Posted on December 27, 2005
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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about why I like Michael Close’s magic so much. This was, primarily, for those of you who haven’t taken the time to make yourself familiar with his magic, since anyone who has crossed paths with Close’s magic probably found my praise akin to watching reruns of M.A.S.H.
Recently, Close announced the release of his handling of the torn and restored card trick called, “Close’s Torn & Restored Card.” In a telephone conversation with my friend Jim Sisti the same day we both received the email, it seemed there was going to be a race to see which of us purchased the ebook.
Since I have a blog and he doesn’t, I hereby announce I won the race.
One thing you’ll notice about Close’s stuff — and the entire Workers series is the poster child for this comment — is that so much thought has been put into the handling, as well as the trick itself. It’s Michael’s never ending desire to improve that caused the latest version of the Workers series to be annotated to such an extent that even owners of the printed copies would do well to buy the download.
There are plenty of torn and restored card routines. A few of them are even outstanding in their field. “The Reformation” by Guy Hollingworth set the close-up world on fire a few years ago. Guy was a featured performer in 1996’s television special “World’s Greatest Magic III” — one of Gary Oulette’s productions. The presentation of this T&R routine was just…pretty. And pretty stunning. And elegant. And how in the heck did he do that?
I wasn’t one of the lucky few to buy an original copy of Hollingworth’s VHS tape explaining “The Reformation” — which was limited in production, and came with the promise that once they were sold there would be no more.
And, true to his word, there were no more.
Well, there were no more original tapes produced. There were plenty of bootlegs, though. The more people talked about it, the more demand for the tape grew, and, given the limited supply, some people just couldn’t help themselves. Pity.
Eventually, though, enough years passed and Guy included the workings of the trick as the Epilogue to his outstanding book, “Drawing Room Deceptions.” It took thirty-six pages to describe and explain the trick. THIRTY-SIX PAGES. Thirty. Six. Pages. Then the rest of us learned why so few people actually performed Hollingworth’s version. It was clever, alright, but…fiddly. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. It was just involved. Too involved for my tastes, anyway.
“Ultimate Rip Off” by Paul Harris was what got me interested in tearing up a playing card and putting it back together. But I cast my lot with J.C. Wagner’s T&R routine (found in 7 Secrets) as the best for me. (It was also the impetus for Hollingworth’s routine.)
Turns out, both Harris’s and Wagner’s routines served as the impetus for Michael Close’s 25 year process that turned out the $12.95 ebook download, Close’s Torn & Restored Card.
So what did Close accomplish by working on this for 25 years? Well, for starters, how about a rational reason for tearing up the card to begin with? We magicians often launch into a routine using tenuous reasons for why we are about to do what we are about to do. Audiences aren’t stupid and, while they are likely to cut us a break for providing weak (at best) excuses for doing “X” if there’s a magical moment to follow, we demonstrate a level of respect for audiences when we go further and tie it up in a pretty package.
What else? Michael notes, “In addition, the presentation solves one of the big “bugaboo†problems associated with this type of trick.” Here he doesn’t explain what this is, and it’s not evident in the video clip, but take my word for it: this alone is worth the $13.
If that weren’t enough, Michael teaches you his handling of this trick. The only thing I can say about this is it is obvious he’s done this trick a lot. There are no superfluous moves, nothing you have to do that isn’t reasoned out and necessary. Necessary — what a great word in routining a close-up trick. This, too, is worth $13 by itself.
Like other Close ebooks (most notably “Closely Guarded Secrets“) there are video clips embedded in the file that allow you to view a performance, as well as segments that go far in supplementing the text.
Don’t already do a torn and restored card routine? I can’t imagine a good reason to not pop the very reasonable $12.95 for this thing. Decide how much 25 years of your life is worth and then ask if $12.95 is a deal.
What if you’re one of us who loves and performs the JC Wagner version? Do yourself a favor and pop for this ebook right now. As great as the Wagner routine is, this polishes it up and gives you good reason to do the entire routine, down to handing them the card when you’re done.
Posted on December 4, 2005
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I’ve been watching the feeding frenzy that found expression in eBay auctions wherein sellers are offering up copies of the Max Maven book, “The Protocols of the Elders of Magic,” at prices ranging from the truly sublime, to the truly — and I mean truly — fantastic.
