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Eugene Burger cuts an imposing figure. He is a tall, large man with a large snowy white beard and deep baritone voice that is very measured in its delivery. When he speaks you are complelled to listen which is fortunate because you should seriously consider everything he says that is related to the performance of magic.
Eugene Burger thinks very seriously about his magic. He wants his magic to be uplifting, for the audience to come away slightly shaken from the experience they have just had. He also wants it to be fun.
Any of you have have followed what I write at Julian's Magician School cannot miss this influence. Mastering The Art Of Magic is a must read for anyone considering doing close up magic so that essentially means any one wanting to be a magician. You cannot help but to understand why some tricks have great effect on an audience and how YOU can achieve this.
The tricks themselves are excellent. None have any super hard moves in them. Some are very easy to do after the first reading, The Visibly Turning Cards for example. Others require a lot of courage, like The Card Under The Tablecloth. These are magic tricks where you do the secret moves right under the noses of the audience. This requires expert misdirection skills, but if anyone can teach this: it's Eugene Burger.
He was influenced by Bar Magicians like Matt Schulien who were very popular in Chicago in the 1950's through to the 70's. These were larger than life characters who controlled their audiences to look and respond how THEY wanted them to. This, after all, is what the term misdirection means. It's actually wrongly named; it should be DIRECTION, because that is what you are doing, directing your audience where to look. Mix this control with some good technical skills and you are on a winner. There are tricks with matches, coins, cards, drinking glasses, business cards, wallets but that is not why you buy this book. These are the real gems: essays on silence, discipline, learning to rehearse, honesty, attitude. "The first step - and the real secret," he says, "is to realise, deep down in your bones, that the performer is more important than his magic." So much to learn, so little time. Do yourself a favour and just get this book. Try eBay as there are plenty of people selling who don't value this sort of information. They just want a quick fix of more and more tricks. Let their loss be your gain.
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This man has been very influential in how I approach magic. Take this quote for example. "In professional magical performance, the effect and its impact are the important things. Methods are of less interest unless, of course, they are especially direct and/or simple.
