Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Card College books again in stock; Card on Sword by Crauwels (free PDF); Picasso inspired by El Greco; Guest Book reviewed; The Magic Memories 96 pauses.

These are The Magic Memories 95, gone online Sunday, October 23rd, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

Card College Back in Stock

Just a short notice to tell all of you who asked about the availability of the Card College books: They are all back now, and you can order for yourself and your friends (great Xmas Gift)!

Remember that if you order form me directly, you can ask for the book to be signed to your name, and you always get some free bookmarks, plus a signed photo 🙂

If you don’t order from me, order from Penguin Magic. You may, of course, order from your favorite dealer, but be aware that if you order from any dealer (except Penguin who is my publisher), in the case, e.g., of CC1 that costs you $ 40, I’ll receive $ 3.20 (yes, three Dollars and twenty Cents). This is because most dealers buy from a jobber like Murphy’s who gets a discount of 60% from the publisher and resells at 40%. So far for numbers…

It seems hard to believe, but for months Card College Volumes 1, 2, 3, 5, as well as Stand-up Card Magic had been out of print. This is due to the still very difficult situation in the printing business, where there is paper shortage, paper has multiplied its costs. logistics, binding, job shortage, well, as Alexis Zorba the Greek laments, in accented English, “Am I not a man? And is not a man stupid? I’m a man, so I’m married. Wife, children, house–everything. The full catastrophe.” This is all true for me, too, but on top of that I’m also an author of books at the mercy of his publishers 🙂

BTW: The Penguins, my major publisher, have promised to reprint Confidences early next year (they said the same thing in 2021…), and Card College Light, also out of print, is scheduled to arrive before the end of the year, 2022, I mean…

Card on Sword by Crauwels

Danny Crauwels from Belgium wrote in, as he has kindly done several times before, always with some pertinent comment, to generously share a work of his. Danny is  a specialist in memory deck magic, and his alias “Maigret” may hint at his former profession 🙂

He makes reference to my The Magic Memories 87, where I briefly discussed an idea for “Card on Sword”, well, titled there “A Little Idea” (there’s also an idea with an umbrella used as a sword).

It so happens that Danny has authored a most interesting – and I would say almost comprehensive – work on the history, technique, effect and presentation of the classic “Card Sword”.

In Danny’s own words:

“As stated in the copyright notices, this is a free eBook for all magicians interested in it.

The latest version can always be downloaded HERE.

The creation of the eBook is actually a story in itself. It was never my intention to write this eBook. In it you can read on page 88 (epilogue) how things went. Thank you for paying attention to the eBook that is indeed intended for everyone who is interested.”

End of quote.

If you are interested in more of Mr. Crauwels’ work, especially memdeck, and want to know a little more about the man, CLICK HERE.

Picasso Inspired by El Greco

A few weeks ago Barbara and I visited the Basel Kunstmuseum, the Basel Museum of Art, where they have a most inspiring special exhibition on “Picasso and El Greco”. On one of his visits to my home, Bill Kalush, of Conjuring Arts Research Center fame, declared this museum one of the best he had seen – who am I to argue…

Years ago I happened to be in Madrid, where the Museo Reina Sofia, one of the three in the “magical” “Museum Triangle”, had an exhibition dedicated to “Picasso and Goya”; that was quite something, especially the room where they displayed Picasso’s “Guernica” against Goya’s “The Executions of the Third of May” – hugely impressive (for reasons of copyright I’m not allowed to show the paintings here, but a quick search on Google will show them in a few seconds).

In Basel things are less dramatic, but equally fascinating.

Works of Picasso (1881 – 1973) are displayed opposite works of El Greco (1541 – 1614) that did inspire Picasso. The exhibition tells of the themes and techniques used by El Greco, and that inspired Picasso to interpret them in his very own way.

It reminds me of the quote, “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”, often attributed to Antoine Lavoisier (1743 – 1794), but possibly such a truism has already been pronounced by some Greek philosopher, or Confucius etc. This is similar to magic, where most intelligent thoughts can be traced back to Robert-Houdin or Hofzinser, and if it’s a technique obviously to Marlo 🙂

PS: For those among my readers who are new to magic, I’ll explain the “Giobbi Devant Picasso” caption above: As the anecdote goes, David Devant (1868 – 1941), the famous British conjuror, and one of his students go to an art museum. At one point they watch a painting depicting David fighting against Goliath. The painting, being from a French artist, bears the title “David Devant Goliath” (David in front of Goliath). Whereupon the student admiringly says to Devant, “Mister Devant, that’s incredible, you are not only a great magician, but also a famous painter!” Apparently, he was serious…

Inevitably, admiring Picasso’s paintings and his open admission (great quotes with each painting) to have virtually “copied” another great artist’s work, made me think of how our greatest performers are inspired by other famous performers before them. If I was the artistic director of a magic convention (I was twice, and will never again be…), I’d think about a ca. 45-minute format where four or five very good performers would each perform the same trick. It would then be possible to experience that no trick can be done in the same way twice, and that there are infinite variables that make up a performance. I’m sure this has never been done, and that it would prove quite a hit for an intelligent audience.

Another idea I had, again as artistic director, is to ask four performers to perform a trick that has been directly inspired by a trick of a past master, and to explain the thinking that went with it. The could be done in a 90-minute session in front of the plenum.

Below is an example of a comparative exhibit: On the left El Greco’s “Christ driving the traders from the temple”, on the right Picasso’s inspiration from it “The crucifixion”. If you look closely you can see the soldiers playing dice on the lower right (see painting HERE).

Due to Corona I hadn’t been in a museum in almost three years, but I must say that each time I go to a museum, regardless of the subject, I come out with new insights and ideas.

I highly recommend that you do likewise, especially to my younger readers I’ll say that a good educational background is as important as your skill and understanding of magic. An all-round education, as the British call it, is part of your person (not persona!), and your person is the only one thing that is unique to you and nobody can copy, it is and remains the most important thing, before a good trick, before impeccable technical execution, and before presentation (in that order!).

Guest Book Reviewed

In Secret Agenda, entry of November 28, I briefly discuss an idea that Gaetan Bloom gave me when I visited Paris the first time around forty (!) years ago, namely a Guest Book you leave on the table after you’ve performed close-up. I won’t say more, look it up, it is worth its weight in gold for any performing magician. You can thank me later – it’s soon Xmas… (anything considered unhealthy is absolutely fine).

Roland Heuer (see The Magic Memories 92) sent in two photos of his interpretation of the idea, very nice. Note the custom-made brass label, the ultimate class 🙂

The Magic Memories (96)

The next The Magic Memories 96, due to go online on SUN, 30th October, will go on a one-week hiatus, as I’m attending the Card Conference in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid. The advantage for you, I hope, is, that I will report on it on my comeback (provided I did not catch Corona on the trip or during the stay). Keep your fingers crossed…

So, I look very much forward to chat again with you on The Magic Memories (97), on SUN, 6th November, as always at 0:07 o’clock sharp; some of you may think this is “Swiss Precision”, but this is far from true, it is a feature of WordPress, the web content management system of USA-UK origin I use to create and publish this blog!

Wish everyone an excellent week!

All the best,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Paris, Paris, Paris; Simplex Force; Robert-Houdin’s (Partagas) “Card at Number From Pocket”.

These are The Magic Memories 94, gone online Sunday, October 16th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

Paris, Paris, Paris

I’m just back from three days in Paris, after a forced absence (Corona!) of three years!

From Basel, Switzerland, I can reach Paris with the fast train TGV in three hours: If I leave at 08:30 I’m at the first meeting with a magician friend at 12:30 – needless to say that such meetings take place in a good restaurant!

Paris is my favorite city. Certainly, Barcelona, Florence, London, Madrid, New York, San Francisco, Torino, Vienna, Rome are unique, too, and much appreciated, and I have great friends there, which is the best reason to visit. But Paris, well, is “special”…

Today’s Magic Memories is an attempt at explaining why this is so, with the aid of my latest magical adventures:

Magic in Paris

There is no other city I have given so many (different!) lectures, workshops, masterclasses and performances, at least once a year in the past thirty plus years.

This is due to Paris having so many different magic clubs, associations and groups. Years ago I joked about having to go to Paris for four days in order to visit four magic friends: I know no other city with so many talented magicians, who do not get along with each other; at least when I was young this was the case. Quite the contrary to Madrid, where everyone was meeting with everyone and sharing their magic. I maintain that this is the reason why in Spain in general, and in Madrid in particular, there is arguably the highest level in close-up magic, especially card magic. And Juan Tamariz was the start of it all, but that’s another conversation.

I’m reminded of when I visited Vienna years ago for the German Cardworkshop, the pendant to the Escorial Card Conference which in that year exceptionally took place in Vienna at Magic Christian’s amazing magic club, located in the basement of his even more amazing home.

Anyway, I was walking through the streets and, surprise, surprise, meet Gary Kurtz, who said he was in Vienna to lecture.

Roberto, “How long will you be staying?”

Gary, “Five days.”

Roberto, “Oh, you do one lecture and stay five days?”

Gary, “No, I do five lectures, for five different clubs, one on each day!”

Yves Carbonnier

Yves has been a friend for decades, and he’s another reason for my frequent visits to Paris, as on several occasions he’s been organizing or at least facilitating my lectures, workshops etc.

In the documentary The Secret World of Magic you can see him along with several others from the Parisian magic scene (Georges Proust, Bebel).

BTW: The documentary also features a few scenes recorded at the playing card museum “Musée de la carte à jouer” in Issy-les-Moulineaux, which is just a few minutes from the last stop of “Mairie d’Issy”, the southern terminus of Line 12 of the Paris Métro.

