The Magic Memories (174)

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Program Structure; Paris and Lorient; Good-bye Manolo Tena (1943 – 2024)

These are The Magic Memories 174, gone online Sunday, April 28, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Program Structure

A recurring question I am being asked, is how one should structure one’s program. Indeed, this is a BIG topic, and I will not discuss it here, at least not in detail.

The reason is that in several of my writings I have done that already.

So, I will do the next best thing and make a list of the essays, articles etc. directly – and some indirectly – related to the topic:

• Card College Volume 2: In “Chapter 27: Theory”, you will find a whole sub-chapter titled “Construction”, where I discuss how to construct a trick, a routine, and a program. Plus you get a good list of books that deal with the topic (although the list is still from 1992 (!), not much has changed in this respect).
• Stand-up Card Magic: In “Chapter 1: The Standup Card Conjuror”, you will find plenty of thoughts on the subject.
• Sharing Secrets: Several chapters deal with various aspects of presentation and construction. I let you find them…
• Ask Roberto: Question 28, asked by Fred King, deals with the issue on a dozen pages!
• The 13 Golden Rules of Magic: Several of the “rules” concern the structure of a program. You can get the essay as a free PDF HERE.
• Contact and Program Form: This is indirectly related to the topic, but will help in structuring the program for specific events. Get it for free HERE.

There is more scattered throughout the The Magic Memories of the past three years and the Secrets Newsletters.

Paris and Lorient

The next two week-ends I shall be absent and traveling.

My first stop will be Paris, about which I have already written several times in The Magic Memories: On Sunday, May 5th, I will  be holding a half-day seminar titled “Sleight-of-mind – The Psychological Construction of Magic”. The event, being limited to twenty participants, has now sold out, and I look very much forward to discussing this favorite topic of mine, which will be illustrated with some of my best tricks and techniques. However, the focus will be on the “invisible” concepts, rather than on the technical and presentational.

After a few days in Paris, meeting magic friends (of course!) and enjoying la vie en rose (what else?), together with my friends Yves Carbonnier and José Ángel Suarez, who comes in from Spain to share the experience, I will proceede to Brittany, more precisely to Lorient, where Ludo Mignon of Marchand de Trucs fame will host a lecture for me. Ludo tells me the affair is already sold out, but if you are curious, SEE HERE.

To my own surprise I just read that the lecture will be filmed, and the video later available to all participants. The lecture will be in my “impeccable” French, naturellement, but those among you proficient at AI will be able to have it “translated”…

Since videos “have feet”, as my late friend Jesus Etcheverry used to say, you should be able to get a copy of it… or I might as well put it up on my YouTube channel, so you can get it without having to resort to any illegal actions 🙂