Author: Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Being trapped in an Elevator; Addition to Lift Shuffle Ace Production; Card in cigarette;

These are The Magic Memories 129, gone online Sunday, June 18th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Gary Plants and his wife Debbie will be visiting this week-end, so today’s The Magic Memories will be short (but hopefully very sweet…). I’ll prepare a succulent dinner with some good wines and Cuban cigars, so hope to convince Gary to part with one or two of his excellent creations to be shared with you in the upcoming The Magic Memories 130.

Meanwhile, here are a few things that you might find worthy of your attention…

Being Trapped in an Elevator

Leo Hevia, from Silver Spring, USA, sent in a video clip in reference to last week’s quote that everyone should be able to do a card trick, tell a joke and recite a poem by heart, just in case you got trapped in an elevator (see “On Terminology” in The Magic Memories 128).

The clip is over ten years old, and I had forgotten about it, so, if you didn’t know it, you’ll be mighty amused, as I was, especially if you knew Ricky Jay personally, as I had the pleasure of doing, or if you know about his eccentric character. To see the clip Leo sent, CLICK HERE.

Speaking of Ricky Jay, who deserves that I dedicate a very long post to him – I promise to do so one day – I recommend you take a break of fifty minutes and watch a piece that the BBC did on this genius of magic. If you didn’t know this, it will make your day, I promise.

I remember that after watching this years ago, when it came out, for a felt eternity I looked for that chair in the library that transforms into a stair – I finally found one at a flea market in Strasburg, Alsatia (France), and it is still in my library now 🙂

To watch the BBC documentary CLICK HERE.

PS: I have an unpublished interview I did with Ricky when he was the curator of the Mulholland Collection, at that time located in downtown Los Angeles. Sometime in the future, remind me…

Addition to Lift Shuffle Ace Production

In one of my virtual publications, Secret Twitter, I had an item I had forgotten about, so, I assume, that even those who have Secret Twitter have forgotten, too. Below it is to refresh your memory, and for those who haven’t even got it, maybe an incentive to get it HERE (it is really very cheap, compared to the work it took me to make this up… and I promise you’ll love it, or I will personally refund your money).

Here is an addition that occurred to me upon rereading this item, a very simple one, but practical and effective, e.g., for a Multiple Revelation Routine, or to put in your list of “Quick Tricks”, very useful if you fail the Classic Force…

Shuffle the selection to the bottom of the deck, or bring it there with a first Overhand Shuffle. Before starting a second Overhand Shuffle, the right thumb gets a break above the bottom card at the deck’s inner end (see “Bringing the Bottom Card to the Top”, Card College Volume 2, p. 253).

Now start the Overhand Shuffle, asking a spectator to call ‘stop’ anytime.

When she does, drop all the cards above the break on top of the cards already shuffled off, which results in the bottom card being withheld by the thumb and middle finger of the right hand still in Overhand Shuffle position; this card will protrude about halfway from the deck’s right side. Stop for a beat, letting it be seen that the card comes from somewhere in the center of the deck, and then pull it completely up, turning it face up lengthwise (Stuart Gordon Double Lift style).

Since we’re talking “Stuart Gordon Double Lift” (explained very well in my video tutorial Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction, Lesson 28, “Double Lift Part 3”): If initially you keep the break above two cards instead of one, you will be able to produce a double card – maybe the wrong one? –  which you can then transform into the correct one. Correcting an error is one of the main reasons one would want to be able to do magic, making the symbolic charge of this simple item very high…

Card in Cigarette

Since I’ve mentioned Secret Twitter, here is another item that could find your favor, as those who have Secret Twitter will have forgotten about it, and those who haven’t got it at all, well…

As you’ll see, it is a very good trick (I came up with it…), but it also shows a way one could approach a subject that in the current tendency to be (over-) careful with what one says and does, has become delicate, cigarettes.

In the piece descried below a cigarette is used, but in a context that is very acceptable for all audiences, I feel. You can, e.g, say that you’ve stopped smoking years ago (so, you could do this even for children with an educational message), but you’ve kept your “last cigarette” out of sentimentality, or others reasons… (don’t make this too “educational”…).

Now do the trick as described.

Alternative ending: If one day you forget the salt shaker, you can directly take the cigarette and wave it over the card like a magic wand. When the card is then revealed to be blank, it makes all surreal sense in the (fairytale) world to find the card inside the cigarette. Certainly, the salt shaker filled with tobacco is a really good idea that adds that “certain something” to the piece.

Additional idea: You are left with the cigarette case, which could be one of those “changing cigarette cases” with a false bottom that hides a playing card, a billet, a banknote etc., and that you could now logically use in your next piece. It has to be said, though, that the following piece needs to be a very strong one, in order to follow “Card in Cigarette”.

Wish you all an excellent week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: On terminology: Expert on “Expert; Advice on writing; Shuffling the aces; News on orimotos

These are The Magic Memories 128, gone online Sunday, June 11th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

On Terminology

If you follow my publications, you know I’m fond of terminology, and with the Card College series I have contributed to the subject, too. Taxonomy and terminology are the first steps to a scientific study of magic, but are also very helpful for creative processes.

The following glossary might be more for beginners, although I have myself learned a few terms I didn’t know or wasn’t sure about, so, I assume that this could be helpful for those among us who have English as a foreign language (as I do!), and I know that this is the case with quite a few who are reading these The Magic Memories.

My good friend by correspondence EndersGame has created a very useful glossary of technical terms used in conjunction with playing cards (card terms, handling terms, card playing terms etc.). To read and maybe transfer them to your electronic notebook CLICK HERE.

BTW: By the same author, EndersGame, comes a collection of quotes and one-liners on playing cards, here is one:

“Everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems, in case they are ever trapped in an elevator.” – Daniel Handler

If you liked that one, you’ll find a few more HERE. (I find it easier to have THREE card tricks, and ONE poem… less to learn… for me…)

And if you have one (or all three!) of my Agendas (if you’re wondering: the third is Secret Twitter), you will find several entries dealing with amusing, instructive, and inspirational quotes.

Practical Advice: Take an Agenda (Secret or Hidden), search “Quote” in the index, or better leaf through the book quickly, as not all quotes are listed in the index… ask my publishers why…), find the pages with the quotes, and using a scan app (e.g., “Scanner Pro” by Readdle) make a PDF of the pages. Attention: Do NOT – I repeat DO NOT – make photos of each individual photos, but using the scan app make ONE SINGLE PDF, which will then contain all the pages; this is much more practical than making photos, the latter being a procedure I see many adopt, and it is useless. A PDF takes less memory space, you have everything in one single PDF-file, AND you can edit it (I use PDF Expert, also by Readdle) by underlining, highlighting and commenting passages.

Last Word: If you are reading this an don’t have any of the Agendas, get one right now, and you’ll find it to be one of your very best investments. Secret Agenda (book and Secret Twitter (PDF) are both available from me, Hidden Agenda is unfortunately out of print, and Vanishing Inc. refuses to reprint, or even to let me have it as an e-book…

Expert on “Expert”

In The Magic Memories 126 I commented on Chris Wasshuber’s new book about Erdnase and who he might be. Shortly afterwards the news reaches me that there is a new candidate for “Who’s Erdnase” in the already long line-up, one Emory Cobb Andrews, of whom I have never heard before.

