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A revelatory account of the magus - the learned magician - and his place in the world of Renaissance EuropeAt the heart of the extraordinary ferment of the High Renaissance stood a distinctive, strange and beguiling figure: the magus. An unstable mix of scientist, bibliophile, engineer, fabulist and fraud, the magus ushered in modern physics and chemistry while also working on everything from secret codes to siege engines to magic tricks.Anthony Grafton's wonderfully original book discusses the careers of men who somehow managed to be both figures of startling genius and - by some measures - credulous or worse. The historical Faust, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Johannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa are all fascinating characters, closely linked to monarchs, artists and soldiers and sitting at the heart of any definition of why the Renaissance was a time of such restless innovation. The study of the stars, architecture, warfare, even medicine: all of these and more were revolutionized in some way by the experiments and tricks of these extraordinary individuals.No book does a better job of allowing us to understand the ways that magic, religion and science were once so intertwined and often so hard to tell apart.

Magical Mathematics reveals the secrets of fun-to-perform card tricks--and the profound mathematical ideas behind them--that will astound even the most accomplished magician. Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham provide easy, step-by-step instructions for each trick, explaining how to set up the effect and offering tips on what to say and do while performing it. Each card trick introduces a new mathematical idea, and varying the tricks in turn takes readers to the very threshold of today's mathematical knowledge. Diaconis and Graham tell the stories--and reveal the best tricks--of the eccentric and brilliant inventors of mathematical magic. The book exposes old gambling secrets through the mathematics of shuffling cards, explains the classic street-gambling scam of three-card Monte, traces the history of mathematical magic back to the oldest mathematical trick--and much more.

My name is Joel Mawhinney, though I go by the name Joel M. You might know me from TikTok as @joelmagician.I’m a 23-year-old from Northern Ireland, who enjoys reading, playing the piano and eating as many burrito bowls as I can, but the most important thing to know about me is…Magic is my life.The world of a magician is an unusual one. Between the first and last pages of this little volume you will find stories, confessions and secrets that I hope will convince you that anything is possible.If you can keep a secret, I’ll even share magic tricks you can perform yourself. Inside, you’ll learn how to read minds, predict the future, make cards levitate and jewellery vanish. I’ll teach you how to perform to an audience and amaze your family and friends. I’ll also let you in on the magic of TikTok and reveal how I went viral and gainedmillions of followers.But, above all, I will show you that whatever happens in life, it’salways possible to…Make Your Own Magic.

'I immersed myself in magic. I read every book I could get my hands on and practised and practised, day after day and night after night. Magic became my world...some might say an obsession.'When you’re a kid life can seem tough; tougher for some than others. But the darkest of times can also be the most enlightening.When his late granddad showed him magic for the first time, Steven Frayne knew there was more to life than hiding from bullies. He had a destiny. A calling. In that moment Dynamo was born: the most exciting magician of the 21st century. Since then, Dynamo has shocked, thrilled and amazed men, women and children, from all walks of life, all over the world. With his mind-blowing illusions, he has catalysed a whole new era of magic. Now, in his very first book, Dynamo invites you to join him on a breathtaking journey across the globe. Be prepared to levitate Lindsay Lohan in Singapore, transform snow into diamonds in the Austrian mountains, and walk on water across the River Thames. Along the way, he reveals how to make the impossible possible, what it takes to pull off the greatest stunts man has seen, and why everyone needs magic in their lives. This is no illusion. This is Dynamo revealed.

This is the story of the Golden Age of magic and of the world's most legendary magicians: the eccentric personalities who patented the first ghost and competed fiendishly in the race to make things materialize, levitate and disappear.We meet Harry Kellar, the ruthless thief of secrets who was the model for the Wizard of Oz, and PT Selbit, the first man to saw a woman in half on stage.We meet John Nevil Maskelyne, whose Egyptian Theatre was a London institution for sixty years. Hiding the Elephant is the masterwork of a man who has dedicated his life to magic, who knows the tricks inside out, and still believes.

Dive into the wonderful world of Tommy Cooper!The perfect gift for anyone who loves to laugh, packed with side-splitting humour and classic one-liners from the legendary comedian, including:"My wife is a magician, yesterday she turned our car into a tree.""A big white horse walks into a pub. The barman says, 'we have a drink named after you.' The horse says, 'what? Eric?'""I said, 'waiter, what's that in my soup?' he said, 'I'd better call the boss, I can't tell one insect from another.'""I'm reading a book called 'Sex Before 20'. Personally I don't like audiences.""I said, 'it's serious, doctor, I've broken my arm in 20 places'. He said, 'well stop going to those places.'""I call my car flattery. It gets me nowhere."Bringing together his timeless wit and charm, the All in One Joke Book reveals why Tommy Cooper remains one of our greatest and most beloved comedians of all time.

Why can none of us hear our own recorded voice without wincing? Why is the telephone still full of such spookiness and erotic possibility? Why does the metaphor of ventriloquism, the art of 'seeming to speak where one is not', speak so resonantly to our contemporary technological condition? These are the kind of questions which impel Steven Connor's wide-ranging, restlessly inquisitive history of ventriloquism and the disembodied voice. He tracks his subject from its first recorded beginnings in ancient Israel and Greece, through the fulminations of early Christian writers against the unholy (and, they believed, obscenely produced) practices of pagan divination, the aberrations of the voice in mysticism, witchcraft and possession, and the strange obsession with the vagrant figure of the ventriloquist, newly conceived as male rather than female, during the Enlightenment. He retrieves the stories of some of the most popular and versatile ventriloquists and polyphonists of the nineteenth century, and investigates the survival of ventriloquial delusions and desires in spiritualism and the 'vocalic uncanny' of technologies like telephone, radio, film, and internet. Learned but lucid, brimming with anecdote and insight, this is much more than an archaeology of one of the most regularly derided but tenaciously enduring of popular arts. It is also a series of virtuoso philosophical and psychological reflections on the problems and astonishments, the raptures and absurdities of the unhoused voice.

