Mailbag #85
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I was wondering if the next book has a theme to it? Or if you could give any information about it? —SS
Not really. I covered this in the introduction to the last book…
📙My previous books were loosely organized around a central theme. My first book described my basic philosophy towards performing magic. My second book was about introducing “emotional elements” into your presentations. My third book covered my approach to mentalism. And my fourth book focused on “extra-presentational,” world-building techniques that serve to add depth and connections to my performances.
Those previous books covered the fundamental elements of my style of performing. And at this moment there isn’t really any more groundwork I need to lay.
Now, I could pretend that each year I have some grand epiphany that there’s some subject I just need to write about. “Oh my god, everyone. I just realized I have a lot to say about Himber Wallets!” And then you’re stuck with some fucking 200 page book about Himber Wallets to read through. But I wouldn’t subject either of us to that.
So this book has no theme. Well, it has no theme other than, “This is the stuff I’ve been working on over the past couple years.” And that’s the plan for this series of books. I will release one every 18 months or so looking at the material I’ve created since the last in the series.
If and when I do have enough material for a book that’s more narrowly focused, then that will be released outside of this series of books as a stand-alone thing.
So that’s the plan. 📙
And that’s still the plan.
The “reward books”—that is, the books that come as a reward for supporting at the highest tier for a full season—will continue to not be focused around a particular theme, but instead around a time period.
Other books, that I may or may not get to, that are more focused, will be available to supporters at all levels when the time comes.
That being said, there is something of a theme to some of the material in this book. I noticed as I was assembling the pieces that there was a lot of card magic in the book.
Card magic tends to be very reductive. It tends to come down to what’s happening with your fingers and the deck. And it doesn’t just come down to that methodologically, it comes down to that presentationally too. “Here’s what my hands can do with this deck of cards.” Several effects in the book are my attempt at making card tricks more expansive. It wasn’t an intended theme when I started the book, but it came up time and time again in the routines I was creating during this time.
I don’t like talking too much about what’s in the books, because the upcoming book essentially sold out a year ago and trying to hype the book at this point seems stupid.
Are you open to being sponsored by a magic company? Or are you already? I notice you usually link to Penguin on your site and in the newsletter. If a new magic company was willing to give you a monthly stipend would you be willing to link them instead? [Disclosure: I’m part of a team behind a new magic retail site.]—SM
No, I’m not sponsored by anyone. I usually link to Penguin or Vanishing Inc. because those are the companies I use most often. Generally, I look up the product on both sites and then just link to whichever site is offering it cheaper. That’s the extent of the thought I put into that.
Would I link somewhere else if they were sponsoring the site? Yeah, of course. But I doubt it’s going to happen. They would have to be okay with me continuing to write whatever I feel like and I don’t think that’s what a sponsor would be looking for.
I guess you’ve seen this but isn’t Airprint your idea called The Look of Love? Have they nicked this idea or done it with your blessing?—KF
Vanishing Inc. sent out an email for the SPIX app (I guess the names “beaner” and “wetback” were already taken), and I got a few emails suggesting that the “Airprint” feature of the app was based on my trick, “The Look of Love.”
It’s definitely similar in the sense that you ask for an object and then a color and you use a mini photo printer in order to generate a photo of the predicted object in that color.
Airprint is pretty much that basic idea but stripped of the charm and the context I gave it. Presentationally it’s 10 steps backwards, but as a tool, it may be useful (although it only works on a couple of discontinued printers, which is not ideal).
The Look of Love was originally written up on this site in 2016. It also appeared in a Penguin Magic Monthly at some point.
The way I do it now, which requires no outside help and no special app was written up in this post in 2020.
(I never did end up trying out the printer I mentioned in that post. If anyone else did, let me know.)
I don’t think the idea was “nicked,” nor did I give it my blessing (not that they needed my blessing). The French Twins did contact me when the app was about to be released to ask about the Look of Love and possibly mentioning it in the instructions, but I don’t know if they did or not.