The research comes from Professor Richard H. Evans (who, I’m deeply ashamed to admit, I’ve never heard of before either), who according to Marco Pusterla (finally one I know, since he’s been a friend for years ) is: “… a noted magic historian with a long list of credits in our field, and whose research – particularly on Isaac Fawkes – have always been at the top level.”

Pusterla is the editor of a possibly little-known magazine titled Ye Olde Magic Mag, a magazine dedicated to. In vol. 9 #3 you can find a lengthy article about the Erdnase matter. The issue in its PDF-form is a mere £ 5 (British Pounds, that is), and you can get it HERE.

Advice on Writing

If anyone reading this is considering writing a book, or a set of lecture notes, or simply an article for a magazine, please first consider the following rules for the proper use of English – I found these in a in my notebook Sudelbuch II (started AUG 2007, ended JUNE 2008):

Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction.

It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

Avoid clichés like the plague. (They’re old hat).

Always avoid annoying alliteration.

Be more or less specific.

Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.

Also, too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

No sentence fragments. No comma splices, run-ons are bad too.

Contractions aren’t helpful and shouldn’t be used.

Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.

One should never generalize.

Comparisons are as bad as clichés.

Don’t use no double negatives.

Avoid ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

One -word sentences? Eliminate.

Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

The passive voice is to be ignored.

Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.

Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.

Kill all exclamation points!!!!

Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

Understatement is probably not the best way to propose earth shattering ideas.

Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit it when its not needed.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.

Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

Exaggeration is a million times worse than understatement.

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

I told you, it’s not easy…

Seriously, if you want to do any writing in magic, there is nothing better than Stephen Minch’s Stylebook. I had put this up with Stephen’s permission in my Advent Calendar, but HERE it is again, for your convenience.

Shuffling the Aces

The title is, of course, an allusion to the classic plot of “Cutting the Aces”.

Although I’m an orderly person and keep my notes as precise as possible, occasionally I miss to do so. Therefore, I can’t remember if I ever published the following simple but effective little Ace Opener. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that someone else has though of it before, after, or at the same time as I have, as it is not very high on the “Monkey Scale” (see Sharing Secrets, p. 78).

Anyway, here it is:

The four Aces are on top of the deck. Start an Overhand Shuffle by running three cards, the first three Aces, lifting them behind the balance (Lift Shuffle), and then continue the shuffle, running the next card – an Ace – as you ask a spectator to call ›stop‹. Explain that you want him to do this four times, so convey to have ›stop‹ called after about a quarter of the cards has been shuffled off.

Place the cards just shuffled off face down on the table – the bottom card will be an Ace. Finish the shuffle, dropping the three lifted Aces back on top.

Repeat the procedure explained twice more, the second time running and lifting two Aces, the third time one Ace. You will be left with about a quarter of the deck, which has the fourth Ace on the bottom; place this face down next to the other three packets on the table.

To reveal the first Ace the right hand seizes the first packet in End Grip, turns it face up à la Stuart Gordon Double Lift, displaying the Ace on the face of the packet for a few seconds. The right thumb then slides the face card to the right, as the remaining fingers flip the balance of the packet face down into left hand Dealing Position. Place the face up Ace diagonally offset on top of the face down packet, and then put everything on the table. Repeat with the other three packets.

Variant

Another way of arriving at exactly the same effect is to start our with the four Aces on the bottom of the deck, and when you start an Overhand Shuffle, the left fingers slip the bottom card along in the first shuffle action. Repeat another three times. This is more efficient, but your technique must be very good.

Note on “Comedy Card Opener”

My friend Guillaume Cerati, who is also my partner in the production of the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction videos, visited for two days. In one of our long conversations he commented on “Comedy Card Opener” I published in last week’s The Magic Memories 127.

Guillaume, besides being an excellent close-up performer, also performs for children, and remarked he has started using the item in his children’s shows to excellent effect: He takes out the card case  and holds it in his right hand, then looks away at the children, saying he needs a deck of cards. At this very moment the deck rises out of the card case, and of course the kids start yelling. But when he looks back at the card case, the deck has of course dropped back into the case. This goes back and forth a few times, in the usual form children’s entertainers know very well.

When I started doing magic I did do a few children’s shows, and even as a professional, from 1988, tried my hand at it a few times, with fairly good success, until I realized that doing magic for children is a “profession within the profession”, obviously, as any specialty in magic is (“close-up”, “television”, trade shows”, etc.).

Also, I have to admit, that I enjoy the intellectual recognition I get from performing from adults, something you don’t get from children; and those bright eyes, spontaneous laughs, and open mouths you get from children, all very beautiful things, well, it’s not enough for me… I’m an intellectual, and I need an intellectual response. I’m not saying this is good or bad, but it’s just the way it is, for me, and I won’t change it.

News on Orimotos

To end these The Magic Memories a brief update on Barbara’s Orimotos for those of you who asked about it: In the photo below you can see a selection of non-magical subjects she did, from simple to complex. If you are interested to have a personalized Orimoto (text, illustration, or a combination of both) write to me; the price is between € 200 and € 350, depending on complexity and technique.

Wish you all an excellent week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Circolo Amici della Magia Torino; Let’s Keep Sleights And Gimmicks, please; Playing With Food (food illusions); Comedy Card Opener

These are The Magic Memories 127, gone online Sunday, June 4th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

My friend Yves Carbonnier from Paris is about to visit with me for a few days, and in a few minutes I will be picking up our mutual friend Lorenz Schär: We are off to an excellent restaurant for a magical lunch in Alsatia, France, right across the border from where I live 🙂 I will tell you more about these two very talented chaps and our adventures in an upcoming post (they both have a very interesting book!)…

Circolo Amici della Magia

In last week’s report about my travel to Italy (The Magic Memories 216)  I forgot to tell you about my visit to the new premises of the Circolo Amici della Magia (CADM), Italy’s largest magic club with over 300 members. Since its foundation in 1971 it has changed its premises several times, each time to the better, to land now in an incredible place. Below are a few photographic impressions I’ve taken from my visit in May:

So, when in Torino (“Turin” in english), make sure to contact president Marco Aimone through the “Contact” item on their webpage, and I’m sure he’ll cordially invite you to the club, where they have something going almost every night of the week. This is one of the most active magic clubs I know, and they even made me an honorary member, too, and have always been very generous toward me, and I have given as many lectures and masterclasses as for the members of CADM 🙂

More info and much better photos than mine about CADM and their activities HERE (it’s all in Italian, but Google Translate will get this in sufficiently understandable English… I hope).

Let’s Keep Sleights And Gimmicks, Please

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government [rg note: before BREXIT] conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year-plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

Rereading the amusing text above, reminded me of an utterance attributed to Dr. Jacob Daley that goes something like this: “If you take a card trick with three sleights, and replace the first sleight with a subtlety, you get a better trick. If you eliminate the second sleight, you get a small miracle. But if you eliminate the last sleight, then you usually end up with a mathematical atrocity.” This is my wording from memory, and similar quotes can be found in the foreword to Frank Garcia’s Million Dollar Card Secrets, as well as in the foreword to Marlo’s The Cardician.