I’ve been to several playing card museums, and I find this one to be the best, not only for the quality and quantity of the exhibits, but also for the architecture of the building, and above all for the didactical concept that enables the visitors to relate to the exhibits. Didactics is, in my opinion, the ultimate challenge for every museum, especially those that expose objects that are not immediately self-explanatory. This is certainly the case with playing cards and their history. It is worth visiting even for people who have absolutely no affinity for playing cards (such as your spouse, maybe), but I promise they will be delighted. Especially if you take them to a Parisian restaurant afterwards, which is very well possible, as the museum opens at 10, the visit can be completed in ca. 90 minutes (don’t forget to leave 20 minutes for the museum shop, small but interesting).

Two years ago Ludo Mignon and his “Marchand de Trucs” released Grand Livre de Cartomagie with Yves’ card magic that certainly deserves to be translated into English, and I wrote the foreword 🙂

Well, Yves is also quite a chef, and if he had a restaurant it would be on the Guide Michelin’s list for sure. Every time I come to Paris Yves invites me along with two or three other magician guests to his home where we celebrate the three most important things in life: Friendship (stands for love and respect), Magic (stands for finding your talent, refining its and then sharing it), and Gastronomy (stands for the environment and the universe).

Through the years I have shared these culinary-magical happenings with some of the most interesting people in Magic, such as Bernard Bilis, Jean-Jacques Sanvert, Abdul Alafrez, Georges Proust, Jacques Tandeau, Yann Frisch, Arnaud Mattern and so many more.

On my most recent visit Yves invites two young magicians, Arthur Chavaudret and Cyrille Savelief. The photo below shows us in Yves’ kitchen.

This brings to mind one of my favorite books that I also recommend at the end of the theory chapters in Card College 2, in English simply titled Hitchcock/Truffaut  (1966), in the French original Le Cinéma selon Hitchcock (in German Mr. Hitchcock, wie haben Sie das gemacht?), where French director François Truffaut conducts a lengthy interview with the master od suspense, and where they discuss fifty of Hitchcock’s films in chronological order. At some point Hitchcock mentions that when his wife and he invited guests for dinner, the VIPs had to sit in the elegant dining room, but the good friends get to eat in the kitchen!

Arthur has some remarkable ideas, and he’s already well-know in his own country, but I predict an international career for this exceptionally talented young man. He handles cards and coins with equal virtuosity, and he did one of the best coin assemblies I’ve ever seen. I want to go back to Paris to catch his show which he tells me has some incredible effects – he showed me some video clips and it certainly did look incredible (the effect and the method).

As a teaser you can see Arthur do a lovely coin vanish – CLICK HERE.

Bernard Bilis

Bernard and I have known each other for over four decades now, and this paragraph cannot do justice neither to his genius in magic nor to our friendship.

I met him for the first time when I was around twenty and spent three weeks in Paris for my language studies. We met at Guy Lore’s magic shop, and he invited me to my first “Fondue Bourguignonne” (look it up in Wiki), with lots of magic into the wee hours, naturellement!

Over the years, we’ve met regularly, and each time he surprises me with never ending original creations. He certainly belongs to the top cardmen in the world, with an extraordinary technical virtuosity, but also with fooling original methods and effects. If you enter his name into YouTube you’ll be spoilt for choice, especially his appearances on the legendary Saturday evening TV show “Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde”, which he did several hundred times!

There are a few booklets of his work, e.g., Close-up French Style, and a Penguin Live Video Lecture, in English. If you read and understand French you can get one of his many DVDs for beginners and advanced cardicians. Be ready for some real knuckle-busters and mostly elaborate routines, but all quite brilliant.

The good news is that there will soon be a huge book documenting his work, written by Jean-Jacques Sanvert, edited by Darwin Ortiz, and published as soon as he gets around to do the extra almost eight hundred photos that are still missing… As a book author and publisher myself I know how hard this is, how much time and money it takes, and how relatively little the reward is, with very few exceptions, ask Steve Forte 🙂

Bernard is also a superb patissier who took courses with Conticini, one of the world’s premier exponents of sweets. On our recent meeting he made some delicious Canelés, a specialty from Bordeaux, which found my deepest appreciation…

We spent a morning and afternoon together, with a firework of his latest creations, and I’m so glad to see that after all these years he’s been into magic, with great commercial and public success, he is still as enthusiastic as a teenager!

Bernard and I also share gastronomy as a passion – how else – so had a great “Aligot“, a specialty from Auvergne, lamb, and a “Baba au rhum” to knock you out of your socks.

Below you can see us sitting outside of the restaurant (they kicked us out but said we could stay as long as we wanted on their terrace), after smoking a cigar, and still picking cards – notice Bernard uses my Card College Playing Cards 🙂

So many more things to tell, but we’ll have to leave it at that… my four hours I can devote to the pleasing task of writing this blog are over… and I need to reread it all… and as always I beg your indulgence for any typos, clumsy wordings etc. – it’s a labor of love.

Simplex Robert-Houdin (Partagas)

To round off the “Parisian Tales”(part of it…) I’d like to offer a very simple piece that harbors some interesting thoughts.

First, I found it in a German magic book for children by Martin Michalski. The forcing technique, and the subsequent control, are of greatest simplicity, but I believe that it will fool most members of a magic club… and the work is minimal.

This will be especially convincing if you can do difficult sleight-of-hand: You’ll find you’ll pull this off with great conviction, confirming the adage that “the simple is the privilege of the Masters”.

Notice the subsequent effect that comes directly from Robert-Houdin’s landmark book Comment on devient sorcier (ha, this is the connection to Paris!); It’s the first card trick in the book explained on p. 195 of the original French edition, titled “La clairvoyance du toucher”, which has later been copied (among others!) by Joaquin Partagas and published in his also landmark book (for Spain) El prestidigitator optimus (1900). For many years I thought the trick was original with Partagas, and it inspired me for a trick and deck switch, until Yves pointed out to me that the trick is already in Robert-Houdin’s book from 1868!

Simplex Shuffle Force The card to be forced is on the bottom of the deck. Perform a Riffle Shuffle in the Air, retaining bottom card. Follow with an Injog Shuffle, cutting at the break to the table. The force card is still on the bottom. With the right hand pick up the tabled deck, turn your head away, and tell the audience to remember the card that the hazard of the shuffle has brought to the bottom. (Michalski, Hexerei mit Karten, “Die wievielte Karte soll es sein?”, p. 31).

Continue by another set of shuffles, simply retaining the bottom card at the bottom. Why not? That’s a lovely “control”, and similar to the McMillen Control (see Confidences or the Card Magic Masterclass video on Controls).

To do Robert-Houdin’s trick, place the deck in the pocket, have a number called out (x), take x-1 cards from the pocket, dropping them on the table, and then produce the selection at the number named.

To make this even more baffling apply exactly the same strategy discussed in last week’s The Magic Memories (93) as used in the trick explained there “Stop Trick With Back-palm”.

And obviously the whole thing can be made into a deck switch (see The Art of Switching Decks); I thought I had invented this, but Al Baker was first 🙂

Wish everyone an excellent week!

All the best,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: “Dave Attwood visit & podcast 2015”; “Feedback on Card in Balloon”, “Reminding you of Behr’s archives”; “Stop trick with back-palm”; “Magialdia 2022”, “Vintage Chart”.

These are The Magic Memories 93, gone online Sunday, October 9th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

Dave Attwood Visits & Podcast

One of the “additional benefits” (forgive the marketing language) of writing books is that I seem to have many more friends than I personally know! This is not a paradox, but reminiscent of what Jean Paul (1763 – 1825) once wrote: “Books are only thick letters to friends.”

It is indeed one of my great pleasures when someone comes up to me after a show or a lecture, especially at magic conventions, and says something like, “Your books are my bed-side read”. It certainly makes me feel close to such people although I’ve never met them before. This cannot be bought with money, but it comes free as a result of a lot of unpaid work.

Years ago Dave Attwood from Victoria, Canada, of “Dave Attwood Show” fame, one of the first magic podcasts before they became fashionable, did a two-part interview with me, one of the first on Internet, maybe the first for me… it was back in 2015, which by today’s software standards is medieval or earlier…

Anyway, Dave called saying he was on vacation in Europe and took upon himself a six-hour train ride from Munich, where he had attended the “Oktoberfest” for 3 days (!), to visit with me an evening and afternoon, before heading out to Vienna, and then back home over Paris – quite a trip.

Below is a photo, taken after a tasting of 5 Sherries (see Magialdia report below), and a great meal with venison ragout, a Swiss specialty (it’s game season). In the background part of the over 80 Giobbi-titles, including the foreign language versions and new editions 🙂

If you are new to these Magic Memories, you may want to liste to the first part of the podcast (CLICK HERE): You’ll have to fast forward through the opening chatter to get to the beginning of the interview at ca. 22:00 – to compensate for this, there is a part 2, which you can find on the long list of other guests.

Feedback on “Card in Balloon”

To discuss a trick from time to time seems to please my readership, therefore we’ll have another one on this week’s Magic Memories thanks to Leo Hevia from Silver Spring (USA) who wrote in to comment on last week’s item “Card in Balloon” (The Magic Memories 92) , which used the back-palm:

With the exception of Jim Steinmeyer’s version of Cards to Pocket from his Conjuring Anthology book, I’ve never before read a card trick that utilized the back palm as a secret maneuver.

So, if you have the book, look it up!

Reminding You of Behr’s Archives

I agree that the back-palm has not that many practical applications outside of stage manipulation, BUT there are more than you think 🙂

As always, when faced with such an issue, a first quick fix is to check on Denis Behr’s “Archives”. If you go to conjuringarchive and enter “back-palm” into the search field you get 18 entries (CLICK HERE). That’s far less than if you entered “thumb tip”, which yields 384 entries (!), but it’s a start…

Below is yet another idea which I’ve used to great success in the past to fool more than one knowledgeable individual – can’t remember where this is from, but you’ll want to try this on your wife, girlfriend, magic buddy, or other victim, as soon as you finish reading it.

