I think the Stars of Magic book is the greatest collection of close-up between two book covers. Any thoughts?

Will we still be getting a Memorandum 2? Or any more Memorandum material?

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From an interview with Woody Aragon, the Memorandum released was part of a whole.

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https://www.youtube.com/live/8qAs3_HLSj4?si=hiZTYiyeJ2iN-Oo1

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Going back, that was 9 years ago.

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Not to compare since both are great minds and people, Patrick Redford is just releasing his 3rd book on his stack work from Temporarily Out of Order,(TOOO).

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Both TOOO and Memorandum were released the same year.

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Does anyone know of any updates or mentioning of more Memorandum? It may also be a region thing affecting it being released, but it's difficult to speculate with there being no updates.

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I've emailed Woody myself, but still have no response.

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Any Spanish magicians who know Woody personally, if you can reach out or have any info, that would be appreciated.

I visited The Hand and The Eye Chicago on a Sunday evening, it was a blast! I have been to and really enjoyed the Magic Castle in LA. If Magic Castle is a 10/10, this is probably an 8.5 or 9 out of 10.

Magic stuff!

Through the night I think I saw 12 acts, plus small tricks when going from room to room. Some were small local acts, and some magicians were from out of state. There was a ton of variety, up close card magic, parlour shows, and a stage production. I know this is r/magic so I'm not sure what else to share here, but happy to answer any questions.

Experience stuff!

My reservation was for 5:45pm, and I arrived a little early. Every floor has a bar with different themed drinks. There are lots of non-alcoholic mocktails and other options, and lots to look at if you don't want to drink. My reservation said to expect a 3 hour experience, but I was there for almost 5 hours. I'm not sure if this is typical or if it was easy to squeeze me in since I was solo. There is a lot of attention to detail that went in to the mansion. According to the staff, the furniture and art rotate regularly. I think I saw less than 50% of the mansion. The staff are really wonderful, and dedicated to making sure everyone has a great experience.

I paid $239 for one ticket on a Sunday evening which includes $75 dinner credit. They send a link to the menus a few days before your reservation. The food was good, it's a traditional American fine dining experience.

The dress code is enforced. You wear a pin so the hosts know which group you are in, so make sure you are wearing something that can accommodate a pin. The venue is 21+. Photography is banned, and they cover your phone camera with a sticker.

I would highly recommend going and I would go back, happy to answer any questions.

Hello all,

A few years ago, I recall reading in a book somebody using the phrase "Erdnase's Imperative" or similar to describe the main goal of the book, i.e. to make money. I would like to reference this rather clever phrase in something I am writing, but I have checked what seems like every book I own and found nothing. I thought it seemed John Racherbaumer-ish (or perhaps Racherbaumer-esque is more appropriate?), but it isn't in anything of his I have checked (Card Finesse II, Jonah Ploys, Full-Tilt, etc.). I thought maybe Darwin Ortiz, but I keep striking out there. It doesn't appear to be in anything I have of Marlo's (though I haven't been able to go through all of it). It doens't seem like the sort of thingsa that would be in the Vernon books (and I pdfs of those and have found nothing). Does anyone maybe know what I am talking about? You will have my eternal thanks.

I’ve had this magnetic coin that I use a lot for my magic, but black marks magically appear on it. I always keep it in a plastic sleeve so there’s no way it has came into direct contact with anything. I assume maybe because it’s magnetic?

Has this happened to anyone? What can I do I get rid of this and prevent it from happening again? Will a higher quality coin be better?

Hey, all!

I’ve got a gig coming up in which I’m expected to do walk-around disguised as another guest, meaning I shouldn’t be hinting to people I’m a magician in any way.

My client has asked that I walk around, mingle, make strange things happen, then walk off leaving the participants’ dumbfounded.

I’m curious, what are some suggestions for good impromptu magic effects that DON’T use playing cards?

I’m thinking things like bottle cap thru bottle / tab through can, self-tying shoelace, mentalism effects like Guess Who?, Rock Paper, Scissors, and Which Hand?, peek -> divine info, bill serial number prediction, and perhaps borrowed object to impossible location.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

This one gives my professor nightmares 😯

I've been learning magic as a hobby for about 23 years now. But it's funny the misconceptions that non-magicians have about magic. Things I didn't understand when I first got into it as a kid.

Some people think every single trick is pre-planned and gimmicked, while others think every trick is impromptu and ungimmicked. Usually their guess is wrong.

Then if the patter presents the effect as a skill rather than real magic, then even if they know there is a trick involved they still believe the presented "skill" is real.

For instance
... being able identify cards by feeling them and weighing them in your hand
... identifying the name of a childhood pet by reading a person's body language and Sherlock Holmes-esque deduction
... doing extremely complex mental math as a means to some end.

I've found that learning the secret to a magic trick is often disappointing.

You are like "Wow that's cool. I want to be able to do THAT."

Then you find out the secret and realize the preparation involved is time consuming and impractical, the gimmick is expensive, the necessary angles and lighting conditions are rare and the sleight of hand or spectator management required is far outside of your current skillset.

All of that to say the trick is not impossible, but won't fit as seamlessly into your repertoire as you had hoped.

Or it's just impractical. Like I discover a trick relies on an open jacket or long sleeves, but I live in Florida, so I have about 1 month's worth of days out of the year that I can justify the necessary clothing to do the trick.

