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Art and Artifice, Jim Steinmeyer
Secret Revelations, Criss Angel
The Magician and the Cardsharp, Karl Johnson
Freak Out Your Friends, Pete Firman
Idiot's Guide to Street Magic, Tom Ogden
Carter Beats the Devil, Glen David Gold
The Secret Life of Houdini, Kalush and Sloman
From the author of Hiding the Elephant and The Glorious Deception comes a collection of five essays that shows how the great stage illusions were integrally products of their time, based on the traditions and fashions of the people, and the offspring of the incredible, inventive personalities who brought them to the stage. Like no other author, Jim Steinmeyer gives us insight into the timeless appeal of magic. His human subjects include such characters as Steele MacKaye, Maskelyne, David Devant, P.T. Selbit, Horace Goldin, and Charles Morritt. Illusions he discusses include: The Mascot Moth, Sawing a Lady in Halves, and Morritt's Disappearing Donkey. |
Review of Jim Steinmeyer's Art and Artifice
Jim Steinmeyer has a talent for writing. He has made wonderful contributions to the magic industry, through illusions, lectures, consulting, producing, and the sharing of magic history. Jim is a gifted individual and he shares his passion with us in many books he's written; such as Hiding the Elephant
The book progresses through the history of magic with five essays; Art and Artifice is about Steele MacKaye, Maskelyne and Devant, The Moth in the Spotlight covers David Devant and the illusion inspired from a dream, Above and Beneath the Saw disects the origin of sawing a lady in half and how Goldin improved on Selbit's effect, Mr. Morritt's Donkey (In Theory) discusses Charles Morritt and the problems presented by his creations, and in Mr. Morritt's Donkey (In Practice), Jim gives us his experience recreating the illusion that was lost.
The book is extremely well written; the most accurately researched material. Jim has included amazing detail in the telling of each story. Once you pick up the book, you won't want to put it down. No one shares the golden age of magic history like Jim Steinmeyer. If you don't have a copy of the book yet, you can grab it by clicking on any of the links. Amazon provides the best prices for books, so you will be taken there to get your copy. Also, consider the other wonderful books by Jim Steinmeyer mentioned below this review. His books on magic are best sellers for a reason.
Alan Wakeling’s acclaimed magic has for years been the “secret source” for leading professional magicians. His career featured stage magic, illusions, close-up and stand-up effects, including several complete acts. This book contains professional material developed by Wakeling and used by magicians. Fully illustrated, beautifully and clearly described, this book is a treasure for any aspiring magician. Just ask the magicians, designers, and producers of today, who continue to integrate Wakeling's routines into their acts. Such people include the authors of this book's brief introductions: Mark Wilson, Steve Dick, Don Bice, Mike Caveney, Norm Nielsen, Earl Nelson, Ricky Jay, and Channing Pollock. | |
The success of a magician "lies in making a human connection to the magic." Create an illusion in the audience's mind, and they're hooked. But to understand magicians, we need to understand the art of that creation. Steinmeyer, who has designed illusions for Siegfried and Roy and David Copperfield, presents a cultural history of magic's golden age (from the 1890s to the 1930s), some legendary tricks (including the Levitation of Princess Karnak and Harry Houdini's Disappearing Elephant) and the fierce rivalries that dominated the craft. Steinmeyer reveals certain secrets, which rely on engineering, artistry and sheer chutzpah, but he hasn't betrayed anyone; most of his information has been published elsewhere. What he adds is context. Magicians advertise deceit, then perform it. Unlike political chicanery, which Steinmeyer dubs dishonest trickery, magic is a kind of pure trickery. | |
In a biography woven from equal parts enchantment and mystery, Jim Steinmeyer unveils the secrets behind the most enigmatic performer in the history of stage magic, Chung Ling Soo, the “Marvelous Chinese Conjurer”—a magician whose daring made his contemporary Houdini seem like the boy next door. Soo’s infamous and suspicious onstage death in 1918 mystified his fellow magicians: he was shot during a performance of “Defying the Bullets,” in which he attempted to catch marked bullets on a porcelain plate. When Soo died, his deceptions began to unravel. It was discovered that he was not Chinese but a fifty-eight-year-old American named William Ellsworth Robinson, a former magicians’ assistant and the husband of Olive Robinson. But even William Robinson was not who he appeared to be, for he had kept a second family with a mistress in a fashionable home near London... |
