Aside from direct contact with a teacher, for most of us when it comes to magic education, there are three major camps. There are those that prefer DVDs, those that prefer books and those that like a little of both. I’m from the latter camp. I like the ease of watching a DVD but I like the value that books bring. Dollar for dollar, books are a better deal. However there are some aspects of magic that really don’t play well visually, they have to be read, mulled over and digested. Magic theory is such an animal. It would be quite a dull DVD if you were to watch someone discuss the value of scripting and developing your act.

Teaching Magic by the late Eugene Burger and the still living Larry Hass is a collection of essays designed to make you think about your magic and why you perform it. Some of these essays had never seen print before and some had seen print before and were taken from obscure sources. The book is comprised as such: It starts off with a forward by Mac King, followed by thirteen essays on performing magic, seven performance pieces, a Q & A with Joshua Jay and ending with an afterword by Derren Brown. There is an extensive bibliography as well. The performance pieces have links to a site in which you can watch the performance of and the explanation of each trick. I was able to read the book in a solid day.

The tricks provided are made public for the first time and they were some Eugene Burger’s favorite pieces. The video is not elaborate but is clear and concise. The tricks are a medley of coin and card tricks. One of my favorites is a revamped version of John Steinmeyer’s “Nine Card Problem”, which was reduced to seven cards and can be done over the phone. It can be performed totally in the spectator’s hands and is incredibly clever. Even though it has the feeling of “a math thing” as my son called it, it is still baffling none the less. The spectator shuffles and deals out six cards until he has one left, which is their card. The stack is assembled. The spectator is asked four questions and they can lie or tell the truth. What color was their card? What suit was their card? What value was their card? And finally, were their answers true, false or both? For each answer, they will place down some cards. For example, if they answered RED, they will place a card down for each letter spelling out R-E-D and then place the balance of the stack on top. The rest of the questions are treated the same way. In the end, no matter how the spectator answered, their initially thought of card will be the top card of the stack. It is simple and impressive, to say the least. If you are looking for a good read, pick up Teaching Magic.