Well, this looks like a must-have for any magic enthusiast out there.
Edited by Raymond Teller and Todd Karr, this two-volume effort is a collection of mysteries from “Abbott’s Book of Mysteries” that has fooled the likes of Kellar, Okito, Ching Ling Foo, and so forth, as Abbott used methods utilized by spirit mediums. Yup. Methods used by charlatans who must evade being caught in the act for a living. This compilation is annotated, and even contains fifty essays from Teller about technique, psychology, and presentation. Teller even goes out of his way to reveal one of his best magic secrets.
You can’t go wrong with material this dense. Even if it’s not necessarily a book that will teach you the secrets of magic, it’s more importantly a very important look into the world of spirit mediums, and how their careers, no matter how blatantly unethical, run parallel to the magic industry. With insights into how they work and how you could take these performance ideas into your own act, it’s hard to imagine anyone who has these two books ever having a shortage of new ideas and approaches they can use for their performances.
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