Hello everyone!
Today’s topics are: Update on Unexpected Agenda; Italian Tour 2024 (Castellamonte, Torino, Cherasco, Florence)
These are The Magic Memories 204, gone online Sunday, November 24, 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.
They say that stealing your material is the sincerest form of flattery. Last week, as you will have noticed, The Magic Memories were not published because the site was down.
Finally, I thought, my webshop and I have become important enough to be hacked…
I assume this is the sincerest form of flattery in the world of IT.
However, my webmaster, Andrea Pancotti (expert in magic and IT), who was able to help within 24 hours, found out that not my webshop but the provider that hosts my webshop had been hacked!
Anyway, now all seems to work as usual, and there are many things to tell 🙂
Update on Unexpected Agenda
After I had already seen and touched the physical copies on my Italian tour (see report below), the bulk of the books have finally arrived yesterday to my home. The shipper could not have picked a worse day in the year, as it was the very first day we got tons of snow!
I spare you the video of us (that’s Barbara and me!) shoveling snow to free the garage for the palets with the books – 1’000 go directly via container ship to my distributor, Penguin Magic – the remaining 800 will join my other books in our “warehouse” (a special room in the cellar of our house), to be sent out to those who prefer to order directly from the author (me…).
I must say that the book is truly beautifully produced by my friend and Italian publisher Francesco Mugnai. Although the other two Agendas – Secret Agenda and Hidden Agenda – are also nicely produced, you will find this one tops them all… and you can see why the Italians – with Ferrari, Armani, etc. – are considered world-wide tops when it comes to design.
If you have ordered the book, please be patient: Contrary to what some people think, and in spite of being a “bestseller” author (forgive the immodesty), we are one-man & one-woman operation.
This means that we schlepp, unpack, sign, repack, schlepp again and ship all and everything ourselves.
This will take several days, but by the end of next week all books will be on the way to you.
If you live in Switzerland and Germany, you can expect them next week, if in Europe ca. the first week of December, and if you live in the USA/Canada/Rest of the World, the book should still reach you before Xmas.
If you have not yet ordered your copy, but would like to do so, the pre-publication offer – 20% off the regular price – is still on until the 30th November, and you can order it HERE.
Please remember that if you want me to sign your copy and dedicate it to your name, you have to mention this in the comment field of the order form – some people do not want inscriptions, or give the book away as a gift to others, so I sign only upon request, but I do so with great pleasure 🙂
Official release: The book will also be available from December 1st in Europe from your favorite dealer, and in the rest of the world ca. end January 2025 from Penguin Magic, or your favorite dealer.
Italian Tour 2024
As every year in November I tour Italy for a week or two (just part of it, of course).
This year’s purpose was to present my latest publication Unexpected Agenda in Torino and Florence (actually a two-and-a-half hour lecture!), visit with (magic) friends, and study in Don Silvio’s library in Cherasco.
Here is a brief report:
Tre Re – Castellamonte
On the 5th November I crossed the Alps to get to Castellamonte’s hotel and restaurant “Tre Re” (Three Kings), where I met up with friends for our yearly magic & gastronomy meeting.
This year I took the route through the Great St. Bernard tunnel. Opened in 1964, it was the first road tunnel, and one of the highest in the world (at ca. 1’900 meters, i.e., ca. 6’300 feet). If you ever come to Switzerland, I recommend you take that route from Berne, Montreux, Martigny, Aosta, Torino, as you will pass next to Vevey, which hosts one of the best museums in the world, the Charly Chaplin Museum (Chaplin’s World). The museum is worth traveling to, period. Give yourself ca. three hours, and before visiting stop at Châtel-Saint-Denis (next to the highway to Montreux) and go to Café Tivoli, where you will be served one of the best cheese Fondues in Switzeralnd, take my word for it.
The “lunch”, which lasted almost five hours, was filled with lots of magic talk and, obviously, delicious Piemontese specialties…
The company and their magic tales were as exquisite as the meal: Fabio Rossello (coach of the Italian FISM team, vice-president of CADM – Club Amici Della Magia, Torino – and a successful entrepreneur), Aurelio Paviato (FISM winner 1982 and TV personality), Marco Aimone (professional performer and president of CADM), Andrea Pancotti (head of prestigiazione.it), Gianfranco Preverino (professional Performer, gambling expert, and author of several books and DVDs). We were all so busy conversing and enjoying the meal, that we even forgot to take a photo!
Torino – Book Presentation at CADM
I left my car at Marco Aimone’s house, outside of Torino, and Marco then drove me to Torino, where I stayed for two nights at a hotel near the city’s historical center and the magic club (CADM).
Torino is one of my favorite cities, and if you ever go to Italy, it is worth visiting as much as Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome, or Naples (and other cities…).
Also, it is just about one hour’s car drive from the “le Langhe” (between Asti and Alba), the home of some of Italy’s best wines (Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera – the “3Bs”), and truffles, si capisce…
On the evening of November 7th I presented Unexpected Agenda, which had just reached us in Torino directly from the press in Florence (when I touched it, it was still warm…), at the premises of CADM, Italy’s largest magic club (with close to 300 members).
