated the birthday of one of the most famous and successful escape artist of his time, Harry Houdini.

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What I want in a magic book

As you may know, I learned magic from books and I have a lot of books and e-books on magic. Unfortunately, I don't find all the material that's in there useful. There are just a lot of bad tricks in there that are not really performable in shows.

There are a lot of bad magic books out there. Some have bad photos, bad instructions and the worst is a lot has bad tricks in them. With a lot of bad things in a lot of magic books, I really can't blame those who prefer to learn from videos.

The solution I could see is to include the following things in the description of a book.

1. List of tricks with descriptions.

This may not be applicable to beginner's magic books but for intermediate or advance books (especially e-books) this would really be helpful. I have books that contain over 50 tricks that are most of the time essentially the same. I think having descriptions would help us to know if your book is really worth buying.

2. Simpler instructions

Okay here is something that not all may not agree with me. I have to say that most e-books have instructions that contain a lot of jargon. Well they expect you to know how a sleight for a trick is done however they don't even care to explain how it is done. Even worse is that they keep on using acronyms or abbreviations for a sleight mentioned at a beginning of the trick. Example of this is something like "DL top two cards then do the DS then cull the rest..." I wish they include even a simple explanation or method for any necessary sleight for the tricks.

3. Clearer pictures

Here is a problem with a lot of books. Either they have bad drawings or really blurry pictures. I really have to say that I hate e-books with bad photos that you can't even understand if a picture is explaining something necessary. Also something related with this is that if a photo is placed beside a text only to see that the photo is for an instruction for another page. I think that if you can't place a good photo, don't place it at all.

I just have to say that these are the things that I wish I could see in magic books. In this way I could really appreciate not only the tricks in it but also the magician who took the time to write a book.

A tip to be a successful magician: Interaction

One thing I noticed with good magicians is that they are able to maintain a certain level of interaction with their audiences. They are able to make their audiences participate and interact with them that they are not just performing but leaving the audience an experience.

This brings me to think that magic is not just performing but having interaction to leave your audience with an unforgettable and magical experience. Though I heard a lot about the magic moment within a performance, I think a more magical moment is what you leave with them to be remembered.

This is something that I've been thinking of, since I'm seeing a lot of not so good magicians on TV. You can't even say they are the best in technique and their performances are not really that magical. To top it all most of them don't dress properly especially that one of them has too much make up.

Yes I know that Stage Magic is a different thing altogether but performing and interacting properly with the audience should still be seen. Especially that you keep on performing with the audiences behind you that inadvertently gives away the secret.

Anyways, what I really just want to say is that, magic should not be about you or them, it's the interaction between you and your audiences, the experience that something magical is happening, not the experience of being tricked.

A Magical New Year to all

I'm just hoping that everyone would continue to stay magical all throughout the year 2011. I'm so happy that we have another year to look forward too despite the fact that I am very busy with work. Hopefully for 2010 I'll get the time to practice more magic.

Hoping to post more here soon.

"Sleight"-ly Heavy Magic

When I was starting in magic, I always believed that I should learn all the sleights to become very good with my craft. In time I learned these sleights and through the years, I favored those that looked more natural and much easier to do.

I remembered before that my DLs were really very obvious, until I worked out a way to make it look more natural. It even helped me do a perfect TL and now it almost goes unnoticeable even by the most scrutinizing viewer.

Now I've learned to abandon the other "fancy" sleights that I have learned (e.g. Clip Shifts, Hypnotic Cuts, etc.) for more natural ones and those that could be done slowly. I favored those, since in this way I could focus more on the presentation which is what magic is all about.

I'm not saying that we should all go for self-working and no sleights magic tricks, what I'm saying is that when it comes to sleights, the best ones are the ones you are comfortable performing with.