Misdirection Does Not Exist - review
Posted: June 21st, 2018, 6:24 am
I’ve got my personal heroes in magic, a relatively short list which includes past masters Vernon and Marlo, of course, as well as Tony Slydini, Alex Elmsley, Patrick Page and someone I was proud to call a friend, Tommy Wonder.
Tom Stone recently published, through his WARG on-line shop, a book titled “Misdirection Does Not Exist ,” a manuscript written by Wonder for a 2002 week-long workshop put together by Stone and his friend Peter Rosengren. Tommy had originally assembled his writings on misdirection for his presentation at the Escuela de Magica in Spain at about the same point in time as the Swedish workshop, and this was additionally annotated by Tom to create the pdf which I purchased and just finished reading and studying.
In brief, these 40 pages are the most important thing I’ve read on magic in a very long time.
There are no tricks. There are many places to find some excellent tricks, and I enjoy reading those books as we all do. But this is more: Practical education about how to improve one’s magic with specific exercises, how to analyse one’s performance to make the magic more effective, taught by the man whose “Books of Wonder” are invaluable to anyone who performs magic of any kind.
The book is illustrated by Tom and costs $16, ready to read on your computer or phone, or to print out (if you’re ancient, like me). It’s from http://www.wargmagic.com, and you’ll find lots more of interest there as well.
The impact of what is imparted in these pages will have a lasting effect on how I think about magic for the rest of my life. Thank you, Tommy. Thank you, Tom
Matt Field
Tom Stone recently published, through his WARG on-line shop, a book titled “Misdirection Does Not Exist ,” a manuscript written by Wonder for a 2002 week-long workshop put together by Stone and his friend Peter Rosengren. Tommy had originally assembled his writings on misdirection for his presentation at the Escuela de Magica in Spain at about the same point in time as the Swedish workshop, and this was additionally annotated by Tom to create the pdf which I purchased and just finished reading and studying.
In brief, these 40 pages are the most important thing I’ve read on magic in a very long time.
There are no tricks. There are many places to find some excellent tricks, and I enjoy reading those books as we all do. But this is more: Practical education about how to improve one’s magic with specific exercises, how to analyse one’s performance to make the magic more effective, taught by the man whose “Books of Wonder” are invaluable to anyone who performs magic of any kind.
The book is illustrated by Tom and costs $16, ready to read on your computer or phone, or to print out (if you’re ancient, like me). It’s from http://www.wargmagic.com, and you’ll find lots more of interest there as well.
The impact of what is imparted in these pages will have a lasting effect on how I think about magic for the rest of my life. Thank you, Tommy. Thank you, Tom
Matt Field