The event was supposed to be a simple book launch, but it turned into a lecture of over two hours (without pause!), where I performed a dozen of the items from Unexpected Agenda, and of course discussed many of its implications (magic is definitely like a fractal, with an infinite structure).
I will not delve into the details of the Unexpected Agenda here, but just say that there are a 365 entries that can be classed in a dozen categories (tricks, techniques, professional advice, anecdotes, presentational ideas, theories, etc.). I picked what I think was a good mix; at least everyone stayed awake, and most of the ca. forty members present even bought a copy of the book. So I can say that the presentation as well as the book was well-received.
Cherasco – Museo della Magia and Don Silvio Mantelli
On Friday, 8th November, Marco Aimone and I drove down to Cherasco, to see Don Silvio Mantelli, his Museo della Magic (Magic Museum), and of course to study in his library with over 22’000 tomes of magic in many languages. I feel really privileged to be able to easily read five languages, plus another three or four with an occasional help from a dictionary; this really helps getting a better overview of the very complex world and history of magic.
While Don Silvio was busy with the hundreds of visitors who came to see the wonders of the museum, Marco did at least a dozen shows in the small theater of the museum on Saturday and Sunday, the two days of the week the museum is open to the public (or by request for larger groups during the week).
I asked Don Silvio for a private tour on Friday, and was amazed how many exhibits he had added since my last visit: Lots of items from the private collection of Silvan, who this year turned 87 and is a brilliant as ever, with many of the previously reproduced posters now being replaced by originals. The museum has always been interesting, in my opinion, but now it is really worth traveling to.
Add to this the immense and incredible library, plus the fact that Cherasco is a gastronomical center of Piedmont with some outstanding restaurants, well, then you have the practical implementation of what Confucius said, “Live like it was the last day, learn as if it was the first day.”
There might be other places with a great magic library, but the food and wines are not so good, and there are places where the food and wine is very good, but the there is no magic library. Cherasco, as small and insignificant it may seem to some, to me, it is the (close to) perfect place… I’m considering moving there – maybe 🙂
Florence – Florence Art Edizioni & Presentation at Magic Club
From Cherasco Marco and I drove back to Torino, where I stayed one night (and relax!), then took the fast train to Florence: In just three hours it takes you in the most comfortable way from one delightful city to the other.
If you are every considering traveling through Italy by train, take the Freccia Rossa, as it has the least probability of being late, or not running at all…
November is an ideal month to visit Florence, which is a small city compared to Milan or Rome. This has the disadvantage that it gets flooded by tourist from March to October.
The temperature at 15° C was still such that I could have my favorite gelato (ice cream) at my favorite place (Perché no, Via dei Tavolini, 19r): I always take pistacchio, fior di latte, and bacio (similar to gianduia: dark chocolate and hazelnuts). That, with one espresso (the best in the world is in Italy!) was my meal for the day, as in the evening I met up with my friend and Italian publisher Francesco Mugnai and Francesco Di Luciano.
Francesco, Mugnai that is, owns the publishing company Florence Art Edizioni (FAE), and as such has published over a dozen of my books in Italian… and he consults and prints my books in German, as well Sharing Secrets and Unexpected Agenda.
Besides, he is also an excellent performer, and I am not just saying this because he might read this 🙂
The other Francesco – Di Luciano – is a busy attorney, as well as a passionate and very skilled cardician (he translated Erdnase into Italian…).
The three of us, plus Alessandro Daloiso, not only an inspired amateur, but also a truffle expert, met at Papere e Papaveri in San Miniato, which to Tuscany is the same as Alba to Piedmont, namely the center of the white truffle.
Needless to say that the evening was characterized by lots of magic talk, and occasional card trick between courses, and a magnificent meal with equally outstanding wines, mostly from Tuscany.
Clearly, a good table, in good company, generates excellent conversations, the total being more than the proverbial sum of its parts.
Next day, for lunch, I invited my friend Francesco Mugnai to the yearly bistecca alla fiorentina, at Trattoria Baldini (take note: Via Il Prato, 96/r, 50123 Firenze), and it was sublime. This is a place just at the city fringe, with almost no tourists, where you get the real food the locals eat.
After a short walk through the incredible historical center of Florence and a well-deserved siesta (the Italians invented that, not the Spanish…), Francesco picked me up and took me to a place where the members of the magic club of Florence meet, and where I gave another presentation of Unexpected Agenda, similar to the one I had given a few days before in Torino.
Again, I went on for over two hours, with everyone staying awake, and we sold all the books we had brought. I take it as a sign that Unexpected Agenda will be well-received by the rest of the world, too 🙂
End of Tour And Back Home
As always I have left out too many things, people I’ve met, things I’ve seen, but hope that you had a pleasant time reading through my ramblings.
Back home, my club in Basel, the Zauberring Basel, under the aegis of Kevin, Dominik and Fabian, organized yet another book presentation for me in Nico Studer’s small theatre, were we usually meet.
Some thirty people from various parts of Switzerland had come, enjoyed an apéro riche, and another two hours of me performing and discussing some of the best items from Unexpected Agenda.
Wish you all a successful and happy week,
Roberto Giobbi