So, let’s keep those sleights and gimmicks, with parsimony, and use them skillfully and intelligently, always keeping the effect in mind, knowing that methods are merely a means to and end; this will get us closer to perfection and to a miracle. The result will be Artistic Astonishment.

***Sudelbuch Volume 3 is number three in a series of my personal notebooks devoted to “good thoughts, useful and useless information, remarkable quotes, and all things that one likes to read from time to time…”

Playing With Food

Although we have been told not to play with food, some simply refuse to listen.

At Heston Blumenthal’s stellar “Fat Duck”, a three-star Michelin restaurant, a chocolate dessert is served in form of playing cards, opening up to all sorts of magical shenanigans at the table, provided one of the guests knows how to force a card…

If you’re interested in the subject of “food illusions”, maybe to combine with a “Magic Dinner” you plan to do at a nearby restaurant of yours, CLICK HERE to get an idea of some possibilities.

Comedy Card Opener

This seems like an old idea, but I’ve never seen anyone use it, although it is so simple and effective… and practical at that.

The illustration below says it all.

I use this with a vest that has four pockets (very convenient!), two lower and two upper pockets. (As explained in my video lecture The Close-up Act of Roberto Giobbi, I use the lower left pocket for “trash”, i.e., it receives everything I discard, such as the thread from Gipsy Thread, torn pieces of paper etc.)

If you place the deck in the lower right vest pocket you can then simply take the deck out, hold it in Dealing Position with the flap upward, and by slowly moving backwards make the deck rise out of the card case.

Remember to move the body backwards, not the hand forward – this is an application of the theory of the Space-Information-Continuum (Sharing Secrets, p. 102) and makes big difference – try it.

To prevent the thread to cut into the card case, the hole should be reinforced with a metal eyelet, but that’s obvious, Watson, isn’t it?

Wish you all an excellent week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Vernon’s Deja-vu (TTTCBE); Museo della magia Cherasco; Masters of Magic Convention Torino; Letters from Juan 2; Who is Erdnase? (Wasshuber’s book); European Close-up Symposium

These are The Magic Memories 126, gone online Sunday, May 28th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

In the last post I promised to continue my report on my Swiss-Italian travel. So, here it is:

Vernon’s Deja-vu (TTTCBE)

After a short night following the lecture and evening show reported last time, and before embarking on the travel to Italy, José Ángel and I had to fortify ourselves first, and what better way of doing so than having a Fondue for lunch, one of Switzerland’s gastronomical battle-horses.

For this you need to know that the region we were is la région par excellence of Fondue.

One of the best place to have Fondue, if not the best, is the Café Tivoli in Chatel-Saint Denis. We had “moitié-moitié”, half-half, meaning half Gruyère and half Vacherin cheese, very creamy, not too hot (temperature) and served in a pot over a “réchaud”, a food-warmer, with bread and small boiled potatoes. This, with a Chasselas wine from the region, and you’ll feel happy as a clam on high tide.

If you ever come to Switzerland, I recommend you plan a visit to the Chaplin Museum in Vevey, one of the world’s best museums, and before doing so, for lunch go to the Café Tivoli and have a Fondue (and a Meringue with double-cream for dessert!). It is then only a ten-minute car-drive to the Chaplin museum. Spend three hours there, drive down to Vevey (five minutes), take a stroll along the lake-side promenade in Vevey, and then stay overnight in one of the beautiful hotels overseeing Lake Geneva and the Alp panorama.

You’re welcome 🙂

But here comes the punchline: We were four at table, José Ángel, my friend Jean-François (JF) Tuberosi, and his son Matteo. After the satisfying meal, JF asked me to do a trick for his son.

I had to smile, as at this moment a story told about Ricky Jay flashed across my mind: Ricky had been asked for dinner by a good friend who had a teenage son. Ricky accepted under the explicit condition that he would not be asked to perform a trick for his friend’s son, or else he would immediately leave. You guessed what happened: Upon arrival, his friend asked Ricky to do a trick for his son! Reportedly, Ricky, without missing a beat, turned round and left.

Not having a fraction of Mr. Jay’s talent, but also not his, well, “challenging character”, I had anticipated the situation and in a previously unwatched moment written “7H” on my paper napkin, and placed the napkin aside on the table.

When JF asked the inevitable question, I told Matteo that I would only perform if I could do so with his father’s cards… (the day before I had given him a deck of my Card College Playing Cards, so knew what I would get). I instructed Matteo to take the cards from the case, eliminate the Jokers, and then shuffle the deck. Upon taking it back I glimpsed the top and bottom cards – no 7H.

I, “Did you cut the cards?”

Matteo, “No.”

I, “Even if you shuffle the cards yourself – always cut the cards.” (Sharing Secrets, “Memory Editing”, joke to anchor the shuffle, p. 74)

In placing the deck back on the table I again glimpsed the top and bottom cards. Lo and behold, the top card was the 7H! (The Annotated Sharing Secrets, “The Principle of F***ing Luck”, p. 69)

Were Vernon and Koran watching?

I reminded the company what had just taken place (Sharing Secrets, “Principle of Recap”, p. 86), then asked Matteo to turn the deck’s top card, displaying the 7H. I dropped the paper napkin next to the card, and then slowly unfolded it to reveal the writing “7H”.

Loud silence! Interrupted by a “click” of dropping jaws.

Of course I couldn’t resist looking at Matteo and saying: “So, that’s the kind of magic I do. What does your father do with these cards?” (Cliff Green must have been watching, too…)

It was only thanks to years of friendship with JF that he didn’t physically attack me…

Final comment: Statistics says that if you perform the above actions 52 times, it will happen once. Or, because we glimpsed four cards, maybe only 13 times?

The mathematicians among you might tell me…

Anyway, when I’m back home I’ll do this same procedure 51 times for my wife, so I should hit it again on my next “real” performance 🙂

And one more thing: When doing TTTCBE (Ganson, Dai Vernon’s More Inner Secrets of Card Magic, p. 76), and it works like described above, the only solution the cognoscenti will have, is that you had the card palmed, and then added it to the top of the deck. If you don’t want to deprive them of the exquisite experience of astonishment, make it a point to show your hands empty, rub and clap them several times (Frakson to Tamariz, “Las palmadas, Juanito, las palmadas!”)before the spectator starts the shuffling process; you don’t want to do that later, before taking the deck back, as it would draw attention to the glimpsing action…

Museo della magia Cherasco

Now, for the travel, finally: From the “Anneaux Magiques” in Morges (see The Magic Memories 125), José Ángel and I took it upon us to cross the Alps and get to Italy.

Compared to Hannibal, who in 218 BC, a period when Carthage and Rome were competing for world dominance, traversed the mountains, once thought uncrossable, with a force of more than 30,000 soldiers, 15,000 cavalry and, most famous of all, 37 elephants, our trip was easy.

He did all this in sixteen days, as the annals report. It took us by car about four hours, as these Magic Memories tell. 

Not only did we cross the Alps on civilized roads and through a (expensive!) tunnel, the Great Saint Bernhard Tunnel, but we also managed to drive around Torino, down the “Langhe”, the famous region between Asti and Alba, famous for arguably Italy’s best wines, Barolo and Barbaresco, and in season for white truffle, and then reached Don Silvio Mantelli’s “Museo della magia” in Cherasco, where we would stay for the next few days.

