Understated Advertisement - Genii June 1991

[erdnasephile]

My (and perhaps your) inbox is inundated daily with magic advertisements promising the latest miracle, almost all of which are buttressed with slick testimonial videos from some of magic's brightest lights along with dramatic music-enhanced trailers featuring nubile spectators, seemingly direct from central casting. Many of these products are expensive and mediocre.

In marked contrast, on page 545 in the Genii issue cited above, Max Maven dropped a 4 sentence paragraph about a packet trick he created that "has fooled a number of well-posted magicians." (For the princely sum of $9 (postpaid), I might add.)

This, of course, was B'wave, one of the greatest packet tricks of all time, IMHO.

I love truth in advertising (and yes, I walked to school in the snow and get off my lawn! )

[JHostler]

Dontcha love it? Long before demonstration/hype videos became de rigueur, paging through ads for magic effects and books provided endless entertainment and intrigue. I vividly remember "reading between the lines" (or trying to) for hints of modus operandi, attempting to discern the quality of material from pithy descriptions, etc. etc. There was magic in that very process. What ultimately arrived in the mail is a different story...

[Tarotist]

I used to put together great advertisements in Abra. I was told by other dealers that responses to their ads were very poor. Not me! I got loads of business from Abra selling the biggest loads of crap you can imagine! On the odd occasion I would even tell the reader that the trick was crap but they still forked out money for it!

Those were the days..........................

[Joe Lyons]

I walked to school in the snow)

Same, and it was uphill both ways.
I carried a hot potato in my pocket to keep my hands warm, then ate it for lunch.

Do you find the reviews in magazines or websites like My Lovely Assistant helpful?

[Bob Farmer]

A lot or reviews on Youtube are by people who appear to have never left their basement and interacted with the outside world so their opinions are worthless and, usually, extremely boring.