Disappearing Tricks revisits the golden age of theatrical magic and silent film to reveal how professional magicians shaped the early history of cinema. Where others have called upon magic as merely an evocative metaphor for the wonders of cinema, Matthew Solomon focuses on the work of the professional illusionists who actually made magic with moving pictures between 1895 and 1929.The first to reveal fully how powerfully magic impacted the development of cinema, the book combines film and theater history to uncover new evidence of the exchanges between magic and filmmaking in the United States and France during the silent period. Chapters detailing the stage and screen work of Harry Houdini and Georges MÉliÈs show how each transformed theatrical magic to create innovative cinematic effects and thrilling new exploits for twentieth-century mass audiences. The book also considers the previously overlooked roles of anti-spiritualism and presentational performance in silent film.Highlighting early cinema's relationship to the performing body, visual deception, storytelling, and the occult, Solomon treats cinema and stage magic as overlapping practices that together revise our understanding of the origins of motion pictures and cinematic spectacle.

In this book he provides an intellectually stimulating collection of mostly self-contained mathematical essays that introduce the reader to many elegant results and techniques from a wide range of mathematical disciplines such as combinatorics, graph theory, knot theory, mechanics, differential equations, control theory, and robotics.

Famed puzzle expert explains math behind a multitude of mystifying tricks: card tricks, stage "mind reading," coin and match tricks, counting out games, geometric dissections, etc. Probability, sets, theory of numbers clearly explained. Also, more than 400 tricks, guaranteed to work, that you can do. 135 illustrations.

Over 100 tricks that can be done with any pack of cards — in their best professional versions. This rich collection has taught thousands of magicians how to perform dozens of eye-catching, yet really workable tricks. Over 200 illustrations. "Recommended." — Linking Ring.

This giant-sized collection explains how to perform over 600 professional card tricks, devised by the world's greatest magicians. The finest single compendium available, the book features a clear style that make the instructions easy to follow. An indispensable source for both professional and amateur magicians. 66 illustrations.

72 spectacular and entertaining tricks: card locations, coincidence tricks, mental magic with cards, tricks with double endings, tricks with two decks, predictions, tricks with borrowed decks, trick poker deals. Easy-to-learn, clearly illustrated, these tricks produce spectacular effects with a minimum of practice. 42 illustrations.

Sixty-seven sure-fire mental feats to delight and mystify: mind reading with cards, instant ESP, identifying the owners of objects given to you in random order, number prediction, magically reproducing drawings on slates, book tests, handwriting tricks, mind-reading done from a room away, much more. 73 illustrations.

Covers every significant aspect — from palming to clairvoyance, vanishing and producing an object, using essential apparatus, etc. Explains hundreds of astonishing tricks — with coins, cups and balls, handkerchiefs, cards, more. A book with an excellent reputation among professional magicians for teaching techniques. 57 illustrations.

The most complete treatise on sleight-of-hand coin conjuring, including best traditional methods and modern innovations. Guides you systematically from basic techniques, through integrated tricks to complete routined acts, 18 in all. 510 clear illustrations by Nelson C. Hahne. The best manual for amateurs, an encyclopedic source for professionals.

Clearly worded instructions, 251 step-by-step illustrations show novices, veterans how to seemingly pluck coins from the air, make a coin penetrate a tabletop, perform psychic tricks with coins and bills, much more. No special dexterity needed; no long hours of practice.

70 of the best rope tricks ever devised using overhand knots, slip knots and square knots. Dissolve knots, cut and restore ropes, make ropes magically shrink or grow longer, rope escape tricks, flourish knots. 423 illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow directions make performing these startling feats foolproof.

Clear diagrams and step-by-step instructions for performing 18 simple feats of prestidigitation: Strength Test, Untangled, Elastic Lock, Mystic Spinner, Rollaway, Heavyset, The Great Escape and many more, using such ordinary objects as coins, rubber bands and string.

Easy-to-master crowd-pleasing tricks, require a deck of cards and offer beginners experience in handling an audience. Instructions.

Highly instructive book by a noted authority on the subject analyzes every phase of conjuring, from sleights, devices, misdirection, and controlling audience attention to incorporating patter and the effective use of assistants. Provides recommendations on the use of body language, posture, positioning, and movement. 60 original routines — from simple card tricks to major illusions.

Clear explanations and over 70 illustrations demonstrate how to position your hands to make lifelike shadows of a lumbering dinosaur, a pair of playful monkeys, an eagle taking flight, a cat scratching itself, a howling wolf, a neighing horse, a dog that eats a rabbit, and many other figures.

Scarne, the world's number-one card wizard, reworked 155 classic card tricks to eliminate the need for sleight-of-hand. Simple instructions and clear diagrams illustrate Houdini's "Card on the Ceiling," Blackstone's "Card Trick Without Cards," Carlyle's "Piano Card Trick," Milton Berle's "Quickie Card Deal," and Scarne's own "Drunken Poker Deal" and "Knockout Card Trick."

Excellent guidebook, with illustrations and easy-to-follow directions, provides the novice with fundamentals for successfully mastering The False Shuffle, The Corner Crimp, Sensitive Finger Tips, Palming, The Glide, The Slip Force, Reading the Pack, and 43 other impressive techniques. No special dexterity required. 13 diagrams.