Stop Trick With Back-palm

Stand behind two containers such as pots, Baseball caps etc. (originally two hats were used).

Have a card selected and control to 4th from top. Place the deck face down in the container to your left. Take the top card, hold it with the back towards the audience and say that they can call out ‘stop’ anytime they like, and that the card you are holding will then be their card.

Place the card in the container to your right without showing its face. As you take the hand out of the container hold it as if you had a card back-palmed, but as natural as possible. Then reach in the container on your left and repeat as you explain the procedure.

You’ll find that you have to take a small step back and stand a bit more behind the left container to make the hand movements look natural. Or hold the container with your left hand. Try different ways.

As always: Use your head!

Your “explanation” should be done by the time you’ve placed the 3rd card into the container on your right.

From now on back-palm the card – the selection – each time you apparently place it into the right container, and reproduce it as you reach into the left container as if it was a new card.

Whenever they call stop, you can show the card you are holding to be theirs!

The presentation is reminiscent of Vernon’s Stop Trick as detailed in Confidences (“Stop Trick With Second Deal”, p. 212 – palindromic!) or “The Double Bet” (“Lesson 41 – False Deals” in Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction).

You can considerably enhance the deceptiveness by initially controlling the selection to the top. Start to place the deck into the left container, but on second thought hand the container briefly out to check “that there is nobody inside”. Again, start to put the deck into the container, immediately thumb off the selection into the container, when on second thought you remember that the deck should be shuffled. Let them do so. Take the deck back and set it next to the selection already in the hat. Now proceed as per above. Thanks to this ruse the audience will be convinced that they shuffled the cards, and that the container is “free from guile”. For lack of another name I’ll call this the “Partagas Ploy”.

Try it – with a little attention to the angles this is quite practical and good!

(This is one of the many items that did not make it into Stand-up Card Magic.)

Magialdia 2022

I spent the days from September 14th to 20th in Vitoria, Basque Country, Spain. As those who have been following these posts over the past two years know, this is my favorite magic convention. As a reminder, here is a view over part of the historical center of the city that has a population of ca. 200’000.

Again, for the newcomers, you may want to catch up on what I already wrote about this convention and the place in earlier installments of The Magic Memories #41 and #44 (I remind you that you can read all past posts HERE – scroll down on that page that lists every link individually).

What is so remarkable about Magialdia is that it is a three-week Festival of Magic sponsored by the city – this is quite an achievement. Their chief organizer, José Ángel Suarez, is even employed part-time to organize this big event, part of which is a three-day magic conventions with ca. 400 attendants from all over the world, but mainly from Spain.

One reason why the convention and the dozen of activities around it run so smoothly is that José Ángel has been working with the same team over decades – this year was the 33rd year. In most countries the national convention is handled by a different team every year, and they keep making the same mistakes.

Another reason for its success with the public is that many events are free, although you have to get a ticket as most activities take place in a theater, or in a bar-restaurant, in a library etc. with limited seating. This is of course quite exceptional and only possible thanks to the local sponsors and supportive government.

In 1990 I was artistic director of a convention we put up here in Basel, Switzerland, hosting about 250 people. After that I wrote a ten-page report with ideas on how to avoid certain mistakes, what could be improved, new ideas etc. I sent it out to the then president of the Swiss association and to the next organizers… never heard back from them.

As an example I’ll mention one small idea: Every convention has some kind of badge, most hanging from a cord around your neck, with a plastic envelope containing a printed cardboard in the format of a large playing card. The smarter ones place the schedule on it, and this works very well for a two- or three-day convention.

Question: What is the most important thing on the badge?

Answer: Your name!

Problem: You can bet your life on it (don’t!), that the name is only printed on one side of the badge, which means that 50% of the time it won’t show up. And when you see someone you know, but haven’t seen in many years and don’t remember the name, thanks to Murphy’s Law, his or her name won’t show.

Solution: Print the name on both sides on top of the badge, like a banner, and there will be plenty of space below to print the schedule… Also, print the name in a BIG type, with the first name above the family name, because most are on first name basis with each other, and print the first name even a bit larger.

This is just one of the many very simple things that cost nothing more and can be immediately implemented.

This reminds me of Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970), who once said; “All people can think. Some can think well. But only few think something through from beginning to end.”

This is, BTW, one of my favorite replies when after a show someone comes up and says something to the effect, “I know how you did it – you switched the bills, I didn’t see it, but that’s how it must work.” That’s when I quote Russell, followed by, “You see, even if I switched the bill, how does your bill from my pocket get into the lemon? And if it is another bill, how does your signature get on it? I believe even Professor Russell wouldn’t have been able to explain that, but I’m almost sure he would have agreed with Socrates, who said, ‘I know that I know nothing’! So, the best thing is to simply enjoy the magic.”

You may use this, if you like 🙂

Back to Magialdia: One of the highlights – and there are many (!) – is the final show on Sunday night that takes place on the beautiful plaza in the center of the old town – this is something you only get in the Old World: They put up a huge stage, similar to those used in large concerts, and then ca. 800 people or more, depending on the weather, gather on the plaza to enjoy the ca. 70-minute show.

Another idea that is debatable from an artistic point of view, but sells the convention to the sponsors, is to go to eight shops in the commercial center of the city and have them empty one of their front windows, which is then replaced by a small performing area where a magic performer will show his or her act. In the past there have been luminaries such as Otto Wessely, Sylvester the Jester, Armando Lucero and others.

One year, can’t remember which one, they even made this into a competition and asked me to be in the jury along with Bepa Fernandez, a well-known Spanish journalist and producer, Joanie Spina (1953 – 2014) of Copperfield choreography fame, and José Ángel, the boss himself. There were eight international acts, and the winner was Armando Lucero who received an award that included a prize money of 10’000 EURO. Now, that’s not so shabby, as most of us perform for half as much 🙂

In the photo below we are sitting in front of such a window with an enthusiastic audience around us.

To me personally, however, the highlights are the meetings with old and new friends, and these inevitably end up around a civilized table.

In Vitoria there are places that offer a 4-course gourmet meal for € 25, that’s less than $ 30, wine, water, coffee, tax & tip INCLUDED. This is just something else than having a Hamburger with Coke and industrial ice cream, for the same or more money, in a noisy, cheap eating place, where the waiter brings the check to the table before you’ve even finished your coffee. We from the Old World will never get used to that when we go to the New World 🙂

Below is a photo taken at a lunch, with Marco Aimone on my left, President of the magic club of Torino, Italy, the largest independent club in Italy with over 300 members. To my left are Lincoln Hiatt and Andrew Golder, producers of “Fool Us”, who come each year to Magialdia to scout and audition for talent (that’s the reason they put forth, in reality they come to eat the suckling pig from “El Portalon*, one of the best in Spain, and drink the wines from Remirez de Ganuza, one of the top Rioja winemakers), and then there is Paul Wilson, who is working on a documentary on Juan Tamariz (again a pretext…). We certainly had a blast.

Yet another impression with organizer José Ángel, co-organizers Marta and her husband Victor, analyzing what was good and what could be improved. All these lunches and dinners are of course strictly business, and no fun at all…

In the center of the table see a bottle of “Predicador” from another of the most famous Rioja winemakers, Benjamin Romeo; his top wine, the “Contador”, consistently gets 100 points from Parker. I’m very lucky that Benjamin is an amateur magician, who is a fan of my books… once again a case of Schopenhauers dictum, “My philosophy never earned me anything, but it saved me a lot…”; these philosophers are just very smart…

Vintage Chart

Speaking of wines: I just received the latest vintage table from one of my wine shops. Even a novice will understand that this lists the wines according to their origin and year (vintage), and then classifies them from fair to exceptional and tells you whether to keep or drink them.

It occurred to me that someone might want to adapt this to magic: On one axis you could list the classics (the “tricks”), such as “Ambitious Card”, “Cards Across”, “Coins Through Table”, etc., on the other axis list various performers, and then rate their interpretation of the respective “trick”.

I believe this has never been done before – maybe someone has the courage to make this up. If you do, send it along, and I’ll publish it with your photo in an upcoming Magic Memories.

Yet another idea could be to create a similar “chart or table” with your repertoire, and then have the audience choose which item they want to see in view of the “classification” made by the “International Academy of Performing Conjurors” (make up your own association…). Why not?

Wish everyone an excellent week!

All the best,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Private Shows (Roland Heuer and his “Intimate Theatre of Magic Program”); “Coach & Dine with Roberto Giobbi”; “Card in Balloon”; Preview to Magialdia.

These are The Magic Memories 92, gone online Sunday, October 2nd, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

One of the pleasures of running this NPB (non-profit blog) is that I receive quite a bit of feedback containing interesting ideas. I try to include them from time to time if I think it could be useful to some of you. And I’ll start today’s Magic Memories with one of them.

Private Shows

Roland Heuer from Stuttgart, Germany, whom I have mentioned before in my blogs and who is the only one to send a comment after EVERY Magic Memories (!) – he hasn’t yet missed one post – was inspired by an idea I had published in Secret Agenda, “July 6 – Invitations by Avalanche”, to solve the problem of having no performing opportunities during Corona time.

Below is a screenshot of the article for your convenience (BTW: Secret Agenda has been reprinted, but is also available as a practical PDF-ebook).

The fact remains that not having enough occasions to perform to many still is a problem, and it is an eternal problem for those who practice magic as a hobby.

Roland’s idea was to create a close-up show for just two to four spectators: He invites them to his home, in-between the guests get drinks and Sushi, and at some point he performs his show, sometimes in two parts. To this I should add that Roland’s wife Ikuko, originally from Japan, and an equally accomplished violinist as Roland, now both retired, is also an excellent chef who seduced the guests with drinks and Sushi.

As a musician as well as a magician he chose to call his performances “Kammerspiele der Zauberkunst – Programm Nr. 1” – you might translate this as “Intimate Theatre of Magic – Program no. 1”. Roland tells me that he gave this about a dozen times in the past months, and now starts a new program.

