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Art and Artifice and Other Essays of Illusion
by
Jim Steinmeyer,
Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author)
From the author of Hiding the Elephant and The Glorious Deception comes a collection of five essays that shows how the great stage illusions were integrally products of their time, based on the traditions and fashions of the people, and the offspring of the incredible, inventive personalities who brought them to the stage. Like no other author, Jim Steinmeyer gives us insi...more
Paperback, 204 pages
Published
October 10th 2006
by Da Capo Press
(first published October 9th 2006)
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A well-executed history of magic tricks and the people who think them up. You feel almost as if you're attending the show or getting to know the eccentric magician, the one who keeps shards of mirror under his pillow so he can play with them at night, thinking up new ways to make donkeys disappear.
Great read. It's been a long time since I read "Houdini on Magic"... This made me want to read more about the history of illusionists. It's not every day that I think of Doug Henning, and I'm impressed!
Favorite quotes:
"Magicians guard an empty safe."
Made me aware of this one: "Who would save an ass against his will?" - Horace
Favorite quotes:
"Magicians guard an empty safe."
Made me aware of this one: "Who would save an ass against his will?" - Horace
Excellently written as I've come to expect from Jim Steinmeyer. However, a lot of the information in here was quite similar to Hiding the Elephant, which I read a few months ago.
ART & ARTIFICE is a collection of essays by Jim Steinmeyer, a designer/inventor of illusions and special effects for magicians of renown like Doug Henning, Lance Burton, and David Copperfield. Steinmeyer is created Copperfield’s famous "Vanishing the Statue of Liberty."
There are five essays in the collection, focusing on a handful of illusionists and theater moguls at the turn of the century. An avid amateur magician when I was young, I found this book to be interesting and worth the short t...more
There are five essays in the collection, focusing on a handful of illusionists and theater moguls at the turn of the century. An avid amateur magician when I was young, I found this book to be interesting and worth the short t...more
Kind of dull in it's writing, facsinating in its specificity. I especially liked the essay about the Saw. The others more or less put me to sleep.
Excellent.
A nice mix of history of magic and craft. I have no idea why I've decided to read books about stage magic.
Good book but covers the same ground as Art & Artifice.
Apr 03, 2013
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Jim Steinmeyer was born and raised just outside of Chicago, Illinois, and graduated in 1980 from Loyola University of Chicago, with a major in communications. He is literally the man behind the magicians having invented impossibilities for four Doug Henning television specials, six touring shows, two Henning Broadway shows, and numerous television and Las Vegas appearances.For one of David Copperf...more
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