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POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 6th, 2012, 12:12 pm
by Jon Racherbaumer
A PECULIAR POLL

Im not sure how many magicians will respond to this poll, but if you are so inclined, please send your choices to me at Joncards@aol.com.

Thanks.

This is the polling question:

Based on the following list of TITLES (just the titles) of magic books which 4 would you buy (in preferential order) based on strictly the title and without knowing anything about the content.

The price of each booklet is the same: $10. Each contains about 60 pages. The basic subject of each (with a few exceptions) is close-up magic, primarily cards.

1. BRAINY ACTS
2. SIX STRATEGEMS
3. OUTWITTICISMS
4. CARD-ANTICS
5. VERTICES
6. DOUBLE-DOWN DECEPTIONS
7. HEDGE-HOGGIAN NOTES
8. CONN OPENERS
9. EINSTEINIAN FOOLERS
10. ZARROW UNZIPPED
11. THE MARLOVIAN CODEX
12. TRICKS THAT GO BUMP IN THE BAR
13. BLIND SHUFFLE BLUFFS
14. FREE-CHOICE FORCES
15. BREAKING THE CIRCLE
16. PRIME CUTS HANDS-OFF SHUFFLES
17. GILBREATHING
18. ACES ON VACATION
19. BENEATH THE SUBWAY
20. LEGS ON A SNAKE
21. ACAAN RESCUE
22. PROSPEROS CELL
23. THE PRINCIPLE OF GRILLBALDO
24. HYPING HOFZINSER
25. BEYOND ERDNASE
26. VERNON UNMASKED

I hope to hear from you. Ill report and explain later.

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 6th, 2012, 1:32 pm
by Andrew Pinard
BRAINY ACTS
OUTWITTICISMS
LEGS ON A SNAKE
VERNON UNMASKED

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 6th, 2012, 2:32 pm
by Dustin Stinett
TRICKS THAT GO BUMP IN THE BAR
VERNON UNMASKED
ACES ON VACATION
HYPING HOFZINSER

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 6th, 2012, 3:22 pm
by Ted M
GILBREATHING
ZARROW UNZIPPED
FREE-CHOICE FORCES
THE PRINCIPLE OF GRILLBALDO

PRIME CUTS HANDS-OFF SHUFFLES
BLIND SHUFFLE BLUFFS
BREAKING THE CIRCLE

(stop reading at 4 if you like)

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 6th, 2012, 4:40 pm
by Richard Kaufman
Please stop using all CAPITAL letters.

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 6th, 2012, 4:58 pm
by Joe Pecore
(but it's so much easier to just cut and paste!)

ZARROW UNZIPPED
ACES ON VACATION
HYPING HOFZINSER
BEYOND ERDNASE

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 6th, 2012, 5:40 pm
by JHostler
Hedge-Hoggian Notes
Gilbreathing
Six Strategems
Legs on a Snake

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 7th, 2012, 3:12 am
by Jamie D. Grant
Tricks That Go Bump in the Bar
~Brings to mind magic at, well, a bar. Makes me think there would be "real-world" effects inside. Also a little off-beat, which I like. I picture straws jumping from one glass to another.


Breaking the Circle
~Of bad card magic. Gives me hope that a high caliber magician recognizes that a lot of card magic can be a struggle for spectators. This is his break from it and is teaching some new/great stuff. People walking away, saying, "Now that was an awesome card trick!"


Prospero's Cell
~Who doesn't love the Tempest. The magic is taking place somewhere dark, but with a story. Something mentalismy, but with a cool history behind it. I see a campfire somewhere.


The Principle of Grillbaldo
~"Grillbaldo" brings no image whatsoever (I hope I'm not advertising my ignorance here) so it feels like a long lost secret that's been discovered. The teacher has been using this for years to fry only the inner circle but has now decided to release it to the magic community. Some sort of shuffling, though.

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 7th, 2012, 12:04 pm
by Jon Racherbaumer
Jamie's comments point to one of the purposes behind my exercise. Producers choose titles for many reasons but most titles are germane to the content in some way or are chosen to press the "hot buttons" of the Zeitgeist. Also, sometimes we impulsively buy a book (if it is cheap enough) based on what its title activates in our runaway imaginations. Key words provide a compass. How far our minds venture in a given direction depends on the whimsey of the traveler.

Another aspect my exercise proves that most magicians do not care much about polls nor do they care to participate in them--just as in in real life? (Has anyone participated in an exit poll?) I remember the old Genii poll that tried to determine what tricks are truly classics.

Meanwhile thanks to everyone who has commented and voted so far.
Onward...

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 7th, 2012, 12:09 pm
by Jon Racherbaumer
Oh, I almost forgot...and this is important!
None of the titles represent actual books (except for "Brainy Acts," "Outwitticisms," and "Breaking the Circle") being planned or have been written.

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 7th, 2012, 12:36 pm
by Q. Kumber
There's only one I'd buy and that's OUTWITTICISMS.

Jon, your titles remind me of the Little Blue Books published by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius whose business blossomed in the 1920s and 1930s.

