Old books?
- Thread starter Aris.SA
- Start date
Many of the sleights found in old books have certainly not been surpassed. Theres stuff in Marlo's Revolutionary Card Technique that I seriously doubt you will have seen anywhere else. Although, I found that a lot of it is overly complicated for what I need right now. If you're looking for some different moves very few people use I think you will find some old books very interesting.
Personally, I absolutely love old books, partly because I've got a collector's mentality, and I'd rather spend a ridiculous amount of money on a beautiful hardback first edition of something than download a PDF or get a modern paperback. However, if you're looking at it from a practical point of view, and you're just about what you can learn from it, I'd still say old books (reprints or otherwise) are incredibly valuable.
Firstly, there is nothing ever invented completely in a vacuum, all modern moves and routines stem from older influences. However, these new inventions are simply the result of one person's creativity when presented with the source material. You may very well see subtle elements in the original that haven't been used in the updated versions, and thus be able to innovate for yourself.
Secondly, have you seen how much magic literature there is? Even if you confined yourself to the task of studying only Marlo's work, you could spend the rest of your life mastering it. Apparently even he couldn't do it all, a lot of things were just ideas that he was thinking about but never got down to practicing seriously. This means that there are definitely a lot of moves and routines that modern magicians haven't got around to updating. The mine is by no means exhausted. The Bucks, Lee Asher, or whoever your favourite card magician may be, may have read a lot of old texts, but I can say with certainty they haven't studied everything. Therefore, there is nothing stopping you from finding those hidden gems and fooling a whole new generation with them.
Firstly, there is nothing ever invented completely in a vacuum, all modern moves and routines stem from older influences. However, these new inventions are simply the result of one person's creativity when presented with the source material. You may very well see subtle elements in the original that haven't been used in the updated versions, and thus be able to innovate for yourself.
Secondly, have you seen how much magic literature there is? Even if you confined yourself to the task of studying only Marlo's work, you could spend the rest of your life mastering it. Apparently even he couldn't do it all, a lot of things were just ideas that he was thinking about but never got down to practicing seriously. This means that there are definitely a lot of moves and routines that modern magicians haven't got around to updating. The mine is by no means exhausted. The Bucks, Lee Asher, or whoever your favourite card magician may be, may have read a lot of old texts, but I can say with certainty they haven't studied everything. Therefore, there is nothing stopping you from finding those hidden gems and fooling a whole new generation with them.
I would understand if you meant old books, like Robert Houdin ( Learned Pig Project! ) which is great by the way, but Marlo?
Marlo's Rev. Card Technique has been reprinted, don't get it unless you know your way with a deck of cards. If you can find it, Vernon's Book of Magic is "killer" ( its out of print I think, but I think you can find it easily. If you didn't, lybrary.com sell it as an ebook ).
Also, look for magazines collected in a book.
TeeDee, Marlo got all of his stuff down cold better than ANY one I've seen. Tell me ONE idea he wrote down that he didn't work on seriously, or a sleight he created but couldn't do well. Did you see Marlo do them? If not, then you're entitled to judge him unless you watch him do it. I rarely curse in a loud voice, but after seeing Marlo in video I was cursing all day long.
And yes, I'm a Marlo freak
Cheers,
Marlo's Rev. Card Technique has been reprinted, don't get it unless you know your way with a deck of cards. If you can find it, Vernon's Book of Magic is "killer" ( its out of print I think, but I think you can find it easily. If you didn't, lybrary.com sell it as an ebook ).
Also, look for magazines collected in a book.
TeeDee, Marlo got all of his stuff down cold better than ANY one I've seen. Tell me ONE idea he wrote down that he didn't work on seriously, or a sleight he created but couldn't do well. Did you see Marlo do them? If not, then you're entitled to judge him unless you watch him do it. I rarely curse in a loud voice, but after seeing Marlo in video I was cursing all day long.
And yes, I'm a Marlo freak
Cheers,
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Medifro, no, I didn't see Marlo do them, hence my use of the word "apparently". I'm merely reporting what others (Jon Racherbaumer is the first name that comes to mind, but I could dig up some other sources if you wanted me to), have conveyed. In no way was I trying to downplay Marlo's skill, in fact it's a tribute to his creativity if he did provide such a huge body of work that even he himself was unable to find time to practice it all.
By the way, without wanting to be confrontational, did you literally seen Marlo run through every move and routine he ever published? Unless you did, you can't state with certainty that he had completely mastered them all.
By the way, without wanting to be confrontational, did you literally seen Marlo run through every move and routine he ever published? Unless you did, you can't state with certainty that he had completely mastered them all.
I never saw him personally, but I have footage of him seeing him performing alot of his moves and routines, many of them are known.
From what I've seen, the way he did the moves was so extraordinary that the other *easier* moves could be done normally.
I do take my words back and I do apologize if I sounded harsh above, as I didn't see him perform all the stuff, but I would like to know any sleight/routine he didn't do well. If you ever got around searching later on, and came across something, I'd love to know. So far I didn't like his centers, but he still does his center better than anyone I've seen so far.
If we are to limit ourselves to his more popular moves, he did them flawlessly ( retention of vision change, seconds, bottoms, his coin vanish and matrix, throw vanish, throw change .. etc )
Interesting to note that in all the footage I have on him, his never did a strike double but once as a lift, all others were Vernon push offs ( or his variation on it, you'll never know
)Cheers from another Marlo freak
Where did Racherbaumer say that Marlo could no do all the moves he created?
I would be interested to see that reference.
Brad
I would be interested to see that reference.
Brad
I said "His deal", meaning the one he explains in his book.
I was told that in the Forte vid, these were not centers, though not to let Forte's technique down ( and not to start a debate, as I'm not that knowledgeable in this area myself ), I'm sure that he can do very good centers. Anyway,
The deal Marlo explains in his book, he does it better than anyone else I've seen. The only bad thing is you see a step, other than that, you'd swear the card is coming from the top.
Cheers,
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