As Roland set it up this was not a commercial idea intended to generate money, as Roland and Ikuko are fortunately financially independent; it was simply meant as a great opportunity to perform in a time there were no performances.

However, I do not exclude that even on such a small scale this could be transformed into a business idea, certainly not a big one, but fun and covering the costs plus some extra.

It’s an open door…

Roland opened with “The Program is Wild”, which you can find on my YouTube Channel and which I have discussed in The Magic Memories 39 and 40 (there is also a free PDF):

Below you can see Roland with “Gipsy Thread” as detailed in my Penguin video The Close-up Act of Roberto Giobbi.

Roland also reports great success with “Traveling Queens”, a short card routine with multiple effects by Pavel (to which I have added a few touches) – you’ll find it in The Magic Memories 69 of APR 24 that includes a free PDF of the original trick. To know whether this is a good trick or not you only have to look at the spontaneous reaction of the two spectators… it says it all.

Coach & Dine with Roberto Giobbi

Although this is not the same idea as Roland’s described above, it reminded me of something I had started before Corona time and have picked up lately.

I have offered an afternoon coaching, 3 to 4 hours from 2pm to 6 pm, followed by an aperitif at around 6pm, and then a full dinner for a visiting magician and his partner (the partner would join us at the aperitif and be visiting the attractive city of Basel in the afternoon), with me and Barbara as chefs and hosts (including wines from my international cellar, Swiss water, Italian coffee and Cuban cigars!). We’ve done this half a dozen times to great acclaim, but then Corona forced us to take a break…

I was surprised that somehow the exclusively male magicians (BTW: I did not receive one single answer from lady magicians reading these Magic Memories, as predicted in my last post), who seems to have forwarded the idea to their wifes, who in turn contacted me to give such a “Coach & Dine with Roberto Giobbi” to their husbands as a birthday gift!

As a bonus some friendly bonds were created as a result of this meeting – this I must say is the real magic of life.

I think it’s a lovely idea, and you have my blessings to use it if you teach magic.

BTW: I charged 500 Euro for this (all inclusive), and everyone so far said it by far exceeded their expectations. Seems like a good idea then.

Card In Balloon

I’ve touched to this subject before, i.e., items that did not make it into the books, always remembering one of the many aphorisms from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s Wastebooks (highly recommended): “Of some authors I’d be more interested to know what they decided to discard from their books than what they kept.” Whether the item below is à propos or not, it is an idea some one may want to pick up, as it is a good one. It did not go into Stand-up Card Magic as it is not entirely angle-proof, however, if you try it, you’ll see that with proper blocking you can do this at almost any venue.

Show an empty top hat (open if collapsible) and set it opening upward on the table – the hat has a needle protruding from the rim. As always, I suggest to introduce the presentational plot of the piece through a Prologue (“Prologue and Epilogue”, p. 88/89 in Sharing Secrets).

You could for example say, “What you are about to witness is a piece of classic card magic. In honor of my predecessors, who had this feat in their repertoire, I will use a top hat, for most magicians in former times performed wearing a top hat.” This is one of many ways to stage the use of an otherwise anachronistic prop.

Have a card selected and control it to the top. As you lower the deck into the hat and start to mix the cards around a bit, you have ample opportunity to get the selection into a right-hand back palm (lefties use their left hand, of course). Then hold the hat with both hands, covering the palming hand, approach a spectator, and ask him to further scramble the cards in the hat, which you move up and down to ostentatiously further mix them.

As your right hand is still holding the hat by its rim, with your left hand reach into your pocket, take out a ballon, give it to a spectator with the request to blow it up (why do all the nasty work yourself?).

The following choreography beautifully covers the back-palmed card from practically all angles except from behind: The left hand takes the ballon and holds it up as you approach a small table. The right hand places the hat on the table, and then immediately seizes the ballon, which you now hold with both hands.

Lower the ballon over the top hat, so that it burst, thereby producing the back-palmed card.

(inspired by an entry in: Duplicate Deceptions  by Billy Wells 1993)

I will remind newcomers that the content of Stand-up Card Magic has been almost entirely translated into a video in my first Penguin Live Lecture which lasts 5 hours and 25 minutes. I’m still holding the record for not only the longest but also best-selling Live Lecture 🙂 the Penguins tell me… You can get it as a download from Penguin Magic, or from me as a physical DVD (as long as they last – there are about 20 left, and they will never be reprinted again).

Next Week: Magialdia

I’ll have to postpone my report about the Magialdia convention in Vitoria, Spain, to next week, but below, as a teaser, the view from my hotel room, with the Cantabric Mountain Chain in the background behind which hides the world-famous Rioja wine region – now you can imagine the magic:

Wish everyone an excellent week!

All the best,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: The Austrian magic convention in Bad Aussee… and lots of topics triggered by it.

These are The Magic Memories 91, gone online Sunday, September 25th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

I’m back from two eventful travels, and I admit that I really needed it!

For over two years now I have traveled very little, had almost no performances and lectures, and was somehow thrown off track. These two conventions reminded me how it used to be, and how it could be in the future. The rest of September up to the end of October things are again quite, but I hope that the global Corona situation will allow me to attend The Escorial Card Conference end of October – I’ll have something to tell you if I do 🙂

Before dwelling on the first convention I went to with a few comments you might find interesting, here is a brief flashback:

Post Scriptum on “Signing a Card”

Glad to see that my little essay on the topic of signing a card “To Sign or Not to Sign a card” from The Magic Memories (88) was well received, and several wrote in with additional comments.

Leo Hevia from Silver Spring, USA, wrote: “I first read about the importance of having a selection signed from Frank Garcia’s Exclusive Card Secrets back in 1980. He warns the reader that audience members who had a bit too much alcohol might deny it was their card if it was not signed. Garcia warned that a paid professional cannot afford to be wrong when the selection has to be verified at the end of the trick.” I agree that this is certainly yet another benefit of having a card signed: Nobody can argue that it is not the previously selected card when it is produced at the end of the trick – good point. And of course this also holds true if they forget the card, regardless of the reason 🙂 – once they see their signature, or whatever they wrote on the card, they will be reminded of its identity, and everyone else can confirm.

I said it before, and will repeat it here: As a general note my advice for anyone interested to perform before real people (“magicians” are also “real people”…) peruse the works of working professionals and extract not just their tricks, techniques and lines, but also their practical advice and bits of business. Once you master the technical and presentational part of a performance piece, these “little things” are the moments that separate the men from the boys, and the women from the girls, I should add 🙂

BTW: I’m curious to know how many lady magicians are reading these Magic Memories. If you are not male and reading this, would you drop me a line at info@robertogiobbi.com? I’m afraid it won’t be more than two, and if it is more, I shall be happy to mention this in my next The Magic Memories. And if it is less I promise to publish a short essay I wrote on the subject of why there are so few ladies in magic, and which I published years ago in La Circular, the official bulletin of the Escuela Magica de Madrid (that was ca. 20 years ago, and a lot has changed in the demographics of magic since – might be interesting to some).

Just reread the paragraph above and hope non-binary people will not be offended – it certainly is not meant to be.

Fröhlich Zauber-Kongress

The Austrian Annual Convention took place from THU 8th to SUN 11th of September, and I was invited to do a lecture and appear in their final stage show.

Stop-over in Salzburg

Barbara, having now retired from her job at the local public library, exceptionally decided to accompany me to the convention, and so we took off two days earlier and did a stop-over in Salzburg, Austria.

Below a view from the “Makersteg”, a bridge with virtually thousands of “padlocks of love” – talk about “Seven Keys to Baldpate”…

I’m sure most of you will know this city from the world-famous “Salzburger Festspiele”, in English simply called “Salzburg Festival”. Albeit a bit “touristy”, it remains a beautiful place and is worth visiting.

Speaking of the “Salzburg Festival”: The events mainly take place in the equally world-famous “Salzburger Festspielhaus”, that traditionally only allows music and drama. However, exceptionally, several years back, it hosted the “Dreiländerkongress” magic convention, a cooperation of the three countries Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

This tri-national convention was only held twice, in Salzburg and then in Zurich (Switzerland), before the organizers realized that such an undertaking posed more problems than there were solutions… I was the artistic director of one of them, but that’s another story, and I might tell it one day, when I have overcome the trauma it has caused to me 🙂

Anyway, Rico Leitner, who then was the president of the Swiss magic circle (Magischer Ring der Schweiz – MRS), called one day and asked if I would perform in the tri-national close-up gala. Not thinking much of it, I agreed. Turns out this was not a close-up gala but a competition!

My “act” (I never really had an “act”) was of course not geared for the occasion, but I remember it still got some attention, especially because of my performance of “The Nap Hand Deal”, the details of which you’ll find in my Stand-up Card Magic. Other than that, I only remember having done Patrick Page’s “Cards to Pocket” from Lewis Ganson’s Routined Manipulation Finale (p. 200).

The book is a blast, really, with some of the greatest tricks (e.g., “All Backs” by Elmsley, or “Hanky Panky” by Koran), and Page’s routine is a “worker”, for sure. I did it for a short period but then stopped after a while: It certainly was entertaining and had a good pacing, but it was not as deceptive as I would like a trick to be. You’ll have to find out the reason for yourselves 🙂

A bit I remember doing, and something you might be able to use in some similar context, was the way to show the right trouser’s pocket to be empty, whereas in reality it already contained the 3 Aces and 3 Queens for the last part of the “Cards to Pocket”.

At the time I simply used a double-pocket sown into the right trouser’s pocket – that’s the safest solution. But you can also use a white handkerchief, which you open up, put in your pocket, and then simply pull out its center to simulate the lining of the pocket. Don’t know whom to credit with this devilishly clever idea, but if you didn’t know it, it is worth its weight in gold (but you can send a ham or a salmon, that’s fine, too). Into the pocket I placed a normal folded handkerchief, one of those collapsible rubber beer bottles made by Norm Nielsen, and a small handful of sand.

