Flibberty-Gibberty 5 by Jon Racherbaumer
MATT-INGLY YOURS Jon Racherbaumer The taverns in Chicago, circa 1935-1960, were a fertile breeding ground for a special kind of close-up entertainment to gain traction. Prohibition led to speakeasies and after Prohibition was repealed, customers needed places...
Hocus Pocus It’s Allan Kronzek
Magic, Magic, Magic, and Its History “the hook for my show is the history of magic. I’m an academic at heart.” By Mark Segal | June 11, 2015 - 1:47pm Allan Zola Kronzek is not your stereotypical magician. During a recent conversation at his house in Sag Harbor,...
Flibberty-Gibberty 4 by Jon Racherbaumer
TWO SIDES OF THE SAME CIRCLE Almost forty years ago I wrote a short piece on a shop-worn term magicians regularly use: effect. This was a word that crept into our informal lexicon, supposedly because it’s preferable to “experiment” or “trick.” The old-fashioned...
Persi Diaconis in Quanta Magazine
By: Erica Klarreich April 14, 2015 Persi Diaconis shuffled and cut the deck of cards I’d brought for him, while I promised not to reveal his secrets. “I’m not going to give you the chance,” he retorted. In an empty conference room at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in...
Flibberty-Gibberty 3 by Jon Racherbaumer
OF DIVERSE PETIE JUGGLING KNACKS: Mulling Over Moves “Push on—keep moving.” -Thomas Morton What is a move’s role in the performance of magic? Shouldn’t “moves” be defined in ways more meaningful than previously defined? What would David Devant have thought...
Lost Arts: Old Timey Crime from around the Web
It’s hard not to feel a twinge of respect for old school scam artists. There is something downright artisanal about the pickpocket, the confidence man, the card cheat, and the forger. Each is in possession of knowledge that cannot be learned in books, and skills that...
EPCC Instagram Contest Winners!
The Expert Playing Card Co. (@expertpcc) contest for the David Blaine Microsoft deck has concluded successfully! They had an amazing response and had to give out many extra prizes. Hope you don’t mind! Congratulations to: FIRST PLACE: @magic_orthodoxy Prize: 1 David...
FLIBBERTY-GIBBERTY 2 by Jon Racherbaumer
PERSONS, PLOTTING AND A WISHFUL WELL Plot – A sequence of events in a play, novel, movie, or similar work. Magicians palaver a lot about plots and plotting. Then they usually ask questions regarding “presentational plots” and the effects/affects these plots are...
EPCC Instagram Contest!
Post Great Pics/Vids Of Expert Playing Card Co. cards and Win an impossible to get David Blaine Microsoft Deck! We will choose 2 winners and each gets a Blaine Microsoft deck! Rules: Must be pictures/videos of Expert PCC decks (any decks we have produced, ever), you...
FLIBBERTY-GIBBERTY 1 by Jon Racherbaumer
Conjuring Arts is very proud to have Jon Racherbaumer writing an exclusive periodical for us. FLIBBERTY-GIBBERTY will appear from time to time and at Jon's whim. F IS FOR “FAKE” AND “FUTILE” Magicians are in a unique position to be cavalier about fakers and frauds who...
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