Just wondering what you guys thought were the few most important books not pertaining to learning actual tricks... books that every magician should have. These can be biographies, books on showmanship, or even non-magic-aimed books.

I'll suggest Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms. It helped give me a better grasp of HOW to go about performing.

How to Win Friends and Influence People.

STRONG MAGIC by Darwin Ortiz -- the best $45 you'll ever spend for a magic book with no "tricks" in it. SETH

I actually found Maximum Entertainment by Ken Weber to be more helpful/insightful than Strong Magic. It's my favorite book along with Magic and Meaning.

Hmmm, I wasn't aware of "Maximum Entertainment," but it looks like a good read and the same kind of information. If it's as good or better than "Strong Magic," it will certainly be worthwhile.

Thanks for the posting, I've ordered it and will be interested to read it. SETH

Maximum Entertainment is a great book, as is Strong Magic. I still place Strong Magic at the top of the list. But that is just my personal opinion since it's focus is more along closeup, which is my strength. They compliment each other well, though.

My favorite books change constantly. Right now the top ones are:

David Ben's "Dai Vernon: A Biography"
Todd Karr's "Germain" biography

Finally, "Houdini" by William Lindsay Gresham. This one isn't the best biography on Houdini, by any means. But it was my first magic biography I read, and one that I carried around every day as a kid. It was this biography that made me really want to be a magician.

Scott

P.S.
I don't want to come across as pimping myself, but Pepka and I just did a full show about our favorite books and why. You can listen at ReelsinMotion.tv

I just finished reading Beyond Deception by Tobias Beckwith and for a small book (123 pages) it has helped me to be creative and know where I want to go with my magic. This is a great read. I also have started reading Scripting magic by Pete McCabe. We all need help in improving our magic but we also need to learn other things besides trcks. Scripting will help with making your routines much stronger. I recommed both of these books.
Abe

I used to love "absolute magic" too, but then I gave it away to someone. The problem was that I started to make somebody else's model of magic my own. It just didn't fit. Derren Brown is no doubt very good in what he does, but my style is of course very different.
Beyond deception sounds interesting, though.

I second 'Scripting Magic' by Pete McCabe.I recently received this,and I predict this will be one the most important books ever...for performer's who would like to make their magic more effective.It's difficult to put this book down...keeping me up way past my bedtime.
Some of today's finest performers have contributed their scripting ideas and methods to this book.A superb investment.

Rich

Bill, it amazes me how everyone missed your comment! I'd suggest that one as well, along with Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover". Learn that book and you'll learn how to prioritize things so that you can handle your money you make so that you don't retire broke, and yet still be able to get the magic stuff !! Doesn't do any good to get to 65 and have a ton of magic, but can't afford to eat!

Rick

Couldn't hurt to have some idea of what magic is "supposed to" look like, so I go with Neil Gaiman's "The Books of Magic" and Richard Bandler's first few NLP books up to "Trance-formations".

The Dariel Fitzkee trio, "Showmanship for Magicians" "Magic by Misdirection" "The Trick Brain". These I find are still classic and WILL make you think.

I found "Maximum Entertainment" by Ken Weber to be quite good.

"Beyond Secrets" by Jay Shanky while often contradicting itself none the less does make you think about your performance also.

I think a book NO magician should be without is any good book on Stage management. Many a magician desperately needs one!

A good book on Human psychology and one on general acting technique wouldn't hurt either.

regards,

mark

Have you ever seen a "Trick Brain" act? There are very few that are actually any good.

For example, a very famous performer used to do an act where she did all the classics except the egg bag and the linking rings with phonograph records. At one point, she produced small records as in the Miser's Dream. Nobody ever bothered to let anyone know that this did not make sense. It makes sense to pull coins out of the air. It makes no sense to pull tiny, non-playable records out of the air.

Somehow, the Zombie phonograph record was rather odd, as well.

Some "Trick Brain" acts do work, though. Marvyn Roy's "Mr. Electric" act is a prime example of one that does work.