So, when the moment came to prove that the pocket was empty, I reached into the pocket and first took out the hank, as expected from a pocket, then hesitated, reached again into the pocket and took out the beer bottle. This caused quite a reaction. As an additional bit I laconically remarked: “Oh, this is from last night’s party on the beach.” (Salzburg doesn’t have a beach… just the river Salzach.) This is when I reached into the pocket for the third time, grabbed as much sand I could, and then let it flow from my hand in the style of the “Salt Pour Trick”.

A bit of preparation is required, but this is certainly the most impressive way I know to say loud and clearly (without saying it), “I have NOTHING in my pocket!” I’m not sure, but I believe Henk Meesters (see The Magic Memories 85) told me Fred Kaps used this idea in some kind of trick where he needed to show his trouser’s pocket being empty.

All this said, the benefit of it was that for years I could put in my curriculum that I have performed (with a contract and a fee!) at the Salzburger Festspielhaus! Nowadays, nobody cares…

Another thing you might have heard of are the acclaimed “Mozartkugeln”, a small, round sugar confection made of pistachio, marzipan and nougat, covered by dark chocolate. Some smart confectioner took advantage of the fact that Salzburg was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and created the “Mozartkugel” to commemorate this fact (and make some money along). There is the industrial version, which has to be avoided, and the handmade one, which is “highly recommended”, as the magic reviewers would say.

The Convention

The convention took place in the town of Bad Aussee, the birth place of magician and mountebank Joseph Fröhlich (1694 – 1757). More info on Wikipedia HERE (unfortunately only in German). He was the court jester and magician of Augustus the Strong for many years.

I leave it to you to discover more about this remarkable person, but all that matters for us is that Hanno Rhomberg, the convention organizer and president of the Austrian magic circle (Magischer Ring Austria – MRA) managed to convince the political and economic decision makers of this small town in the state of Steiermark (Styria in English) to sponsor a Magic Festival taking place every year, and every second year hosting the Austrian national convention. So, they get some money, the facilities, and a lot of goodwill. That’s the way to do it, really, and it is similar to what Magialdia does in Vitoria in the Basque country, and about which I will report next week.

The difference between such an event and another traditional magic convention is that the latter is a “closed event” catering to magic aficionados, while the former has an “open format” that communicates magic and its characteristics to the public. A lot of lip service is paid to making magic a recognized art in the perception of the public, but most conventions, not even FISM, do anything to support this formidable idea, other than doing a public performance or two live and for TV. However, as I’ve mentioned various times before, to let the public see performers in theaters or TV does nothing to add to what they already know about magic. I repeat myself… and few care.

As for the convention itself, there were three things that I would like to comment on and which I believe are good ideas that could be picked up by other magic convention organizers.

1. The Leitmotif

Hanno Rhomberg and his team had the idea of giving the convention a “leitmotif”, in this case “The Magic of France”, focussing certain events within the convention on the magic of France and French magicians. Practically, they gave “carte blanche” to a team of talented French magicians who put up an excellent evening stage show on Friday. Considering that these artists had never worked together in this particular composition, and that they only had a few hours to rehearse in the theatre (as in every magic convention where budget and time are tight), it was a remarkable accomplishment and pleased the audience. I’d love to tell you more, but limited space and time do not allow this here. More info on Hanno’s blog (see below).

However, I would like to say that this idea of having a “leitmotif” for a convention is a very good idea that adds an extra dimension. It doesn’t have to be a nation, it could be any other subject, such as an influential individual or a group of people, a time period, an instrument etc.

2. Aladins Surprise Bag

Aladin is the official organ of the MRA – I have a column in it 🙂 So, it is a double entendre that refers to Aladin’s Wonder Lamp and their magazine.

This was a 90-minute segment presented in front of all in the theatre and consisted of short talks, all with a different subject.

As an example the trailer of the Erdnase film was shown, and then various were asked to give their opinion. When I was asked I said something to the subject that “Erdnase”, meaning his book The Expert at the Card Table, albeit being a classic of the magic literature, of great importance in its time that also marked the shift of the supremacy of European magic literature to the New World, it is absolutely not indispensable nowadays, neither to understand magic, nor to become the world’s best card magician – the book is simply hugely overrated. There is a bit more complexity to it, as always, but that’s my opinion, generally speaking. You are of course welcome to disagree 🙂 The film, BTW, doesn’t focus on the book or its content, but mainly on the mystery around the person writing it – and that’s a different conversation.

Another part of the format was what Hanno dubbed “Elevator Pitches” where otherwise unknown participants could present a product or idea of their own in 3 minutes.

Yet another part was a short interview with a few guests on a specific topic.

Briefly, this was my favorite event at the convention, and I think that any convention could benefit from a similar format.

3. Fröhlich Award

I hope you’ll forgive the immodesty of mentioning that on the occasion of the Saturday evening stage show, which had also a lay public participating, the “Fröhlich Award” for excellence in magic was bestowed upon me and Barbara: After all she did all the drawings and photos, as well as the layout on several of my publications, and if it is true that a picture says more than a thousand words, she deserves this accolade more than I do 🙂

Jokes apart, as I’ve mentioned above – and this completely apart from the fact that I received the award – such prizes are important to raise the image magic has in the eye of the public, as it tells them that there is a huge iceberg beneath the tip they keep seeing from performers, regardless how talented and good the latter are. I think few among laypeople, including leading intellectuals, realize what a complex world hides beneath the surface: That magic has a long and meaningful history that reflects all the cultural changes of the evolution of civilization, is based on all known scientific disciplines, arguably most of all on psychology, entails a sophisticated network of stagecraft, drama, communication, and of course specific principles of sleight-of-hand, as well as a large etcetera that is hard to put into words.

I firmly believe that all of this can at least be hinted at by making such awards public, and – believe it or not – this is the principal reason why I like to receive all these awards, but I deeply regret that nobody knows about them outside of the world of magic, and even within the world of magic only few care – but how can we expect the rest of the world to care, if we don’t? As Tamariz once said to me: “The problem is not that the public doesn’t believe that magic is such a profound art, the problem is that many who practice magic do not believe it.”

BTW: The award I was given is by far the most original of the dozen or so I have: They have casted a photo of mine in a lovely looking plexiglas block that is equipped with a light from below and really makes the person within “shine” – finally I can say to have received an award that guarantees Enlightenment (provided you operate the switch)…

The Lecture & Sunday Matinee

After over two years I have finally been able to give again a lecture in front of “real” people. About 150 attended my lecture on Stand-up Card Magic which lasted 90 minutes plus a few more minutes… As Thomas Otto, a good friend said in jest (I hope it was in jest…): “Roberto Giobbi is the only one I know who can answer a simple yes-or-no question with a lecture…”

I’m happy to say that nobody threw tomatoes, and everyone stayed until the end of the lecture… awake!

As part of the lecture I was finally able to personally perform (and fool!) “The Red Card” and “Prophecy”, and Barbara, who helped with sales, sold out of everything. After two years of almost zero shows that was necessary…

On Sunday morning (at 10 o’clock!), they closed the convention with a “magic matinee”. As Eugene Burger once remarked, “Magic should not be performed before sunset…” I fully agree with him. Nonetheless, everyone was there, and the show was very well received, Otto Wessely obviously being the “star”, simply because he’s a genius, and I regret we didn’t have more time to chat, because this man is as smart as he’s crazy!

As for my part, the MC choose to introduce me with these capricious words: “You know Roberto Giobbi as the author of, well, a few card books… so we asked him: Can you also do something else than cards. Yes, he can. And here he is – Roberto Giobbi!” I performed my take on Takagi’s Rope Routine, which he taught me decades ago and with which I’ve been opening my program for laypeople over the past thirty years, and I closed with Card Stab (see “Stickler” in Stand-up Card Magic).

I was a bit nervous before this show, as I had done just three or four shows in the past two and a half years, and also because my “professional tricks” are not necessarily what amateur magicians like to see at a convention, but I was glad to see I still could keep up the necessary pacing and connect with the international audience. I’m even a bit proud to have managed the first spectator, a lady, so well that after an initial hesitation she left the stage as happy as a clam (as my friend Mike Perovich would say). Getting a lady up at a magic convention where you know most of the magicians and their wives is not an easy task…

As I don’t have the kind of competition act that is expected at magic conventions, and my professional “show” is 40 minutes plus, I could just do two pieces from my program, but am happy to say that nobody physically attacked me after the show, and I even got a few expressing their admiration. The lady below even wanted to marry me…

Hanno Rhomberg, organizer of the convention and president of the MRA has a blog, and if you read German or want to practice it, you can get more details from his blog by CLICKING HERE.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little report, and that my opinions have made you think about this or that, regardless of whether you agree or not 🙂

Wish you a great week, and look forward to chatting with you next week in The Magic Memories (92).

Hello everyone!

These are The Magic Memories 90, gone online Sunday, September 18th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

No Magic Memories today, as I’m attending the Magialdia Magic Convention in Vitoria, Spain.

For more information on the convention, which really is a Festival of Magic lasting almost three weeks, of which the convention is a part, CLICK HERE.

This – to me – is the best magic convention in the world, not only because they keep inviting me back, more often than not to be just there, without commitments 🙂

To attend this convention is one of the one hundred things you need to do before you die…

See you all back here on SEP 25th, 2022, at 0:07 o’clock sharp.

All the very best,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

These are The Magic Memories 89, gone online Sunday, September 11th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

No Magic Memories today, as I’m at the Austrian Magic Convention in Bad Aussee; CLICK HERE to see the program.

The Magic Memories 90 will also be canceled, as I’m attending the Magialdia Convention in Vitoria, Spain.

See you all back here on SEP 25th, 2022, at 0:07 o’clock sharp.

