Best Quote

[MaxNY]

We were at the Cape last week, with my Dad, and my 22 month old son. My son is at the age where he thinks he is funny, and has a loud "PR" laugh to get noticed...That laugh happened, and my Dad looked at me like?????? I just shrugged my shoulders and said... "The clown doesn't fall far from the tree!"

[Mats Kjellstrom]

Some remarks from Fred Kaps fine lecture notes (1973), Ken Brookes Magic Place, London.

- Do you want to Mystify? Or entertain? Or both?

- Effect should come first. Method second.

- Mental train your effects.

- Fool your audience any way you like, but FOOL them.
Remember - Method comes second!

[Mats Kjellstrom]

Tom Harris:

- Make mistakes and use them for laughs.

- Make your entrance in your style of your act.

[Mats Kjellstrom]

Stoogie:

- There is one thing that experienced performers do not need and beginners will not take, and that is advice.

[Q. Kumber]

At his February lecture in Manchester, Jeff McBride said two things that struck me:

"If your sleight of hand causes you to break eye contact with your audience, it is too advanced for your skill level."

and

"An artist makes the difficult look easy but a showman makes the simple look spectacular."

[Bob Farmer]

Quentin, those are great quotes. In a very early issue of The Gen, there is a marvellous lesson by John Ramsay on the first point. It's a thimble vanish. If you have the electronic version, you can probably find it easily.

[Lemniscate]

Information is "Tomatoes are really a fruit"; knowledge is not putting them in a fruit salad.

No idea who said it originally but it was repeated by "docsteve" over on the cafe (do a search for fruit salad and look for his name for the original post).

[000]

Magician's shouldnt gamble for 2 reasons. If you lose you're a bad magician, and if you win you're a cheat!

People never ask me how I do card tricks. They ask me why!


( From a recommended booklet Darwins 201 Jokes for Card Magicians. Unfortunately each contribution is not seperately credited)

[amp]

" Magic, remember,is a voyage of self-discovery"
-Eugene Burger

[Cugel]

" Magic, remember,is a voyage of self-discovery"
-Eugene Burger

Whoah. Deep.

[Jonathan Townsend]

" Magic, remember,is a voyage of self-discovery"

? "self-discovery"?? the term used to justify home schooling for the a/anti social or perhaps just a PC term for masturbation?

Either way - if the shoe fits - leave it in.

So much fuss to avoid opening a book and taking that great risk of learning.

[EdAndres]

(do a search for fruit salad and look for his name for the original post).

Now that's a quote! :grin:

[amp]

If you're going to be an artist,and you're going to have a chance to be great,you have to risk looking foolish in high places sometimes.You have to paint a big target on your ass and go, all right,everybody step up. Here it is take your best shot.
-Cher

[amp]

Presentation is everything,method is nothing.

-Fred Kaps


...that effect should always come first,method second.
-Fred Kaps

[Cugel]

Funny, then, that Kaps used some pretty terrific methods.

[Tom Stone]

Funny, then, that Kaps used some pretty terrific methods.

I think you misinterpret the quote. I think he meant "Don't compromise or diffuse the effect, by adjusting it for a certain method."

[Tom Stone]

- "Good magic is better than good sex, but harder to find" - Max Maven.

-"Good magic begins in the feet!" - Bob Read

(The second quote isn't a reply to the first)

[Q. Kumber]

When Bob Read lectured in Dublin in the 1970's he said "Good comedy begins in the feet." Did he later cahnge that to magic?

[Cugel]

Funny, then, that Kaps used some pretty terrific methods.

I think you misinterpret the quote. I think he meant "Don't compromise or diffuse the effect, by adjusting it for a certain method."

I was actually referring to the first Kaps quote. Looking at the second quote, I concede that you might be right.

But I'm also right in the sense that a literal interpretation of the first quote would produce magic with methods inferior to those Kaps used.

It's all good.

[Cugel]

"The answer to 99% of all questions posted on any magic forum is 'Because you suck.'"

- Mark Ennis (apocryphal)

[Jon Allen]

"If it ain't broke, break it."

"If you have to think outside the box... it means you're in it.

"When performing, always think you're the best magician in the world... but know you're not."

One of my favourites from Maya Angelou:
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

[amp]

"Never take a good trick and turn it into an ugly challenge"
-Roy Benson


"Never make a sucker out of a spectator"
-Nate Leipzig

[000]

In all of us there is an elusive melody, which when heard and followed leads us to the fulfillment of our fondest dreams and wishes...

Siegried and Roy

[Gordolini]

"All I ask from you is Perfection...nothing more....nothing less"

[Naphtalia]

From a conversation with Jules Lenier who was kindly trying to encourage me - a novice to the world of magic - "Men do magic tricks; women do magic."

[Mats Kjellstrom]

Ted Annemann

- Four aces or a quick royal flush are hands that have a sort of hypnotic effect with a punch.

[Curtis Kam]

"Magic clubs have as much to do with magic as country clubs have with being in the country." --Annemann, right?

[Paul Gordon]

Dear Curtis,

The Annemann quote is the funniest - and truest - of all!

Paul Gordon

[Rene Clement]

"To those who believe, no explanation is necessary. To those who don't believe, no explanation is possible."

Hey Richie, remember this one?
"How's Tricks?"
"She's in the car."

[amp]

"An entertainer wants to give you exactly what you want. An artist wants to give you what you don't know you want.Something you might know you want the next time,but you never knew you wanted before."

-David Cronenberg
Rolling Stone interview
from Magic, July 1993
Parallax by Max Maven

[Tom Frame]

"An entertainer wants to give you exactly what you want. An artist wants to give you what you don't know you want.Something you might know you want the next time,but you never knew you wanted before."

-David Cronenberg
Rolling Stone interview
from Magic, July 1993
Parallax by Max Maven

That is wonderful, insightful, and pretty much sums it up!

[Q. Kumber]

Irish Tenor John McCormack (1884 - 1945) commented that his concerts were composed of three types of songs:

Songs the audience like to hear.
Songs he liked to sing.
Songs that weren't well known but should be.

[John Tudor]

The last words of the Buddha were supposedly these:

"Strive on with diligence."

And my favorite:

[Eoin O'hare]

"Faithful as a filleted cat."- Benjamin Pret

[Cugel]

Most magic quotes are philosophy lite and not very penetrating. The better ones come from outside the genre (like Seinfeld's "you're an idiot" gag).

I always liked this quote from Caruso when someone asked him about the art and craft of singing, expecting something more meaningful:

"You know when you [censored]? Like that but up."

[amp]

"Nothing must be left to chance in a magicial performance.
Everything conducive to enhancing the mystery of the illusions must be arranged with painstaking care and thought."
-David Devant
Sachs sleight of hand

[Mats Kjellstrom]

- "There is nothing miraculous about puzzles.
Competent mentalism is miraculous."

Phil Goldstein, March 1977, The red book of Mentalism.

[Richard Perrin]

Who do you think I am... a magician? -Carl Ballentine after struggle with his magic on TV show.

[Eoin O'hare]

Most magic quotes are philosophy lite and not very penetrating. The better ones come from outside the genre ...

I've kept this to myself for too long, I believe this to be one of the most important essays a magician should read.
Heinrich von Kleist (with the translation by Idris Parry) is my secret mentor. On the Marionette Theatre

[Jonathan Townsend]

Guess we've gone from being Robert-Houdin to Being John Malkovich?