Book of the Month: November - Modern Magic

Sep 2, 2007
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Some of you might remember that, a few weeks ago, I posted a "Book of the Month Thread Proposal". Well, ladies, gentlemen and those with a non-conventional gender identity (it's 2013, you're all welcome), the time for such a thread is nigh. In fact it's so nigh that it's already here. And that's pretty nigh, I'm sure you'll agree. For November, our book of the month is Modern Magic by Professor Hoffman.

Chris Wasshuber at Lybrary.com has kindly agreed to reduce the PDF version of the book to $5.00 for the whole month, so if you haven't got the book, you can find that HERE. Click the link, buy the book and then come back and continue reading this post. Everyone done that? All back now? What about you? Good.

The basic idea is thus. I'm going to be dropping in throughout the month to post thoughts on Modern Magic, and maybe, as an extra-special treat, some videos of me doing some stuff (I know, exciting, isn't it?). I'd like to invite everyone, novice or expert, the veriest tyro to the most venerable Craig Browning, to contribute with their own ideas and questions on the book, whether they're about the moves, the routines, the historical context, whatever you like. Feel free to post videos of performances inspired by the work, whether they're routines taken as written or given a modern twist. If you have a question but you feel like it might be stupid, ask it anyway, someone else will be wondering the exact same thing but be too insecure to reveal that there's something they don't know. I hope that, as a community, we can pool our collective learning and roll into December invigorated and inspired by the mighty Modern Magic.

Are you with me?

I said, "ARE YOU WITH ME?" [imagine cheers and applause here when you read this]

Anyway, first things first, here's a little history lesson for y'all:

The period spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth century is known as “The Golden Age of Magic”. Stage magic was booming and its practitioners were amongst the most famous and well-paid people in the world. The foundations had been laid by the likes of Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, the Herrmann dynasty and Harry Kellar. Then the mantle had been picked up by the next generation of performers, including Howard Thurston, William Robinson and Harry Houdini, cementing the status of magic as a simultaneously high-class and popular form of entertainment.

This new wave of magicians had an unprecedented advantage when it came to learning the secrets of the old masters. Traditionally, the inner workings of performance magic had been passed down from a mentor to an apprentice, or stolen from a rival artiste. It had been closely guarded and shielded from public view. Of course, there were magic books, but they were arcane texts, difficult to find and, in many cases, even more difficult to read if you were a monolingual English speaker. In 1876, though, a book had been published which explicitly and systematically pulled back the curtain and revealed, in detail, the secrets behind all phases of magic as it was then performed. This book was Modern Magic, by Professor Hoffman.

As you can imagine, this didn't go down too well in the magic community. Modern Magic was the YouTube of the day, decried as unethical exposure of an order hitherto unseen. There were apocalyptic predictions of the end of magic, as though vast swathes of initiates would amass on every street corner, well-versed in all the possibilities of conjuring. That didn't happen, of course. When the bulk of the content of Modern Magic had been published the previous year in Every Boy's Magazine, this had not brought down magic, and the publication of it in book form wouldn't either. It's interesting to note, though, that, unlike YouTube, the accusation wasn't that the teaching was incorrect, but that it was too correct. Professor Hoffman was giving away the real work, and that was what bothered magicians. In other words, this material formed the genuine working repertoire that made mid-nineteenth century performers into celebrities and legends.

It's unsurprising that the author knew what he was talking about. The man behind the pen name of “Professor Hoffman” or, sometimes, “Louis Hoffman” was an English lawyer and amateur magician by the name of Angelo Lewis, and he had a serious magic pedigree. Not only had he studied under the well-known London magic dealer and performer Professor Robert Hellis, but also the semi-mythical French (or maybe Polish, or maybe another nationality entirely) magician and card sharp Monsieur Charlier. Charlier was considered to be the best card handler of his day, adding to his legend by performing in public vary rarely and therefore being known only to the true cognoscenti. Lewis was also a great student of the works of the father of modern conjuring, Robert-Houdin, giving us their first English translation a few years later.

So, this book, carrying the weight of Lewis's extensive knowledge and experience, struck like a lightning bolt into the magic scene. While other works that appeared shortly afterwards, like Edwin Sachs's Sleight of Hand, were as well-written and packed with information, Modern Magic's expansive survey of all branches of magic had the most monumental effect. All the notable performers at the turn of the twentieth century, when magic was at its zenith in popularity, were under the influence of Modern Magic. The card work, through Roterberg, via Erdnase and onto Vernon is still influencing pasteboard manipulation today. And, as a picture of the state of the magic art, the techniques, tools, sleights, ruses and dodges used at one of the most significant times in its history, it's unparalleled. As David Devant said, “It was all through your book, Mr Hoffman”.

Oh, and if you've got all the way down here and can't be bothered to scroll back up for the link to the book on Lybrary.com, it's HERE.
 
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Sep 2, 2007
1,186
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Love the idea! I'll be back with a video.

Excellent! A first response! Thanks SebaMan.

To maintain this near-breakneck momentum, here's a titbit of Modern Magic trivia. On the Revelations DVDs, Dai Vernon claims that the first published record of displaying two cards as one is in Erdnase's description of the Palm Change. He even specifically says that there's no reference to such an idea in Hoffman. Arguably, though, this is incorrect. Hoffman's Fifth Method of changing a card is, in essentials, pretty much the Palm Change including the detail that, "the two [cards] will at a little distance appear to be only one card". Given the ubiquity of the double-lift since the beginning of the twentieth century, this sentence might well be a contender for the most influential instruction in magic literature.
 
Sep 2, 2007
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I am going to check it out... does this book has images?...I do like a good reading, but I prefer pictures...

There are drawings (like in Erdnase or Royal Road) but, I'll be honest, there is a lot of text. It's well worth the effort, though, a lot of text means a lot of information which means a lot of moves and routines that you might not have seen before! If you have trouble understanding anything from the book, this thread is exactly the place to come and ask. Those of us who've had a bit of a headstart in studying it may well be able to help.
 
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Mar 27, 2010
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Man this book is hard (specially because english is my second lenguage). Gonna try to find something that i like
 
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