All the very best,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Thoughts on signing a card; If you like I can write you a postcard

These are The Magic Memories 88, gone online Sunday, September 4th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

To Sign or Not to Sign a Card

Each time we meet, my dear friend Claudio Viotto asks me some interesting questions. Here is one that might find your favor, too: “Have you ever discussed the question of why to sign a card (or not), and how to do it?” Like every seemingly easy question, beneath this outer simplicity hides great internal complexity, to paraphrase Miguel de Unamuno.

To Label or Not to Label

I remember when I started out in magic, with little funds and when good decks of cards still were quite expensive here In Switzerland, I had the obvious thought of using some kind of self-adhesive label which could be signed and then stuck on the face of the cards. After the performance the label could be removed, and the precious deck was saved.

Generally speaking, I think that this is not a good idea, for at least two reasons. First (dramatic construction), it is more laborious and takes more time. Second (psychological construction), some spectators will suspect that the label can be removed and placed on another similar card, even if this is not true, for we know that the only “truth” is our “subjective reality”, and that’s all that counts. (Briefly: homo sapiens is not interested in what is true, only in what he or she thinks is true – two different things, and one of the important messages of the Arts in general, and the Art of Magic in particular.)… So, unless you come up with an especially clever presentational ploy that coherently justifies the use of a label, don’t.

Sign, or What?

Another problem is what to write on the card. Does it need to be a signature? In my writings I have offered several alternatives, such as writing the date and the exact time at the moment of signature. This idea alone is worth exploring, as it literally imposes itself as a presentational plot…

And here is an idea that I found in my own Secret Twitter:

“Instead of having an object signed (card, coin etc.) ask the spectator to think of a “secret number”, from 3 to 6 digits, like a PIN Code, and to then write it on the object.”

This is a great opportunity to open a new note in your “Magic Notebook”, maybe under the heading “Signing a Card, Coin etc.”, and there note all ideas you can come up with on the subject. You can start the note by copying and pasting this article – don’t forget to write. “From Roberto Giobbi’s The Magic Memories 88 – 4th SEP 2022″ 🙂

BTW: The spectator’s (first) name on the card can also become part of a trick, e.g., in an Ambitious Card routine. Assume the lady assistant’s name is VERA and she has signed the face of the card with that name. In one of the last phases of the routine bring the ambitious card fourth from the top (corresponding to the number of letters in the name). Snap your fingers and show that the card is… not on the top. “Oh, we have to call the card. What is the name of the card?” They will usually call out the Five of Hearts, or whatever the ambitious card is, whereupon you reply, “No, no, the card’s name is VERA.” This will produce a smile (better than a laugh, because a smile is an “intelligent laugh”). Spell VERA, and then reveal the ambitious card on the last letter. This is even better if the name is a long one, like MARIA-MADDALENA…

Back and Front

And do you sign on the face or on the back?

Although it is a standard joke to say, “Please sign the card – not on the back, on the face…”, there are some tricks that require the exact contrary, and some very good pieces sign the card on both sides. Obviously, there is room for some engaging presentations, such as when a couple writes their first name each on one side…

Make a list of the ten best tricks you know that use a signed card – nice exercise 🙂

The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

Yet another question is what writing tool to use to sign the card. Obviously, any type of permanent marker will do. Meanwhile, as far as I know, Sharpie has conquered the world-market and is available even in the most remote locations of this planet.

I might be a bit of an exception here, as I’m still using a fountain pen to write. I gave myself a Montblanc Solitaire as a gift for having completed Card College 1&2 (in German) in 1992, and every since I write a postcard to someone almost every day.

So, when it comes to having a card signed, I like to use a writing tool that looks nice. After years of search I found a green Edding that looked elegant enough, but meanwhile we have “sherpa”, a really nice looking pen that accepts most Sharpies.

To carry the “sherpa” together with a green and a black sharpie, I use a three-partition pencil.

Color Change

Next question is what color to use. It was Carlhorst Meyer from Nuremberg, one of my early mentors, who suggested to use a green marker since it could be seen equally well on a black and a red card, and it even shows off better on a court card.

When I put this information in Grosse Kartenschule (Card College) in 1992, I never imagined that it would be such an influential idea: Suddenly everyone was signing their cards with a green-tipped pen!

I vividly remember how they asked me to sit in the jury of a German national magic convention, and several contestants had their card signed with a green pen. When the president of the jury asked another jury member why they all used green instead of black, he answered: “Because it’s in Grosse Kartenschule!” That’s when I realized that those book I had written were much more influential than I ever thought.

Sign it, Really?

I’ve left the most important question to semi-last: Do we really need to have the card(s) signed? Always? When is it completely unnecessary? Great question!

First, there is a communicative aspect: If a spectator is asked to sign a card, not only does he or she personally get involved, but also the rest of the audience, because, as always, when only one member of the audience is asked to assist, you really are speaking to the entire audience through this one spectator, it becomes sort of a pars pro toto strategy.

Furthermore, the act of signing confers an extra portion of importance to the proceedings and becomes therefore a desirable element of the dramatic construction.

Finally, a signed card lends itself to be given away to the assisting spectator – see my way of doing it, based on an idea by Vanni Bossi, in Secret Agenda p. 48 (to any performer this is worth the proverbial price of the book). This is not just a marketing trick, as many would see it, but much more important a possibility for the spectator the relive the experience of wonder and to tell it to someone else.

However, in plenty of situations signing a card is unnecessary, even undesirable. For once, on stage carefully consider whether it is really necessary to have a card signed, for on stage seconds are like minutes, whereas it is a completely different thing to do so at the table, especially in informal situations, where a moment of relaxation is most welcome. Not so on stage, where, as a rule that might have its exceptions, you want to keep the pacing up.

Have a look at the tricks in Stand-up Card Magic: Although cards are selected, in almost none of them is a signature (or whatever) required. This is because I designed the psychological construction of the tricks in such a way that the use of a duplicate card is excluded by the dramatic construction.

Take “Stickler” (a title my publisher Stephen Minch created for my “Card Stab”, p. 242, palindromic, the page, not the title…). In this trick it is made crystal clear that there cannot be any duplicate, therefore signing is completely superfluous.

On the other hand, if you perform a trick where the only solution is a duplicate, such as making it appear outside of a window, the card must be signed, or some other strategy applied to explicitly confirm that it is the very same card (even though it might bot be…).

Lines & Bits of Business

That’s of course another note “Signing a Card – Gags, Lines & Bits of Business” to open in your “Magic Notebook”: List all you can find in the archives, literature etc., and all you have come up with in years of performing in front of a real audience, that keeps the ball rolling, shows that you have a sense of humor, and charmingly helps to interact with your audience.

But remember: Whenever you use “lines”, you want to laugh with your spectator not at your spectator. Here are just a couple of lines as an example:

“Please sign the card… write anything you like… maybe your social security number…” This might be better than asking for the classic “phone number” in today’s politically (over-)correct society; at least in Switzerland and in most parts of Europe the social security number is VERY long, and virtually nobody knows it by heart, so asking for it causes spontaneous amusement.

Here is another line I found in my archive: “This is NOT the pen with which Barack Obama signed his marriage certificate – but you, Sir, may sign the card with it.” Change the name and the “certificate” in any way you like…

BTW: A much neglected chapter is Chapter 64 in Card College 5, “A Cardman’s Humor” (includes Cardwomen, of course). A reviewer criticized this chapter, and I really do not understand why – he probably failed to carefully read my short introductory essay on the matter (p. 1385 and 1386)… Sure, humor is personal and situational, but once you are clear about that, “standard lines” can open up doors to new ideas, but as always you’ve got to “use your head”.

Write Me a Postcard

As I was discoursing above on the subject of fountain pens and cards, a business idea occurred to me that could make me a rich man in a short time (hey, just joking!). Seriously, maybe some of you don’t believe that I write nice cards, with precious fountain pens, send them off in envelopes with a real (lovely!) stamp.

So, if you want an autograph (definition of “autograph” in a general sense: something written or made with one’s own hand; also in a stricter sense: a signature, especially that of a celebrity written as a memento for an admirer), send 10 (Dollars, Euros or what have you) to my PayPal address giobbi@bluewin.ch, and I’ll write you a lovely magical postcard from the Taschen Collection. You then only have to wait about 50 years after I’m dead, and can then sell it for maybe $ 20…

Please indicate your address in Paypal  in as simple a manner as possible (especially UK & USA), i.e., : name & surname, street & number, ZIP, city name, country – NOTHING ELSE is required; forget districts, counties, provinces etc. – the ZIP and the city name (for USA, Canada plus state abbreviation) identifies it all.

OK, as you’re reading this I’m off to Austria and then Spain, so I’ll miss you, but wish you three great weeks!

All the very best,

Roberto Giobbi

PS: As announced earlier, there will be no Magic Memories for the next two weeks, as I’m attending two consecutive magic conventions. I’ll see you back here on SUN, SEP 25th, inevitably at 0:07 o’clock sharp.

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: on Stand-up Card Magic; Thoughts on note-taking; Contact & program form; Idea for a card trick on stage; Remembering Herb Zarrow

These are The Magic Memories 87, gone online Sunday, August 28th, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

As I’m writing these Magic Memories 87, I’m preparing for my attendance at the Austrian National Magic Convention in Bad Aussee. See HERE what a lovely spot this is.

Living in the Old World is not always an advantage over living in the New World, not at all, but a few things are just, well, different, and I for my part prefer to attend a magic convention in a beautiful natural or historic environment than to get stuck in a huge hotel that has nothing more to offer than convenient facilities (and sometimes not even those…).

Anyway, I’m booked to give a 90-minute lecture on Stand-up Card Magic, appear in their Parlor Magic Show with a 20-minute performance, and sit in the jury of their close-up and stage competition – so, you see, I won’t get bored 🙂

In today’s Magic Memories I will discuss a few things in regard to performing card magic standing up, things that are not in my book Stand-up Card Magic, but also remind you of a few that are, for it is inevitable that many things have been overlooked… that has always been so, and in today’s times of over-information especially so.

