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It depends. For me, the exciting part of The Annotated Erdnase is the massive quantity of references to other works with techniques similar to, evolved from, or preceding those of Erdnase. Therefore it is an excellent place to begin a journey into the whole of crooked gambling lore, literature...

Which finger's flashing?

Yeah, I agree with Reverhart. I think it's highly unlikely that anyone will turn up at your door after being given your business card.

The expectation of free content on the internet is here to stay, and should be embraced rather than feared by those who currently produce DVDs and music. It's just going to take a paradigm shift for people to realise how this brave new world of brave new media can be effectively monetised...

As Saborfang says, "we", is the traditional way of referring to yourself when writing. You'll see it in many texts up until the early 20th century, even in some of Marlo's works. Marshall D Smith didn't know the true identity of Erdnase, beyond a couple of bits of information which he...

Magic/Manipulation: 1. Get online magic magazine (working title: "The Art of Manipulating Objects & Minds") up and running. 2. Get everything from Erdnase to a standard where I'd be happy to demonstrate it to other magicians. 3. Practice cigar box manipulation (quality Xmas present from my...

Magic Makers do have a Royal Road DVD set, but based on their poor reputation, and the shoddy quality of every other product that I've seen from them, I'd go for Paul Wilson's DVDs instead.

Most pro production outfits that I've come across use Adobe Premiere and After Effects. If you get to grips with these applications, then the sky's the limit. The only other piece of software you might conceivably want is something for 3D animation, like 3D Studio Max.

There is no single right way to approach a potential audience. The key thing is to get over any fear you might have about approaching them, as nervousness and tension will transmit to them and make them feel uncomfortable. With that in mind, the key thing to remember is to relax yourself as much...

Andi Gladwin has recently released a two DVD set called The Master Pushoff over at Vanishing Inc, which covers multiple-pushoffs in great detail. I haven't acquired it yet, but I'm going to. From what I know of Andi's work, it'll be well worth it. There's also some very good tips in Expert Card...

I'm making no judgements about this G guy, as I don't know anything about him, but being "a working restaurant magician" in and of itself is no evidence of professionalism. In the same way, I imagine we've all come across "working kids entertainers", who, by their appearance and demeanour, you...

That's true. There was no year 0, therefore the Common Era, or Anno Domini, begins with year 1. So, if you're measuring a decade as ten calendar years, each decade begins when the ordinal number of the year has a 1 at the end. I say "if", because if you measure a decade as 10 x 365 days (plus...

All good advice, but possibly not that helpful if the OP can't see any threads, as he won't be able to see this one either!

Definitely agree with the second paragraph, but I reckon Final Cut is unnecessarily confusing, and most pro production outfits I've come across use Premiere and After Effects. They aren't a replacement for each other. We tend to use Premiere for the actual editing, and After Effects for, well...

Sort of. Paul Wilson took most of the content and put it on the DVDs, but he missed out a few of the tricks, and included some more modern ideas. I would definitely recommend getting the book, even if you already have the DVDs. For one thing, you may like some of the items that he didn't...

That's one reason why you don't repeat a trick to the same audience. Just tell them something like, "I can do better than that, I've got something new to show you!", in a tone of voice suggesting that you're excited about showing them this "something new", and then go into a different effect...

I think you might not quite understand the meaning of the word "layman". It's not an insult, or anything bad. In magic terms, it just means anyone who isn't in on the secrets; a non-magician. In more general terms, it's someone who is not trained in a particular field. So, for example, a...

Craig, I don't think there's any comparison between pirating works of creative endeavour and the kind of things WikiLeaks does. Yes, I accept that both will cause the reaction of a clampdown on freedom of speech and expression, but that's where the similarity ends. WikiLeaks and other such...

This year, I have stripped back my magic to concentrate on card table artifice, primarily the Erdnase techniques. Also, I have laid the groundwork for a new "move monkey" website which we should launch next year (the details on that will be revealed first on the T11 forums, so look out for...

I've found that the best way to get tips is to ask for them. Obviously, a blunt demand to hand over money can come across rude, so it's necessary to sweeten the pill. One way to do this is to tell a story describing how this one guy this one time gave you a hundred [insert local currency] tip...