After tabulating the results, I find that the “Grand Prize” (such as it is) goes to Internet magic shop owner and “Cheating at Hold’em” author, David Malek, who handily sold five copies at twice the original price:
November 30, 2005 $100
December 1, 2005 $100
December 1, 2005 $100
December 1, 2005 $100
December 2, 2005 $100
Now, there are those who might suggest Malek is “just doing good business” — buy low, sell high, the American Way. And what do I know? Maybe the buyers are perfectly happy with the $100 they each spent on the book. I hear people are initially and literally ecstatic with some of the purchases they make in Pahrump, NV, too.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum we find eBay ID “a.messenger” who sold a copy at a “Buy It Now” price of just $60. (Apparently this seller didn’t attend the same business school as did Malek.)
The Most Amusing award goes to Brian Glicker and his auction with a “Buy It Now” price of $150. He apparently wasn’t convinced by my answer to his wondering regarding what’d he’d bought.
Q: Don’t bragging rights count for anything any more?
A: Yes. Apparently they go for about $150 these days.
Clearly, the Most Ambitious award goes to “New York Comedy Stage Hypnotist” Sebastion Black for attempting a drive-by “Buy It Now” of $355. A subsequent auction yielded $136.26 from one of my favorite members of the mystery entertainment community.
While not an auction, I want to mention fellow guitar picker Jon Elion, who sold his copy of “The Protocols of the Elders of Magic” for precisely what he paid: $50
Interestingly enough, I’m still getting the occasional email accusing me of all sorts of un-American Way things because of publicly noting my opinion of some people purchasing multiple copies of the book to resell. If these people won’t read the plain language I’ve already used to describe what I meant, I’m not going to spend additional valuable time restating it using only one- and two-syllable words. “Do what thou wilt” is the hole of the law, that’s for sure.
My copy is on my bookshelf. It’s another of my talisman books, a concept I’ll explain some day soon.
Posted on December 3, 2005
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First a bit of the story:
International man of mystery, David Blaine, stopped by Brooke Army Medical Center here Nov. 22 to perform “street magic” for the wounded warriors recovering at the hospital.
Blaine performed three shows at the center - in the Amputee Care Center, the Burn Center and the hospital auditorium - for different groups of patients.
A little further down:
Blaine is often called the “Ice Guy” - after freezing himself in a solid block of ice for three days in 2000. One center patient from New York, Marine Cpl. Merlin German, remembered watching Blaine as he emerged from the ice block in Times Square. Now recovering from burns sustained in the global war on terrorism, German was pleased Blaine took the time to come see the wounded.
“He was very inspiring to me,” German said, adding that Blaine, who invited him and his parents to a show in New York after he recovers, now sees him as a friend.
After his Nov. 22 shows, Blaine said he was so moved by the wounded troops that he returned Nov. 23 and 25 to personally visit with them.
That’s an article from DefenseLink, the web news arm of the United States Department of Defense. Note, it is not from AP, Reuters, PROnline, etc. (I thought that was worth noting.)
Posted on December 2, 2005
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By now you’ve probably learned Dean Dill and his family were in an accident a couple of days ago. It was bad.
Apparently, Dean and his family had stopped to help someone who’d overturned their vehicle, and someone slammed into Dean’s vehicle.
Pete Biro copied a note from Alphonso:
Dean has broken ribs, cracked pelvic bone, with rest no surgery, is in a brace.
Dean’s son, Jamie -teeth knocked out, broken nose, severed thumb tendon, having cat scan.
Wife, Denise- Broken cheek, facial lacerations, black eye. in best shape of all
As you can imagine, the financial hardship when something like this happens can be overwhelming. Steve Brooks sent a broadcast message about this, so if you are a member of The Magic Cafe, you’ve probably heard about it. Also, my friend Dick Hatch (the H in H&R Magic) forwarded a note from Tim Trono with a suggestion for the magic community to contribute to covering some of those bills.
And I want to ask if you’d take a moment out of your life and consider something.
Suppose, for a moment, that it was you in that accident, and you were in the situation Dean is in right now, in the hospital, knowing you’ll be on your back for the foreseeable future, and your family hurt, too.
If you’re so lead, would you go right now to PayPal and send along a “get well” contribution and a kind word? Send it directly to Dean’s PayPal ID: intmiracle@deandill.com
Posted on December 1, 2005
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It’s been wickedly amusing to see the discussions regarding Hermetic Press’s book by Max Maven, “The Protocols of the Elders of Magic” — especially when the discussion surrounds ethics and secrets. (And, eventually, all discussions regarding magic lead to ethics and secrets.)