Don Silvio’s Magic Museum is of course worth a lengthy report, sometimes in the future… For now I will content myself with serving a glass of wine to the Mona Lisa (see below):

We used the time between two card tricks and the perusal of several books…

… to visit the countryside around Cherasco. On Tuesday we took a quick side-trip to la banca del vino, the wine bank, an institution that has the task of storing and displaying a case of each wine in Italy: They store well over 100’000 bottles from thousands of producers, a visit to behold. And they have a museum-wine shop, too…

The Banca del vino is located in Pollenzo, in one of the many imperial country castles that characterize Piedmont, which in former times was the residence of the Savoy (history buffs read more HERE).

The photo above shows the entry to the wine bank, with over 100’000 bottles of wine. Below a peek at Don Silvio’s magic library with ca. 22’000 magic books and ca. 3’000 magazines (bound volumes, that is!), total ca. 25’000 magic publications. This proves that in Italy there are at least four times as many wines as there are magic books…

In the afternoon we visited the village that gave its name to Italy’s most famous and oldest wine denomination, Barolo.

On a side-note: Traditionally, in Europe the names of the wines, and the names you find on the labels, reflect the precise location they are produced, and also the location within the location. So, if you read Barbaresco, Rabaja, on the label, you know that it is a wine from a producer in and around the village of Barbaresco, and from the very limited vineyards of Rabaja. This is a very honest way of a declaration, which has been lost on most modern wines, which carry fantasy names, whose only purpose is marketing (take “Opus One”, not really a paramount example of modesty… but I agree that the wine is good!).

After lunch, on our way back to Cherasco, we stopped at yet another Castello, in Novello, the birthplace of Don Silvio – have a brief look HERE, you will be amazed. The castle is now an event location with a hotel and restaurant (open only for special events).

Thanks to Don Silvio’s connections, the owner of the castle gave us a tour – wonderful! And we got free drinks at the bar.

The photo below shows one of the several smaller “private” rooms that can host a group. The table you see could take 13 guests, a perfect setting for a magic dinner titled “The Thirteenth Guest”… Notice the fantastic frescoes on the ceiling, and the carpets on the walls – everything original (ca. 1850), of course, not Las Vegas fakes…

Masters of Magic Convention Torino

On Wednesday we got to Torino, where Thursday the Master of Magic convention started. Due to professional obligations I could only stay that one day, and had to head back home on Friday. Hence, only a short comment.

Still, I could enjoy the location, the Automobile museum in Torino (see HERE), in itself worth traveling to. This museum, along with the film museum, the Egyptian museum and the Royal Palace, make Torino one of the culturally most interesting “smaller” cities in the world  – by all means seek it out when traveling to Italy (and I did not talk about the libraries, shops, cafes, restaurants, arcades, historic buildings etc.).

As for the convention, anything Walter Rolfo touches has highest production value, as this is his forte: Tired seating in the small theatre for the lectures and presentations with good visibility and camera work (Vanishing Inc. take note for “The Session”), excellent reception, interesting dealers, world-class artists (not all with world-class lectures, though…).

The evening shows and stage competition took place at the other end of the city (!), at the Teatro Alfieri, and this, along with the lack of affordable hotels nearby, made it a bitter pill. When we looked for a hotel nearby we only found rooms for € 300 and over, and the one we found at € 120, albeit very nice, was 25 minutes car drive away (plus searching for parking), simply unacceptable.

There is no question that organizing a magic convention, big or small, is a challenge that only few can overcome to the satisfaction of all… and we’ll leave it at that.

That’s the end of the Italo-Swiss adventure, which, like any Asterix & Obelix adventure, ends in a gastronomical feast, this time at “Tre re”, the “Three Kings”, Roberto Marchello’s ristorante in Castellamonte. We talked, sat, discussed, eat, argued, drank, from noon to over 4 pm – hard to understand if you live in the New World.

Both the French gastronomer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and the German philosopher Immanuel Kant maintained that “it’s only at a table that already the first hour is amusing.” Brillat-Savarin cared for good food and wines, Kant for inspiring company – I vote for a combination of the two 🙂

Letters from Juan 2

Albert Einstein once said about Niels Bohr: “He expresses his opinion like someone who constantly searches, never like someone, who thinks to hold the complete truth.” Einstein’s utterance fits Juan Tamariz like a glove, and it shows up in all of Tamariz’s  writings, and it is only one of the reasons we should read them.

Granted, several of the routines you will be reading in this and in all upcoming Letters (how many? many!) are 100% Tamariz, idiosyncratic pieces that only he can pull off in the way described. So, the way to learn from it is to read it through carefully, ideally with instruments in hands, mostly a deck of cards, and extract every idea that catches your fancy in an external notebook, paper or electronic.

One of the notes I made is on p. 18, where at the beginning of a trick description he says: “Since it doesn’t have any technical challenge, you can focus on the most important thing of this, and of any other trick: feeling the effect.” Brilliant!

This is such an important thought, and it overshadows that bullshit sentence you can find in so many places in the magic literature: “…so you can focus entirely on the presentation“. What a rubbish, and what’s that supposed to mean anyway?

My favorite practical item in this issue? “Impromptu Double Flying”, on p. 31, no more comments – go, and read it for yourself.

Who is Erdnase?

Chris Wasshuber, of lybrary.com-fame, wrote a hefty book on a subject that has been haunting magic historians in general, and cardicians in particular, namely: Who is Erdnase? On over 400 pages he argues his case, with unprecedented minutiae.

If this topic is your cup of tea (or as Denis Behr in Germany would say: “If this is your beer”) it goes without saying that you want to add this elaborate research to your bookshelf next to Gardner, Busby, Hatch, James, Sawyer etc.

The publication is obtainable as a PDF or as a hardbound book with dustcover: For details and to order CLICK HERE.

European Close-up Symposium

Years ago David Ben invited Stephen Minch and myself as guests of honor to the famous “31 Faces North” convention in Toronto, an invitation-only event sponsored by the late Allan Slaight.

This certainly deserves a report of its own in a future edition of The Magic Memories, but I’m mentioning it here because the meeting, running over several days, was organized such, that each participant would give a short presentation, from ten to twenty minutes, and the two guests of honor would do a lecture-performance-interview type of presentation for an hour or so.

Well, I found this so inspiring, that upon my return I decided to initiate something similar in Italy. I called it “Magic Symposium”. We did that four times in Torino, on the premises of the magic club there, Club Amici Della Magia (CADM), in November (truffle season…), and it was quite successful, even though we lacked the support of a billionaire sponsor 🙂

Giacomo Bertini, of System of Amazement fame, written by no less than Stephen Minch, attended the meetings in Torino, and asked me if he could take the idea and do a “Coin Magic Symposium” in Milan, which later became the “European Close-up Symposium”. So, Toronto begets Torino begets Milan, and now Vienna! As they say: “If you have an idea, you’re adding, if you share an idea, you’re multiplying.”

So, after a three-year hiatus due to Corona, this great idea is back, taking place in Bill Chueng’s new close-up theatre, outside of Vienna. More details HERE.

