Books for Magicians - No Tricks

Hey, I am looking for books which people may recommend, which are not books on magic effects.

I do not need to learn more magic, I am after books which help the business, marketing, performance, or anything which will help.

I recommend these:

Freakley, Vivien. Essential Guide to Business in the Performing Arts (Hodder Arnold, 1996)

Salt, Chrys. Make Acting Work: The Practical Path to a Successful Career (London: Bloomsbury, 2nd ed. 2001)

I know they say "acting" and "performing arts", but the majority of magicians are acting and performing. These all help us within the arts.

Thanks to who ever can recommend any books.
 
Jan 6, 2008
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0
www.myspace.com
I would suggest going to the library and checking out all of the performing arts books. So many techniques for ad-libbing and proper presenting can be derived from seemingly unrelated books. I have read many a time (ooo fancy talk) which the names could not be remembered by I. I do own Steve Cohen's Win the Crowd which is an amazing book on presentation in not just magic but in life. There is also David Blaine's Mysterious Stranger which (being that it was released nationally) does contain some trick but mostly little dinky ones. The contents of the book itself talk about Magic History and it's effect on Blaine and Blaine's travels and experiences in magic. I reccomend this book to anyone, magician or nonmagician, as it is an amazingly good read.

My .02,

--
P:L
 

Sean.Cinco

Elite Member
Sep 2, 2007
683
2
Orlando, FL
www.seancinco.com
I have to recommend Tobias Beckwith's book titled Beyond Deception. It's about how to spark creativity in your presentations. I haven't finished reading it, but it's a good read and has alot of really good information about creativity and presentation.
 
I have this book called. 100 ways to win a tenner by paul zenon. It teaches you different ways to like prop bets to win money in a bar situation. And since i picked it up my magic has improved my leaps and bounds, just because I am more confident at deceiving people using non-magic techniques. that and if you use the techniques shown, for me, the 19 dollar book paid for itself with 30 minutes of work at this bar i went to.
 
Sep 1, 2007
35
0
Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz. Without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read.

Check it out!

Mitchell


I second 'Strong Magic'. Also Darwin wrote another book called 'Designing Miracles.' 'The Five Points of Magic' by Juan Tamariz will give you ideas about presentation and misdirection. Finally 'Absolute magic' by Derren Brown, oh and Eugene Burger also has some good work.


Sticky
 
Aug 31, 2007
1,960
1
34
Long Island/New York
There is also David Blaine's Mysterious Stranger which (being that it was released nationally) does contain some trick but mostly little dinky ones. The contents of the book itself talk about Magic History and it's effect on Blaine and Blaine's travels and experiences in magic. I reccomend this book to anyone, magician or nonmagician, as it is an amazingly good read.

My .02,

--
P:L

I know this is from a long time ago but does this book have a biography about David Blaine?
Not just all tricks or whatever, and maybe about what he was like growing up and what not?
 
Recommended books regarding magic theory:

Strong Magic: Darwin Ortiz
Designing Miracles: Darwin Ortiz
Pure Magic: Derren Brown
Absolute Magic: Derren Brown
Shattering Illusions: Jamy Ian Swiss

If you want some literature on the business of magic, I recommend the following books--

Real Secrets of Magic: David Stone
Real World Magic: Jerry MacGregor

If you want personal opinions or testimonial of each book, feel free to get in touch. I'd love to go into further detail for you. Real World Magic is actually pretty hard to find these days-- I think it only had one printing. But it's one of the most underrated books I've read concerning the method and business of performing magic professionally. It's an entertaining read if you can get your hands on it. All the other books on the list have recieved a lot of mainstream praise; I'm sure you've heard of them all.

RS.

RS.
 
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