I hope you'll excuse the length of this post, but I feel that Genii supporters should get a special explanation of what I'm announcing today.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/gerald-deutsch ... 35173.htmlI know that readers of this forum need no introduction to Jerry Deutsch. For the past sixteen years, every single month he has been posting effects to one of the most popular Genii Forum threads of all time: Perverse Magic. Finally, a few months ago, Jerry brought an end to the wonderful series. He contributed literally hundreds of effects, all in the style of presentation he called "Perverse Magic"--a style of magic that attributes the cause of magic to reasons other than the magician's egotistical will.
Jerry's posts instantly resonated with me--I had tinkered around with something I called "Accidental Magic" for a while, when I discovered that Jerry had been doing this for decades before. When I discovered Jerry's Genii thread, I was enchanted. I looked forward every month to Jerry's latest perverse entry on the Genii Forum.
I had been fooling around with self-publishing lately for non-magic related reasons, and out of my own selfishness, I decided that it would be nice to gather up all of Jerry's posts and put them into book form so that I could study Perverse Magic more closely for my own personal use. I'm a book guy, that's how I learn. So I put the book together, and after I finished I thought wouldn't it be a great tribute to Jerry to release this to the general magic public?
I didn't want to step on anyone's toes, so I asked Richard what he thought, and he gave the project his approval. I asked Jerry, and he was happy to be getting a copy, but he preferred not to release it to the general magic public.
I prevailed upon Jerry, telling him that there were three good reasons for having the book released:
1) He deserves financial remuneration for his efforts
2) For many people, book form is more convenient to learn from than a website .
3) Most importantly, Jerry's landmark contributions to the art of magic in developing this unique form of magic should be documented, appreciated, and preserved in a more permanent way than the internet cloud.
Jerry still demurred, even after I assured him that I wanted no remuneration for myself. I was disappointed, but I continued working on the book. When it was finally finished, I sent Jerry a copy.
A few days later I got a call from Jerry, who I had never spoken to on the phone before. He was really happy about the book, and wanted to release it to the general magic public on one important condition: that all proceeds would go to charity.
I was so happy when he said this. It was the perfect solution! Jerry mentioned that he had done work volunteering in hospitals, doing magic for young patients to entertain them, and that he would like to find a charity that would support that kind of work.
We did a bit of research and we came up with what was a perfect fit: Open Heart Magic. They are a non-profit charity whose main mission specifically is to train volunteers to do magic in hospitals for young patients. We spoke to the folks at OHM, and they were happy to help set things up so that all the proceeds of Jerry's book would go to their foundation. You can take a look at the great work these people do at
http://www.openheartmagic.org Once again, I hope you take a look at the order link, and consider buying the book; Jerry's effects are terrific and well-explained, the price is right, and the cause is a great cause for magicians to support:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/gerald-deutsch ... 35173.html
