DVDs
Ready to study and hone-up your magic? There’s a DVD that will keep you practicing into the New Year and allow you to perform some impressive new feats.
John Carney offers close-up miracles in his “Chicarnery” (click here to read our review) and “Classic Carney” (click here to read our review). We particularly liked his signed bill in pen, visual playing card color change sequence and cups and balls into classic bill in lemon.
We discovered the amazing magic of Corey Burke in his “PAYphone” DVD (click here to read our review). Burke offers a collection of strong walkaround effects with cards and coins-an excellent DVD for intermediate to advanced magicians.
Tom Stone, on his “Tom Stone Caught on Tape” offers an excellent DVD with one stand-up and seven close-up effects. Stone’s take on classics combines great technique, streamlined procedures and strong misdirection. And he dresses his effects with entertaining plots. Click here to read our review.
Minnesota’s Thom Peterson provides knockout magic in his “Sucker Punch.” He’s a creative performer with a quirky sense of humor, and his nine close-up and stand-up routines are definitely commercial. Click here to read our review.
Brent Braun's Decks, Lies and Videotape is a pleasant surprise. The DVD features impressive triumph, transposition and torn & restored card effects, and some good card controls. Click here to read our review.
Bavarian magician Alexander de Cova offers some well-thought-out enhancements to classics and some real foolers on his Enigmatic DVDs: volume 1 and volume 2. De Cova fooled us bad and his methods are fairly straightforward.
Books
Want to curl-up next to the fireplace on the big morning and read the best in magic books? Here are some suggestions.
Far more important than the slickest new card move or latest stage effect is our ability as magicians to entertain. For this, Ken Weber’s “Maximum Entertainment” offers solid advice for improving one’s show and is required reading for anyone who performs magic. Click here to read our review.
If you believe that presentation makes a trick and creates the magic, and you should, you’ll find lots to like in Dr. Jay Ungar’s "Bringing Magic to Life." Ungar offers his first rate presentations for lots of well known effects. Almost any performer can benefit from reading Ungar’s ideas and angles. Click here to read our review.
Combine a great close-up routine with an exceptional teaching tool, and you have a winner. Lance Pierce’s “The World-Famous Bowl Routine” explains a powerful “bill in lemon” act that provides a climactic moment to a strong “Benson Bowl” segment. Every move and word has evolved over thousands of performances and Pierce thoroughly explains his routine in its entirety. Click here to read our review.
In "Power Plays," Mike Powers offers an excellent and comprehensive collection of close-up effects that use cards, coins, bills, rings, rubber bands, straws and more-some 58 effects in all. While many are Powers' take on classic effects, he has created and compiled an impressive assortment of tricks that are visual and commercial. The majority of the effects involve playing cards. Click here to read our review.
We admit that we haven’t quite worked our way through the formidable “Essential Robert-Houdin,” which combines the classic works of the great master of magic, Robert-Houdin, in one stunning book that features lots of prints, engravings, and photos. Of course, Robert-Houdin (1805-1871) revolutionized magic and is considered the “father of modern magic.”
The weighty tome combines “The Secrets of Conjuring and Magic,” “Card-Sharping Exposed” and the famous “Memoirs of Robert-Houdin,” Robert-Houdin's autobiography that caused controversy years later for Houdini. What’s amazing is that reading the material today, the content is absolutely relevant, and, of course, the book is worth reading for its historical perspectives. For anyone who loves magic history, this is a compelling, must read.