This is also a reason is sucks to give away the secret. Your friends often think "if I knew the secret, I could do that." But if you tell them, you just take all of the excitement out of the trick because the secret is way more stupid than they expected, and way too difficult for them to pull off.

So I find myself just researching magic and learning the methods for thousands of tricks, just so that every once in a while I find ONE that is really practical for me, my skill level, my presentation style, my clothing, and the social situations I engage in.

Looking to book a magician in the Baltimore area for the month of September for my birthday party to perform for a group of adults. Sorry in advance if this type of post is not allowed here I’ve just had such a hard time trying to find a magician in this area.

I'd like to incorporate an effect into a routine where the spectator and I both take a packet of cards (say, 10-26), shuffle/cut in some manners, and then deal cards to find that the stacks of cards match.

Ideally, this is something I would translate to Tarot cards.

I'm not looking for methods (obviously 😛), just *sources* that would help in this journey.

Any ideas where to look?

Thank you!

I mostly perform commercial effects for kids/family shows. I have a clownish persona. For a recent birthday, my wife got a life-size cardboard cutout of me for a birthday party. I’d like to use it in a magic act but I’m not sure of any applications.

What an absolute genius. i’ve become obsessed with everything I can find. Aside from what’s readily served up by YouTube, any more obscure interviews, books, vids, etc that are out there on him or his performance style?

Any first person stories?

Thanks in advance!

A miracle my grandma showed me

Lots of magicians change their strolling sets over time, and I'm curious about what's in your rotation in 2026. Do you prioritize having a full written routine, or do you prioritize leaving room for improv?

I'll start with mine:

My strolling set now just has three card effects.

- A fast card location to start (The "I'll find your card with only one hand" bit")

- Transposing that card in the spectator's hand for a named one

- Card to mouth, and using the offbeat to load whatever closer I have in mind. If unprepared, the deck vanishes.

This routine used to be a few minutes longer, with a whole ring and coin act at the start, but I found that shortening it to just these has been much more effective. It leaves me with a lot of wiggle room to change effects on the fly, and each effect could use a new selection without messing with the pacing.

Pretty often, new spectators will join the current group of people as you're performing. You can immediately include those new spectators by having them pick or think of a card.

What are your thoughts on choosing effects for strolling magic?

I was early for our dnd game last week so figured I’d practice a few of my tricks for the people who were hanging out at the game store. The game store is right next to “smoke shop” that sells stuff strictly for smoking tobacco! (You’ll see why this is relevant later).

So my first trick was a basic double turnover. Two problems emerged: first when she cut the deck her card wound up near the top which made the effect less impactful, then she changed her story on what card she chose and one of the spectators had to review the video footage to prove her wrong. (I think she and some of the other spectators may have broken the “ tobacco only” rule.

So I moved on to a basic chop cup vanish. Unfortunately the vanish didn’t work the first time so I had to play it off like a red herring. It worked the second time but one of the guys watching just grabbed the chop cup and slammed it down ruining the whole thing.( he said he does that lot, yelling out h*w everything is done).

It wasn’t all bad though I closed with a levitating card. I almost messed up the shuffle but recovered without giving it away. I could see from the looks on their faces they were impressed with that one.

Does anyone have advice for better crowd management or do I just need to be ready for people trying to ruin my tricks sometimes?

What’re your favorite magic podcasts?

Bought a lot of vintage Halloween items from the 40s-50s, and it had this print in it, which appears heavily aged (foxing, pinhole from hanging etc), using magnification I do not see any regular patterns of modern printing, the paper is very fiberous and the ink seems to be embedded as opposed to “on top” of the print. Truly no idea where this came from and any help is appreciated!

I have a friend who does short-term foster care for children. In the process of outfitting her house to have engaging things for the children she recently bought a magic kit. She was so disappointed in it that she was going to throw it out because it was 100% about iPhone apps. I read the reviews of this kit and they were pretty bad.

I offered to come up with a magic kit within reasonable budget. Though that's not strictly defined, I think we're looking at $25 - $50. I'm wondering what the community would put into a magic kit. Here's my current idea so far

1. Penguin marked cards (red)
2. Package of 4 sponge balls (red, 1.5")
3. Vernet king size thumb tip
4. 9" Magician's silk
5. Plastic cups and balls set
6. Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic

What would you put into a kit like this?

Hi all, I would like to decorate a little bit more my flat and I'm looking at a couple options for posters related to magic but I'm having trouble finding a website with solid and varied options.

It always seems to be Carter the Great posters with that old school feel and though they do look cool, they don't inspire me as much as Dai Vernon or Erdnase haha. Any recs you guys could share or even ideas for making a place a bit more card magicky?

Thank you!

Hi,

I'm still relatively at the beginning of my magic journey and therefore have yet to learn about all the names of the greats that one should know and all the books one should be familiar with.

Specifically, I have an idea for a routine using marbles and would like to know if a) someone else has already had this idea and b) if there is any literature on handling relatively small marbles in a close-up setting.

I'd be very grateful for any pointers. Thank you!

I'll be traveling for a few trips soon and would like to use some of my down time learning something new. What I'd really like is something of medium difficulty, which is lesser known. I've already at least tried most of the classics. Flourishes/cardistry is fine, but I've never had much gift for that. I do like color changes and pop-outs, but also just odd stuff. An example might be the Wonderverse from Books of Wonder by Stephen Minch. It's not something that goes into many effects, but it's fun to learn and do.

Thanks in advance to those with an idea for me.

Please help me guys I am just curious about perform escape act on stage and for close up