BTW: Giacomo has a website with lots of free video tutorials you will like if coins are your thing, and you might like them even if they aren’t – CLICK HERE.

Now, I have to run, as tonight we’re celebrating my birthday in a belated dinner with my family (Barbara, Rafael and Miro). I apologize for such a long post, but I didn’t have the time to write a shorter one 🙂

Wish you all an excellent week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Thank you for birthday; Anneaux Magiques Morges – Lectures – Show & Competition; Paper Cuttings by Barbara

These are The Magic Memories 125, gone online Sunday, May 21st, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Thank you!

First and foremost, I would like to thank all those who have sent in good wishes for my birthday of May 1st. Please know that they are all read and very much appreciated, but forgive me for not answering them: Although I am on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Messenger and what have you, I forget to look at them… my webmaster Andrea Pancotti set this all up for me, with lots of goodwill, but I still have to understand its use… I promise I will one day…

Meanwhile, if you want to contact me with a good probability of me answering, send an email over the webshop contact form, or email me directly if you have my mail 🙂

At least in this point I’m am very much like Dai Vernon, who started many of his hand-written letters thusly: “Dear friend, please forgive me for being such a bad correspondent…”

Anneaux Magiques Morges

On May 6th, 2023, I attended the “Anneaux Magiques”, French for “Magic Rings”, a one-day affair whose highlight is the big evening show discussed below.

The event takes place every two years in the Theatre Beausobre in Morges, in the French speaking part of Switzerland, a town on the border of picturesque Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). See the photos below, and imagine how the place looks on a sunny day 🙂

Comments on Lecture

To make it a full magic day, the organizers book three lecturers for the day. This year they were Cyril Harvey (F), Pierric (CH) and Roberto Giobbi (CH).

This was a good mix, as Cyrill talked about manipulation and various original gimmicks of his invention, Pierric on how to bring magic to the theatre, and vice-versa, and I did my talk on Stand-up Card Magic, which I had to do in less than 75 minutes, a bit tight for my type of lecture that not only discusses tricks, techniques and presentation, but also polyvalent concepts.

The reason I’m mentioning it here, is that although the room was adequate to receive the ca. 60 attendants, the set-up wasn’t. So, what to do in such situations that can occur anytime you are booked to perform?

In the photo below you can see Cyril lecturing. He had to step down from the stage (on the left) they had set up and which had the windows on the back with the daylight (sun!) shining through and dazzling the audience; from the three sides which would have worked, they picked the fourth side, the worst of all, to set up the stage and the sound equipment. It is hard to believe how this can be. Both Cyrill and Pierric suffered from this condition, but above all their audience.

Fortunately, they had put my lecture last, at 4:30 pm, so when I entered the room I asked four strong men to assist me, and in 15 minutes we re-set the situation, so that my stage was now against a uniform wall with the light coming from the front. The photo below (me performing “Card Call” from Stand-up Card Magic) is not very good, but you can see how the situation has been considerably improved.

Obviously, the best option is to carry your own stage, backdrops, sound equipment etc., but in some cases this is neither desirable nor practical, and you have to rely on the people who book you. However, when you see that the situation is inadequate, have the courage to speak up, and ask them to change the situation. Very often this can be done with reasonable effort.

If you are interested in the details of such things related to performing in stand-up situations, read the first two chapters of my book Stand-up Card Magic and/or get the DVD of my first Penguin Lecture. As far as I know, these are the only publications that discuss step by step all those things, as well as the card techniques to be adapted. The conditions under which we are performing are as important as the performance itself, and it should be taken care of by talking to the event manager before the show, ideally days before…

Show & Competition

The raison d’être of the Anneaux Magiques is the evening show that takes place in a truly magnificent theatre that can take up to 850 seats, and according to the organizers was sold out.

The show is split into two parts: The first part is a competition by invitation only, the second part (to give time to the judges to discuss) another show, and it is hard to say which part was better, as they both starred high-caliber acts.

The idea of the competition is to choose and invite five acts presented by an MC. The acts get all expenses paid for and have the opportunity to win one of the four prestigious awards, three given by an elect jury of combined magicians and laymen, and then one award decided upon by the audience. The latter is an interesting idea and simply works by giving each spectator when they enter the theatre a chip, which in the break they then drop in one of five boxes, each bearing the name of the competitor. Simple and efficient, provided all is handled by an honest staff, and what could be more honest in an impartial and neutral country than Switzerland 🙂

Pierric, the winner of the Close-up Grand Prix in Rimini 2015, was a great MC, with fresh and original presentations. He introduced the various acts, which all had their merit, but were also very different genre-wise from each other, so I did not envy the jury. How can you compare a comedy illusion act with a manipulation act?

Obviously, the most “flashy” act won, Man Ho from Korea, who also was the audience’s favorite.

As always, all of this is debatable, also the utterance of a magician jury member, who told the non–magicians that an act needs to be “commercial”… However, in order to be recognized as an art form, we should keep in mind that one of the factors that make something art, is that it certainly doesn’t need to be commercial, although it can become so at some point, but that’s another conversation…

The second part of the evening was moderated by another FISM world champion, Norbert Ferré, who, like a good wines, has reached a point of high artistic maturity – his pieces would deserve a longer discussion.

He introduced Laurent Piron, yet another FISM winner, who did what he did very well; you may like it or not, but it was very well thought out and performed.

Mortenn Christiansen (again a FISM champion), whom I had seen and reviewed in January at The Session, in London, did his act in French, well, some of it, and was successful, although by far not as good as in London, where he could perform in his native (well, almost) language English (he’s Danish…).

Finally, Artem Schukin – you got it by now, also a FISM winner, like all the others – is, to me, in a class by himself, just beautiful. This is my kind of magic, I admit, formal minimalism, with maximum artistic content and expression.

Briefly: The evening event was truly superb, and Christophe Crovara and his team receive my sincerest thanks and compliments. The next Anneaux Magiques will take place in 2025, and if you have a chance, you should attend.

The winners of 2023 were:

• Les Anneaux Magiques d’Or to Man Ho (Korea)
• Les Anneaux Magiques d’Argent to Francesco Della Bona (Italy)
• Les Anneaux Magiques de Bronze to Ramo & Alegria (Spain)
• Audience Award to Man Ho (Korea)

Needless to say that the event brought together some interesting people from magic, and similar to the adventures of Asterix and Obelix, it ended in a gastronomical feast:

Paper Cuttings by Barbara

Barbara not only does layouts, pottery and orimotos, she’s now trying her hand at paper cutting.

Below is one of her first attempts at reproducing the logo from the Card College books – you must admit that she’s quite talented in this, too!

If you have any subject you would like to be interpreted as a paper cut or silhouette, send in your request via the contact form the webshop, and we’ll tell you if it can be done and what it would cost (ca. $ 150 – 350 depending on complexity). Every piece is of course a unique piece.

I’m just back from watching Michel Gammenthaler’s show at a small theatre im Basel, a “theatre de poche” a “pocket theatre” as the French would say, meaning an intimate setting that takes ca. 150 spectators. The show was very good and enthusiastically received by the audience, as Michel is of course a consummate professional stand-up comedian and magician. However, it cut into my time, and I’ll have to postpone my report about the rest of my Italian trip to the The Magic Memories 126 – see you then.

