Monthly Update #11 (November 2023)

Read The Discoverie of Witchcraft, discover Jay Sankey's secrets of creativity and learn an easy packet trick called "Fourgone Conclusion".

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
🎄⛄🧑‍🎄🥳🎉

Warm holiday greetings, my magical friends! I hope your homes are still glowing from all the Yuletide joy and festivities. I had planned to send you this update last month, but the usual Christmas preparations kept me cheerfully busy.

This year, I was not very well organised, and I even had to go out on Christmas Eve to buy more wrapping paper because I ran out. I’m exhausted now and would like to spend the remaining days of the year asleep, but my three little ones won’t let that happen! Nonetheless, we had a lot of festive fun celebrating the most magical time of the year. Having small children around makes Christmas a lot more enjoyable. Santa is on my naughty list because he left sooty footprints on our carpet next to the fireplace! 😉

RIP David Berglass & Karl Fulves

November was a sad month for the magic world as David Berglas, the International Man of Mystery and former president of the Magic Circle, died on the 3rd of the month. David was a highly respected and influential magician and mentalist. His son, Marvin Beglas, was also responsible for my early interest in magic. I received a Marvin’s Magic trick in my stocking from Santa when I was young. I think this was the very first magic trick I ever owned (it was a Genie in a Bottle trick, part of the “Magic Made Easy” series that Marvin’s Magic sold in the 1990s).

On the same day, the death of Karl Fulves, the prolific magic author, was also announced by his son, Ben, on the Genii Forum (Karl died earlier in the year in February).

I had the pleasure of meeting David Berglas a couple of times at The Session Convention (organised by Andi and Josh from Vanishing Inc. Magic). I even witnessed the legendary “Beglas Effect”, also known as Any Card At Any Number (ACAAN), which did live up to its formidable reputation.

One of the very first magic books I received as a teenager was Easy Magic by Karl Fulves. It was gifted to me by my mother, making it an important book for sentimental reasons (it is also full of great magic). Karl still remains one of my favourite magic authors to this day.

Easy Magic by Karl Fulves. Image Credit: Dover Publications.

Not much is known about Karl Fulves, as he was a very private person. However, he gained popularity through his series of "self-working" books published by Dover Publications. Although these books are targeted at beginners, they contain a lot of excellent tricks that are worth exploring. So, don't overlook them just because they are meant for novices.

Here are two tricks from my blog, both based on effects published by Karl in his brilliant books.

Sum the Spots - A puzzling demonstration of “speed counting” using a few dice. Based on “Iced Dice” from Easy Magic by Karl Fulves.

Double Impossible - This clever card trick combines a spelling location effect with an impressive prediction. Based on "Out On Location" by Roy Walton and Karl Fulves from My Best Self-Working Card Tricks by Karl Fulves.

Magic Show Based on The Discoverie of Witchcraft

As the year is coming to an end, I wanted to share with you a new project I’m working on. I am preparing for my first formal magic show, which will showcase tricks inspired by the material featured in the Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot. This book is believed to be the first magic book ever printed in the English language. Although it describes several magic tricks, its main objective was to provide an exposé of early modern witchcraft and put an end to the brutal witch trials and executions that were happening across Europe during that time.

Illustrations of bodkins and knives from The Discoverie of Witchcraft. Photo Credit: British Library © British Library Board (Shelfmark: G.19129).

I do not intend to perform any of the gory tricks described in the book, such as “To Thrust a Bodkin into Your Head Without Hurt” or “To Cut Half Your Nose Asunder and Heal It Again Presently Without Any Salve”. And I’m definitely not going to attempt “To Make One Dance Naked”! However, there are many impressive tricks with coins, cards, candlesticks, boxes and beads that don’t involve self-mutilation or indecent exposure!

Although the descriptions and illustrations in the book contain some errors, many of the tricks can still be performed with some modification, practice and finesse. I will also be largely performing modern versions of the tricks mentioned in the book because most of them are only partly described. You can read a copy of the book on the Internet Archive (the tricks can be found from page 321 onward).

Look out for project updates on my blog, Marty’s Bag of Tricks.

Magic and Creativity

For a long time, I’ve been interested in the connection between magic and creativity. Recently, I discovered an insightful video by Jay Sankey on his excellent YouTube channel. I’ve included the video and a summary of his ten tips on creativity in a recent blog article. The post also includes a link to a variation of a Jay Sankey trick called “Magic Shake”.

Learn Fourgone Conclusion

And finally, I thought I’d share another card trick that I’ve been performing for many years. I wrote this up and shared it on The Magic Café over ten years ago! So, I thought it was about time I tidied up the write-up and posted it to my blog.

This is a wonderful packet trick that isn’t at all difficult. It is a minor variation of a trick called “Fourlorn” by David Britland. David is also a Substack author, and I highly recommend his Cardopolis Newsletter. If you’re not already a subscriber, then I recommend that you change that now!

That's all for this monthly update.

Yours Magically,

Marty