After the second world war J. Edgar Hoover took a dim view of the inclusion of certain topics and the publisher was put on the list of enemies.

You can read about Haldeman-Julius here: http://www.haldeman-julius.org/
and the full list of titles at: http://www.haldeman-julius.org/cgi-bin/ ... browse-lbb

The majority of the titles were educational and the books were mostly 5 cents each. You could send off a dollar for twenty titles and include a couple of the more interesting ones (which were probably very popular in the Bible Belt) such as ...


How an Ape Became a Man
The Evolution of Animal Life
The World We Live In
The Body Machine and How It Works
The Mysteries of Embryology and Heredity
The Plant World Simplified
Has Man a Mind?
Man the Creator, Physics as the Basis of Engineering
The Wonders of Modern Chemistry, the Principles on Which They Are Based
How Religion Began: Primitive Man Stumbles into a Blind Alley
Philosophers and Their Dreams, the History and Nature of Philosophical Speculation
Real and Unreal Moral Law, the New Ethic and Its Timely Revolution
How Christianity Grew Out of Paganism, the Real Origin of the Christian Religion

What the Woman Past Forty Should Know
What Every Boy Should Know
What Every Young Man Should Know
What Every Young Woman Should Know
What Every Married Man Should Know
What Every Married Woman Should Know
Woman's Sexual Life
Man's Sexual Life
The Child's Sexual Life
Homo-Sexual Life
Sex Symbolism
Sexual Obsessions of Saints and Mystics

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 7th, 2012, 1:42 pm
by El Harvey Oswald
I've participated in an exit poll. One of the contributors to Gary Hart's 1984 NH primary showing being reported at 6pm rather than 10pm.

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 7th, 2012, 4:58 pm
by Jon Racherbaumer
PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF POLL
REGARDING BOOK TITLES

My first discover, which was more or less anticipated, is that most magicians tend to ignore polls. This reduces the size of any sampling and the results of the findings consequently dont mean much in terms of percentages. At best, a short sampling hints at certain things. If we assume there are at least 10,000 magic enthusiasts in the world and only 100 are polled, your results represent .01 percent, a negligible amount. So far, 100 magicians responded to my poll.

Of the 26 titles, only 10 were in double digits.

The top 4 vote getters were BEYOND ERDNASE, EINSTEINIAN FOOLERS, TRICKS THAT GO BUMP IN THE BAR and VERNON UNMASKED. This is understandable insofar as the recognizable names in the titles are marquee names: Einstein, Erdnase, and Vernon. Words like beyond, unmasked, and foolers are flash points.

BEYOND ERDNASE suggests that the contents are new, innovative, and perhaps better than what is already explained in EXPERT AT THE CARD TABLE. EINSTEINIAN FOOLERS boldly suggests that the book contains puzzlers that would fool most geniuses. TRICKS THAT GO BUMP IN THE BAR, despite being a title thats cute-by-half, suggests that its a collection of super cool bar tricks that are better than bar bets and as good as Sam the Bellhop. VERNON UNMASKED suggests new, gossipy information about Dai Vernon heretofore unknown. Such books tend to be diatribes designed to diminish reputations and demystify aspects of celebrity.

BRAINY ACTS, FREE-CHOICE FORCES, and GILBREATHING were close seconds.

BRAINY ACTS, like EINSTEINIAN FOOLERS, suggests that the tricks may be smart, exceptionally clever, and diabolically subtle. They might also involve arcane principles and math-based methods. It could also be a book exclusively dedicated to mental magic or tricks of the mind (brain).

FREE-CHOICE FORCES is a seductive oxymoron. Do the techniques look exceptionally fair and do the procedures look like the choices are truly free? If this is true, this would be a must buy.

GILBREATHING suggests that this book is a collection of entertaining and direct card effects using the Gilbreath Principle. The difficult factor may be super-easy.as easy as breathing.

OUTWITTICISMS and CON OPENERS got a significant number of votes.

The rest of the titles about evenly divided up the rest of the tallies. The least number of votes were cast for VERTICES, HEDGE-HOGGIAN NOTES, PROSPEROS CELL, and ACAAN RESCUE (which received only a single nod).

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 7th, 2012, 5:15 pm
by Tom Gilbert
A little late, but here goes.

Free Choice Force
Card-Antics
Prime Cuts
Vernon Unmasked

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 7th, 2012, 6:24 pm
by Doug Thornton
Einsteinian Foolers
Gilbreathing
Free-Choice Forces
Prosperos Cell

(Honestly not influenced by Jon's preliminary results.)

(The 1st, 2nd and 4th choices all sounded a spell-check alarm on my computer. Apparently, there's no room for creativity on my PC.)
Prospero's Cell reminds me that Danny Boyle is using "The Tempest" as his inspiration for the Olympics opening ceremonies.
http://collider.com/danny-boyle-2012-ol ... st/140997/

Re: POLL INVITATION regarding BOOK TITLES

Posted: June 8th, 2012, 4:06 am
by Mike Remington
Tricks that go Bump in the Bar
Conn Openers
Vernon Unmasked
Einsteinian Foolers

By the way, what is the release date on these?