Wish you all an excellent week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Eleven Fingers Routine (video)

These are The Magic Memories 124, gone online Sunday, May 14th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Back, But

I’m back from the “Anneaux Magiques” in Morges, the visit at Don Silvio’s Magic Museum & Library, as well as from the “Masters of Magic” convention in Torino, but a show comes up in 24 hours, and the “jet lag” plus the preparation for the show result in today’s The Magic Memories being again shorter than usual, BUT I promise a lengthier one with all the reports and photos and some extras next week 🙂 Below a photo taken after the show in Morges, Switzerland:

Thank you for Birthday Wishes

Thank you to all of you who sent in good wishes for my birthday on May, 1st – I’m now 64 years of age, and my friend Joe Gallant in his email assured me that at least some among you will “still need me, and still feed me”, in the best of Beatles manner… so, I’ll try to keep doing what I’ve been doing up to now. To hear the song and read the wonderful lyrics, CLICK HERE.

The Eleven Fingers Routine

In my book “Secret Agenda”, entries for May 7 & 8, I mention a very simple three-part routine using fingers.

My friend Alfonso Aceituno asked me for it, after I had shown it to him years before. Therefore, I made this little private video clip for him, and thought some of you might be interested in it, too. So, here it is, with my compliments.

To watch the short video CLICK HERE.

This little routine is ideal to show to a small child, but all the adults around will also enjoy it. I found that it even surprises those into magic, as somehow most have never seen it, at least not the first two parts. It also comes in handy if someone asks you to “do a trick”, and you don’t feel like it: Simply do the stunt as shown, and then say that with those fingers you simply cannot do anything. There will be a laugh, and that will be it.

Besides, I would like to say that it is absolutely not necessary to “do a trick” when someone asks you, as is so often suggested by dealer ads, who want you to sell a trick with which you will be “always ready to perform when asked for”. But this subject is yet another conversation, and we won’t lead it today (but you’re welcome to think about it).

I can’t remember where I saw the first part, but the second part was done by someone at the G4G7 convention, a meeting dedicated to Martin Gardner, at a Night Before Party on the subject of puzzles and stunts. The handling was different, though. When I showed it to my sons, Miro remarked that folding back only one finger instead of two and changing the rhythm could be more deceptive. He was right, and you can see the result in the clip.

The very last part, with the twelve fingers, the one I’m using as the Epilogue, was suggested by Ron Wohl.

Back next week with a lengthier contribution 🙂

Wish you all an excellent week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: The Acrobat family video clip – a different handling; Pause for travel to Morges and Italy.

These are The Magic Memories 123, gone online Sunday, May 7th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

This week’s The Magic Memories will be short as I’m on the road lecturing at the one-day event “Les Anneaux Magiques” in Morges, Switzerland, an invitation-only high-caliber competition.

After that I’ll head to Cherasco to visit Don Silvio Mantelli who has a magic museum and one of the largest magic libraries (I’ve reported about this before), this together with my friend José Ángel, the organizer of Magialdia, the world’s most remarkable convention (my opinion, of course). Then a quick visit to Walter Rolfo’s Masters of Magic convention in Torino, and back to Switzerland for an evening of magic for the “Kulturverein Muttenz“.

Hopefully I’ll find time to tell you about my adventures abroad in The Magic Memories 124… else, it will be in The Magic Memories 125.

The Acrobat Family

Here is a little video clip you might enjoy: It is a really simple and straightforward trick, purely for laymen, based on the “Elevator” plot, as dealt with in the Chapter 8 on the Glide in Card College Volume 1.

Obviously, at such an early stage in the Card College course, I was forced to stick to the techniques that had been taught up to that point, which were not many. But I still think that the original as described in Card College using the Glide is an interesting use of that almost-forgotten sleight.

The version you’ll see in the video uses a more advanced technique, the Braue Addition (Card College 1, Chapter 14). Note how the “Space-Information Continuum” explained in Sharing Secrets is applied to make the position of the cards crystal-clear and thus enhance the effect.

Also observe how the pacing is an important part of the performance, with the hesitation at the end, in order to break monotony, boosting the curve of interest and adding suspense before the final reversal is revealed, a slight variation in effect, all previous ones being penetrations, a little-used phenomenon in card magic. There are indeed a lot of details in this little piece…

Ref. Glide I remember an anecdote with Juan Tamariz. Years ago, we were sessioning at Juan’s home in San Fernando, in the south of Spain. Several renowned performers were present, each performing his latest ideas. Imagine…

At some point the discussion came to the Glide. Most opined that the sleight was old-fashioned and not very useful and natural. Juan, as usual, did not agree, and defended the Glide passionately, also bringing up the original handling described in Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft (look it up!).

A little later we went for dinner. And to prove his point about the effectiveness of the Glide, after dinner Juan did a 20-minute show (at least!) for the waiters of the restaurant, in which he used the Glide in every trick! Now even the most sceptic had been converted. Such is the power of Tamariz…

To watch the video CLICK HERE.

Wish you all an excellent week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Berlin Visit; Crazy cut-ups; Card College 5 on video; Masters of Magic Convention in Torino, Italy.

These are The Magic Memories 122, gone online Sunday, April 30th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Berlin Visit

I’m just back from a flying visit to Berlin to meet my old friend Chris Wasshuber, founder & owner of lybrary.com.

Chris has devoted himself full-time to e-books since 2009, but started much earlier, and has now accumulated the largest collection of commercially available magic e-books. To get on his newsletter, which I recommend, and to see what he has to offer, CLICK HERE.

Chris and I have done some very interesting projects together, if I may say so myself, such as Ask Roberto, originally conceived as an e-book, later also available as a book, and now again only obtainable as a PDF (this is the ideal format for this type of publication).

The last time we met was in 2001, at my home in Muttenz, Switzerland, were he made video clips of all the moves from Card College volumes 1 and 2, and then created an e-book version with the text from the books plus the videos to illustrate the sleights. Originally, this was available in a HTML-format on a CD/DVD, and has now been converted into PDFs. So, if you are interested, you can get each chapter individually, or the whole lot together from Chris’s webshop HERE.

We kicked back and forth a few ideas, and in the near future you might hear about them – stay tuned (get on the Newsletter on my webshop, and read the The Magic Memories every Sunday…).

Our meeting took place at a perfect location, a restaurant named “The Kitchen Library”!

In the photo below you can see the reason for the name: The walls are filled with hundreds of books, obviously all about food, wines, cooking etc. Great location for an illustrator, layouter and Orimoto artist (Barbara), an author of magic books (me), and another author, publisher and entrepreneur (Chris).

Although the table is cleared, as the photo was taken at the end of the meal, the menu was a sophisticated one and worth at least one Michelin star.

The photo below shows one course: A beef’s heart, braised for 72 hours, served as a (cold) tartare, with celery mousse and with a dried heart of a tuna fish (!) grated over it, with a crispy cone filled with fresh cheese as a side (in the bowl behind).

I’m mentioning this because this dish is so incredibly unusual and original, and it was excellent.

This is just one of the similarities between gastronomy and magic, that we are in constant search of innovation in methods, effects and presentation.

