Inspirations: "Performing Magic with Excellence" by Lawrence Hass

You can easily find and read hundreds of books that are filled with effects, methods, and secrets. But where can you learn the real secrets to performing truly great magic? The secret to magic lies in making your magic entertaining and something that connects with audiences. An outstanding book in this area is all too rare and Dr. Lawrence Hass’ “Inspirations: Performing Magic with Excellence” offers thought provoking essays and insights, and teaches first rate stand-up routines and effects.

Hass presents five general topics with supporting essays that cover: technique, presentation, performance, philosophy and lifestyle. His goal is to share ideas to “empower and inspire your own efforts toward better magic, performances, and shows.” And in this book, Dr. Hass successfully does so.

Each area is covered in detail and as an example, I’ll outline what you find under “Technique,” the first major section. Here, Hass focuses on method, and more specifically, what he calls “deep method” - concept creating a secret or method that can’t be figured out by lay audiences. For demonstration purposes, Hass discusses the “Flustration Count” as a technique that may not fool lay spectators. He also discusses classic linking rings as well as traditional card sleight of hand as tricks that have been largely exposed to the public.

Beyond the five main areas, Hass talks about adding theatrical  techniques to one’s presentation. He doesn’t just dispense advice, he offers “performance pieces” that detail his step-by-step scripting and thoughts behind a variety of great effects and routines. It’s a true pleasure to go behind the scenes and see these routines dissected and analyzed in insightful detail.  Reading all this will truly get you thinking and promote those creative juices.

Larry Hass’ Inspirations: Performing Magic with Excellence” is excellence in itself, an insightful and informative read that will benefit any anyone who considers him or herself as a magic entertainer. To date, there are classics in magic that are often recommended when one wants to learn about presentation and showmanship.  This includes: Henning Nelm’s “Magic and Showmanship: A Handbook for Conjurors” and Ken Weber’s “Maximum Entertainment.” It may well be time to add “Inspirations: Performing Magic with Excellence” to this very exclusive list.

Mentalism Review: “Stop the Press” by Martin Lewis

Here’s a bit of mentalism that employs a classic magic premise, the newspaper prediction. Martin Lewis’ “Stop the Press” allows you to predict the headline of a supermarket tabloid such as the “National Enquirer” or “Globe” after a random selection process and a choice by a spectator. This is an great effect that is easy to learn and perform.

You can watch the video review here.

You bring out your prediction and have it stored in an open location or held by a spectator. Since this mentalism effect relies on heavily influencing the outcome of a seemingly random process, you can use any unveil that you wish. A tabloid page is removed and torn to bits and a spectator deals them one-by-one and freely selects one. Headlines from other pieces are shown to different but at the end, your prediction is correct.

You could perform this in close-up or stand-up/stage situations. There are no angle issues, memorization or calculations and the effect is easy to learn and perform - you only have to learn a relatively simple sequence of tears. It packs small and potentially plays big. I like the interaction of this effect that has an audience member coming up on stage with you.

The kit comes with 12 pages for 12 performances and you provide your own tabloid that holds the gimmicked page you can reuse the tabloid but will destroy one gimmicked page for each performance. The gimmicked page looks right at home in a real tabloid and spectators won't be able to tell the difference. At less than twenty dollars, the cost of the gimmicked perishables is not a big issue. If you like the effect and have a place for it in your show, the reasonable price is well worth it. The trick comes with easy printed instructions.

Ready to add a mentalism-style prediction effect to your show? “Stop the Press” will impress.

You can watch the video review here.