Postby Matthew Field » August 8th, 2014, 12:28 pm
I've listened to the first 4 of the Skinner CDs, and they are magnificent.
I've written previously about how much I ha dlooked forward to the Skinner DVDs from (now available from Meir Yedid Magic), since I had never seen him perform, and how shocked I was to see this legend with shaky hands and indistinct speech (because of medication he was taking). It took some tim for me to get over that shock and appreciate the wonderful material on the videos.
The Skinner set represents him in a more robust period of his life. The recordings were made for his freiend Allen Okawa, so the discussions are on a very high level. Michael was a voracious reader of magic books and took notes, so he can, for example, list the page numbers in Tarbell 1-6 containing effects he uses. The same for Expert Card Technique, Greater Magic and other books.
Full effects are described from his notebook, and tips and handlings from people like Dai Vernon, Larry Jennings and others, which tricks were favored by, say, Bill Malone, Francis Carlyle and other lumanaries, and tons of other stuff.
This is a bounty of material from a magician under-represented on my bookshelves, and the world of magic is fortunate that Richard and Allen Okawa are making the set available.
I can't wait to get back and listen some more. (And watch! And read!)
Matt Field