Much of it is to no avail, in gastronomy and magic (“good is better than original”). BUT, it is necessary and it is the price to pay for progress: We need to create a lot, eliminate most, to keep a little, but that little advances the art, and it reflects life and the universe around us.

As you can see, whenever I’m in those restaurants, it is not for pleasure, of course not… it is hard work, to be inspire and to inspire 🙂

On a side-note: Since Chris is a teetotaler, we didn’t have wines with the meal, but excellent “Chateau d’Eau 2023” 🙂

However, perhaps for an “occupational hazard”, I spotted a bottle of wine which I’ll reproduce below.

Without claiming to be a collector of such things, in the past years I have accumulated in my wine cellar a small dozen of wines that have a label relating in some way to magic, several of them to playing cards as can be seen in the photo below. So, if you happen to have one, too, send it to me, and I’ll publish it in a forthcoming The Magic Memories.

There is so much more I’d like to tell you about Berlin, certainly worth the trip from any part of the world, but your time and mine, too, is limited, alas…

Crazy Cut-ups

I received some lovely comments for last week’s “Behind-the-ear Glimpse”. Gary Plants, a much admired friend and creator, for instance, wrote in to say, ” Behind the ear glimpse is a wonderful idea. It would have fooled me easily.” If you missed it, check it out HERE (at the end of the blog)

So, here is another idea, completely different, that might find the favor of some of you, not only to do at a special occasion, but maybe also to teach a child (remember to make a list of tricks and things magical that could be taught to a child or to a layperson – see Hidden Agenda, entry for January 27). I found it as a single photocopy in my archive, without reference, but Thomas Lenouvel tells me it was first published in a little booklet called “Party Trix a la Carte” by Howard P. Albright, in 1936 by Unique Magic Studio, Albany, NY, and later by Supreme Magic, England, in the 1950s.

The read or download the one-page PDF CLICK HERE.

Card College 5 on Video

I keep getting requests for a video-version of Card College Volume 5, similar to Card College 1&2 – Personal Instruction and Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction. This is much appreciated, and I thank you all for your interest.

However, I’m a bit reluctant to do this, for several reasons. Besides being another herculean task, requiring not only a lot of my time for preparation and recording, it will be taxing on Guillaume Cerati who so beautifully did the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction.

Also, I will not hide from you, that I’m a bit disappointed with the reception of the last project we did, the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction.

Certainly, I got a rave review in Genii, and everyone whom I asked and who owns the product speaks highly of it. That’s fantastic, and I’m very pleased.

Also, several friends are helping promote it (big THANK YOU!), as I’m a dead duck when it comes to marketing, preferring to waste my time on a blog like this one, rather than cultivate the socials and other marketing platforms that would sell.

But, although several hundreds were sold, and it keeps selling, I feel it is not enough to make it worthwhile – after all, magic is my profession, and not my hobby, and I have to make a living from it. It is a slap in my face to see that some people are sending the downloads around to their friends, and that professional webshops offer a pirated version of the product.

I don’t care so much for the pirated PDFs of my books (all my books have been pirated!), as a PDF is never the same as a real book, and those who get the PDFs would probably not have bought the book, but the pirated MP4-downloads are technically the same as the originals, so those are taking away a lot of business from me. And there is no magic organization or foundation in the world that helps protect the rights of us authors.

Last but not least, I find it hard to understand that some people spend $10 or $12 to buy the download of one single sleight or one single trick, but shy away from spending the $78 it costs to buy the Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction that contains over 150 sleights AND over 40 tricks, all explained in painstaking detail, with the theory and the professional experience of almost 50 years that goes into their execution and performance, all in all over twenty-two (!) hours.

Anyway, that’s the long answer to why I probably won’t do it… (unless there is a millionaire among my readership who wants to sponsor such a project for charity’s sake…). Yes, I know, I could do that as a fundraising project, but the procedures involved for this are just not my cup of tea…

To end this on a positive note, I would like to thank all of you honest people who have bought Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction (and Card College 1&2 – Personal Instruction) from me and have thus supported the project, and I hope you feel you have received a lot more than you have paid for 🙂 Please keep telling your friends, and send them to my webshop.

Masters of Magic Convention in Torino, Italy

Walter Rolfo, organizer of the past FISM 2014 in Rimini and future FISM in Torino 2025, kindly invited me to attend his convention “Masters of Magic” (MoM) in Torino from May 11 to 14. So, if you are there, please come up and say hello.

At Walter’s conventions you are always in for a surprise, actually several.

Talking to Max Maven at a past MoM-convention, Max mentioned the famous quote, “Less is more“. (This oxymoronic quote, usually attributed to Mies van der Rohe, a German-born architect, is much older, though,…). Max jokingly commented, “With Walter more is more!” Fact is, that you meet a lot of talent, and that’s the good part. And Torino, the capital of Piemont, is simply a superb city, with lots of history, fantastic museums (film museum, Egyptian museum, Royal Residence, automobile etc.), great architecture, and some of the best food and wines on this planet.

However, personally, I wish most conventions booked less performers who were give more time (and a better fee…). I will never forget the French convention in Vannes years ago where they had booked Johnny Thompson to perform in the gala… and that was it.

Here they had one of the last Greats of the “old school” (Vernon, Slydini, Goshman, etc.), who would have been more than happy to give a lecture, a workshop and even a talk-interview of some kind. Instead, the organizers preferred to fill the time slots with items on the programme with performers of less interest and talent.

For more information on MoM 2023 and how to register CLICK HERE.

Wish you all a very successful week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: International Magic Festival of San Marino; Behind-the-ear Glimpse

These are The Magic Memories 121, gone online Sunday, April 23rd, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

International Magic Festival of San Marino

San Marino, located in the middle-south-east of Italy, near Rimini (FISM 2015!), is number four in the list of the smallest independent countries in the world (what are the other three?). Gabriel and his team organized the 24th edition of the Festival internazionale della magia di San Marino. This event is not only remarkable for its magical quality, but also for the fact that it is sponsored by the government. This really is the type of festival-convention we should aim for, as it brings far more recognition to the art and the artists than merely a public show as it is the case for most magic conventions.

I was booked for a lecture and to be part of the close-up show.

I did my lecture on Stand-up Card Magic, which they put on as the very first event of the convention, on Friday at 11:30 am. I was told that in earlier editions of the festival they started the events only in the afternoon, giving people time to come into San Marino. So, I had only about 60 people in the audience, but at least everyone seemed to leave with a happy face.

Nonetheless, 75 minutes are a very tight timeframe for my type of lecture, which I would characterize as a conceptional lecture, where the tricks, techniques and presentations are placed into a larger context: Although I try to give a detailed explanation of the technical construction of the individual items, my focus is on the polyvalent principles that make magic work, and that can be applied to all magic. The result is that even if someone will not do the trick or technique performed, they will still be able to learn something to apply to their own magic.

Since the lecture was delayed by about 15 minutes, but most of the audience was present, I did a “pre-show” by giving a mini lecture on how to take notes, and also mentioned how I transfer the notes in a more sophisticated system using Evernote. This seemed to be very much appreciated by several.

