Charles Earl Miller (1909-1989) was one of the outstanding figures of 20th century magic. His column “Magicana” in Genii magazine has become legendary, but information about and from him can also be found in various publications of his, such as An Evening With Charlie Miller, various etc. of lecture notes, and last but by no means least, a lot of the material in Hugard’s & Braue’s Expert Card Technique has been written by Miller.
The successful magic and mime team of T. Daniel and Laurie Willets, who are based in Chicago, in 2002 gave a lecture at the Zauberring Basel in Switzerland titled “What Charlie Miller Taught Me”. At the end of their lecture notes are listed 17 points that Charlie Miller used to make when teaching magic to his pupils. It is with the kind permission of T. Daniel and Laurie Willet that I will reproduce Charlie Miller’s advice followed by a few comments of mine. i hope that you find them not only inspirational, but above all very practical!