How do you avoid missing or forgetting the good things in a book or video? I have found the best thing really to be to write into the books, highlight and underline, make notes on the margin, or use post-its.

The most important thing is to identify polyvalent concepts, name them if they do not already have a name (in my writings most do…), open a note in your notebook (Evernote, OneNote, etc.), describe the concept and your ideas along with various applications (every concept needs an application to be understood). If the original description is longer, use a Scan App (e.g., ScannerPro from Readdle) to scan that part of the text as a PDF (NOT as a JPG) and insert it into the note; being a PDF it can be multiple pages in one file (you can’t do this with JPGs) and you can then even write into it, with underlines and highlights.

Finally, tag the note so you can easily find it: Name of author, instrument used, category (is it an effect [production, vanish, travel etc.], a technique, a presentation, a subtlety or what).

Reread your notes regularly.

Yes, this is a lot of work, but in 63 years I have found no other way to satisfaction and success…

Contact & Program Form

“Stand-up Card Magic” is usually a subject that I would typically treat in a one-day Masterclass as the subject is huge; it is a profession within the profession, you might say.

For my lecture at the convention I will only have 90 minutes, I shall therefore do it the “Mosaic Way”: Pick practical examples from various areas, seemingly unrelated, to eventually convey a useful picture of the subject.

Anyone who then wants to study the matter in depth, will have to do his or her homework by studying the literature: Many books, magazines, videos etc. have excellent material concerning this subject (e.g., The Tarbell Course in Magic), but to my knowledge only two works treat it in a systematic way, identifying the basic problems and providing good and solid solutions for them in an organized and didactically attractive manner, and that’s my book Stand-up Card Magic as well as my first Penguin Live Lecture, which is the video companion to the book.

I believe that the first two chapters of the book have been read over by most. These two chapters deal with the particular conditions of a stand-up performance, as well as with how to manage assisting spectators. However, many will dive for chapters 3 and 4, with the techniques and the tricks. This is a misconception, for these two chapters are the upper floors that reside on the basement and the first floor. If the latter are missing, the house falls down.

I remember that when the book first came out in 2016 I wrote to my esteemed friend Steve Cohen, who had just advertised his successful show “Chamber Magic”, now at the Lotte NY Palace Hotel. The photo showed his audience sitting in a straight line in front of the performance area, and I suggested to arrange them in a slight arc for better communication and visibility.

He enthusiastically wrote back and promised a bottle of Opus One when we next meet a a thank you – unfortunately due to Covid I had to cancel my travel to NYC, so am still looking forward to it 🙂

For those who don’t have the book I have taken a photo of page 5:

If the event is a small one, the necessary arrangement can be done on location, but it is best to foresee the potential problems of a performance, and then prepare beforehand.

I always do this before the event by calling up the client and discussing the program and to get the best possible conditions for the client and his or her guests. Years ago Barbara listened into such conversation and later commented that I should charge extra for event planning! (BTW: This also worked when an in-between agency handled the deal. I simply explained to them that they could do everything on the business side, and once this was done, I would like to talk to the client personally; this was never refused, as it was seen as a sign of professionalism.)

Although this is true for any type of performance, when getting booked for a stand-up show that takes place in a private home, a restaurant, hotel or other venue that has not been designed for visual performances as theaters and similar locations would, it is primordial to arrange for the best possible viewing and communication conditions.

To give my discussion (ca. 20 minutes) with the client a structure, I devised a specific “Contact and Program Form”: By simply following its system I would be able to identify and solve any problems, provided there were any.

I then discovered that doing so came with a huge bonus: Asking all those questions from the form made me look very professional, and more important, that I cared for the client and the event. In my case I didn’t have to pretend, because I sincerely cared, as I do with everything.

The inspiration for my Program and Contact Form came from a series Michael Ammar originally published in Genii magazine; later most of the material found its way into “Chapter Eight – Magic Management” of his excellent book The Magic of Michael Ammar. Over the years I have revised it completely to suit my needs and reduced it to a one-page form.

The PDF I have for you as a gift has two pages. The first page is the empty form, which you are welcome to print and use: I always have the form sitting on my desk as I converse with the person who wants to book me (call them client, customer or patient, according to your sense of humor), and I write into it by hand; to me this makes the process feel more personable than if I compiled the form on the computer – that’s a question of attitude… The second page is the same form, but filled in with a fictitious example, and that should clear all questions you might have.

To read and download the PDF of the “Contact and Program Form” CLICK HERE. “Kontakt- und Programmformular” deutsch HIER.

A Little Idea

I wasn’t going to write about specific tricks in today’s post, but looking for the photo with the chairs above, I found the scan I had made years ago for possible use, but it never made it into the book, so I’ll put it here – maybe someone will want to devote further thought to it. Denis Behr, the formidable, found the snippet comes from Genii, Vol 14 No. 2, Oct. 1949; CLICK HERE to view the complete article.

Remembering Herb Zarrow (1925 – 2008)

I had the great pleasure of being quite friendly with Herb and Phyllis Zarrow for many years. We met through our mutual friend Ron Wohl, originally from the same city than I, Basel (Switzerland).

I could write a lengthy essay about our meetings in the USA and in Europe, and I might do so one day. Suffice it to say that Herb was one of those “inspired amateurs”, if there ever was one, who have contributed more to magic, especially card magic, than most professionals. And I would be hard pressed to name a person who was more humble and modest than he, in spite of his extraordinary creativity and skill.

The photo below came about as the result of various facts falling into place almost by magic… Hank Moorehouse had booked me to appear at the SAM Magic Convention in Las Vegas in 1996. I told Ron Wohl, who at that time would visit his parents about once a year here in Basel, and each time he did, he called me up and we would spend an afternoon doing magic and the evening going to some stellar restaurant, for Ron like myself had a love affair with gastronomy.

On that occasion he said that Herb, Phyllis and he were planning to fly to Los Angeles a week before the convention, rent a car, and then drive to Las Vegas, visiting all those famous spots in-between, such as Red Canyon, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, etc.

Imagine my surprise when he asked me if I would want to come with them. I hesitated three seconds, and then said ‘Yes’ 🙂

This was quite an adventure, I can tell you, touristically and magically…

Once in Las Vegas I experienced never ending surprises: Thanks to Herb and Ron, I could get into the surveillance room of the Bally’s Hotel, then managed by George Joseph, see Mike Skinner perform at the Lily Langtry at the Golden Nugget, and have some memorable sessions with Zarrow, Skinner, Thompson… And that wasn’t even the convention! Needless to say I had a grand time.

Herb came to my lecture I did in a showroom of the Bally’s Hotel (so I can honestly say that I worked in a Las Vegas Casino with a contract and a fee!). Afterwards he was very complimentary about it, and said that he always thought that this is the way to do a lecture: Only a few tricks (I did three, I believe), and then talk in depth about them.

An early meeting with the Zarrow’s was in Paris at Bernard Bilis’ home, actually one year before above-mentioned convention. Bernard called me up and invited me for dinner, saying that there would be a few other guests. When I arrived at his home I was greeted by Herb and Phyllis!

In the photo below, taken at Bernard’s home in Paris, from left to right: Bernard Bilis, Roberto Giobbi, Yves Carbonnier, Herb Zarrow.

On one occasion Herb and Phyllis managed to come to the Escorial Card Conference, another memorable meeting. Below you can see me do the “Zarrow Shuffle” for Herb Zarrow, and everyone else watching like hawks 🙂

When asked to do his shuffle, Herb would occasionally simply do an ordinary shuffle and then humorously remark, “Every shuffle I do is a Zarrow shuffle!” Of course 🙂

On another occasion Jamy Swiss had booked me for his “Card Clinic” in NYC, the first of four. The Zarrows heard of it, called me up, and invited me for dinner, and afterwards they took me to a concert in the world-famous New York Philharmonic. I only remember that they played pieces by a modern composer, whom I had never heard of (shame on me!), and whose music really went above my head – I did not like it at all. But that didn’t matter at all, as I will cherish the memory of this evening for the rest of my life (the Zarrows and their kindness, not the music…).

Request for Help

In last week’s Magic Memories I asked if you, my readers, could let your friends know about this blog: If every reader would tell just one other person, that would be nice. Looking into the stats nothing changed from last week, on the contrary, there were fewer logins. Whether this is because nobody cares and no one sent out any message to friends, or if everyone did, but nobody to whom it was sent cared, I cannot say. But I will not hide from you that I am, well, quite a bit disappointed…

Wish you all a good week!

All the very best,

Roberto Giobbi

Advance Notice: Sorry to report that The Magic Memories 89 and 90 will be canceled as I’ll be at the Austrian Convention in Bad Aussee, and the week-end immediately following it at the Magialdia Convention in Vitoria. I’ll see you back on The Magic Memories 91, SUN, SEP 25th, as always at 0:07 o’clock sharp!

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Terminology in magic – let’s define our terms; Dictionaries in magic; Remembering Borra Sr.; Your help is required

These are The Magic Memories 86, gone online Sunday, August 21st, 2022, at 0:07h sharp.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Define Your Terms!

Gladstone (1909 – 1998), a former Prime Minister of the UK, to whom the utterance is attributed (without the “Ladies”, as government at that time was exclusively male) blew into the same horn as Voltaire (1694 – 1778), who opined, “Define your terms, you will permit me again to say, or we shall never understand one another.”

I wish this was more often quoted and lived by than Robert-Houdin’s quote, which he never meant the way it was later interpreted – I know, because he told me through his reincarnation in Juan Tamariz 🙂 (See my short take on the subject in Sharing Secrets, “Be Yourself; Magician and Actor – Two Professions”, p. 27.)

