Good reading regarding the performance side of things?

[Tower of Lunatic Meat]

I'm coming Close to acquiring the props necessary to complete 2 of my sets for the children's hospital.

I understand that a bevy of props does not make a good magician. Gives variety, yes. However, I've been very very selective of what I do get. Namely because I wouldn't be able to afford a bunch of props I'll never use (out of what I have, I only have 1 dud).

So my question is this: what good reading material would you recommend for the performance side of things?
Or is this sort of thing trial-and-error?

 

[Projeet]

Chris Orbit Brown has a very nice video download on his website that you can purchase if you want to learn more about the performance side of things. It is only $15 and there really is some great advice in there. I highly recommend it.

Here's the link: http://theorbitbrown.com/site/portfolio-view/performance-training/

 

[Fredrick H.]

This is always an important topic for me that magicians need to deal with more. And the answer I have for you is twofold. Tommy Wonder Books of Wonder have wonderful essays on magic presentation. Banachek deals with some character development in his books, I think Pre thoughts or Psychological Subtleties. But Presentation is also theatrical it may be beneficial to look into books on acting theory as well. Michael Caine has some good work on performance.
Lastly The book Our Magic is great. hard to find a hard copy but Lybrary.com has a pdf version that you can get.

And yes it does come from experience but it also comes from some kind of background and understanding of what people are thinking and how you want to present yourself.

 

[RealityOne]

If you were to read one book, it would be Larry Haas's Transformations.

If you were to read twenty-five books, it would be:

Walt Anthony's Tales of Enchantment
Eugene Burger's Mastering the Art of Magic
Eugene Burger's Performance of Close-Up Magic
Eugune Burger's The Experience of Magic
Eugene Burger and Robert Neal's Magic and Meaning
Larry Hass's Gift Magic
Larry Hass's Transformations
David Kaye's Seriously Silly
Jeff McBride's Show Doctor
Peter McCabe's Scripting Magic
Robert E. Neale and David Parr's The Magic Mirror
Robert E. Neal's Magic Matters
Robert E. Neal's The Magic of Celebrating Illusion
Robert E. Neal's The Sense of Wonder
Henning Nelms's Magic and Showmanship
Darwin Ortiz's Strong Magic
Darwin Ortiz's Designing Miracles
Dariel Fitzke's The Trick Brain
Dariel Fitzke's Showmanship for Magicians
Dariel Fitzke's Magic By Misdirection
Jim Steinmeyer's Conjuring (no theory but great examples of presentation)
Juan Tamariz's Five Points in Magic
Juan Tamariz's The Magic Way
Tommy Wonder's Books of Wonder - Volume 1 and Volume 2
Ken Webber's Maximum Entertainment