Friday evening saw a stage competition, sponsored by a jeweler of San Marino (lovely idea), with twelve acts. Fortunately I was not asked to be a judge (in theory I’m a FISM judge, but am glad most don’t seem to know…), although the task for once would have been easy, as most were so bad that you didn’t even have to consider them for an award. The standard was one of the lowest I have ever seen, with but three or four acts that should have competed. This, of course, is an eternal problem of all competitions, and  the only way to get around it, is to have a pre-selection, which admittedly is a hassle and takes time and nerves, for various reasons we won’t discuss here…

This said, I would still want to express my respect and in a certain way my admiration for all the participants. I learned this from an advertising expert, who, years ago, said to me, “Even those with bad ideas and poor execution have invested a lot of their time and thinking in what they do.” Hmmmm…

This was certainly true of most acts, some of which must have spend thousands of Euros and hundreds of hours making up their props and practicing and rehearsing; unfortunately to no avail. Very much like a beautiful sports car that drives into the wrong direction… One of the conventioneers was overheard to say, “They don’t seem to have any friends…”

But of course we all know how difficult it is to tell a friend that what he’s doing is not as good as he thinks… The only solution I see is to try to take yourself not too seriously, to develop a sense of healthy self-criticism, to learn the tools of the trade, to develop criteria, and to have a small group of friends whom you can ask for their sincere constructive opinion.

In theory a magic club could be such a place, but it is also the place that shows that the difference between theory and practice is even bigger in practice than it is in theory. Reminding my of what Al Goshman once told me when I asked him about his opinion of magic clubs. He said, “That’s were the blinds lead the blinds.” I don’t entirely agree, but I will never forget what he said.

Saturday evening saw the traditional gala show which lasted about two and a half hours, too long like most convention gala shows, but with an enthusiastic audience and a group of talented performers. To comment on all the acts simply goes over the scope of this blog, as all the thoughts and implications would deserve an essay of its own.

I liked the dove act of Maxim a lot (you can see two of his remarkable productions HERE).

I realize that magic with animals in general, and doves in particular, are considered problematic by several, and I don’t want to argue this here. As far as I could judge, Maxim treats his animals really well, and the effects he does with them are truly magical with a poetic quality. In my opinion the appearance of a dove, if done artistically, is the epitome of the symbolism of creation; there is no other type of production that so deeply affects the mind and the heart. A subject that merits to be discussed. (Every convention should have at least one 60-minute format or so that has a panel of competent people discussing topics that are normally not treated in the books and magazines, and there are plenty of them: Let’s make a list of such topics and compare in a future issue of The Magic Memories!

I was also greatly amused and laughed like seldom before by the presentations of my friend Raul Cremona of Milan, who emceed the show and who is a household name in Italy, with hundreds of appearances on TV and full-evening theatre shows were he mixes magic and stand-up comedy.

What is so incredible about him is that he’s a stage animal, I mean he has a stage instinct only few have, and within the first few seconds puts any audience into his pocket. It feels as if he was born on stage, and the stage was his natural habitat. For all of us who struggle with stage fright and similar inconveniences days before a show Raul is inspiring. (Although I did not like so much what he said the next day in his lecture, were he explained that the reason he could feel so comfortable on stage is that he despises the audience. Of course it is still an interesting point, as it seems to work, at least for him. Yet another subject to discuss on a panel: “What are your thoughts towards an audience before, during and after you perform?”

Years ago Raul and I met after a lecture of mine in Bologna (he says he’s a fan of mine and has all my books!), and it was already quite late, midnight or so. The two of us, along with a few friends, were hungry, but didn’t know were to go to eat at this time. It so happened that we were standing on the sidewalk in front  of the convention center, under a bright street lantern, and a police car passed by. They suddenly stopped, and one of the policemen shouted out of the window, “Hey, you, aren’t you Raul Cremona!? We’re great fans of yours!”

Raul joked around with them, as is his way, and then said they should escort us to a place we can eat. Said, done. We got in two cars, and the police car in front of us took us to the only Pizzeria in Bologna that was open at this time and that had a line waiting to be seated. Unimpressed by this the two policemen got out, and by their authority got us immediate seating in that great Pizza place. Needless to say that Raul had to give dozens of autographs and make photos. Certainly, this can only happen n Italy 🙂

Before I leave the convention, I would like to comment on two more lectures. One by someone you will never have heard of, Lodovico Marchetti, and whose vocation is not giving lectures. But in spite of his poor abilities as a lecturer, he delighted the audience (and me!) with his original ideas and his superior skill, very much in the style of Vernon’s philosophy of naturalness, as there was not a second were you would suspect a move, and there were many! He lectured on three variations of the Cups & Balls, with truly excellent ideas and handlings.

Although he had a special table, he also showed two ideas of how to provide a table with an improvised servant. One of them was to sit down, place a doctor-type of bag (see in the back in the photo below) on his lap to overtly take out some props and place them on the table. When the bag is removed and placed on the floor or on a nearby chair, the loaded servant is left on the lap. It reminded me of the initial coffin scene on the roads of New Orleans in James Bond’s Live And Let Die 🙂

I’m convinced you would have appreciated him.

The other lecture that impressed me a lot was that of Gabriel Gascon. You can see him HERE fooling Penn & Teller.

He and Julio Merino have done to sponge ball magic what David Roth did to coin magic in the Seventies and Eighties: With their original gimmicks, techniques, handlings and presentations they have elevated sponge ball magic to a level it had never been before. I remember when in the seventies Benito and Giannola Nonino, brought Grappa, in particular Picolit Nonino, to the level of a great Cognac. Now these two have brought sponge ball magic to the level of great card magic…

But what would a convention be without meeting old friends, making new ones and spending great moments in their company!

I have always been a great admirer (and secretly in love…) of Karly Ann from Trieste, one of the few Italian magiciennes who won international awards. Well, I found her as charming and beautiful as ever, and we had a great time remembering our first meeting in Austria years ago…

And then there were several memorable excursions, one to Rimini and the other to San Leo, in the company of my friends José Angel, Victor and Marta from Magialdia, Vitoria, Spain. You can see us on the photo below on the beach of Rimini: In a few months this beach will be populated by thousands of vacationers seeking the sun and waves of the Mare Adriatico.

And what would be a convention report without a glimpse (see below for a real Glimpse…) at one of our legendary meals… here at the Osteria Belvedere (it truly had a superb view) in San Leo.

Behind-the-ear Glimpse

Reading through an old Swiss magic magazine titled  La baguette magique – Der Zauberstab (“The Magic Wand”), one of the earliest periodicals in Switzerland, published in French and German (there are FOUR official languages in Switzerland, in country with just eight million people), in vol. 1, no. 4, of July 1945, I ran across a short article signed Dr. W. Weyeneth, a dentist by trade, who was an active and influential amateur in his time. He was a prolific author, bringing a lot of information from around the world to Switzerland, and corresponding with some of the important professionals of his time, such as Stanley Jaks and Rolf Andra.

Wish you all a very successful week!

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Pause.

These are The Magic Memories 120, gone online Sunday, April 16th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020 can be found HERE.

I am still at the international magic convention in San Marino, which causes this week’s The Magic Memories to pause.

I’ll see you back next week-end, with The Magic Memories 121, and a report about my adventures in Italy and San Marino, plus the usual who-knows-bits.

Wish you all a very successful week!

Roberto Giobbi