Atsushi Takizawa, who is translating and publishing some of my books in Japanese, asked about the definition of the terms “effect”, “trick”, “routine”, “act”, and “performance”.

Considering that magic is still far from being treated as an academic discipline, this question is not as trite as it might look at first sight. I therefore thought it would be of interest to most who are following these Magic Memories to briefly discuss this important issue.

Effect

1. What the spectator experiences when a trick is performed, what he would tell someone else (“The card vanished and appeared in his wallet.”). 2. Often used in  written instructions of a trick to convey to the reader what the audience will see (“A card is selected, lost in the deck, and then shown to have vanished. The card is then revealed in the perform’s wallet.”). 3. Names the category of the phenomenon, i.e., the basic theme of the trick (“Travel”, “Levitation”, “Restoration”, “Divination & Location”). 4. Often (wrongly) used as a synonym for “trick”, with the intention of upgrading its image (“I’ve been using the following effect with great success for a children’s audience.”).

Trick

Technical term used among magicians to denominate a specific piece of magic (Dai Vernon’s “Slow Motion Aces – 2nd Version”; Robert-Houdin’s “Card to Wallet”). I advocate its use in the technical literature, in lectures etc., as it has become an established term over centuries and it would be hard to replace it. However,  when speaking to a lay audience, I prefer synonyms. In Secret Agenda, entry for November 24,  I dealt with the issue (for your convenience you can read or download the one-page-PDF, CLICK HERE).

Routine

Any performance piece that is made up of several effects with the same instrument and with the same theme, such as “Follow the Leader”, “Ambitious Card”, “Linking Rings” (“What’s your routine for the Linking Rings?”).

Act

1. Loosely used for the complete program of a performer (“This was a lovely act”). 2. Dictionary.com defines “act” as: “A short performance by one or more entertainers, usually part of a variety show or radio or television program.” 3. A sequence of tricks with a dramatic unity, usually ca. 6 to 10 minutes (Norm Nielsen, The Great Tomsoni, Cardini etc. did acts).

Performance

The act of presenting a trick in front of an audience (“Her performance of the Card in Wallet was remarkable.”).

Of course, magic not being an exact science as mathematics, the application of terms might occasionally be stretched. As an example, if you combined various quick tricks, such as in a “Multiple Card Location”, you could refer to this as a “routine”, but also as an “act”, especially if it extends for a certain duration of time. Also, if someone does a series of rope tricks, and only those, such as Edernac or Tabary used to do, then you would refer to it as an “act” (Edernac’s Rope Act), but if someone did the same piece as part of a let’s say 40-minute program, then it would be a “routine”.

Magic Dictionaries

This little excursion into a subject that is much neglected in our circles wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that there are, in spite of all things said, various dictionaries that have attempted to organize and define the concepts used in magic, to name and define them. Actually, most languages have at least one dictionary (see photo above).

In English Im aware of Bart Whaley’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of Magic (Jeff Busby Inc., USA 1989). The fact that this has been long out of print shows how little interest it has found. Fortunately, it is still available as an e-book from lybrary.com. The other one is T. A. Waters’ The Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians (Facts On File Publications, USA 1988). This one is still available from Amazon. Whaley’s work costs quite a bit more than Waters’, but is clearly superior and recommended.

BTW: To compare the quality of two dictionaries simply take one term, e.g., “effect”, and then compare them. So, if at school or college you need to buy a dictionary for your son or daughter, the more expensive will usually be the better investment.

In the photos below you will see that Whaley’s definition is more detailed and complete than Waters’:

More Quotes

In the Asian cultures the number eight is considered a lucky number: It is symmetrical, looks the same if mirrored, if turned horizontally symbolizes the infinite – what a beautiful number (and idea for a Prologue to a trick using the number eight).

Since my collection of quotes from my own books in The Magic Memories 78 seemed to please quite a few among my readership, here are another eight “quotes” I’ve extracted for your edification and entertainment pleasure, all from Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction, except otherwise stated:

“This will fly by perfectly, if it is correctly understood and capably executed.”

“As always when  practicing a sleight, exaggerate it and slow down. Then, after a while, do it a little faster,  until you get real speed, and also bring the exaggeration down. ” (“Hofzinser” Top Change)

“This might not be your cup of tea. The important thing is that you identify the problem, and now find a solution that fits you:  Not too short, not too long, but just right.” (“All’s Well That Ends Well” in Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction)

“Of course this needs a reason. With any kind of movement you do or text you say, you always need a reason, implicit or explicit.”

That’s the concept of naturalness: Avoid that the spectators wonder, “Why is he doing that?” If you can accomplish that you’ve attained naturalness.

“There are things that cannot be simplified, or else they become trivial.” (The Magic Memories 65)

The three “S” – Sophistication, Simplicity, Safety: As sophisticated as I can, but as simple and safe as possible.  (The Magic Memories 65)

This is the path to perfection: You’ll never reach perfection, but having it as a vision will lead to excellence.  (The Magic Memories 65)

Remembering Borra

Borra Sr. (Borislav Milojkovic, 1921 – 1998), not to be confused with his son Charly Borra, was one of the best and popular pickpocket entertainers (as opposed to real ones…) of his time.

I had the immense pleasure and honor to be booked together with him at the same event in Frankfurt, many years ago, when I was just about twenty or so, still a student at the University of Basel. My good friend Wolff von Keyserlingk, a bona fide German Baron, whom I will remember in a future Magic Memories, had received a very lucrative engagement for a prestigious corporation to organize and lead through the entertainment part of a customer event.

I forget many details, but one thing I remember was that the event location was the Intercontinental Hotel in Frankfurt, at that time the number one hotel in town. Since I had to come from Switzerland, a 3-hour trip by train, I was offered to stay at the same hotel. Well, never before had I been in a larger and more luxurious hotel room! I had no idea that in my future professional career I would be lodged in many similar hotels around the world…

Anyway, Wolff had received a generous budget that allowed him to book three other magicians: Camilo Vazquez from Spain (1st prize Close-up in 1973 FISM Paris), Piet Forton (a three-time FISM winner in Card Magic), and myself (a nobody at that time, but Wolff apparently had a high opinion of me). And then there was the star of the show, Mr. Borra Sr. himself!

The four magicians of us were each assigned a table in a corner of a large room – a “Magic Show Corner” – but I remember only little of that. Very probably we each did several shows during cocktail time for different groups of people. How much better this “Show Corner” idea is than the “Walkaround Magic”, or worse, “Table Hopping Magic”. That idea stuck with me, and I’ve used it many times later during my own professional work.

The neat thing about this engagement, besides being hired in the context of such a high-profile event, was that after we did our “Show Corner” thing, the three of us were free to enjoy the rt of the evening together with the customers, while Wolff and Borra would do their stage show after dinner.

Wolff did his stage act as usual to great success, and then introduced Borra, who would do at least half an hour, maybe more. I had seen Borra before as a child when he worked in the Swiss national Zirkus Knie in Basel. My memory of his performance in Frankfurt was just that he git a long standing ovation, of course.

However, the reason I’m telling all this, is another memory that far outweights everything else, a minor thing to an outsider, maybe, but to me as the young chap it was sensational: All the artists, the five of us, shared the same dressing room that had a large table in the middle. I was practicing my card sleights on a close-up mat at the table when suddenly Borra, already dressed up, sat next to me, to my left (I remember that!), and asked if he could have my cards. Imagine my surprise when he then started to show me card sleights. I can recall him doing a second Deal and a Push-through Shuffle!

He wouldn’t have survived at a card table with it, but one could see that he knew and that he had put quite bit of practice into it. He went on for a while, and was highly amused to show me all this and telling me how much he liked magic. He then graciously asked me to do a few tricks for him and was very complimentary about my little performance. I was deeply impressed by his sincere humanity, a star who still was a child at heart, humble and modest, and still fully aware of who he was. I often think of him and find him to be a role model on and off stage.

What a pity that we did not live closer to each other, as I’m sure we could have become good friends, the benevolent world-famous “grandpa” and his *grandson” 🙂

Lots of things to be said about his act, which I won’t. Watch it for yourself on YouTube. Especially his opening with the cigarettes – world class magic.

An interesting question to ponder is why a pickpocket would open with a magic sequence that had nothing to do with the rest of the act. We find a similar ploy used by Al Koran: When working as a mentalist in a night club, he would open with a purely visual Linking Ring Routine with three rings.

I’ve never found anything written about this, but my assumption is that he had three reasons. First, it was an Overture that would introduce his stage persona. Second, it would establish his competence: Here was someone who really knew what he was doing. Third, it was a quick and visual opener.

The problem of pickpocketing, similar to the performance of card tricks or mentalism, is that it takes time and procedure to get to the first “effect”: at least two spectators – Borra used to call them “patients” – needed to be brought up, seated, and only then could the “stealing” part start. The visual opener with the Cigarette Catch would provide a first series of baffling miracles that would get immediate attention from everyone in the audience. But most of all, besides establishing his stage persona, it would clearly show his competence and endear him to his audience through a charming and completely magical gambit. To be understood and lived by.

A Little Help

An occasional look at the statistics of my webpage tells me that there are more or less 500 people reading these Magic Memories, at least that’s how many log in. I would like to reach a few more, and for this I need your help. If each one of you who is reading this would send just one email with the link to these The Magic Memories to one friend, we could double our community. So, if you want to say Thank you in a tangible way (yes, Gee, I know, I’ve used the expression before 🙂 let your friends know, and while you’re at it, tell them to get Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction (also available as a USB Card), because it will be more useful to them than the money to me, although the latter is a necessary side-effect to keep bringing these Magic Memories and other information for free to you. THANK YOU, VIELEN DANK, GRAZIE MILLE, MUCHAS GRACIAS, MERCI BEAUCOUP, ERG BEDANKT, DOMO ARIGATO ETC.

As always, I wish you a good week!

All the very best,

Roberto Giobbi