I am writing ANOTHER book!

[Mark.Lewis]

This will be a good one since I know that there are various daft magicians who think it would be wonderful to be a svengali pitchman. I know that it is not wonderful at all and can be sheer hell at times but pretend you didn't read this sentence. I never was any good at marketing. I will say that some of the information may possibly be useful for trade show magicians too.

Here is an outline of chapters:

Chapter One

The svengali deck. I would simply reprint my Long and the Short of It book or at least the bits that appertain to grafting.

Chapter Two

The magic mouse and the Squirmle. I would just reprint my Marmaduke the Wonder Mouse book and would put in one move with the squirmle which I completely forgot to put in the original book.

The above two chapters would be bloody long ones. I may have to subdivide them

Chapter Three

The Dutch Looper- I would describe how to make these up and how to do the trick.

Chapter Four
Cups and Balls.
I would describe the pitch routine for the little plastic cups and balls. I have a novel little finish which is quite a stunner. It is not normally included in the instructions or in the routines that are done at demonstration counters. Not surprising since it is my own invention

The above chapters would describe the tricks and how to do them. I think I would make this Part One of the book. Then the rest of the book would be Part Two.

Chapter Five.

How to draw a crowd.
Here I would explain all the methods I know of drawing people in to watch in the first place.

Chapter Six

How to sell the goods.
This will be pitch techniques such as stopping people from walking away, what to say to people, how to structure the pitch, how to move people in close etc;

Chapter Seven
How to come to the bat.
In other words how to close the sale.

Chapter Eight
Rehash material
What to do if you can't close the sale

Chapter Nine
Difficulties
There are plenty of them in the grafting business, in fact too many of them to mention such as bad locations, nasty vendors, people wanting their money back etc; This chapter could end up being a separate book because it will be so long

Chapter Ten (this is going to be a longer book than I thought!)
Stress busters
As I have repeatedly stated this is a TOUGH business and very stressful indeed despite what you hear from other sources. The tendency for burn out and fatigue is very high. I think it deserves a chapter on its own to tell people how to deal with it. Not that I am entirely sure myself mind you.

Chapter Eleven
The business side

This will be the most important chapter of the lot and will give away the REAL secrets from getting in cheap or even free to venues to work to where to purchase stock. As I am writing this I am going right off this book already. I really don't like to give away this stuff. Still I am getting old and will probably have to part with this info at some point and by the time the bloody book will be written I will be nearly dead anyway.

[Denis Behr]

Sounds great. But finish the other book first and get it out.

[Mark.Lewis]

The first book IS finished! And has been for months. I am merely announcing the second one in my usual low profile manner. And talking about the second one helps to sell the first one. We grafters know what we are doing you know.

[Jolly Roger]

Sounds great. But finish the other book first and get it out.

I have a feeling that Mark has finished "Lives of a Showman" has he not? I understood he finished writing it a year ago. JR

[Jolly Roger]

That's funny! Our posts just crossed, and I was right! JR

[Mark.Lewis]

Roger. You have become truly psychic since you moved to Sedona!

[Jolly Roger]

Yes indeed! Maybe I should move to Toronto and call myself "The Jolly Reverend" and work psychic fairs! JR

[Mark.Lewis]

Alas Roger. I fear you would find it too cold up here.

[Alex de Cova]

well, Mark, let us see something about your upcoming work. I am serioulsy interested in this, because for me it seems like a treat on the real work! I am lookin foreward to any information about this new works of yours. It is not very often that fellows tipp the real thing about pitching. gimme an email on: office@decovamagic.com. tnx!
Alexander

[Mark.Lewis]

Alexander. There is no point sending you an e-mail since the book does not exist yet beyond one little chapter. However once it does it will be announced to the world in my usual flamboyant manner. I can assure you that you will know about it.

I know rather a lot about selling svengali decks. I used to sell between 200 and 400 decks a day on a regular basis. The most I ever sold in one day was 478 and I was only working from 9am to 5.30 pm in Switzers department store in Dublin.

The way I work is far better than the silly methods used by American magic pitchmen who have no idea what they are doing. I am the way, the truth and the light in these matters. We British are experts at ripping off the public and indeed it is part of our glorious heritage.