Magic and Showmanship: A Handbook for Conjurers (Dover Magic Books)

First read his work over 30 years ago and to this day think it is the best written book for magicians. Have owned many other books by many fine authors with great insights, but think this should stand in the center. It is not a book of tricks, though some are used to illustrate concepts and should be seen as such.I appreciate (and have pursued) acts of skill and juggling, but this book is about what truly entertains on the deepest levels. It depends on what you are shooting for. Is it to impress people with your skill? Is your performance about you or your audience? Polite applause or thunder? The words in this book only reach to the depth inside of you. Different level of dramatic impact and effect have valid places in this world, but magic could use more from this approach.

Caveat Emptor! This is NOT a book of tricks or illusions. This is for the serious performing magician. This is, as the title clearly states, a book on Showmanship - this is a book on how to entertain, not just do tricks or illusions. This a book on the psychology of performing, of winning an audience, and is a very well written book on the subject as well. Lots of magicians do tricks. This book is about stagecraft, not street magic (although many of the principles will work just as well for the casual performer). If you know your tricks, this book will improve your presentation. If you're good at your craft, this book will enable you to give a better, more polished performance. But as first mentioned, this is for the serious performing magician. It's a good book for the right audience.

I bought this book years ago after attending a lecture on magic. Unfortunately, the book (which was last updated in 1969) has not aged well. The casual sexism, ageism, and Eurocentric narrative won't fly with modern audiences.I did enjoy some of the technical elements of the sample magic tricks. You might know how these things work, but seeing how simple constructions of paper, thread, and paint can create basic illusions was a nice throwback to those magic shops you can still find in some city tourist stops.I think the real strength in this book is its discussion of presentation and audience, showmanship and theatre. The comparisons between traditional theatre and stage conjuration provide some nice insight to the writers of fiction. There are other books that teach this lesson in more focused and less offensive light, however, so it might be best to see this as a historical document rather than a primer.

Though quite dated in many aspects, Magic and Showmanship is a classic book on the presentation of magic. Written and illustrated by Henning Nelms, the reader may also find his book Thinking With a Pencil interesting.

Very helpful if you’re looking for ideas.

Magic and Showmanship is a book I recommend to all my writing students. It's better than almost any of the thousands of "how to write" volumes you find out there. There are all kinds of illusions in the world, and artists of all kinds employ the principles of showmanship in lots of circumstances.This book will teach you how to outline, how to write a believable character, how to get your audience (the readers) to work with you, how to build to a climax, how to foreshadow later action, how to answer the readers' questions before they ask them, and generallly how to entertain. It's a fantastic work. I'm very happy to see it back in print.

I feel the same way about all my magic books.Not particularly easy to read. All magic books are usually pretty obscure, for a reason: Magic doesn't really exist, and tricks are nothing more than obsuring the audiences perception. A good magician never learns from a book, they learn from another good magician. I don't know why I thought this would be different. It'll teach you concepts, but to truly pull these things off requires lots of practice.

Magic and Showmanship is a book I recommend to all my writing students. It's better than almost any of the thousands of "how to write" volumes you find out there. There are all kinds of illusions in the world, and artists of all kinds employ the principles of showmanship in lots of circumstances.This book will teach you how to outline, how to write a believable character, how to get the audience to work with you, how to build to a climax, how to foreshadow later action, how to answer the audience's questions before they ask them, and generallly how to entertain. It's a fantastic work, and well worth chasing down.

Being barely 60 pages in I'm staggered as to how thought provoking and informative this book is. Yes, many Illusions and small tricks are included, but they're insignificant compared to the guidance on performance. If you rehash work by others, or use out of the box tricks it's not a terribly useful book. However if you're an able illusionist with a desire to frame your self made effects, or elevate that single crowning creative glory, this book will give you what you need to formulate raw genius.

Purchased for a grandchild whose excellent Magic tricks deserved better preparation/presentation.

Excellent

grate book, very clear and is quite the read and has some excellent trick i would recommend to any one

Absolutely amazing book, so much incredibly useful information not just for magicians but for any variety of performer or directors.