Steve Pellegrino admits to reading the Genii BBS thread about the thing, and all he comes away with is that people were arguing about the ethics of reselling the book? Maybe someone at Genii is playing a cruel joke on Steve, feeding him a special version of the thread devoid of the context of that particular aspect. On the other hand, maybe Steve didn’t actually read the entire thread and thus we have an explanation for the straw man he first constructed and then torched.
Rather than force you to endure the thing (the Genii thread, I mean) allow me please to summarize my contribution to the thread regarding the reselling doctrine. Please read them in order, slowly:
1. There were only 500 copies of this book made available
2. There are more than 500 people wishing to own this book
3. Several people purchased multiple copies of this book with the sole intention of reselling the additional copies at a higher price to those who could not order one, knowing full and well that a limited edition Max Maven book would command higher prices on the secondary market
4. This action prevented many people from obtaining a copy from Hermetic Press at the $50 price
5. I called that “distasteful” because I thought it was unkind to deliberately deplete a limited source for the sole purpose of causing others to pay a higher price. (There’s a one-word euphamism for this behavior, which I will leave to your imagination.)
In a nutshell, that’s my position on the reselling of the Maven book.
Do I care if individual owners sell their copy? No. Jeremy Medows is one of the many valuable Internet associations I’ve made over the years. He received his book and subsequently listed it on eBay. I took the time to send Jeremy a note asking why he sold it. His reply was perfectly in keeping with what I suspected.
But that’s not a situation I was referring to and only someone who read the thread would know that.
You think I’m off my rocker in this case? Fine with me. You are welcome to your opinion. But if you believe it is ethically alright to buy additional copies with the intention of reselling them to the people your own actions deprived of their own ability to buy one, and stick them for double or triple the price for the privilege, I’d prefer you continue to make that position known publicly. Really, I do. I’d rather know for a fact you’re not someone I care to do business with or associate with personally, than be left to wonder.
For some people, their world view looks like this: if it is perfectly legal, it is perfectly alright. A close cousin to this is: it’s just business. (Haven’t we been around this “it’s just business” tree before?)
Here’s a newsflash: Legal and Immoral entered into a co-habitation partnership years ago and their bastard offspring have been causing no end of problems since. On the other hand, the marriage between Moral and Ethical has been strong since the beginning of time, and continues to cause no end of trouble to those who prefer the more popular couple mentioned above.
Back to “if it’s legal, it’s alright.” That’s not entirely accurate, is it? That someone is perfectly within their legal rights to do something does not make it morally or ethically the right thing to do. The Supreme Court of the United States of America created a situation whereby abortion is a perfectly legal method of birth control. (Next to abstinence, it’s the ultimate in birth control, actually.) But is it morally right?
In the Genii BBS thread, I used the phrase “social ecology.” By that I mean how your actions impact the lives of those around you. If you have the flu, it is perfectly legal for you to visit a retirement home. But is it fair to the people in that home that you bring a virus among them, and upset their “ecology”? In my opinion, no it is not. But that’s just me.
Oh, I can see the eyes rolling around in your head now. Old John’s comparing selling a magic book to giving some old folks the flu, and to murdering a baby aborting a fetus. I fully understand there are more than just a few people who quickly find themselves out of their intellectual depth on their initial viewing of “Dumb and Dumber” (which is the only excuse I can find for subsequent viewings), but I suspect those aren’t the people reading this blog. (Yes, I know, I’m being snotty. If this surprises you, you’re obviously new in town.)
The process for rationalizing one is the same as that of rationalizing the other; the difference is where you draw the moral and ethical line in the sand. For instance, for some it’s okay to copy magic videos, but not to kill a baby. Or It’s not okay to copy magic videos, but downloading songs via Your Favorite P2P App is okay because, well, (insert your rationalization here).
How about this: how do your actions affect those around you? Selfish people cannot even read that sentence aloud, let alone contemplate it seriously and sincerely.
As I’ve mentioned to my friend Jim Sisti more than once, I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal. In other words, I am the world’s biggest fan of free enterprise and, in fact, think it is the solution to most of the economic problems in the country — not the cause of them. At the same time, I do not believe in profiting by taking advantage of people. Financial success and not screwing people over are not mutually exclusive terms. If you find they are, perhaps you should examine your priority pyramid; it may be upside down.
And I didn’t even touch on keeping the subject and contents of the book secret. That’s a whole ‘nuther issue.
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