Fitzkee Trilogy

Now, first of all, this is not a magic review... this is a BOOK review. Now, to stay on topic, it so happens that the book is about magic (coincidence?  I think not!) 

The 3 books that influenced me the most as a magician

Now, as the famous Taiwanese Magician, Lu Chen, said in his book, "In magic it (The Trick Brain) is equivalent to a supreme kung fu tutorial. Read through it once and you'll gain an additional 10 years worth of experience."


And this is NO exaggeration. I merely read through it once... and it wasn't a very thorough read at that, and I felt like a different magician. From my performance, to my crowd awareness, everything became incredibly different afterwards. If I manage to read and understand and then IMPLEMENT everything, I believe that I could become a first class magician and perform in FISM and all that stuff. 


Anyways, first of all, an introduction of the author. (No, seriously, if you're still expecting magic at this point, go shoot yourself in the face. Like seriously, you probably hate life anyways or something)


Dariel Fitzkee (May 14, 1898- April 6, 1977) was originally an engineer and a semi-professional magician. However, his trilogy is considered by many, including yours truly, as the most important series published in magic. First of all, this guy is a total baller. There's no doubt about it. He is the guy to put magic in all its categories that are STILL USED TODAY. So basically, he's like Charles Down (creator of Dow Jones Index) as he basically gathered just about all the magic in the world and shoved them into 19 different categories.


They are: 


1. Production
2. Vanish
3. Transposition
4. Transformation
5. Penetration
6. Restoration
7. Animation
8. Anti-gravity
9. Attraction
10. Invulnerability
11. Physical Anomaly
12. Sympathetic Reaction
13. Spectator Failure
14. Control
15. Identification
16. Thought Reading
17. Thought Transmission
18. Prediction
19. Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) 


Now, this is in 'The Trick Brain', which I found extremely useful in developing new magic and routines. 


to really p your actual performance, Showsmanship for Magicians is a must read. It will boost your level from a complete noob to... not so noob in just ONE reading!!! 


Alright, all jokes aside, this books will teach you everything from how to stand, walk, talk, laugh and even gesture. It will cover things from clothing to equipment, from your shoes to your hat, from your stage to the audience at the very far end of the room in which you are performing. 


Last but not least, Magic by Misdirection. Now, this is definitely something I recommend to anybody who is willing to make magic a serious hobby... you know that it's a serious hobby when you start blogging about it and you KNOW that nobody ever reads this shit. No, this book is REALLY good. Like REALLY REALLY REALLY good.


You know what, I can't stress how good this book is. However, this book made me go from a complete amateur to somebody that people think is a full time professional (not everybody... but I've been frequently questioned whether or not I do this as a full time profession... probably because it amazes them at how I'm able to make a living being so damn crap). 


Anyways, this book pretty much teaches you how to accomplish the impossible. It will go through pretty much every psychological weakness of a spectator and in turn, teaches you how to take advantage of it. This book is not only useful for magicians, it is also useful just for normal people. If you ever need to negotiate, or lie your way out of something, then surely, you will need this!

Weaknesses like this one

After using this, you could ask a girl out and make her think that she asked you out.


After reading this, you could go up to your foolish English teacher and get an additional 3 marks for all your papers.


After reading this, you could convince Bill Gates to let you take over Microsoft for a few years. 


(well... maybe not the last one but the first two are proven winners by me... and ignore the first one... don't ask)


Well... if I kiss Fitzkee's ass anymore, I'll have shit all over my face so I guess I'll stop here.


This has been a long yet satisfying blog entry. 


Again, I hope that you guys will take something interesting and useful from here.


So,... don't blink, don't breathe, just feel the magic!

And I'll see you guys in my next entry next week!


Next Review: Linking Cigarettes by Akira Fujii (I got the name this time!!!)